Using Web Groupware and Cognitive Mapping in a CIS Department to Review and Revise the Assessment Process and Document Reasoning

During reaccreditation reviews, all 370 business schools that are currently accredited by the AACSB—The International Association for Management Education— must demonstrate that a continuous improvement process is in place. This paper describes the experience of the Computer Information Systems department at a public university in the U.S., which used collaborative software to update the assessment process for the Master's Program and to document the faculty’s reasoning. Faculty were asked to examine assessment results, as well as to participate in asynchronous discussions using the Web groupware TCBWorks. Two groups of faculty met face to face and used the cognitive mapping software Decision Explorer—one to generate assessment options and determine the consequences of using those options, and the other to revise program objectives for the next assessment cycle. Results of asynchronous discussions and the cognitive mapping sessions, as well as faculty members’ evaluations of the process, are discussed.