Title: A 'continuous improvement'-based approach for the assessment of student learning

Authors: Gangaraju Vanteddu; Chellappan Somarajan

Addresses: Department of Accounting, Harrison College of Business, Southeast Missouri State University, One University Plaza MS 5815, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701, USA ' Department of Accounting, Harrison College of Business, Southeast Missouri State University, One University Plaza MS 5815, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701, USA

Abstract: Student learning is primarily a function of teacher centric and institution centric processes. For sustained gains in student learning, it is important to have a feedback mechanism between 'teaching' and 'assessment', which we have addressed through the adoption of continuous improvement (CI) philosophy. In this paper, through assessment of student performance, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the application of CI theory for teacher centric processes particularly in attaining student learning related goals by the adoption of plan, do, check and act (PDCA) cycle to one of the quantitative methods courses that we teach. The demonstration of the application of CI theory for teacher centric processes could be easily extended to other facets of student learning not explicitly considered in this research paper for the holistic treatment of the issue of student learning.

Keywords: student learning; student assessment; PDCA cycle; teacher centric processes; continuous improvement; institution centric processes; instructional design; instructional delivery; corrective action; first principles of instruction; student performance; higher education.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIOME.2012.051626

International Journal of Information and Operations Management Education, 2012 Vol.5 No.1, pp.86 - 103

Received: 22 Jun 2012
Accepted: 14 Oct 2012
Published online: 29 Nov 2014 *

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