Assessing students' learning of internal controls: Closing the loop: Working paper series--07-03

This study describes the multifaceted components of an assessment process. The paper explains a novel approach in which accounting advisory council members actively participated in a "fun," hands-on activity to rank-order learning outcomes. Understanding internal controls was the top ranked learning competency identified by the advisory council. With this competency identified, the advisory council exercise was then followed-up by a course modification in the auditing course. An empirical study, consisting of a control group and a treatment group, was then conducted to assess whether students' performance on an internal control essay question now met or exceeded established expectations. Collecting data without acting upon it is a waste of resources. This study shows how important it is to close the loop in identifying improvement opportunities