College of Business (CB) Assessment Plan and Results
Academic Year of Report: 2008-2009
All CB activities are mission-driven which is “CWU’s College of Business faculty and staff create value and
opportunity for our students by focusing on quality in undergraduate education at the Ellensburg campus and
university centers in the Puget Sound and central regions of Washington state. We accomplish this through
emphasis on excellence in teaching, strengthened by faculty research and supported by professional service.”
GOAL 1: Create value by graduating students who possess foundation knowledge (CWU Goal I)
Method(s) of Assessment: Direct (ETS, CPA Exam).
Who/What Assessed (population, item): Graduating Seniors: ETS Exit Exam; Graduating MPA’s: CPA Exam.
When Assessed (term, dates): Capstone courses for undergraduates; Yearly for MPAs.
Criterion of Achievement (Expectation of how good things should be?): Vested in continuously improving pass
rates on each portion of the exam.
Analysis to Date:
For the time periods, ’02-’05 and ’06-08, %At/Below CWU Mean, CWU BSBA/BSAcc students consistently perform
better in the more quantitative areas of business—accounting (85%/81%), finance (73%/65%), economics
(74%/69%), quantitative business analysis (77%/61%), information systems (74%) than they do in the less
quantitative areas—legal and social (53%/62%), international (60%/62%), marketing (58%/59%), management
(57%/64%). These results led to a revamping of the undergraduate program including closing off upper-division
courses to students who are not majors and creating non-major versions of core courses (Introduction to
Marketing and Introduction to Management). It is still too early to assess whether these changes have had an
impact. One can note there is slippage in the ETS percentiles which may be a function of better schools beginning
to take the ETS exam. Specifically, examining the list of institutions that use the exam shows that the ’06-07 list
had 30% AACSB accredited schools taking the exam. The expanded ’06-08 list shows 29% of the list is AACSB
accredited. However visual inspection indicates that there seem to be many more Research I institutions using the
exam. Though there is slippage in percentile rating, it is observed that with few exceptions for CB students, the
number of questions answered correctly is increasing.
With regard to economics, the department introduced a capstone class, effective ’07-08 for assessment purposes
and moved away from an internally created exam to an ETS exam. Due to some mistakes by the ETS company,
some students have had to take paper and pencil tests which have yet to be merged with the on-line exams. So the
final results will not be available until October, 2009.
This is the first year of the CPA exam being used to assess the MPA program. Results are not available.
GOAL 2: Create value by graduating students who possess appropriate skills in the following areas: written
communication, oral communication, teamwork, critical thinking and ethics (CWU Goal I)
Methods of Assessment: Direct (Rubrics for written, oral, teamwork, critical thinking and ethics for the
BSBA/BSAcc. Rubrics for economics include written, oral, critical thinking. MPA uses written rubric.).
Who/What Assessed (population, item): Graduating Seniors: rubrics applied to exit case study and group project
for BSBA/BSAcc. BSEcon uses Econ 406 (Economics Assessments), Econ 426 (Economic Research), Econ 352
(Managerial) and Econ 332 (Public Finance) for written and oral assessment. The critical thinking rubrics is used
through all economics courses. Exiting MPAs: written rubric applied to comprehensive exam.
When Assessed (term, dates): Capstone courses for undergraduates offered quarterly. Comprehensive exam for
MPAs offered year end.
Criterion of Achievement (Expectation of how good things should be?): For the undergraduates, CB is vested in
continuously improving. For the graduates, 90% of the students should score 3 or higher in each area of the
written communication rubric.
Analysis to date:
At the undergraduate level, this year was benchmarking and working out issues with the rubrics. The
communication rubric did change substantially. In fall, 2009 the assessments for the previous spring courses will
take place resulting in the completion of the first year of rubric use for the BSBA/BSAcc. The BSEcon is just
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beginning their assessment program. One major change in the curriculum approach is that core course faculty
have adopted one of the program goals that rubrics are used to assess. Starting this coming year, within the
programs of BSBA, BS Accounting, and BS-Econ-Business & Forecasting emphasis, the following courses and
associated faculty have undertaken responsibility for supporting the following goals:
Course/Faculty
MIS 386
FIN 370
OSC 323
MKT 362
MGT 382
Program Goal
Oral
Critical Thinking
Teamwork
Written
Ethics
With regard to the MPA, the goal had been for 90% of the students to score three or higher in each area. The
results indicate that 70% of the scores were three or higher. The faculty noted that most of the problems came
from international students who did not do well. The faculty are discussing whether the TOEFL minimum for
graduate students should be raised.
GOAL 3: Create value by graduating students who are satisfied with their educational experience (CWU Goal 1)
Methods of Assessment: Indirect (surveys).
Who/What Assessed (population, item): Alumni.
When Assessed (term, dates): CWU Testing Services surveys graduates every 5 years by department.
Criterion of Achievement (Expectation of how good things should be?): Vested in continuously improving
perceptions of knowledge, skills, and abilities.
Analysis to Date:
Graduate satisfaction surveys. As a recently introduced service, Testing Services has begun surveys of alumni.
Testing services surveyed Economics alumni who graduated between the years of 2003-2007 and alumni
graduating in 2002-2006 from the Department of Management (which later became the Departments of
Management and Finance and Operations Supply Chain). The survey response rate for economics was 26% and for
management was 6.88%. It is anticipated that focusing on these attributes listed in the tables throughout the
curriculum will improve in the evaluation results from alumni.
Department of Economics Alumni survey of those who graduated between 2003-2007
Knowledge, Skills,
Importance in Job? Avg. on a Scale of 1
How well did CB prepare you? Avg. on
and Abilities
(not at all important) to 5 (critical)
a Scale of 1 (very poor) to 5 (very well)
Thinking critically
4
4.5
Communication
5
4
Quantitative Reasoning 4
4
Economics Literacy
4
4.5
Department of Management Alumni survey of those who graduated between 2002-2006
Knowledge, Skills,
Importance in Job? Avg. on a Scale of 1 (not at
How well did CB prepare you? Avg.
and Abilities
all important) to 5 (critical)
on a Scale of 1 (very poor) to 5 (very
well)
Thinking Critically
4.25
3.82
Communication
4.59
3.90
Quantitative
4.02
3.63
Reasoning
Information Literacy
4.12
3.68
Ethics in Decision
3.93
3.60
Making
Leading/Team
4.11
3.92
Participation
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GOAL 4: Create opportunity by providing accessibility to students in Washington state through programs and
courses delivered at the Ellensburg campus and at well-established University Centers co-located on dynamic
community college campuses (CWU Goal 1)
Methods of Assessment: Direct (Enrollment Data).
Who/What Assessed (population, item): Annual Average FTES by departments, by location.
When Assessed (term, dates): Annually.
Criterion of Achievement (Expectation of how good things should be?): Enrollment expectations are based on
capacity as measured by number of faculty deployed in conjunction with the CB standards for maximum
enrollments by level of course taught.
Analysis to Date:
The latest set of enrollment data available, 2007-2008, indicates that the College of Business Ellensburg campus
has 59.19% of CB students followed by Lynnwood at 22.23%, Des Moines at 15.17% and 3.4% at remaining centers.
This contrasts to CWU as a whole at 85.04% followed by Des Moines at 5.69%, Lynnwood at 5.14%, and remaining
centers at 4.12%. Thus 40.8% of CB’s enrollment is at centers in contrast to 14.95% of CWU as a whole.
GOAL 5: Create opportunity for a diverse student population (CWU Goal 6)
Methods of Assessment: Direct (Enrollment data-Diversity data by headcount).
Who/What Assessed (population, item): CB and CWU student population.
When Assessed (term, dates): Yearly.
Criterion of Achievement (Expectation of how good things should be?): Gender/ethnicity levels approximate
gender/ethnicity representation in the state.
Analysis to Date: As the table shows, student diversity both in terms of gender and race, typically meets but more
often exceeds the diversity for the state and CWU in general.
FEMALE
PERSONS
White/Middle
Eastern
American Indian
Asian
Black
Hispanic
Pacific Islander
Multi-racial
Minority
MINORITY
SUBTOTAL
Census 2007-WA
In Percent
50.2
CB 2008 in Percent
51.7
CWU 2008 in
Percent
52.7
84.6
70.6
79.4
1.6
6.7
3.6
9.4
.5
3.0
1.0
11.9
3.7
7.2
.6
5
.8
4.1
2.5
8
.3
4.9
24.8
29.4
20.6
GOAL 6: Create opportunity by providing an affordable business education
Methods of Assessment: Direct: CWU tuition costs.
Who/What Assessed (population, item): CWU tuition costs.
When Assessed (term, dates): CWU tuition costs.
Criterion of Achievement (Expectation of how good things should be?): CWU tuition benchmarks
Analysis to Date:
As can be seen in the table below, CWU has the second lowest tuition in the state.
2007-2008
CWU
In-state average for full-time
undergraduates
$4,611
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EWU
WSU
UW-Seattle
WWU
$4,805
$5,812
$5,842
$4,568
GOAL 7: Provide quality in undergraduate education through teaching excellence (CWU Goal 1)
Methods of Assessment: Indirect (Surveys: Student Evaluation of Instruction)
Who/What Assessed (population, item): Students are assessed about faculty
When Assessed (term, dates): Every quarter, every class
Criterion of Achievement (Expectation of how good things should be?): Vested in stable, continuous improvement
of the SEOI’s averaged across the college.
Analysis to Date
Student Evaluation of Instruction (SEOI data) overall average for the College of Business for EVERY quarter since
2004-Fall, 2007 has an average for EVERY question of at least 4.0 with two exceptions which were 3.99.
GOAL 8: Provide quality in undergraduate education by delivering courses with an appropriate mix of
academically/professionally quality (AQ/PQ) faculty and participating/supporting faculty (CWU Goal 5)
Methods of Assessment: Direct (Faculty who meet AQ/PQ standards and who are classified as participating)
Who/What Assessed (population, item): Faculty
When Assessed (term, dates): Yearly
Criterion of Achievement (Expectation of how good things should be?): At least 50% of the faculty are AQ and 90%
are AQ+PQ with participating faculty delivering 75% of the school’s teaching and 60% of the teaching by discipline
and location.
Analysis to Date:
For the academic year, 2008-2009, for the undergraduate program, over 50% of the faculty are AQ. Regarding the
90% rule, all disciplines and campuses with the exception of Lynnwood (89.9%) are over 90%. With regard to the
90% AQ+PQ, Finance is problematic at 80% and HRM at 82.22%. With regard to participating, 71.48% of the
teaching is done by participating faculty with Des Moines being short at 51.82%. The MPA program meets or
exceeds all benchmarks.
GOAL 9: Provide quality in undergraduate education through our faculty who research primarily in the area of
contributions to practice, and learning and pedagogical research, and secondarily in discipline-based research
(CWU Goal 5)
Methods of Assessment: Direct (Category A and Category B output for professional development)
Who/What Assessed (population, item): Faculty research output.
When Assessed (term, dates): Yearly
Criterion of Achievement (Expectation of how good things should be?): At least 50% of the faculty are AQ; Mix of
research output with contribution to practice and pedagogical research dominating the mix.
Analysis to Date:
For the academic year, 2008-2009, the undergraduate program was over 50% of the faculty are AQ. For the 5-year
period, 2004-2009, 75.9% of intellectual contributions have been in the categories of pedagogical and practice
with less than 25% being discipline based.
GOAL 10: Provide quality in undergraduate education through excellent facilities, distance education facilities,
and library data-base resources (CWU Goal 3)
Methods of Assessment: Direct (monetary investments).
Who/What Assessed (population, item): Physical facilities.
When Assessed (term, dates): Yearly.
Criterion of Achievement (Expectation of how good things should be?): Adequate CWU budget devoted to
maintain or enhance physical facilities, DE, library resources.
Results to Date:
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In any given year, approximately 12% of the CB courses are taught by distance education via live television. This
mode of delivery was subject to an ever expanding array of technical difficulties. Last summer, the provost added
$130,000 to the capital funds already allocated to this for improvements. To date, only $2000 has been utilized for
upgrades, and though only a small amount of money was spent, it apparently was spent wisely since a March 2009
survey of faculty indicated problems were significantly diminished.
Goal 11: Provide quality in undergraduate education through linkages with CB Advisory Board, alumni, and
employers, as well as through faculty professional service (e.g., serving on professional boards) (CWU Goal 4)
Methods of Assessment: Direct: Advisory Board and alumni participation, fundraising, professional service by
faculty.
Who/What Assessed (population, item): # of Board Members regularly participating in meetings; 3 of alumni
participating in events; amount raised from private resources; # faculty participating and # of organizations
served.
When Assessed (term, dates): Yearly.
Criterion of Achievement (Expectation of how good things should be?): Maintain or increase.
Results to Date:
The Advisory Board consists of 31 business professionals from the Seattle area and central region of the state. The
Board meets 3 times per year. As a benchmark using spring when it convenes in Ellensburg, in 2009 54%
participated in the meeting in contrast to 42% in 2008. In 2009, 34% of the board participated in the “Boardroom
meets the Classroom” with 66 students attending in contrast to 2008 when 29% of the Board participated with 65
students. To assess alumni participation, consider the most recent two Business-to-Business Lecture Series (widely
advertised Seattle events featuring notable speakers). The 11/13/07 attracted 76 registrants and 24, or 32%, were
alumni and the 2-19-09 B2B had 49 registrants with 22, or 45%, were alumni. Two benchmarks can be used for
fundraising, the Competitive Edge Fund (CEF) which supports faculty research output and Scholarship funding. The
Advisory Board raised $304,607 through the CEF since December 2002, with $266,985 used to support the
Research Grant Awards Program (RGAP). This support for the RGAP has resulted in 140 peer-reviewed journal
publications by 45 faculty. In 08-09, the total amount given to students as scholarships was $74,659 and in 2009,
the total amount given was $81,950. This was an increase in $7,291. For the academic year of ‘08-‘09, 18 faculty
participated in serving 42 organizations.
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