Department of Finance
Undergraduate Program Assessment Report for 2005
Master of Science
Assessment Report
The Department is currently revising
its undergraduate assessment plan and anticipating that it will be ready for implementation
during the Spring 2006 semester. The updated plan will be modeled after the
Department’s successively implemented Master of Science in Finance assessment
plan and will include added emphasis on the assessment of specific learning objectives.
For 2005 the Department took a more macro oriented approach
to conducting the assessment of the undergraduate finance program. In this regard, a number of systems have been
established for purposes of monitoring and reviewing achievement of goals and objectives,
and implementing improvements and structural change where appropriate.
As stated in the assessment plan, the goal of the
undergraduate finance program is to prepare graduates to succeed in entry-level
positions in finance and business in general.
To achieve this goal, students should have proficiency in three general
areas:
(1)
Communication skills. Students should be able to
write and present financial business reports and presentations that are
concise, to identify and evaluate key issues, and to reach supported
conclusions.
(2)
Critical thinking skills. Students should be able to think critically.
(3)
Technical knowledge. Students should possess a strong technical
knowledge of finance.
We provide below summaries of those assessment activities
that assisted the Department in identifying areas for improvement and furthered
its ability to attain increased levels of proficiency in the above areas.
Summary of assessment processes and actions taken:
By way of background, Finance majors
take eighteen credit hours of 4000-level finance courses. In addition, Finance majors are required to
take ACCT 4210, an upper level course in cost and managerial accounting. The beginning point for the undergraduate
Finance curriculum at the 4000-level is the six credit hour course FI 4000,
“Fundamentals of Valuation.” Finance
majors must take this course prior to any other 4000-level courses with the
exception of FI 4020 (“Financial Analysis and Introduction to Loan
Structuring”). FI 4020 is also a
required course. Electives beyond FI
4000 are in the three areas of corporate finance, investments, and financial
institutions.
1. Assessment by faculty
At the faculty level, several layers of assessment
have been successively implemented for the improvement of courses.
- Steps
were taken to ensure that in each course the appropriate problem sets,
quizzes, papers, exams, and grading standards are used. Further, syllabi from all courses from
each semester are on file and available for review.
- Area
coordinators were appointed for FI 3300, FI 4000, the corporate finance
electives, investment electives, and financial institutions
electives. The coordinators worked
to ensure commonality across sections of the same course and the
accomplishment of goals and objectives, to identify curriculum problems,
and to lead course revision where appropriate.
- Feedback
loops have been established between faculty teaching FI 4000 and the
Finance elective courses. FI 4000
teaches topics that are prerequisite knowledge for all the other Finance
electives. Elective course faculty
are therefore in an excellent position to assess whether the FI 4000
learning outcomes have been achieved and to communicate any deficiencies
in their own courses back to the FI 4000 faculty so that they can take
corrective action.
2. Assessment by
the Department
- During
the year a faculty group assessed the preparedness of students upon
graduation for successful employment in the field of finance. Discussions were held with employers,
representatives from the accounting department, and individuals in the
career services office. Based on
feedback, two initiatives were undertaken. (1) The Department is exploring
with the School
of Accountancy the
appropriate set of accounting courses that will best serve Finance
majors. (2) The Department is
working on the development of a required one hour course on business
professionalism. We are discussing
whether such a course should be offered at the College or Department
level. In conjunction, the Chair
and a faculty member have joined College committees to further explore
this issue.
- Writing
Across the Curriculum (WAC): To improve the communication skills of
students, the Department received University approval to designate FI 4020
a WAC course. FI 4020 is a required
course for all Finance majors.
During the Fall 2005 term, WAC was
implemented as part of the course with students now receiving feedback on
their writing skills.
3. Assessment
within the College but outside of the Department
The Department receives feedback regarding its majors through BUSA 4980 and
Acct 4210.
- All
BBA students take the capstone course BUSA 4980, “Strategic Management”,
in their senior year. Both grade
and instructor feedback from this course provides assessment within the
RCB but outside the Department.
- Within
BUSA 4980, all students also take the Educational Testing Service (“ETS”)
Major Field Test that evaluates performance of each student across all
major areas in the BBA program. The
Department closely monitors performance of Finance BBAs
in the finance area as well as in the other subject areas.
The Department’s Finance majors
rank high both nationally and within the RCB as indicated by ETS test
results. The table below indicates the
national percentile in which RCB Finance majors scored in various subject
areas.
Finance
Major Performance: Semester and
Percentile
Subject
Area: Spring 2005 Fall 2004 Spring
2004 Fall 2003
Accounting 95 95 95 95
Economics 95 95 90 80
Management 45 70 55 60
Quantitative 95 95 90 90
Finance 95 95 95 95
Marketing 65 85 85 85
Legal 90 85 80 80
International 95 95 95 95
Overall 90 95 95 90
Finance majors continue to lead the College with most scores being in the
maximum range of 95. The decline in
performance in the management and marketing areas will be monitored to see if a
trend has developed or is a one time aberration.
- All
Finance majors are required to take the upper level accounting course ACCT
4210. The Department reviews a
report indicating how many Finance majors took the course, their
performance, and how they compared to accounting majors also taking the
same course. Finance majors
continue to perform well and there was no significant
changes in relative performance that would require corrective
action at this time.
4. Assessment by
students
- SEIPs: Students evaluate faculty and the course when
the students complete the Student Evaluation of Instructor (SEIP). These data are used by the faculty to
monitor performance and seek ways for instructional improvement. Also, the Chairman has independently
reviewed all faculty SEIPs along with the
accompanying student comments.
Conferences with individual faculty were held to discuss and
proscribe suggestions for improvement where appropriate.
- OIR
Survey: On a periodic basis, BBA
graduates are surveyed by means of an instrument which is administered by
the University Office of Institutional Research. This survey focuses on factors such as
learning outcomes, student engagement, and academic program satisfaction.
Results are broken out my major and forwarded to the respective
departments. We have carefully
reviewed these findings to detect areas for improvement. Also, when provided results from future
surveys we will be able to conduct a time series analysis of program
change.
- EBI
Exit Assessment: The Department was
also provided during the year with the results of the EBI Undergraduate
Business Exit Assessment. This
report provides comparisons of GSU students with those of a 6 institution
comparison group, with 50 institutions of a Carnegie classification, and
with all 157 participating institutions.
While results for Finance majors are not broken out, the Department
reviewed the results for a general assessment of how our students are
doing from a competitive perspective.
5. Assessment by
external constituents
- Discussions
with actual and potential employers of Finance BBA graduates provides the
Department feedback about the achievement of learning outcomes and also
helps identify potential new learning outcomes. On several occasions the Finance faculty
met with and spoke to employers and received feedback. Examples of two areas in which the
Department has responded to external feedback include the increased
exposure of Finance majors to accounting principles and an increased
emphasis on writing and communication skills.
- Feedback
from corporate partners in the various field study courses is an important
channel of assessment for identifying specific strengths and weaknesses of
the Finance program. To this end
the Department has developed a course FI 4391 “Field Studies in
Finance”. In addition to providing
students the opportunity to gain practical field experience and to apply
classroom concepts, the Department receives extensive feedback from
firms. The corporate partners
perform an assessment of each student and provide feedback to the
faculty. The number of students
participating in the field study program during recent semesters is
provided in the table below.
Undergraduate Student Field Study Participation
by Semester
Fall 2005 17
Summer 2005 5
Spring 2005 8
Fall 2004 16
Summer 2004 8
Spring 2004 15
As additional faculty resources become
available, we hope to increase the level of student participation so as to
provide field study opportunities to more students and to increase the level of
employer feedback on the quality of our students.