| Name of Program | Master of Science in Strategic Management |
| Date of Report | August, 2019 |
| Student Learning Outcome(s) Reviewed | Applying core theories of management to authentic business projects and organizations (SLO 1.2). |
| Assessment Methods and Descriptions | Overall to assess the degree of achievement of the SLO 1.2 two major directions were taken.
First, we have analyzed the syllabi of the courses to identify course level learning outcomes that would match SLO 1.2. Then, together with course instructors we have tried to match the assignments that would be targeted at assessing practical applications of knowledge obtained. Formally this was implemented through a joint syllabus review conducted by the program chair and relevant course instructor. We have also considered major assessment items, e.g. midterm and final exam contents, project assignments. Second source of information is the student feedback and their perceptions. To collect this piece of evidence we have developed and conducted a survey among graduated and capstone course taker MSSM students in the Summer.
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| Assessment Team (# and Positions. Names Not necessary) | Program chair and 4 Faculty members involved in teaching the relevant courses |
| Summary of Findings | – Assessment questions both for projects and exams should be changing over time to make sure that various sections of syllabus are periodically assessed.
– Course level student learning outcomes for some of the courses analyzed should be revised to make them more suitable for subsequent assessment purposes. SLOs that are defined in extremely broad terms are difficult to be measured or evaluated. In general, the instructors should be paying a bit more attention to make sure that SLOs are coherent with curriculum map and that they are aligned with course assignments. – Feedback received from the faculty teaching the courses highlights the fact that different background of students often times impedes proper coverage of graduate level material. Still the recommendation is to make sure that syllabi of graduate level courses have a rigor required for MS programs. – Evaluation of students’ perceptions about how “applied” are the courses analyzed here generally gives positive outlook. In this term Capstone and Business analytics stand out, but that was also expected given highly applied nature of both courses. – Students were asked to respond to a set of MCQs that were checking “remaining” knowledge after the courses in 6 months or 1 year period. The questions were suggested by the instructors themselves to make sure that they are relevant and properly formulated. The rate of correct responses is around 50%, but there are variations both across courses and across questions within the courses. While this exercise is far from being representative, it can serve as a food for thought for the instructors in terms of what is working and what is not working that well in the course.
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| Next steps | Revision of syllabi (if needed).
Take steps to mitigate background differences among students |
