a. Program Name – Department of Economics
b. Report prepared by – Douglas Agbetsiafa, Chair
c. Who is the current assessment contact for your program? Douglas Agbetsiafa
d. Should assessment information be sent to anyone else in your department?: Dean Ducoffe, Associate Dean Sabbaghi,  Grant Black, Dana Costea, Lane David, Hong Zhuang

1. What are the program’s educational goals? (Please take goals directly from your program’s assessment plan, and highlight any changes made this year.)

1. The ability to explain core economic terms, concepts, and theories.
2. The ability to employ the “economic way of thinking.”
3. The ability to apply economic theories and contemporary social issues, as well as formulation and analysis of policy.
4. The ability to recognize the role of ethical values in economic decisions.
5. Good written, oral, and electronic communication skills.
6. Good quantitative reasoning and mathematical skills.
7. Independent learning skills, as well as the ability to work in a team environment.
8. Critical thinking and problem solving skills.
9. Awareness of international, economic, social, legal, multicultural, and political perspectives.
10. The ability to collect, process, and interpret data, including statistical inferences.
11. Computer proficiency within economics.

2. What assessment techniques did the program use? (Please take assessment techniques directly from your program’s assessment plan and highlight any changes made this year.) Assessment of Learning Goal Achievement
The following direct measures (DM) were used this year:

ETS Major Field Test in Economics:
At the end of each major’s program the student is required to take the national ETS Field Exams in Economics. We ordered, administered, and mailed the completed tests to ETS for scoring. Results were not available to measure students’ performance on the ETS in 2007 because ETS either misplaced or lost the tests for the economics graduating seniors.

IUSB Exit Examination
A three part (micro, macro, quantitative) examination prepared by economists at IU South Bend was administered to all graduating seniors.  Results were analyzed and reported to the economics faculty and School administrators.  Although slightly lower than the previous year’s, these results indicate that the graduating seniors in economics showed above average understanding of economic theory before applying them in the capstone course.
Communication Skills Check List:
Upon completing each 300 and higher level economics course each economics major is evaluated for his/her communication skills. Students in these courses were evaluated, and were judged to meet expectation, with over ninety percent, and sixty-four percent performing at the level of good to excellent in oral and written communication respectively. These results indicate that there does not seem to be any weakness for economics majors as a whole. However, when faculty evaluations identify specific student(s) with a need to improve either their oral or written communication skills, the faculty advisor for economics urges the student(s) to take classes that will improve these skills.

E490 Advanced Undergraduate Seminar in Economics:
Graduates who major in Economics need research experience in order to be competitive for jobs in their field or any other field, for graduate and professional schools. The E490 capstone course is designed to accomplish this objective. All the graduating seniors in Economics completed their research projects successfully.  The final research papers indicate high quality of technical and in-depth economic analyses. faculty was generally pleased with the quality of technical analysis and depth of economic analyses of the research papers.  Based on their grades, students who took the E490 course this year performed above average (B+).  In general, these results show that our graduating economics majors have met the expectation of the research skills the department requires of its majors.
Faculty Teaching Philosophy and Course Assessment Activities:
In addition to the above assessment activities, the department faculty were engaged in other individual assessment activities from the construction of the syllabi to reflect educational goals of the campus, the school, and the department as well as the learning objectives, assignments, quizzes, examinations, team projects, oral presentations, one-minute essays and student portfolios to measure mastery of content and general skills. The department required that each faculty submits a copy of the syllabus to the undergraduate office of the School of Business and Economics, and another copy to the department chair who reviews it for completeness and consistency of content coverage.

3. What has your program done with assessment information this year? (i.e. communicated results to faculty, staff, alumni and students, made changes in the curriculum, made changes in the budget, added new courses. . .)
We communicated information and results of this year’s assessment activities to economics faculty, the Dean and Associate Dean of the School of Business and Economics. Records of departmental assessment activities are also kept on the School’s H-drive, and electronic and hard copies distributed to faculty and School administrators. The economics faculty continues its commitment to deploying a diverse set of assessment tools to assess both programmatic issues (e.g., ETS Major Field Test in economics, IUSB Exit Exam) as well as the more general skills (e.g. oral and written communication skills).

 4. After reflecting on assessment activities in your unit, as a result of assessment what are two issues you would like to address?
First, we would like to have a reliable measure of student learning in the principles of economics that serve a large population of students from all departments and schools. The data collected from this assessment activity would likely enhance our efforts in understanding where students are having difficulties and devising appropriate strategies for curricular improvement and delivery.
We are fortunate and grateful that the assessment grant approved by the Campus Assessment Committee will assist us immensely in addressing this issue.

Second, the economics department will spend the next several months reviewing the economics curriculum and making any changes, if needed, as the program has moved from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to the School of Business and Economics. The move gives the department an opportunity to review current curriculum, and in the process, to align our assessment activities and tools more closely with the learning objectives and program goals.