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Provides a “user friendly” benchmarking system which can be used before undergoing organizational change in order to create reference points which will serve as baselines and goals. First, defines what benchmarking is and looks at the characteristics of a benchmarking system. Reveals the advantages and disadvantages of using Surveys to collect cultural data and examines how to tailor survey questions. Addresses the issue of what action to take once the benchmarking results are known.

In College Learning for the New Global Century, the National Leadership Council of Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) argue for a liberal education for all students because “(i)n an economy fueled by innovation, the capabilities developed through a liberal education have become America’s most valuable economic asset.” (LEAP, 2007). The Business for a Better World Center and the School of Business at George Mason University endorse this view and have applied the liberal education approach to the study of business. This paper aims to explore the current environment of business education, the role of liberal education and the school’s programs and their benefits.

This paper relies on a case-study approach.

In this paper, the authors explore how George Mason University’s School of Business brings a liberal education approach to business education and draws on a combination of high impact practices, such as first-year seminars, common intellectual experiences, learning communities, collaborative assignments, undergraduate research, community-based learning, internships, capstone courses and projects and diversity and global learning (Kuh, 2008). Mason’s experience demonstrates the feasibility and benefits of this integration.

This case study provides unique insight into how business schools can integrate a liberal education approach into business education with successful results. As such, the paper contributes to the growing body of research on the benefits of liberal arts and business education models as a means of addressing global goals and provides a valuable case study to understand better the necessity of integrative, interdisciplinary learning.

This paper aims to demonstrate the variety of ways institutions and their libraries approach student success both conceptionally and operationally.

Librarians from eight different institutions of higher education were given a series of questions about student success on their campuses and in their libraries. They responded with written essays describing their experiences and perspectives.

The contributed pieces in this second installment are collected together and a variety of ways the academic library engage with “student success” are discussed. Initiatives include high-impact practices, fostering academic rapport and creating a sense of belonging, experiential learning and creative spaces and professional development.

These examples help to observe what is happening throughout higher education and see potential paths forward at the institutions engaged in this work.

In this chapter, the authors discuss the process of embedding experiential learning in a required ethics and diversity course (ED200). The course is a model of humanistic education in which students develop disciplinary-based methodological expertise while also drawing on cross-disciplinary, inclusive, problem-solving skills. The authors suggest that in a course that challenges students to think about their lives in community, engagement with that community plays a critical role in humanizing the learning experience. This pedagogical emphasis on experiential learning, instantiated as community engagement, unites the foci of ethics and diversity through students’ practical application of and reflection on their experiences to enhance ethical and cultural self-awareness. In the process, it also fosters a desire for participatory and justice-oriented citizenship (Westheimer & Kahne, 2004). In what follows, the authors provide a history of the development of ED200. The authors then justify the inclusion of experiential learning in the course from theoretical and practical perspectives: Why is it valuable to include experiential learning in this course and how does it advance the goal of developing critically engaged citizens through improving ethical reasoning skills and actionable understanding of diversity? Last, the authors detail positive impacts and implementation challenges and indicate next steps for continued development.

This paper's aim is to examine the value of library participation in institutional governance in the implementation of a comprehensive model for student success at a research university.

The paper provides a case study comparing the historical and current governance structure in a high research university, the relationship between a new governance structure and the implementation of a comprehensive student success model and the inclusion of the library in creating, implementing and participating in student success initiatives.

Participation in university shared governance enhances the library's role in contributing to student success, retention, progression and graduation.

The paper contributes to the discussion of the value of academic libraries to student success efforts in retention, progression and graduation for university students.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate students’ experiences of, and attitudes on, the use of technology – in the form of ePortfolio – as an assessment tool. The authors seek to determine whether ePortfolios aid students in facilitating critical reflection on their learning and academic skill development. The authors also determine whether ePortfolios can provide an alternative assessment tool to the traditional assessment practices in the accounting and business discipline.

This study surveys students enrolled in an indigenous business course using questions on the usability of ePortfolios, technical support and effectiveness in critical reflection and learning. Formal evaluations were included to capture students’ self-reflections on their ePortfolio experience. The analysis included analysis of variance, t-tests, correlations and hierarchical regression.

Results indicated that students show positive attitudes toward ePortfolios even after controlling for possible confounding variables such as previous experience, attitudes and accessibility. The authors also found that ePortfolios are a useful vehicle for enhancing students’ learning and understanding of indigenous knowledge in a business context. They were also found to facilitate students’ ability to critically reflect, engage in learning and develop their academic skills.

The findings of this study could benefit those working in higher education, particularly accounting academics in Australian universities, and the adaptation of ePortfolios in a blended learning environment, and contribute to pedagogical knowledge regarding indigenous business issues. Academics could design the curriculum of the accounting courses within the commerce programme that addresses programme learning objectives to align with graduate employability outcomes.

This study provides a foundation for improving the design and assessment of written communication activities in accounting courses to achieve employability skills outcomes commensurate with university accreditation criteria. This could be achieved with the development of a community of practice developed by the professional accounting bodies in collaboration with Australian universities.

The research is not wholly new, although the use of ePortfolios in accounting education is not widely reported and, therefore, may be of interest to those in advancing the accounting education agenda. In light of the recent call by Australian professional accounting bodies, ePortfolios can provide accounting graduates the non-technical or soft skills such as communication, interpersonal and critical thinking.

In the USA, as elsewhere, there is an ongoing need to improve quality in higher education. Quality improvement models from business have not been widely embraced, and many other approaches to accountability seem to induce minimal compliance. This paper aims to contend that learning communities represent a viable alternative in the quest for quality. By restructuring the curriculum and promoting creative collaboration, learning communities have become a major reform effort in US colleges.

The paper provides an overview of learning community theory and core practices and four original case studies of institutions that have made learning communities a long‐term focus of their quality improvement efforts.

Findings include: effective learning communities are clearly positioned, aimed at large arenas and issues and are central to the organization's mission; learner‐centered leadership is a key component of effective programs; learning communities offer a high leverage point for pursuing quality; effective learning communities meet faculty where they are; successful initiatives create new organizational structures, roles and processes; successful programs attract and reward competent people and build arenas for learning from one another; and successful programs have a living mission and a lived educational philosophy reaching constantly toward more effective practices.

Educators will draw rich lessons from this concise overview of learning community theory and practice and the story of these successful institutions.

While research on intergenerational service learning has focused on the benefits for the students, very few studies have focused on the older adults who are the recipients of the service learning. For the current study, we were interested in the benefits of service learning for both the college students and the older adults who participated in a service-learning course. Qualitative data were collected from both the students in a sociology of aging service-learning class and the older adults who participated as recipients of the service learning. Data from the students were collected via student journals and open-ended questionnaire responses written by the students. Data from the older adults were collected via interviews by the students as well as open-ended questionnaire responses written by the older adults. The following themes emerged as benefits to students: (1) a better understanding and less fear of aging; (2) a desire to learn more about older adults; (3) a desire to engage more with older adults. The themes for the benefits to the older adults included (1) improved social connections and companionship and (2) becoming family. We found that engaging in intergenerational service-learning courses is beneficial to all those who are involved.

This article aims to explore the implications of sending all undergraduate students abroad to study to assist international educators and their institutions whose goals are to increase student participation in study abroad.

This case examines the Carlson School of Management experience, including internationalization efforts that led to the historic faculty vote, motivations, interdepartmental collaboration, successes, challenges and evaluation strategy.

Findings include best practices and lessons learned, as well as preliminary learning outcomes.

The case illustrates an innovative practice for undergraduate business education abroad as an example of the full integration of study abroad into the business curriculum.