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Basis for the decision/program comments. The same for all Devry campusesDeVry University Response to ACBSP Feedback (See DeVry Responses in Blue)STANDARD #1. LeadershipAdministrators (chief academic officers, deans, department chairs) and faculty must persona ly lead and be involved in creating and sustaining values, business school or program directions, performance expectations, student focus, and a leadership system that promotes performance excellence. The values and expectations must be integrated into the business school’s or program’s leadership system; and the business school or program must continuously learn, improve, and address its societal responsibilities and community involvement.All comments in italics refer specifically to the accounting accreditation. All other comments apply to both business and accounting.StrengthsStandard 1.11. The dean and administrators, faculty and leadership teams, and stakeholders expect to seet at academiquality is the number one strategic goal of DVU and the CBM.2. DVU is an Academic Quality Improvement Program (AQIP) school. AQIP schools are well known for implementing quality processes.3. Administrators and faculty set, communicate, and deploy business school values and performance expectations and are committed to providing a quality curriculum and educational system.Standard 1.24. The CBM faculty and administrators work to ensure students adhere to the ethical and business practices set forth in the DVU student handbook.5. A national regulatory and legal department monitors regulatory and legal changes at the federal and state levels that affect DVU and the CBM, so that both may regularly demonstrate compliance with regulations.6. Accounting faculty address ethical business practices by offering a stand-alone ethics course (ACCT-439 and ACCT-440) for undergraduate programs and for graduate programs (GM-533); as well as incorporating ethics into the majority of all accounting courses through the use of Terminal Course Objectives (TCO).7. Accounting faculty address the impacts on society through such programs as Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) with accounting undergraduates preparing tax returns and graduate students serving as reviewers. These campus-level initiatives are shared byf culty at the annual University Faculty Symposium.8. The CBM local and national deans and Becker Professional Education representatives monitor state boards of accountancy for changes in state regulations regarding CPA examination and licensure.Opportunities for ImprovementStandard 1.11. The fit between the structure and mission/strategy of the organization is not clearly communicated among all employees. The lack of clarity can lead to confusion by employees and stakeholders regarding channels of communication and reporting relationships.DeVry Response:The College of Business & Management will create new channels of communication to improve upon its current reporting structure, to ensure clarity in the communication of the college’s mission and strategy.2. A recurring theme in the Self-Study and in interviews of administrative personnel indicates the CBM is still in the early stages of implementing its planning, evaluating, and assessing processes. While its plans for goal accomplishment are commendable, until trends data can be systematically analyzed and evaluated, the CBM is dealing with incomplete information for promoting and ensuring performance excellence.DeVry Response:As our processes continue to evolve from a pilot to an ongoing process we will share the information with academic staff and faculty.3. Information presented by DVU in the Self-Study has not been communicated and deployed organization wide. Until the data gathered is common to all centers and shared with faculty, staff, and administration, the organization may not be able to create and sustain values, program directions, performance expectations, and/or student focus, and promote performance excellence.DeVry Response:The entire content of the self-studies is available in an electronic document repository. Access to the ACBSP site is given to all employees in the College of Business & Management. In addition, the College will continue to improve its communication protocols to ensure that the data collected at the national level is readily available for review.Standard 1.24. Business programs must routinely provide reliable information to the public on their performance and achievement of students (student learning results). Unless reliable information is routinely provided to the public, the CBM’s academic performance and student learning may result in public misunderstandings.DeVry Response:The College of Business & Management will continue to develop its student learning assessment and reporting protocols in order to offer student learning results for public disclosure.5. A large number of faculty use Turnitin to identify plagiarism, but a system is not in place to teach students about all the forms of plagiarism and cheating. The absence of such a system might result in a continued high percentage of plagiarism incidents in spite of the leadership’s commitment to ethical values.DeVry Response:The College of Business & Management uses a standardized curriculum model. In each course shell there are documents, videos, and links to sites that help inform students about plagiarism. Also, students go through a new student orientation that addresses this issue. The student handbook also contains information on plagiarism. Furthermore, upon each first incident of suspected plagiarism, professors are required to meet with the student and provide a one-on-one teaching session regarding plagiarism. The College of Business & Management will improve its reporting system to document the effect of these orientation and communication tools.STANDARD #2. Strategic PlanningThe business school or program must have a process for setting strategic directions to better address key student and program performance requirements. The strategy development process should lead to an action plan for deploying and aligning key plan performance requirements. It should also create an environment that encourages and recognizes innovation and creativity.Strengths1. The DVU and the CBM are involved in a thorough, formal process of strategic planning by which its strategic direction is determined, using three integrated phases—strategy development, communication, and implementation, and three strategic priorities— achieve, grow, and build.2. Strategic action plans address both short-term and long-term objectives, and the CBM has established performance measures for tracking progress.3. The business unit has established performance measures for tracking progress relative to strategic action plans.4. There is a process to communicate strategic objectives, action plans, and measurements to all faculty, staff, and stakeholders as appropriate.5. Accounting goals are included in the CBM goals. These include: creation of Metro Quality Teams to include accounting faculty clusters; create assessments in accounting for the ASD, BSAC, and MSAC accounting degrees; academic review of business programs to include accounting; increase accounting doctoral credentialed faculty; and implement associate degrees in Accounting.Opportunities for Improvement6. The CBM has a formal strategic planning process that includes the DVU strategic priorities and the CBM FY2011 and FY2012 goals. However, currently there are limited opportunities for faculty and staff to participate in the planning process. Without full participation, it may be difficult to deploy and align key performance requirements.DeVry Response:We recognize the importance of broad-based involvement by faculty and staff in the strategic planning process for the College of Business & Management. The leadership will explore and implement the best opportunities for improving the process of involving these groups.7. The FY2011/2012 updated strategic goals (March 15, 2012) have little or no deployment of the goals. Most implementation dates are scheduled for 2013 or later. Until some of the goals are accomplished, strategic direction cannot be determined.DeVry Response:DeVry University strategic goals are redefined on a yearly cycle as they are completed. The same process applies to the College. Goals that are completed during the year are removed from the action plan. During the planning process they are redefined to align with the University goals of the subsequent year, thus creating a clean slate. The updated goals of March 15, 2012 showed the newly defined goals for the subsequent year.STANDARD #3. Student and Stakeholder FocusA business school or program must have a systematic procedure to determine requirements and expectations of current and future students and stakeholders, including how the business school or program enhances relationships with students and stakeholders and determines their satisfaction. Stakeholders may include parents, employers, alumni, donors, other schools, communities, etc.Strengths1. The CBM has a fully-deployed approach to listening and learning for faculty and Advisory Boards (Appendix J.4). For example, the Right Now system allows faculty to raise course content issues and suggested changes. These “tickets” are systematically cataloged and assigned to someone responsible to “close the ticket” (Appendix J.1). All reviewed advisory board minutes contain relevant discussions of strengths and opportunities for improvement for the business programs.2. The CBM has built national and international relationships through articulation agreements. Appendix P notes agreements in the U.S., Canada, China, Korea and with private corporations’ in-house training units.3. The CBM has a monthly DASHBOARD process to obtain information to plan existing and new educational programs and services. The information includes current accounts receivable, student persistence, enrollment rates, and average student credit hours per semester.4. DVU has a systematic, fully-deployed approach to receive and resolve student and faculty satisfaction and complaints. Data is regularly collected from the system and analyzed for process improvement.5. A number of key results for current student satisfaction needs and improvements are presented. For example, changes with eBooks, Human Resource curriculum and course- based materials were made, and a number of initiatives to improve student communication skills were instituted in 2010.6. DVU’s listening and learning methods include Net Promoter Score (NPS), MyClassEvaluation (MCE) student course feedback, and Noel-Levitz student surveys to listen for feedback. As an improvement, Noel-Levitz is being replaced with the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). These student satisfaction results are reviewed at the national dean level as well as with the campus center associate deans and faculty.7. Student persistence (retention) is one of four items maintained on the DVU and the CBM dashboard. Student Persistence Undergraduate and Graduates (Table 3.7) is reviewed by each campus location and is segmented by business and non-business students, as well as for accounting students, both undergraduate and graduate.8. Alumni and employers serve on Industry Advisory Boards (IAB). A recent IAB session focused on accounting programs and changes were recommended to curriculum and programs. Three areas of opportunity emerged from this feedback: International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) should be a part of the undergraduate and graduate accounting courses; accounting curriculum should be regularly reviewed to include changes in standards, laws, and technology; and graduates in accounting should be able to communicate effectively, both in writing and verbally.Opportunities for Improvement1. There is not a systematic segmentation of data into the identified student groups. Systematic segmentation may aid the organization in efficient identification of student requirements and expectations and create linkages to other standards. For example, the segmentation used in Table 3.1, page 32, differs from that in section 3.a.DeVry Response:The suggestion of further segmentation of student data is very relevant. Although significant analysis exists of student segments at the University level, the College of Business & Management is currently developing a systematic approach. This analysiswill enable the College of Business & Management to correlate student segment requirements with such items as schedules, programmatic emphasis and student services.2. A comprehensive and clearly articulated process of listening and learning from all stakeholders may enhance the ability of the organization to generate results on the requirements, expectations, and satisfaction levels of all key stakeholders. For example, the stakeholder list differs between the Profile, page 12, Standard 3, page 31, and Table 3.1, page 32. The supplemental response (3/7/12) to the team identified a total of 21 stakeholders.3. While tools and a change based on review of information are mentioned, there is no systematic process to review the data. Articulating the evaluation process may lead to new opportunities for continuous improvement of the listening and learning system.DeVry Response for Items 2 and 3:The College of Business & Management will continue to enhance its current stakeholder listening and learning systems. This will result in an integrated process that will be designed to provide the necessary elements for gathering and analyzing information from the stakeholder groups identified in our supplemental response. This will include the incorporation of Net Promoter Score, Noel-Levitz and other tools in our interactions with all stakeholders where the application of these techniques is appropriate.4. DVU notes (Table 3.1) that community service meets stakeholder requirements, yet only anecdotal evidence of such service by faculty and students is presented. Processes to build relationships with communities DVU serves will enhance its reputation for social responsibility.DeVry Response:DeVry University has numerous community engagement projects and social responsibility initiatives that are designed for a broad-base of employees, such as:· Annual Beautification Day· Annual Tax Preparation· REVLON Run Walk-walk for Cancer Research· Habitat for Humanity· Information Fair and Festival· Canned Food drive-donations· Christmas Toy Drives· San Bernardino National Forest AidThe College of Business & Management will further formalize the processes by which faculty, staff and students engage in these initiatives. Furthermore, the College of Business and Management will establish a committee to explore the possibilities for developing College-specific community engagement projects.5. The approach to building a fully-deployed system to achieve student retention goals is not clearly specified. Some efforts such as an internship and a Study Abroad program are in the early stages of deployment and do not appear to be integrated into a system. An integrated approach and full deployment may aid in attaining the retention goal.DeVry Response:The College of Business & Management is a co-participant with other colleges in University-wide retention projects. The College of Business & Management’s specific efforts are placed in the junior or senior experience through internships and the study abroad program. In addition, the College of Business & Management is exploring the implementation of a program of co-curricular activities for management students focusing on the development of professionalism.6. While DVU has a well-developed system to handle student and faculty complaints, evidence is lacking for the existence of such a system for the remaining key stakeholders. A system to effectively handle complaints from other key internal and external stakeholders may enhance the institution’s ability to pursue common purposes with these groups.DeVry Response:We understand the need to extend the system to handle complaints and concerns by other stakeholders. The College of Business & Management will develop a systematic approach for effectively gathering concerns and complaints from all stakeholders.7. Indirect measures (Table 3.2) of potential student needs and other stakeholder needs are mentioned. However, a comprehensive list of both direct and indirect measures and results for all 21 stakeholders is missing. Systematic and comprehensive measurement selection, data collection, and analysis of all stakeholders may validate DVU’s student and stakeholder focus and enhance relationships with these groups.DeVry Response:As part of the extension of our current listening system to other stakeholders, the improvements will include the consideration of the adoption of feasible methods of direct and indirect measures, data collection tools and analytics.8. Employers and alumni play an active role on some campuses through interaction with student professional organizations and clubs such as American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and Institute of Managerial Accounting. A lack of consistency may impact student retention and ability to build stakeholder relationships.DeVry Response:The College of Business & Management is actively engaged in fostering the increase of student chapters. Many metros have their own local affiliations. At the national level the College has facilitated the establishment of Phi Beta Lamda and SHRM chapters.DeVry Summary Response:The above listed recommendations provide us with significant insight to improve our processes to better understand and address the requirements of the different stakeholder groups. The College of Business & Management will:a) Develop a plan to accomplish segmenting students and stakeholders.b) Improve upon its existing listening systems for student stakeholders, to capture requirements from other stakeholder groups.c) Improve upon existing methods for analyzing student feedback, to develop a systematic process to review that data originating from other stakeholder groups.The full list of stakeholders is listed:· Potential Students· Current Students· Alumni· Transfer Students· Parents· Developmental Students· Local Cities· Local Counties· Community Colleges· Employers· Full-time and Part-time faculty· College of Business & Management Deans· Career Services Staff· Financial Aid Staff· Academic Advising Staff· Legislators· Government Agencies· Accreditors· Industry Advisory Boards (National & Local)· Hiring Companies· Stockholders· Board of DirectorsSTANDARD #4. Measurement and Analysis of Student Learning and Performance Business schools and programs must have an outcomes assessment program with documentation of the results and evidence that the results are being used for the development and/or improvement of the institution’s academic programs. Each business school or program is responsible for developing its own outcomes assessment program.StrengthsStandard 4.11. The CBM has a well-developed Outcomes Assessment Plan that has three components including the Continuous Improvement Plan, Continuous Course Review Process, and targeted Assessment Student Learning Outcomes, pages 40 - 44, which should produce helpful results to assess student learning.2. Formative assessments for undergraduate programs include the Writing Assessment Program, final exam analysis in some courses, and the newly-initiated Proficiency Profile. Summative undergraduate assessments include specific competencies in senior projects at the system-wide level and the Major Field Test (MFT). Summative assessments for graduate programs include the MFT and specific competencies in capstone projects.Standard 4.23. The CBM has a clear understanding of the selection and use of information results to make program improvements and currently has the resources and expertise to continuously improve its processes.4. Faculty from the centers/locations are involved in making recommendations to the national office for course and curriculum improvements and then serve on national committees to recommend system-wide course and curriculum improvements. These two levels of involvement allow subject matter experts to make the best possible improvements to benefit students.Standard 4.35. The use of the MFT provides one set of normative analysis to make comparisons with a national group of students and a reference group of 11 colleges and universities that are considered most respected by DVU. Continuing to analyze these data will be helpful in making program improvements.Standard 4.46. The practice of process improvements is embedded in the culture of the CBM. For example, many improvements have been implemented in curriculum, communication, hiring, and assessment (pages 53 and 54).7. The use of external business experts as evaluators of capstone projects and presentations provides real world feedback to students similar to what they would receive in a full-time job.Opportunities for ImprovementStandard 4.11. Since the measures presented in the graphs on pages 47 and 48 of the Self Study are in the early stages of deployment, student learning goals and targets are not identified. Setting goals and targets for each measure will help DVU determine if students are learning at the level that is expected and will foster continuous improvement.DeVry Response:The College of Business & Management will continue to implement and collect data based on the assessment tools identified in the self-study. Student learning goals andtargets will be developed to ensure that students are at the target level of expectation and that continuous improvement is an ongoing goal of DeVry University.2. Although there are some learning outcomes for the two Bachelor of Science programs, there are none related specifically to each of the 14 majors/concentrations listed in the undergraduate Academic Catalog, pages 25 and 26. Direct assessment of student learning in the content areas is necessary to provide a basis for continuous program improvement.DeVry Response:The College of Business & Management will expand the direct assessment of undergraduate business programs to include the 14 content areas. This will be accomplished by expanding the senior project assessment to include written, presentation, and content area assessments.3. Although there are learning outcomes for each of the seven graduate programs, there are none for the content knowledge of each of the 15 concentrations in the MBA program. Direct assessment of student learning in the content areas is necessary to provide a basis for continuous program improvement.
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