Best Practices
Alternative Assessment Approaches
Conducted by: Fred Zandpour & Mark Hoven Stohs
Abstract
We describe the assessment procedure at Singapore Polytechnic (SP). While
sharing several themes in common to the standard approach in the United States,
the different processes, themes or details in the SP procedure should be
instructive as means for reflection about the approach in our country. The SP
procedure is based upon the British model, in which external examiners: (1) have
access to all relevant information, (2) analyze the educational approach, (3)
make recommendations to the academic programs and institutional leaders. One
highlight that emerges is the degree to which the academic programs seek and
take the advice of external stakeholders (business organizations). Both
presenters have served as external examiners for SP and are involved in
assessment with their own Colleges.
The British procedure of utilizing external examiners is applied not only for
masters and doctoral theses, but also for whole (degree) programs. Singapore
Polytechnic, a higher education institution at the pre–university level
“employs” external examiners on two–year revolving periods. During at least one
of those years, the examiner visits the SP campus for a whole week and meets
with academic personnel to review the program in question and then prepares an
“assessment” report which is presented to the Dean of the program and then to
the academic administration (the equivalent of the President or Academic VP of
CSUF).
Our presentation will include:
1. the various elements of the assessment procedures at SP,
2. a comparison of the SP procedures “the” standard approach in the United
States (WASC, AACSB),
3. an attempt to draw lessons from the comparison in terms of potential future
directions of assessment in the United States.
Target audience: any person or group interested in reflecting about the
current U.S. assessment procedure.
Value–added: minimally, the SP assessment procedure highlights the
cooperative approach of the “British” model, in which programs/courses are
“owned” not by individual faculty, but by Colleges or “academe” and at the same
time responsive to external stakeholders.
Biographies
Dr. Mark Hoven
Stohs is Professor of Finance and the Associate Dean for Academic Programs and
Faculty Development in the College of Business and Economics at CSUF. He began
teaching at CSUF in 1996 after teaching finance and directing the Masters of
Business Studies in Banking and Finance at University College Dublin in Ireland
from 1994-96. He earned his Ph.D. in Finance from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, along with an earlier Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University
of Nebraska. He has published research in philosophy, business ethics,
economics, finance and real estate; including articles in the Journal of
Business, Financial Management, the Quarterly Journal of Business and Economics,
the Journal of Real Estate Research, History of Political Economy and the
Journal of Value Inquiry.
Fred Zandpour holds a Ph.D. in Communication from University of Washington and
is a professor and the associate dean in the College of Communications at Cal
State Fullerton. He has been named among the top 10 most cited researchers in
international advertising between 1990 and 2002 in the U.S and his articles have
appeared in the Journal of Advertising Research, International Journal of
Advertising and Mass Comm Review among others.