Preparing for Phase Three: Program Review

1. Preparing for Phase Three: Program Review Making a Difference that Matters

2. Our Self-Study Process:What Are We Doing and How Well Are We Doing It? Ultimate Goal Design and Implement an Assessment Plan for Your Program Assessment is the systematic collection and analysis of information to improve student learning. Current Challenge new to the discipline of assessment Many units on campus do not yet have the language or tools for developing and sustaining a culture of assessment.

3. An Program-Assessment Plan Requires the Building of a Foundation Many instructional and non-instructional programs have been having difficulties conceptualizing productive and meaningful approaches for accomplishing Phase Three. PHASE THREE TASKS • be fully prepared to engage in a program reviewusing data inventoried in PHASE TWO • charged to move fromdata inventory and organization • analyze and make judgmentsbased on data • communicate results through writing

4. PHASE THREEEight Narrative Components: A Tough Task SELF-ASSESSMENT OF PROGRAM BASICS Premise: “IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTICS OF WOU PROGRAMS—How Do You Measure? What Do You DO with This Information?” • quality • bachelor's degrees/master's degrees • value/competitive edge • role/responsibilities • goals • resources/costs • evaluation • strengths

5. Springboard for Assessing Most Facets:Your Program’s Degrees Assessing Your Degree Program (directives from original document) • How do your program objectives benefit the department, university, and region? • What are the standards by which you measure your success in achieving program objectives and student-learning outcomes? • To what degree have you met program objectives and student-learning outcomes? • What steps have you taken to comply with state-mandated accountability measures & to measure effects on student-learning outcomes? • How do the careers your graduates are pursuing affect departmental planning, with regard to program objectives and student-learning outcomes? PROGRAM OBJECTIVES STUDENT-LEARNING OUTCOMES

6. S T A G E O N E STAGE TWO 1 Program Mission & Objectives 2 Student-Learning Outcomes 3 Template & Starter Archive Program Review We've Broken Phase Three into Two Stages Assessment 101 Three-Step Process Assessment Capstone Program Review Three-Step Process Provides You With A Foundation • Program Review • Creating an Assessment Plan P H A S E T H R E E

7. STEP ONE: PROGRAM MISSION What is the educational goal or mission of your program? A foundation begins with faculty understanding and agreement regarding your program’s values and mission. • prepare students for specific kinds of professional employment • prepare students for graduate or professional school • provide students with discipline mastery The faculty discussion is as important as the mission statement it produces. All department faculty need to agree, in principle, on your program’s mission in order to offer a congruent curriculum and to proceed with developing your assessment plan.

8. Developing YourMission Statement & Program Objectives • Retrieve and review your on-file program forms (i.e., "Request for New Major/Minor Program Change" and "Permanent Course Change/Approval") from the Office of the Provost. • Review Western Oregon University’s mission statement, Institutional Learning Aspirations (ILA), and the mission of your college. • Collect & review instructional materials: syllabi, course outlines, assignments, and tests. • Collect & review documents that describe your department and its programs. • Distribute copies of the information gathered (1-4), along with the Program Objectives Worksheet, to your colleagues. • Faculty Meeting: facilitate open discussions with the department on one or more of the following (or similar) topics, utilizing completed Objectives Definition Worksheets: One Example: Describe the ideal student in your program in snapshots: consider various phases (e.g., when they begin their upper-division work, enroll in the senior capstone class, and graduate). What does this student know? What can this student do? What does this student care about?

9. Developing YourMission Statement & Program Objectivescontinued • Create a working draft of your mission and program objectives. • Use the 25 percent problem to refine or reduce a set of objective statements. • Affirm, rewrite, or create your program's mission statement and program objectives. • Post the statement on your program’s Web site. • Submit your program’s mission statement and Web site address to Dr. Jensen: specify whether the product is your program's existing mission statement, a revision of the statement, or a new statement.

10. Step One: Attached Guide Objectives Definitions Worksheet for Faculty

11. STEP TWO: STUDENT-LEARNING OUTCOMES What do you want majors to know and be able to? Student-Learning Outcomes statements are of the utmost importance as they form the foundation on which the rest of the program's assessment plan is built. • show what students actually demonstrate they know and do • focus on their knowledge, attitude, beliefs, and skills A program must have clear and measurable statements of the learning outcomes expected of its majors. • focuses on how well students demonstrate what they have learned as they are completing their work in the major • tells you how well your students and, thus, program are doing Because student learning/performance is assessed relative to expected outcomes, they form the foundation (i.e., they serve as the key feature) of a program-level Assessment Plan and should be carefully considered by program faculty.

12. Developing Your Student-Learning Outcomescontinued • Look at Student-Learning Outcomes statements from similar programs at other institutions. • Distribute the Student-Learning Outcomes Worksheet to faculty, and have them complete the worksheet prior to the discussion. • Faculty Discussion: consider the following questions, which focus on outcomes in slightly different ways (see Student-Learning Outcomes: A Quick Guide): • For each of your stated program goals, what are the specific student behaviors, skills, or abilities that would tell you this goal is being achieved? • Ideally and briefly, what would a skeptic need (evidence, behavior, etc.) in order to see that your students are achieving the major goals you have set out for them? • In your experience, what evidence tells you when students have met these goals and how do you know when they're "getting" it? • Develop student learning outcomes statements for each of your Program Objectives (see Characteristics of Student Learning Outcomes). The outcomes listed should be the most significant, incorporating a synthesis of knowledge and skills developed throughout the curriculum. • Write a draft of the Student-Learning Outcomes statements (see Tips for Writing Student-Learning Outcomes). • As a group, prioritize 3-5 student-learning outcomes statements for your program: these will be your foci for eventually developing student-performance indicators. • Submit your faculty-approved Student-Learning Outcomes statements to Dr. Jensen, and specify whether the products are your program's existing outcomes statements, a revision of the statements, or new statements.

13. Step Two: Attached Guides • Student-Learning Outcomes: A Quick Guide • Characteristics of Student-Learning Outcomes • Tips for Writing Student-Learning Outcomes

14. STEP THREE: TEMPLATE AND STARTER ARCHIVE Who are you? What are you doing? Where are you going? • Write your small-scale program review (see attached for Template), utilizing the mission and outcomes developed in Steps One and Two.

15. Template for Instructional Programs • Program Mission (which includes Program Objectives) • Program Description • Role within the University, Role in LACC, & Relationship to Other Programs • Students Description • Number of Majors, Minors, and Graduates by Academic Year • Student-Learning Outcomes (which directly address each Program Objective) • Student Progress and Outcomes Assessment: Formative and Summative • Post-Baccalaureate Impact/Assessment(information from exit, alumni, & WOU Foundation surveys--e.g., number of students employed, surveys of employees through employers, contributions of graduates to local communities & fields of expertise, number of graduates entering graduate programs, recent awards & honors of former graduates, etc.) • Faculty and Staff • Facilities • Technology • Resources/Costs • Changes Since 1997 Report • Three Primary Strengths *Note: provide evidence to support claims/include documents in supplemental materials section. • Strengths: Action Plan for Maintenance • Three Primary Challenges *Note: must be “realistic and specific, rather than vague and discursive” (NWCCU). • Challenges: Action Plan for Initiating Change • Projections & Vision for the Future • List of Supplemental Materials

16. STEP THREE: TEMPLATE AND STARTER ARCHIVE Who are you? What are you doing? Where are you going? • Write your small-scale program review (see attached for Template), utilizing the mission and outcomes developed in Steps One and Two. • If there is a section for which you do not have information, please utilize the space to describe a plan and deadline for obtaining the information. • Cite evidence to support claims. • List and link PDF files of evidence. • In the List of Supplemental Materials section, list the names of all documents which serve as evidence to support claims. • Scan the original documents into separate PDF files, utilizing the listed names as the file names. • Create links from each item to its PDF file. • House all files, including this template, in one file folder that is named "your unit" (e.g., Natural Sciences Division, Humanities Division, Music Department, Anthropology Department, etc.). • Review template draft with colleagues and revise. • Electronically submit your unit's file folder to Dr. Jensen. • Electronically distribute the folder to department colleagues: this file will serve as the starting point for discussing, collaboratively writing, and reviewing the Program Review (Phase Three: Stage Two) document for your unit.

17. What’s Next? • how to create learning indicators • how to determine program challenges and action plan for initiating change • how to create a program assessment plan • how to implement the plan

18. Internal and External Perception • all units possess a foundation for developing a long-term assessment plan • all units are aligned with the missions of the university and their colleges • those units who do not yet engage in on-going and directed assessment for program improvement are preparing the way for a program-assessment plan and implementation sowing seeds for program-level learning assessment = program improvement

19. Looking Forward: Benefits of Assessmentfrom a faculty perspective • design instruction to target several facets: the knowledge and skill levels students should have upon finishing a course the levels of thinking or reasoning appropriate for the course • rely less on the comments that appear on student evaluations as indicators of success in teaching • engage in more productive conversations: the status of student achievement make informed decisions with regard to on-going improvements • make reliable decisions: innovations or experimental projects in instruction share successes more easily • enjoy greater satisfaction as educators • identify directions for future instructional development • become the primary decision makers: setting learning goals identifying processes for assessing goals determining whether they have been reached recommending future directions

20. Three-Step Process due by 24 March.