The Student Learning Outcomes list below outlines the curricular focus for the MIS program and will be used to focus the assessment activities outlined at the bottom of this report that will help us determine if our curricular goals are being met. This is a new list developed by the MIS department faculty as a result of feedback on last year’s assessment report therefore many of the assessment activities are still in the planning stage.

A successful graduate of the MIS program should be able to:

• Create an application in a structured programming language (such as COBOL) to manipulate business data files using structured programming techniques.

• Create windows applications in an object-oriented programming language including the development of user interfaces, use of controls, writing/debugging code, and the creation of interactive menus.

• Apply data modeling techniques (such as normalization and ER diagramming) to create a database model.

• Implement a database model in relational database management system (such as ORACLE) including the creation of tables, establishing referential integrity constraints, loading data, creating views, and producing forms and reports using database data.

• Design and administer a local area network including the creation of users, installation of software, establishment of security constraints, configuration of print services and configuration of clients.

• Configure a web server and design a web site.

• Select and apply appropriate systems analysis and design techniques to create a system design for a business process including systems development planning, requirements determination and analysis, and data/process modeling.

• Use modern application development products as prototyping tools in the systems development process.

• As a member of a systems design team, develop software applications for solving business problems by completing a development project from initial requirements gathering to implementation.

• Research emerging IS technologies and present recommendations to managers about the impact of those technologies on a business.

• Design and implement web-based, interactive groupware applications to support collaboration and to support access, tracking, sharing and organization of information across time and space.

• Apply telecommunication concepts to create wide-area network designs and communicate those designs to managers in both written and oral form.

1. Assessment of Student Learning

At the current time, assessment of student learning occurs within the individual courses. Since the majority of MIS courses use a hands-on approach to learning, the programs, reports, analyses and systems students create in class are good indicators of what a student is able to do. As indicated in the Student Learning Outcomes document, we are developing ways of assessing the cumulative achievement of each student across the curriculum through the use of student portfolios and electronic student web pages. Activities from each course will be added to the portfolio and web page as the student moves through the curriculum. Part of the capstone course will be devoted to assessing the final version. In addition, we will be assessing these outcomes after the student graduates by adding departmental questions to the survey sent by Institutional Research.

Currently, outcomes are assessed through the evaluation of student work within each course and follow-up information supplied by the overall college questions on the survey sent by Institutional Research.

As indicated above, these are modifications that are being planned based on feedback from last year. They have not yet been implemented.

2. Analysis of Data

Within each course, the instructor is responsible for determining if student outcomes are being achieved based on the output produced by students in the hands-on activities in the course. These activities are direct demonstrations by students that they are able to apply the concepts taught in the course to the solution of common business problems. To improve this activity, we plan to institute on an-going student portfolio requirement where, as a part of each course, a student will be required to add material to this portfolio.

 

 

In addition, students will develop a web page that summaries their accomplishment of the learning courses. This web page will be accessible to employers looking for students.

We also collect informal data from alumni and recruiters that regularly visit campus or are in contact with the faculty. This information is used to determine what the marketplace is looking for in terms of technical skills and concepts. Our plan now is to formalize this process by creating a MIS advisory board that will meet virtually through the use of online discussion groups to collaborate on shaping the MIS curriculum to respond to the needs of the market.

Finally, the data gathered from graduates by Institutional Research has been monitored to provide overall measures of satisfaction with the program. We specifically look at the overall questions dealing with the satisfaction and usefulness of major courses. Historically these measures have indicated that we are doing a good job overall. We are now working with Institutional Research to add questions to assess individual learning outcomes. We also monitor the percentage of students getting jobs and rely on that as another indicator of the overall health of the program.

3. Accomplishment of Goals

The most important indicator of the success of the MIS program has always been related to the ability to successfully place graduates in MIS positions in top companies. The most critical assessment has therefore focused on information related to the placement of graduates and information faculty obtain through direct contact with employers.

The assessment measures for the overall program and the curriculum are in place or currently being developed. Feedback from graduates and data on the placement of graduates is already being collected through various surveys conducted by Institutional Research. Recent results from these surveys show a high degree of satisfaction among graduates remain high and faculty have worked hard at establishing good relationship with employers and hire our graduates.

Feedback from employers has historically been used to shape the MIS program and we are currently working at establishing a formal advisory council that will meet virtually to provide feedback on the design of the program.

4. Improvement/Enhancements

The MIS department has been continually reshaped since its existence through feedback from employers and changes in technology. Two of the seven required MIS courses have been completely redone to shift to an emphasis on client-server computing. The MIS225 course has been successfully redesigned to use Visual Basic and the MIS380 class was redesigned to include Oracle for the Fall.

More recently, the department has experimented with courses Java and Electronic Commerce as a result of feedback from employers and alumni.

The department is already planning additional curricular changes based on feedback received by employers and developments in the computer industry in general. A personal computer focus is still planned as a subset of the MIS program that will serve both MIS majors and other students desiring advanced experience with microcomputers once we have enough staff to offer the courses.

• The MIS department is working on additional questions to be added to the graduate surveys targeted at assessing the specific outcomes for the MIS program.

• A student portfolio requirement will be started that will include a full portfolio and a web-base summary of student achievements that can be used to assist in matching students and employers.

• A formal advisory council will be created to organize the current contacts with employers used by the program for advice.

• A survey of employer satisfaction will be developed to get more direct information on the strengths and weaknesses of MIS graduates.

• The MIS web page will be used to give alumni and employers areas for feedback.