| The purpose of this mixed method sequential explanatory case study was to describe the relationship of a student outcomes assessment program, as measured by the Peregrine Academic Leveling Course, (ALC), to the academic performance, determined by scores on the Peregrine Common Professional Component (CPC) examination, of students enrolled during the 2011 -2012 and 2012 - 2013 academic years in the senior level capstone course, MGT 462 -- Business Policy at University A (pseudonym). The study also looked at the relationship of incentives to academic performance and the relationship to ACT scores, GPA, and COBA GPA. This was accomplished by obtaining quantitative results from pre-existing data from the population of 187 students and then following up with the interview of 15 intensive and purposefully selected respondents to explore those results more in depth. In the first quantitative phase CPC scores were not related to participation in the ALC and no relationship was determined for ACT, GPA, COBA GPA. The same was true for incentives. In the qualitative follow-up, five major themes emerged (1) the ALC gave students a comprehensive review of curriculum content, (2) poor timing of the administration of the ALC, (3) inconsistent content from ALC to CPC, (4) the ALC tested content not in curriculum and (5) moving ALC into another class and using ALC throughout the course to give more time. The quantitative and qualitative findings from the two phases of the study are discussed with reference to research. Implications and recommendations for administrators include: (1) if the College of Business Administration uses the ALC as a part of the formal assessment, it should be implemented in a senior level course or series of courses that do not conflict with the capstone course, and (2) to more effectively address academic performance, it is recommended that the College of Business Administration not provide incentives. |
