Assessment of a Systems Analysis Methods Course in a Small Liberal Arts College. Paper presented at the Information Systems Educators Conference (ISECON

Marist College is an accredited institution, having been granted accreditation by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Universities. The College is required to assess the overall institutional effectiveness with primary attention given to assessment of student learning outcomes. Each faculty member was expected to choose one of his or her fall courses to prepare for assessment. Two Information Systems faculty members chose to assess the Systems Analysis Methods course. A quasi-experiment using pre- and post-tests was employed to measure increase in knowledge during the semester. The “treatment ” consisted of the course lectures, exercises, assignments, and materials. The pre- and post-tests were aimed at the broad categories of systems analysis and attempted to measure each student’s ability to synthesize the concepts and ideas of systems analysis and each student's competence in one or more skills related to the objectives for learning. The pre- and post-tests were graded by two faculty members and analyzed. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Version X (SPSSX) was used to measure the difference in knowledge as reflected by the tests. The post-test scores were significantly higher than the pre-test scores in all categories but one. This paper is a discussion and report of the assessment process and results, as well as of the experience gained