Chapter 5
Academic Programs

 

Current Assessment Efforts

The experience of General Education revision and the assessment work done in all the professionally accredited programs, plus the multiple assessment activities that are in place, indicate that SVSU has the capacity to reach the next level of assessment relatively soon; however, to develop a viable culture of assessment, it will be necessary to more effectively link programmatically defined goals for student learning with program assessment, revision, and resource allocation.

Because program planning primarily takes place at the college and department levels, some colleges have established planning committees which utilize a variety of assessment approaches and measures to inform their planning. Such planning and assessment information is maintained in the offices of the College Deans.

The College of Education has adopted Covey’s Principle-Centered Leadership and the Baldrige Model as the basis for developing a result-oriented strategic plan. It also has employed the National Policy Board for Educational Administration Standards to review its curriculum. Goals have been developed to assess unit operations within the college and reward those units that improve their performance. Individual departments within the college engage in their own planning and assessment efforts and have revised programs accordingly. Various internal and external benchmarks are employed by the college, including student evaluations, program and course portfolios, standardized tests, such as the Michigan Test for Teacher Certification, a Professional Performance Rubric for fieldwork evaluations, capstone courses with performance competencies, alumni surveys, and student focus groups.

The College of Business and Management has a strategic plan with goals and objectives and relevant assessment activities to meet the expectations of its professional accrediting agency. It evaluates foundation and core courses for Bachelor and Masters programs to ensure they are taught to an 85% level of consistency. Departments have adopted master syllabi indicating objectives and required topics of coverage, required activities, and course assessment and evaluation activities. Course portfolios document course consistency and orient new faculty to the program. Assessment surveys are administered regularly, and survey results are tabulated and used to guide program revision. Core course portfolios are reviewed every two years by an evaluator from outside the department and additional surveys are used to assess core courses. Other assessment measures include student evaluations and Teaching Assessment Committee reviews used to evaluate and improve instruction; alumni and supervisor surveys; and focus groups to measure long-term effects of the program.

The College of Nursing and Health Sciences has developed a mission, philosophy, and goals for its programs that are congruent with those of the university, reflect professional nursing standards and guidelines, and consider the needs and expectations of the community. A program review is undertaken each fall by undergraduate, RN to BSN, and Graduate Program Committees, and the Community Advisory Board. This review evaluates program mission; institutional commitment and resources; curriculum and teaching/learning processes; student performance; and faculty accomplishment. The review includes surveys, focus groups, review of external documents such as agency evaluations, agency contracts, licensure and certification rates (NCLEX), standardized tests, as well as review of faculty external publications, practicum evaluations, standardized testing (HESI), student program evaluations, and retention and graduation rates.

The College of Science, Engineering and Technology houses a variety of programs; thus assessment plans within the college vary widely. The engineering programs, accredited by ABET, have an extensive assessment plan with multiple measures, including surveys, capstone projects, and exit interviews. The Chemistry Department’s curriculum is approved by the Committee on Professional Training of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and meets that body’s standards. Programs in the other departments in the college — Biology, Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science —are subject to periodic program review, which includes assessment by outside evaluators. Since courses within these programs serve professional programs such as nursing and health sciences, engineering, business, and education, they must demonstrate their effectiveness within those curricula. Courses from these departments are also included in General Education and Basic Skills programs and are assessed through processes established for those programs. Assessment for department majors in non-accredited programs, however, has not yet been fully developed or implemented.

The College of Arts and Behavioral Sciences also provides a significant number of courses for Basic Skills, General Education, and accredited professional programs, which are subject to assessment. The college also administers and assesses the composition program through the English Department. English composition courses were revised in conjunction with the General Education revision, since they play a role in that program. The framework for composition courses has been standardized, course rubrics developed, and training seminars for instructors established. College courses in the General Education Program are also assessed in relationship to the appropriate category as well as the overall goals of the program.

Social Work is professionally accredited and assesses its program as required. Departments in the college are subject to formal ten-year program reviews. Assessment efforts vary among the college’s other departments and programs. Most departments have instituted some measures of program effectiveness. A number of departments have instituted capstone courses using student portfolios for assessment; others survey students, solicit evaluations from fieldwork supervisors, or administer some type of standardized test. However, reported assessment measures for ABS still focus on course assessment and individual student assessment rather than program assessment or college-wide assessment.

Resources for Assessment

In considering the multifaceted responsibilities for assessment confronting SVSU colleges and departments (General Education, program majors, professional accreditation, service to professional programs), time is one of the most critical elements needed to carry out this work adequately, although department budgets are stretched as well by costs for photocopying, record keeping, storage facilities, and data analysis.

The high cost of standardized testing exacerbates the resource issue, and administering standardized testing often means taking faculty and staff time away from other responsibilities. Lack of experience or well-established institutional infrastructure for such testing complicates the process further. Also, despite recent efforts, many faculty, staff, and administrators report the need for additional assessment training.

To effectively institute academic program assessment, it is essential that it be meaningful. SVSU, like other universities, has approached program assessment from the bottom up. This grassroots approach generates faculty involvement, up to a point. However, department-level activity alone does not guarantee programmatic change, since resource allocation generally occurs at upper administrative levels. Without demonstrable links between assessment activities and program improvement, faculty interest is difficult to maintain. Despite substantial increases in academic assessment activity at SVSU over the past several years, overall there is a need for improved alignment between departmental, college, and university mission and goals and more consistent integration of assessment data into planning processes at all levels.