PROGRAM ASSESSMENT REPORT 2005-2006 BBA IN MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS (MIS)
I. Management Information Systems Program Goals
The overall goal for the MIS Program is to graduate students who will have the skills necessary to be successful in the Management Information Systems field and to maintain the AACSB International accreditation by meeting all AACSB International standards. More specifically our goals include:
1. To graduate students who will have the skills necessary to work in a vibrant, technologically advanced and international business environment. These skills include communication, critical thinking and problem solving and community service.
2. Developing and understanding management information skills for business decision-making; 3. Acquiring the core knowledge of the management information systems and business disciplines; 4. Developing an ability to integrate management information systems concepts with other business
disciplines;
5. Acquiring the ability to do research and analysis through use of traditional and electronic sources. In an effort to achieve these specific student-oriented goals we have been pursuing the following program
goals over the past year:
1. Continue to improve our management information systems curriculum.
2. Continue to increase students in the management information systems major, our classes have significantly increase in size over the last year.
3. Expanding our efforts at recruiting out-of-state and foreign students to increase the diversity of the students who major in management information systems; we have an increasing number of
international students taking our management information systems classes.
4. Developing a stronger relationship with the local business community and consider our Advisory Board’s comments in the development of management information systems program goals; Our faculty have given speeches at academic conferences and at local area business organizations; and 5. Maintaining our AACSB accreditation which indicates a high quality management information
systems program
It should be noted that many of these goals are on-going and are expected to continue into the next year. We constantly strive for continuous improvement of our management information systems program.
II. Management Information Systems Program Assessment
Please see the Assessment Summary Chart (2005-2006) at the end of this report. The principle Results/Analysis and the Action Taken are listed below.
A. We have been developing a tool to assess the retention of management information systems concepts by our majors. Because of the AACSB International reaccredidation process that has been occurring during the last year, it was recommended we not formally proceed with assessment until the
accreditation process was completed.
B. Over the past several years we have attempted to keep our management information systems faculty retention rate at acceptable levels. During the past year, we retained one tenure track management
information systems faculty member. Through close advising and keeping control on our course enrollments we are trying to accommodate both student and faculty needs.
C. We have tried to make faculty aware of the need for more “real world” examples in the classroom. We are discussing ways to measure this effort including working with local companies to offer more student internship programs.
D. We considered in our area discussions the need for, and our ability to provide more, management information systems tracks, by restructuring the major. With AACSB accreditation decisions approaching, it is difficult to make major changes to our curriculum.
Due to some structural changes in the administration, very few other changes were considered this academic year. We are currently governed by a new dean providing leadership for the college.
III. Plans for the Current Year: 2006-2007
After the Peer Review Team visitation for AACSB accreditation, The Division of Management and
Marketing plans to meet with The Lewis College of Business Assurance Of Learning (AOL) Committee to convince them to allow the management information systems area to continue to develop an assessment test for the management information systems area. We could collect the data during spring 2007 and the data could be very useful when we have our next five year program review during the 2007-2008 academic years. In addition, the management information systems area plans to:
A. Continue to work on increasing the number of students in MIS. B. Work on developing a Health Information Systems degree.
C. Work on developing a 2-Plus_2 degree with the community college.
D. Work on a plan to integrate enterprise resource planning (ERP) software using real world data in to the LCOB curriculum.
E. Replace an instructor with a new MIS professor.
F. Continue to have all upper MIS courses require students to contact a real business and perform and critical analysis of various systems and/or problems the business might be having and offering possible solutions.
G. Continue to stress the Global importance of information systems and implications in almost all upper level MIS courses
H. Continue to stress the moral and ethical implications relating to information systems development in most upper level MIS courses
IV. Assistance Needed
We will continue to develop our own management information assessment exam. In addition, we will search for a nationally certified exam. If we are to move to a national test, we will have to be given more resources by the college and university. In addition to the faculty in the management information systems area, the development of this assessment instrument will require the assistant of the Lewis College of Business, AOL Committee and the Dean of the LCOB. We will also work with the Lewis College of Business and Marshall Institutional Research Center to obtain any assessment related data relevant to the management information systems area.
We will need to replace our instructor with a tenure-track replacement within the next two years. This requires the approval of the funds needed to obtain the replacement.
We are investigating the integration of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) model into the entire LCOB curriculum. This requires a financial commitment to acquire resources including the ERP software and industry database that is included with the software. It also requires extensive training. The financial requirements have dropped dramatically over the last few years and may be within range of university and LCOB resources. In addition, we may be able to obtain help from the business community, because of the added value it would give to students graduating from the LCOB program.
V. Most Important Things Learned in this Process
More work must be done to fully development and implement the assessment test. It requires faculty, administrative, and staff participation and trust. It is difficult to improve with such as high turnover rate for management information systems faculty. We have lost one faculty member for the last three years. We must work on keeping high quality management information systems faculty here at Marshall University.
Chart I - Assessment Summary: 2005-2006 Annual Update
Component Area/Program/Discipline: BBA in Management Information Systems (MIS)
Component / Course / Program Level
Student Outcome and Student Competency
Person or Office Responsible
Assessment Tool or Approach
Standards/Benchmarks Results/Analysis Action Taken
1 Reasoning and discussion
Weible MIS 475 Analysis of a strategic
business problem in information systems
Group developed solution to strategic business problem
Student groups discuss their solutions with the class
Groups are given a grade on their
presentations and reports
2. Critical thinking Tomblin MIS 470 Analysis and design of a
management information system to solve a problem
Group develops a management information system is developed and built
Student groups discuss system development process with class
Groups are given a grade on their
presentations and reports 3. E-Commerce
Systems Development Skills
Shao MIS 350 Analysis and design of
an E-commerce system
Group develops an E-commerce system for a real organization
Student groups discuss the E-commerce system they have designed and built
Groups are given a grade on their
presentations and reports 4. Business
Telecommunications Skills
Sasidharan MIS 333 On-site objective study
and analysis of a real telecommunication system
Group prepares presentation and report analyzing the
telecommunication system
Student groups discuss their experiences and present final report to class
Groups are given a grade on their
presentations and reports 5. Effective
Communication
All MIS Professors Group oral presentations
and written term papers
Toastmasters format and English grammar text
Assessment of speeches and written statements
Oral and written comments given intended for improvement in future similar events 6. Enhanced reading and writing
All MIS Professors Oral presentations and
written term papers
Toastmasters format and English grammar text
Assessment of speeches and written statements
Oral and written comments given intended for improvement in future similar events 7. Knowledge integration and moral values
All MIS Professors Class material and
discussions integrate knowledge and moral discussions
Capstone course address not only technological, but also synthesis of acquired knowledge and moral implications of system development
Group discussions include elements of knowledge synthesis and ethical implications
Professor guides discussions to include knowledge synthesis and ethical implications
8. Global and ethical Perspectives
All MIS Professors Case analyses include
multinational cases and ethical implications
Curriculum wide acknowledgement of global and ethical considerations
Case analyses include elements of knowledge synthesis and ethical perspectives
Professor guides discussions to include knowledge synthesis and ethical perspectives
