Measuring the transition to large classes: learning and assessment in business education Rick Bates, Justin To, Maury Bredahl and John Cranfield Department of Agricultural Economics & Business University of Guelph

Motivation  AE&B teaches six of the core business courses at U of G –History of AGEC*2220, Financial Accounting  Large enrolment (~650), small section sizes (~50 students), many sections; case studies –Resource intensive  Enrolment growth precludes current form (unless resource constraints overcome) –Move to large section sizes  How to maintain quality & positive attributes of small sections?

Projected Enrollment in Core AE&B Business Courses

Acquired Knowledge Assessment  Congruent with any changes in mode of delivery is an effort to enhance quality of knowledge acquisition  Develop course specific assessments that measure knowledge acquisition, student perceptions and identify areas of further improvement  Pre & post test assessments

Knowledge Acquisition & Perception Assessments  Pre-test –Beginning of semester –Curriculum knowledge (could include retention questions) & perception questions  Post-test –End of semester –Curriculum knowledge (same as pre-test questions), perception & Universal Instructional Design (UID) questions

Empirical Analysis  Within a semester: –Change in knowledge based score: measure of knowledge acquisition –Change in perception based score: does course change student’s perception of business/ commerce/major?  Between semesters: –Change in knowledge acquisition? Perceptions? –UID score – compare across semesters; how do changes affect student’s ability to perform?

Results – Pre-test  Average pre-test knowledge score: 47% –No SD in score across majors & semester level –SD in score based on exposure to HS accounting –More HS accounting the higher the score

Results – Post-test  Average post-test knowledge score: 70% –SD in score across majors –SD in score based on exposure to HS accounting. Same pattern as with pre- test

Results – Acquired Knowledge  Change in pre & post test knowledge scores = 23 percentage point increase –Difference significantly different from zero –Not SD across major, semester level & past enrollment in HS accounting  BUT – change in scores smaller the more exposure to HS accounting Watch the scale!

Relative Changes in Perceptions Question:Change in score (post-pre) This course has been pivotal to my understanding of business This course has been important to my understanding of material relevant to my major This course has no bearing on my ability to solve business problems This course has been important to my career development/aspirations

Results - Perceptions  These results show from pre to post, perceptions of the class changed to be more negative  Results were statistically significant  The question into the future: How will these shifts in perceptions from pre to post change as we transition from small to large classes?

Our Department’s Challenge  Balance increased undergraduate enrollment with increasingly limited teaching resources –How to preserve quality of teaching?  Scholarship in teaching program –Multi-year program –Provide resources and expertise –Complement and enhance existing quality of teaching

This Fall & Winter  Change in mode of AGEC*2220 & AGEC*2230 –Continue with pre & post test assessments –Does change in mode affect knowledge acquisition and/or perceptions?  Propose to implement pre & post tests in AGEC*3310 & AGEC*3320 –Follow cohort (from 2220 and 2230) through –Baseline for subsequent changes  Continue these tracking efforts into the future

Thank you! Questions?