ASSESSING STUDENT LEARNING IN COURSES TAUGHT BY COURSE AUTHORS VS. OTHER QUALIFIED INSTRUCTORS

National University is the second largest private university in California and recently undertook a rather unique approach when developing a Master of Science degree program in Higher Education Administration. The program, only one of a limited number of similar programs currently offered in the United States, was designed to provide the knowledge and skills necessary for candidates to assume leadership positions in institutions of Higher Education and consists of eight core courses, a research course, and a thesis requirement. There are several unique and innovative features of the program. First, the program incorporates Andragogy concepts – learning strategies focusing specifically on adult learners – and combines sound educational theory, leadership, and strategic management concepts in a manner designed to best assist students in learning how to plan, implement, administer, and evaluate institutional Higher Education programs across the wide spectrum of college and university level administrative work. Next, the program focuses on subject areas such as student services, enrollment management, leading and managing change in a higher education environment, policy development, diverse community relations, financial management, and higher education case law in a highly focused one course per month format.

While National University utilized nationally recognized experts external to the university to drive the design of the program and the course content materials. Individuals recruited to assist in this effort included Chief Student Services and Enrollment Management officers, a System-Wide Director of Educational Leadership Policy, a Special Assistant to a University President, a College Vice President, a College Dean, a State Chancellor Office’s Director of Student Programs, and Professors of Higher Education with expertise in Finance and Law which included an Attorney. The underlying concept was to draw from a broad-base of expertise to create a program than was relevant to the dynamic needs of administering the higher education enterprise. The program is taught completely online and, like all National University courses, includes a student end of course assessment questionnaire.

The present study analyzes students’ learning and their ability to use what they learned beyond the classroom in actual higher education settings and includes an analysis of student assessments from course sections taught by instructors who originally designed and wrote the course to assessments from other course sections that were taught by qualified instructors other than the authors of the course.