ASSESSMENT REPORT

FOR

Master of Science in Information Systems (MS-IS)
Instructional Degree Program

Fall 2003
Assessment Period Covered

February 1, 2004
Date Submitted

Expanded Statement of Institutional Purpose Linkage:
Institutional Mission Reference:
Texas A&M International University, a Member of The Texas A&M University System, is committed to the preparation of students for leadership roles in their chosen profession and in increasingly complex, culturally diverse state, national, and global society … Through instruction, faculty and student research, and public service, Texas A&M International University is a strategic point of delivery for well-defined programs and services that improve the quality of life for citizens of the border region, the State of Texas, and national and international communities.

College/University Goal(s) Supported:
The primary objectives of the College of Business Administration (COBA) are directed toward the parameters of education for the administration of business organizations.  To this end, curriculum development is a continuous activity in response to social, economic and technological developments reflected in the evolving knowledge in the behavioral and quantitative sciences.

Intended Educational (Student) Outcomes:
1. Students completing the Master of Science in Information Systems will have a understanding of system concepts.

2. Graduates will demonstrate competency in communication skills.

3. Students completing the masters program will demonstrate their knowledge of theories, models and tools relevant to the field of Information Systems through the development of a fully functional software product designed to meet a specific client’s needs. [Note: this outcome is new for Fall 2003 and is the direct result of faculty consideration of outcomes’ assessment from Spring 2003.]

 ASSESSMENT REPORT

FOR

Master of Science in Information Systems (MS-IS)
Instructional Degree Program

Fall 2003
Assessment Period Covered

February 2004
Date Submitted

Intended Educational (Student) Outcome:
NOTE: There should be one form for each intended outcome listed.  The intended outcome should be restated in the box immediately below and the intended outcome number entered in the blank spaces.

1. Students completing the Master of Science in Information Systems will have a understanding of system concepts.

First Means of Assessment for Outcome Identified Above:
1a. Means of Program Assessment & Criteria for Success:
An objective test developed by members of the department will be given to all the students attending a required graduate course measuring the student’s knowledge of the following:

a.	General system concepts
b.	Network concepts
c.	Systems management concepts
d.	Database concepts
e.	Computer programming

Success is deemed to be a 70% attainment in each area (average of all student scores for the topic) with no area being below 50% attainment. 

1a. Summary of Assessment Data Collected:
The test was administered in the CIS 5390 “Capstone” course. Thirteen students submitted responses to the test. The following results were achieved (Spring 2003 results are in (parenthesis) following fall, e.g. Systems concepts >58.04% (67.41%):

a.	General system concepts	58.04% (67.41%) --
b.	Network concepts	33.08% (45.19%) --
c.	Systems management concepts	56.21% (59.54%) -
d.	Database concepts	66.15% (61.73%) +
e.	Computer programming	74.83% (76.77%) –

The small sample size (n=13) does not provide enough data to implement or recommend significant program change; however, the same instrument will be administered in April 2004 with a projected sample size n>15, which should provide a statistically reasonable sized sample for consideration of program modification. The department unanimously decided to re-evaluate the program and instructional methods after the Spring 2004 results were collected.

Because of the small sample size, program changes were not recommended; however the results were carefully considered. While the performance in database concepts improved, all other areas declined, and the overall score declined. Two factors were identified as being major contributors: [1] international students, especially from certain parts of Asia, do not fully comprehend American definitions of plagiarism, and consequently are often discovered submitting work that is not their own. When discovered, grades suffer, but prior to discovery, learning has not occurred. [2] Most international students do not understand the necessity to read the assigned texts prior to class, nor do they do optional exercises from textbooks, because the simply do not own the required texts. An informal survey of two Spring 2004 classes suggest that over 90% of international students in the MS-IS program neither own the required textbook or understand the necessity to take lecture notes, but would rather rely upon copies of lecture slides and/or transparencies.

ASSESSMENT REPORT

FOR

Master of Science in Information Systems (MS-IS)
Instructional Degree Program

Fall 2003
Assessment Period Covered

February 2004
Date Submitted

Intended Educational (Student) Outcome:
NOTE: There should be one form for each intended outcome listed.  Intended outcome should be restated in the box immediately below and the intended outcome number entered in the blank spaces.

2. Graduates will demonstrate competency in communication skills.

First Means of Assessment for Outcome Identified Above:
2a. Means of Program Assessment & Criteria for Success:
In a reasonable effort to allow the students to demonstrate their communications skills, the products from the MIS 5390 Project Management course will be presented in a public forum, and the Departmental faculty as well as College and University Administrators will be asked to evaluate the apparent functionality of the products. Their evaluation will consider the following elements:

Criteria 1-3 were evaluated using a 4-point scale (4 = excellent, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor). It was expected that the class average would exceed 3.0 on these criteria. Criteria 4 was a binary evaluation (1 = functional, 0 = non-functional). It was expected that the class average would be 1.0 on this criteria.

2a. Summary of Assessment Data Collected:
Twenty-two evaluations were submitted (3 TAMIU Administrators, 3 MIS/DS faculty, 2 community business managers, and 14 MS-IS graduate students). The student evaluations were not included.

2a. Use of Results to Improve Instructional Program:
The results were acceptable; however, the panel of evaluators was too small. Only three of 15 invited Administrators, or 20%, were able to attend the presentation. 50% of the tenured and tenure-track MIS faculty attended. Efforts will be made for Spring 2004 to announce the presentations earlier, and to encourage attendance and participation; the time of the presentation may be adjusted to make scheduling attendance easier.

While the results were acceptable, only four projects were considered. The faculty determined that this means of assessment of this activity should continue for at least one more semester before faculty could recommend changes in assessment methods. Likewise, at least one more semester of data needs to be analyzed prior to any significant recommendations for program change or selection of another learning objective.

ASSESSMENT REPORT

FOR

Master of Science in Information Systems (MS-IS)
Instructional Degree Program

Fall 2003
Assessment Period Covered

February 2004
Date Submitted

Intended Educational (Student) Outcome:
NOTE: There should be one form for each intended outcome listed.  Intended outcome should be restated in the box immediately below and the intended outcome number entered in the blank spaces.

3. Students completing the masters program will demonstrate their knowledge of theories, models and tools relevant to the field of Information Systems through the development of a fully functional software product designed to meet a specific client’s needs. [Note: this outcome is new for Fall 2003 and is the direct result of faculty consideration of outcomes’ assessment from Spring 2003.]

First Means of Assessment for Outcome Identified Above:
3a. Means of Program Assessment & Criteria for Success:
The client will be asked to accept the product as being in compliance with the client’s new system specifications, and the client will be asked to adopt the product for in their organization. However, to provide us with a higher degree of granularity in our assessment, it has been decided that the clients would be asked to provide answers on a 4-point scale of acceptance, with the following tentative items: 1 (not accepted), 2 (accepted to a small extent), 3 (accepted to a large extent), and 4 (fully accepted).

3a. Summary of Assessment Data Collected:
Four projects were completed; a team of 3 to 4 students completed each:
1) CTS’ Hotline Call Logging System;

2) A1, Inc., a marketing portal on the world wide web;

3)TillIDie.com, a virtual storefront for a local tee shirt vendor;

4) Invoice Management System, designed for Sri Rama Chandra Nursing Home
All four projects were accepted; all four clients expressed pleasure with the product.

3a. Use of Results to Improve Instructional Program:
The development of functional software product, accepted by a “real-world” client, is an adequate measure of the students’ mastery of theories, models and tools used in the field of Information Systems. The faculty agreed unanimously that the development and delivery of a software product for a specific client would continue to be best method to measure the adequacy of the MS-IS program. Faculty did not recommend changes at this time.