Continuous Improvement Through the Development and Use of a Content Exam in a Sino-American Dual Degree Business Program

Of the many contexts in which the assessment of student learning proves challenging, one of the most vexing is the cross-border dual degree program. This paper examines the efforts of one U.S. business school to build continuous improvement and assurance of learning processes into its dual degree Bachelor of Business Administration program shared with a partner university in the People’s Republic of China. A testing instrument was developed in-house by the faculty of the U.S. partner and administered to students in China, with some students taking an English-language version and others taking a Mandarin version. The authors compare the performance of the two sets of students and consider why comparable learning appears to have been elusive, particularly with respect to language barriers. The authors reflect on the implications for assurance of learning in the context of cross-border dual degree programs, particularly in light of the most crucial contextual factors that must inform the design and enhancement of such programs.