Page 11 - ADU Smart Learning Center Issue 1

11

ADU

Assessment Strategy

Interview with Prof. Barry O’Mahony, Dean, College of Business, chair of the ADU Assessment
Strategy Committee

Professor Barry O’Mahony’s most recently served as Chief Academic Officer at
Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne in Switzerland. Before this, he was Dean of the Faculty
of Business at the University of Wollongong in Dubai and has held leadership and
faculty positions at Swinburne University of Technology and Victoria University in
Melbourne, Australia.
His extensive experience of teaching undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral,
and executive education programs in Australia, Europe, Hong Kong, the United
States and across the Middle East, is supported by his proven expertise in
academic governance, research and program development, accreditation, and
the scholarship of teaching and learning. He has a demonstrable commitment to
industry and community engagement and a passion for delivering an outstanding
student experience.

Can you provide an overview of the ADU Assessment Strategy, its key objectives, and the foundational
principles guiding its implementation?

Well, the purpose of any strategy is to provide a plan to support employees within the organization to achieve
the organization’s goals. The primary purpose of our assessment strategy here at Abu Dhabi University is to
enhance the fair, equitable, and systematic process we currently use to evaluate students’ knowledge based
on our program and course learning outcomes. Our objective in the development of this, more comprehensive
strategy, is to focus on supporting faculty by providing them with best practice strategies, guidance, and
recommendations to design and develop assessments that facilitate the types of learning that support the
vision and mission of our university.

How does the ADU Assessment Strategy align with ADU’s broader mission and goals, ensuring it contributes
to the institution’s overarching vision?

The ADU vision is to “… be a leading university in the MENA region, providing graduates with the knowledge,
skills, and mindset to become leaders of tomorrow, and engaging in research and innovation that makes a
difference to society”. Implicit in this vision is the need to ensure that, through our assessment practices, our
students have gained the knowledge and skills embedded in our curricula so that we deliver on the vision we
have developed for them. On the one hand, assessment provides us with evidence that allows us to validate
their achievements. From a theoretical perspective, this form of assessment supports outcomes-based learning.
However, assessment can also be used to extend, rather than simply test, learning by providing opportunities
for students to engage in practical research projects. This type of assessment provides opportunities to enhance
and reinforce learning through reflection, analysis, and synthesis, which are the higher-order skills of Bloom’s
taxonomy. I believe that a balance of both assessment types is needed to achieve the ADU vision. However,
each form of assessment requires different approaches to design and development and the ADU Assessment
Strategy will be supported by targeted professional development to assist faculty to achieve this balance.

Could you share specific examples of assessment methods or tools suggested within the strategy to
effectively measure student learning outcomes?

One example would be the case teaching method made famous by Harvard Business School which has been
adopted at business schools around the world, including here at Abu Dhabi University. The method was
developed specifically to provide students with opportunities to reflect on how classroom theory can be used

Abu Dhabi University | SMART Learning Center Newsletter Issue 1