Best practices and requirements are not always align (shocking, right?). While there is no requirement (yet) that any assessment conducted as part of an assurance of learning program needs to be conducted using a pre- and post-test common sense and solid research designs tell us that using a pretest and a posttest will allow for a much better measurement of what students have actually “learned ” in terms of their skills versus a post-test only approach to assessment. This, however, raises a relatively obvious question, “how do we structure it” in our curriculum?
While there are multiple models to conducting a pre and posttest assessment, below are a few of the approaches that we have had the best luck with.
- Having students participate in the Iliad Assessment at some point very early in their business school curriculum (sometimes linked to an early introductory class like principle of management or a careers class). Typically, this is done some time during the sophomore year for most students, although some programs do assess first year students who are required to take a “pre-business” course or some other early writing class before the typical business curriculum begins. The post-test can generally be linked to a course taken at the very end of the student’s program like a capstone strategy class or some programs have a job placement or interviewing class that is taken very late. For MBA and other specialized graduate programs, some schools even use their orientation as the pretest and their capstone as the time for their posttest. Such a combination provides the maximum amount of time via which the entire program can be thought of as the “educational treatment”. In other words, this approach is a good way to capture change in students from the time your program first interacts with them until they graduate.
- For programs that are relatively “lockstep” in their scheduling, utilizing an early course class for the posttest is usually ideal. When this is a behavioral class (organizational behavior, leadership, etc.), the assessment tends to fit into the course content very well and will even provide an additional opportunity for reflection or other developmental assignments. In this way, the assessment becomes entirely “embedded”. Again, using a capstone or other touchpoint at the end of the program offers an excellent posttest opportunity.
- Some programs actually include a skills class where the pretest and posttest are conducted in the same term (normally at the very beginning and the very end of the class). Rather than being considered as an assessment of the entire program, this approach should be thought of as an evaluation of the effectiveness of a specific course or specific course sequence.
Regardless of exactly how your program decides to implement their assurance of learning program, we can help you to set up a pre- and post-test approach that will provide you with the strongest data using your resources in the most efficient way possible!
