EXPLORING CAPSTONE BUSINESS COURSE ASSESSMENT

1. EXPLORING CAPSTONE BUSINESS COURSE ASSESSMENT Steve Payne, Jan Flynn & Mike Whitfield Dept. of Management Georgia College & State University

2. Project Background • Recognition of the distinctiveness and importance of the capstone business course for its higher-order learning expectations and for assessment of student learning outcomes for the program • Efforts in the late ’90s to benchmark student satisfaction levels with many aspects of our business program relative to other business schools in the state (benchmarking partnership created) • Interest of three of us who were actually teaching this course to review what others nationwide were doing in terms of instructional strategies and assessment approaches

3. Key Assumptions for Early Inquiry & Approaches Chosen • Focus on a “multi-stakeholder” approach to study instructional and assessment possibilities (extensive review of the business education literature as well as info from our current students & alumni, capstone & core business faculty here and elsewhere, & student employers) • Focus on an SOTL (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning) philosophy and process that might lead to publications and credit for the study time involved

4. Early Findings/Results • Our instructional approaches seemed fairly mainstream & other faculty were also exploring various assessment approaches • We developed and have continued to revise several assessment approaches (both direct and indirect measures) involving capstone students and other stakeholders • We described our assessment approaches and results in an SOTL article and for an academic conference in our field (2002)

5. Emerging Concerns & Questions • Due to continuing student assessment feedback, we grew more aware of the perceived difficulty of the capstone course for some students due to its expectation or demand for more integrative & applied learning

6. Specific Issues Pursued • Retention of core business course knowledge (analysis of student knowledge retention in several core course areas) • Learning challenges revealed in interviews of entering capstone business students • Follow-up and revision of assessment surveys based reporting/results from students completing capstone course over past five years

7. Retention Analysis of Concepts in Core Business Courses • Learning of key concepts from core courses often does not occur due to lack of initial learning there & serious “erosion” of such knowledge if these concepts are not revisited • Obvious conclusion: Serious constraints exist for higher-level student learning (analysis, synthesis, & evaluation) when basic concepts are not really understood and retained

8. Thematic Analysis of Depth Interviews of Capstone Business Students • Most students were unable to express personal learning goals with much specificity or distinction for this or other courses (general/fuzzy goals) • Commonly perceived learning barriers included: - difficulty in retaining knowledge - time barriers for study/learning - limited experience in previous courses with having higher-order learning expectations • At least some students reported significant learning barriers that they had experienced before for each major part of this capstone course (testing, small group interactions, open class discussions, & written projects or assignments)

9. Additional Student Feedback from Revised Assessment Instrument • Identification of areas/fields for which students had less confidence in knowledge retention (less confidence for finance, accounting & economics than other core areas) • Identification of course activities for which students had less confidence (less confidence for exams/quizzes & written assignments than for open classroom discussions & small group work)

10. Issues for Current & Future Consideration Are current assumptions of core business learning by many students for the capstone course really valid? Do we need more curriculum alignment efforts for greater reinforcement of core concepts & for earlier & increased student exposure to higher-order learning activities? [“closing the loop” and actual changes] What are the best approaches for assessing student knowledge retention and learning readiness (motivation, study skills & learning strategies) for this capstone course?

11. Issues (continued) What about “faculty learning readiness” - to collect info and to try to “close assessment loops” in terms of key stakeholder perceptions of student learning problems/challenges? - to collect early diagnostic info on individual student barriers for learning & really use this info to assist student learning ? How might theories (expectancy theory, etc.) & instruments, Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), facilitate more individualized & improved student learning?

12. Recent SOTL and Publication Creditson the Issue of Student Readiness • Article in Journal of the Academy of Business Education (accepted in 2006 & forthcoming) • Paper at the national Academy of Management meeting in the Education/Development Division (2006) • Article in the Journal of Education for Business (accepted in 2007 & forthcoming)