Enhancing Effectiveness in Curriculum: Necessary Changes Page 296 - Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, Volume 43, 2016 ABSTRACT This study proposed a set of interventions to improve the finan- cial analysis skills of students enrolled in both the face-to-face and in our online MBA courses. The intent of the GEB5878 and GEB5930 courses is to build the foundational skills necessary to produce quality graduate level work in subsequent advanced courses requiring industry portfolio papers and multiple case analyses. In the UWF MBA curriculum, there is a heavy empha- sis on financial data analysis and synthetization. By instituting new pedagogical techniques into the two classes, students demonstrated an ability to synthesize the financial analysis data and draw appropriate conclusions from the information. The interventions were testing by comparing mean test scores of a control group without the additional financial analysis training to an experimental group which did receive the training. The results of this analysis clearly support the positive effects of the interventions proposed herein. INTRODUCTION The University of West Florida’s (UWF) Master of Busi- ness Administration/General (MBA) is an AACSB International (International Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) accredited, 33 semester-hour program with an indus- try focus. The UWF MBA Program originally delivered courses exclusively face-to-face. Over time, several classes were devel- oped for online delivery. However, up until the start of fall 2015 semester, only 10.5 semester-hours of the program were availa- ble in a virtual format. UWF MBA students complete an Industry Portfolio con- sisting of research projects written during five courses in the program. Each project addresses key business issues within a selected industry providing an in-depth understanding of the industry across the major functional areas of business. To pre- pare students for the industry-specific writing and research, students complete the GEB5930 Information Resources and Industry Analysis course (fully online) at the start of the MBA Program. The UWF MBA curriculum also requires students to utilize case analysis skills throughout the program courses. Case stud- ies provide a means for active learning by creating a realistic learning environment (Elam & Spotts, 2013). The case teaching approach also allows the student the opportunity for deep explo- ration of scholarship under a real-life premise that examines the subject from different viewpoints (Simmons, 2009). MBA stu- dents complete GEB5878 Business Process Integration at the beginning of the program to develop the critical thinking, as- sessment and presentation skills necessary to develop an effec- tive case analysis. The GEB5878 course was originally a blend- ed course that utilized two course meetings in addition to sup- porting online instruction and content. By having the classes early in the MBA curriculum, stu- dents develop the critical skills necessary for success in the pro- gram. Both the Information Resources and Industry Analysis and Business Process Integration courses cover the topics of data acquisition, electronic library data sourcing, financial anal- ysis, problem identification and graduate level writing expecta- tions. While topically different courses, both GEB5878 and GEB5930 require higher level thinking through financial data analysis and synthesis for successful completion of the classes. The development of these skills also plays a role in ensuring Enhancing Effectiveness in Curriculum: Necessary Innovative Changes Gerald Goldstein University of West Florida ggoldstein@uwf.edu K. Blaine Lawlor University of West Florida blawlor@uwf.edu John Batchelor University of West Florida jbatchelor1@uwf.edu Gayle Baugh University of West Florida gbaugh@uwf.edu Melissa Brode University of West Florida mbrode@uwf.edu Page 297 - Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, Volume 43, 2016 students are prepared for the MBA capstone course, MAN6721 Strategic Management. This class requires participation in live cases and a business simulation. MBA involvement in these experiential learning opportunities requires the learner to be engage directly with what is being studied (see Kolb, 2014). For the active engagement in this class setting to be an effective learning experience, the MBA students must be prepared to synthesize large amounts of financial data, identify problems and make recommendations for action. During the fall 2015 semester, UWF launched a separate, fully online MBA Program. In preparation for the online pro- gram launch, a review of previous course structure, student learning outcomes and student performance was initiated for GEB5878 and GEB5930. Kovach and Fredendall (2013) note that the Continuous Improvement Process can improve learning, leading to increased performance. In addition, as an AACSB accredited institution, a commitment to the assurance of the learning process ensures that our courses are meeting their stat- ed learning goals and the course curriculum facilitates student achievement in those areas (AACSB International, 2015). This review was particularly important for GEB5878 as the course was being developed in a fully online format from its previous blended delivery. However, even the existing online GEB5930 course was evaluated and assessed. The faculty con- ducting the courses reviewed prior student submissions and recognized that the expected student learning outcomes related to financial ratio analysis were not aligned with course content and delivery. STUDY BACKGROUND AND STATEMENT OF PROBLEM Both the GEB5878 and GEB5930 courses require the syn- thetization and interpretation of financial information, yet MBA students were simply reporting the ratios without synthesizing the data into a meaningful analysis. The ability to synthesize complex data and draw appropriate conclusions is a necessary skill for today’s leaders (Gardner, 2006). With the vast amounts of financial data available to students now, it is critical for MBAs to develop the ability to filter through this information to provide cogent, logical and well-grounded conclusions (Schachter, 2006). The faculty conducting the GEB5878 and GEB5930 cours- es recognized in fall 2014 that students were not producing the expected level of financial analyses. The two courses intro- duced several new analytical approaches including presenta- tions on General Environment, Porter’s Five Forces, and the Resource Based View of a Firm (VRIO) to enhance the ability of the students to synthesize data for financial problem identifi- cation. However, an assessment of these two courses student learning outcomes revealed a lack of competency in the MBA students’ performance in these areas:  GEB5878: Generate a final individual case report that syn- thesizes the case findings and proposes resolutions.  GEB5930: Synthesize a broad spectrum of fundamental business information into a cohesive paper that draws cor- rect and/or reasonable inferences and conclusions from the information. Without a clear understanding of financial analysis and the ability to synthesize the related data, the MBAs were not able to draw the appropriate conclusions in either course. It was clear that the courses still lacked the instructional tools needed to develop the MBA students’ command of financial analysis -- specifically the ability to evaluate and synthesize data related to liquidity, profitability, leverage and growth ratios. NEED FOR INNOVATIVE COURSE DESIGN CHANGES Bloom (1956) developed the taxonomy of educational ob- jectives as a means identify higher levels of cognition in learn- ing. He defined synthesis as the ability to put parts together to form a new whole (Bloom, 1956). Anderson et al (2001) revised Bloom’s cognitive domain taxonomy and redefined synthesis into the concept of creating. Creating not only encompassed the ability to put the parts together as a whole, but to use this whole to create new meaning. This creation of new meaning vis-a-vis synthesis is the key to the higher order thinking required for financial analysis in the GEB5878 and GEB5930 courses. The GEB5878 and GEB5930 faculty needed to determine how to create a learning experience for students that shifted their analysis abilities from lower level Bloom’s comprehension (reporting) level to higher order synthetization (creating) with appropriate conclusions (Bloom, 1956; Anderson, 2001). Stu- dents need these synthetization and creation skill in GEB5878, a case analysis based course, to develop a clearer picture of the company’s financial position, to identify the organization’s fi- nancial problem(s) and to develop solutions and an implementa- tion plan for the problems identified. In GEB5930, the industry analysis course, students need the synthetization and creation Note. + = p < .10. * = p < .05,** = p < .01, *** = p < .001. Standard Deviations appear in parentheses below means. TABLE 1 Additional Financial Analysis vs. Control Performance Scores Summer 2015 (Control) Fall 2015 (Intervention) t df GEB5878 47.50 (26.59) 83.33 (20.10) -3.44** 18 GEB5930 77.00 (14.75) 87.69 (11.58) -1.99+ 22 Total 64.58 (24.90) 85.60 (16.03) -3.4*** 42 Page 298 - Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, Volume 43, 2016 skills to conduct financial statement analysis on three compa- nies in a selected industry and provide well-developed conclu- sions on how each company is positioned within the industry. CURRICULUM CHANGES In fall 2015, the faculty of GEB5878 and GEB5930 courses began the effort to change the level of MBA student financial analysis competence by embedding narrated, recorded presenta- tions in the course content of the UWF online learning manage- ment system. This curricula covered how to complete a finan- cial statement analysis, how to compute profitability, liquidity and leverage ratios and how to use the DuPont Formula to syn- thesize financial data to determine outcomes critical to business decisions. These virtual presentation vignettes provided the pro- cess framework for conducing the financial analysis. Students were required to view these presentations and take a quiz to show understating of how to apply the concepts and draw con- clusions. In addition to the recorded presentations, the faculty of the GEB5878 and GEB5930 hosted real-time virtual instructional sessions using a new, innovative video conferencing tool. These sessions using the video conferencing tool provided a platform for active teaching of the concepts including hands on demon- strations of the calculations. This online teaching time gave students the opportunity to ask questions and clarify under- standing of the concepts. With the new instructional technolo- gies in place, an evaluation of the performance of the MBA students was conducted to see if students’ scores in the financial analysis components of the GEB5878 and GEB5930 courses improved. METHODS Research Design and Participants This quasi-experimental, non-equivalent groups study used a quantitative approach with a posttest only assessment. The intervention for the experimental group consisted of the use of recorded, narrated financial presentations and the use of an in- novative video conferencing tool for instruction for the fall 2015 sections of GEB5878 and GEB5930. The sample groups used for the study are MBA students who are enrolled in the program’s GEB5878 and GEB5930 courses for the summer 2015 and fall 2015 semesters. This resulted in 44 respondents. Of these, 8 and 12 were enrolled in the summer and fall sections of GEB5878 classes respectively, and 11 and 13 were enrolled in the summer and fall sections of GEB5930 respectively. Data Collection and Analysis MBA student financial analysis scores from a medium sized southern university for the control (summer 2015) and experimental (fall 2015) courses were used in this study. Mean differences for the two groups were compared, for both courses, to test whether the intervention tested herein produced a signifi- cant effect. Results The results of the analysis of differences in means are sum- marized in Table 1. Overall the results of the tests using all re- spondents and respondents from the GEB5878 class were clear. The test of means was significant at the p < .001 and p < .05 level for both of these groups respectively. The GEB5930 group failed to reach significance at the p < .05 level, yet it did reach significance at the p < .10 level. We believed that the P < .05 level was not reached, in this case, due to samples size limita- tions, as the overall effects, combining both classes, were sig- nificant at the p < .001 level. Taken as a whole, these results clearly support that the financial statement intervention had positive effects of the financial analysis performance of the stu- dents in this study. Limitations In order to determine the generalizability of the effects of course design discussed herein, further testing should to be per- formed. Additionally, sample size is a limitation of this study. The sample sizes in this study were relatively small for this type of analysis. A larger sample size would allow for a more robust test of the effect of the change. Additional data can be obtained from students who enrolled in the GEB5878 class in semesters prior to Summer 2015. These students would not have received the additional instruction on financial analysis. Data from fu- ture classes exposed to the additional financial information can be added to the initial sample until sufficient data can be gath- ered for more robust testing. In order to remove the confound- ing effects of cognitive ability and academic motivation, future analysis should use GRE (Graduate Record Exam) scores or undergraduate GPA as control variable proxies for cognitive ability. CONCLUSIONS The intent of the GEB5878 and GEB5930 courses is to build the foundational skills necessary to produce quality gradu- ate level work in subsequent advanced courses requiring indus- try portfolio papers and multiple case analyses. In the UWF MBA curriculum, there is a heavy emphasis on financial data analysis and synthetization. This synthetization of data requires the student to move from lower levels of cognitive application to the more creative cognitive ones (Bloom, 1956, Anderson, 2001). By instituting new pedagogical techniques into the two classes, students were able to develop better financial analysis skills. Specifically, the MBAs demonstrated an ability to syn- thesize the financial analysis data and draw appropriate conclu- sions from the information. Developing the skill of identifying organizations financial problems, including its strength and weaknesses demonstrates the synthetization skills discussed herein (White, 2010). Shifting students from more passive learning to higher level cognitive activities, such as those presented herein, is challenging. But, as Moore (2011) notes, business programs should be pushing students toward the development of ad- vanced critical thinking skills (i.e. educational interventions) to better prepare the graduate for the domains of a competitive and complex business environment. Page 299 - Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, Volume 43, 2016 AACSB International. (2015). Eligibility Procedures and Ac- creditation Standards for Business Accreditation. 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