The Challenge of Change in Africa's Higher Education in the 21st Century
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The Challenge of Change in Africa's Higher Education in the 21st ...

Chapter 1:  Africa's 21st-Century Renaissance in Higher Education: The Need for Strategic Planning
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how poorly, students are learning. A number of points deserve specific attention from figure 1.3, the features of which are the following:

  • Influencers of the AoL goals: In this process, each school is expected to specify the major determinants of its program learning goals and the expected outcomes. For VFU, these goals and outcomes consist of the VFU mission statement and 2008–2013 strategic plan, as well as the VFU Business School's mission statement and 2008–2013 strategic plan.
  • Establishment of learning goals: In this stage, AoL goals are set, numbering seven in the case of the foregoing analysis.
  • Assessment of student learning goals using both direct and indirect measures: Through this process, the business school is expected to assess whether or not the learning goals that have been set are being achieved by its students. Such assessment information is key to collecting, analyzing, explaining, and improving student performance. Assessment, in other words, aids curriculum review, curriculum alignment, curriculum improvement, and, ultimately, continuous improvement in the entire student learning process, which—as we observed earlier in this chapter—is really both the moral dimension and the moral imperative of every learning institution.
  • Examples of direct and indirect assessment measures: In order to get a broad and comprehensive picture of the learning landscape they foster, universities must use both direct and indirect techniques to assess student learning. Among the direct techniques are course-embedded assessments (which are by far the most important), the Educational Testing Service (ETS) major field test in business (called the Business II test and taken as part of the capstone course in business), portfolios, oral presentations (to test communication skills), as well as pretest and post-test measures. As figure 1.3 shows, there are a number of indirect techniques for assessing student learning—among them the jury of executive opinion from external advisory board members who employ graduates either full time or as interns, as well as instructional assessment systems, alumni surveys, employer surveys, exit interviews, national surveys, and other anecdotal evidence from professional organizations.
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