GroupSystems is used extensively to streamline the School of Business’ Program Assessment process at California State University at Chico. ThinkTank helps capture feedback on their programs from industry, alumni and students. Then, GroupSystems software helps the faculty build consensus on program goals, outcomes and measures.
Here’s what Gail Corbitt, Chair of the Accounting and MIS department had to say, “”CSU Chico has been using GroupSystems products since 1992. We love the way meetings are more productive and we can get to the heart of issues without offending anyone. For our assurance of learning program we have used ThinkTankTM to brainstorm interventions given the results of our course embedded assessment activity and develop/validate the rubrics used in assessment activities. In both cases we use the web interface to get feedback from our stakeholder groups including our Industry Advisory Board. This has made our Business Information Systems (BIS) program current and relevant to our graduates. As a result, nearly 100% of our graduates get jobs related to their major and our assessment efforts are documented in a readily available format for the re-accreditation team. (We used prior products from Group Systems to develop, refine and validate our learning goals, student learning outcomes and comprehensive skill set needed by our BIS graduates.)”
Dr. Corbitt’s team has taken the program assessment process very seriously. In fact, their approach was so widely praised they decided to turn it into a business. Several professors created the Student Tracking and Evaluation Program as a means to organize all of the materials needed for the Assessment Process. ThinkTank is a key component in helping their team gather the feedback, build consensus and make decisions that are later documented in STEPS.
Filed under: Program Assessment, Strategic Planning
