Academic Program Review Research Articles

A 360 View to Academic Program Reviews

This paper presents key findings from a study conducted with several universities in the GCC region regarding their approach and use of e-Assessment within their learning environments. The study identifies key factors that could impact the use and quality of e-Assessment, and describe how those factors could influence forming a consistent and effective approach to employ a long-term e-Assessment approach. Data was collected from several higher education institutions in the GCC region, using an online survey, in-depth interviews with academic administrators, and direct observation. The study identifies six critical factors that may have a direct or indirect impact on forming a consistent and effective approach to employ a long-term e-Assessment approach. Moreover, the study reveals a strong correlation between e-Assessment quality, and the centralization of e-Assessment strategy, e-Assessment administration, and e-Assessment Technology. Received: 3 March 2024 / Accepted: 29 June 2024 / Published: 02 July 2024

Analysis of Academic Program Review from U.S. Higher Education Institutions: Implementation and Implications for Vietnamese HEIs

Analysis of Academic Program Review from U.S. Higher Education Institutions: Implementation and Implications for Vietnamese HEIs

Academic Accreditation and Certification in Criminology and Criminal Justice Education: From Ricochets to Reckonings

For over a decade, the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) was the official source of criminology and criminal justice (CCJ) academic program review before its “certification” program was discontinued in 2018. Several certification standards and indicators have been modified, addressing concerns raised with earlier iterations of the ACJS Quality Standards. The pressing need for a revisit has become evident due to challenges such as the emergence of proprietary schools as well as institutional financial pressures resulting in continued under-resourcing of CCJ programs. This article delves into previous initiatives focused on the pursuance of accreditation and certification, highlighting critical milestones and contextual influences that have propelled these mechanisms to the forefront of CCJ education. We also explore the aspirations and future directions for program review, with a particular focus on program integrity, curriculum relevance, and the evolving needs of students and the criminal justice system.

Pharmacy Exit Exam for the Upliftment of Profession of Pharmacy Practice in India: A Review

The goal of implementing exit exams for Diploma in Pharmacy (D. Pharm holder) is to encourage students to put effort into their learning. Considering the growth of the healthcare sector in India, pharmacists have a lot of career opportunities if they can cope with the ever-increasing demand for innovation, research, skills, knowledge and talent required in the profession. The pharmacy profession is moving dynamically as we are heading towards becoming the pharmacy of the world. Exit exams can be a good quality indicator for academic program reviews and for educational institutes teaching standards. The compulsion of the exit exam will set into place new standards intended to increase the learning of all students. Such exams result in positive effects on student achievement. Exit exams will surely upgrade the pharmacy profession in India.

Quality Standards for Criminal Justice Education: The Long and Winding Road

Higher education in criminology and criminal justice has evolved over the last 100 years in fits and starts. The road was long, and it took many turns, reflecting not only the need for training and professionalism among criminal justice practitioners, but for the development of a new academic field of study at colleges and universities. This article traces the history of the quest for academic standards in higher education, specifically the role of ACJS in this endeavor. Both authors have contributed to ACJS’s efforts over the years and were involved in the two most recent iterations of ACJS Academic Program Review: Certification and Program Endorsement. We chronicle the rise and fall of certification and the recent effort to create an endorsement program that seeks to balance the need for quality control while providing the desired flexibility for individual programs.

Forming an academic program review learning community: description of a conceptual model

PurposeHigher education institutions are required to evaluate program quality through cyclical program review processes. Despite often being considered the “gold standard” of academic review, there persists dissatisfaction with the lack of integration of program review findings into other planning processes, such as budgeting, assessment and strategic planning. As a result, the notion of program review action plans “collecting dust on the shelf” is so ubiquitous that the concept is normalized as an expected outcome. The purpose of this paper is to describe a conceptual model whereby teams of faculty members receive education and training from quality assurance practitioners and educational developers, access to institutional resources, opportunities for cross-departmental collaborations and collective advocacy to increase the capacity of faculty members to implement improvement goals resulting from program reviews.Design/methodology/approachThe authors theorize that a professional learning community is a meaningful approach to program review and present a conceptual model – the Academic Program Review Learning Community (PRLC) – as an antidote to hierarchical, fragmented, compliance-oriented processes. The authors suggest that the PRLC offers a reliable institutional framework for learning through formalized structures and nested support services, including peer learning and external coaching, which can enhance the catalytic capacity of reviews.FindingsThe authors argue that postsecondary institutions should create formal structures for incorporating learning communities because, without a reliable infrastructure for collective learning, decision-making may be fragmented oridiosyncratic because of shifting demands, priorities or disconnected faculty.Originality/valueA learning community model for program review fits well with a new way to think about program review because faculty are most engaged when they feel ownership over the process. Furthermore, few models exist for conducting program review; as a result, chairs and academics often struggle to conduct reviews without a coherent framework to draw upon.

Establishing Rigor and Quality in Doctoral Programs Through Program Assessment

This essay describes the development and implementation of a CPED-grounded program assessment system and the ways in which it contributes to quality assurance in Ed.D. programs broadly. We begin by articulating program quality and describing the contextual factors that guide our approach to program assessment. Next, we overview major components and processes of our program assessment system. Specific emphasis is placed on describing the development and evaluation of program effectiveness based on CPED-influenced student learning outcomes. We then briefly describe how we leverage an existing learning management system to implement program assessment efficiently, and outline continuous monitoring and improvement efforts that are based on our program assessment work. Finally, we describe our experiences with academic program review and discuss lessons learned and suggestions to promote program rigor and success.

Meditations from a Black Woman Chair: Social Justice Values and a New Normal in Academic Administration

Meditations from a Black Woman Chair: Social Justice Values and a New Normal in Academic Administration

Agility and Assessment in the Age of COVID‐19: How Fast Can a Community College Dance?

Agility and Assessment in the Age of COVID‐19: How Fast Can a Community College Dance?

Doing Assessment Well: Advances for Undergraduate Psychology Programs and Psychology Educators

This article discusses how assessment tools can be used to improve student learning in undergraduate bachelors (BA/BS) in psychology programs. The article first reviews particular advantages associated with using curricular and cocurricular maps for performing systematic program assessment. After identifying various assessment tools created by the American Psychological Association, we discuss some essential arenas for program assessment in psychology, including curricular structure and related issues, introductory psychology, capstone courses, internships, research experiences and honors projects, graduate placement data, and routine academic program reviews. We close the article by offering assessment tips for program administrators.

Incorporating Community Engagement into Asian American Studies Curriculum Reform

This article examines the assessment of the UCLA Asian American studies program and resulting curriculum reform that was put into effect as of Fall 2013. The essay will discuss the context leading up to the 2013 curriculum reform, including the 2011 UCLA Asian American Studies Curriculum Assessment Project, the departmental curriculum restructure process, the most recent Academic Senate program review, and initial response to the community engagement courses. This serves as a case study of curriculum reform that successfully addressed the needs of the students, met Academic Senate requirements, and returned the department to the original principle of service through community engagement and partnerships.

Not Too Small to be Strategic: The State of Academic Program Review Guidelines and Instrumentation in Public Institutions

In higher educational settings, the academic program review process allows academic units to solicit feedback, make data-driven decisions regarding effectiveness and sustainability, and report to stakeholders. In order to discover trends and best practices in the current state of academic program review in higher education, examined was a sample of 53 processes representing a range of small-to-large public institutions in the United States in the categories of associate-degree granting, bachelors-degree granting, and masters-degree granting. Using a content analysis methodology, outcomes assessment and the use of data results featured prominently with 86.7% of the sample requiring their incorporation in academic program review, followed closely by judgments of resource adequacy and demonstration of program necessity and efficiency.

Investigating the participation of business librarians in academic program reviews using corpus-based methods

Prior research into the role of business librarians in academic program reviews has relied on surveys and interviews, revealing that librarians perceive that they are marginalized in the review process. Using a collection of program review documentation produced for the reviews of nine graduate programs offered at a Canadian business school, this study employs corpus-based techniques to obtain direct measures of librarian involvement. The findings provide objective confirmation that business librarians are not well integrated into program reviews overall, and that their contribution to the reviews of professional programs is even more limited than their contribution to the reviews of research-oriented programs. Based on best practices and missed opportunities observed as part of this study, seven strategies are suggested for integrating business librarians more fully in the program review process for the benefit of all program stakeholders.

Perceptions and Unmet Expectations of Undergraduate Students on the Role of Counselling in Academic Achievement: Implication for Academic Development Program Review

This study aimed at evaluating the perceptions of students about the role of counselling and unmet expectation ofundergraduate students. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The participants (N=150) recruited from firstand second year students of Institute of Education in the University. Over 81% of students are aware of counsellingservices and affirm the relevance to academic achievement. However, 69% cannot affirm provision of roadshows toenhance awareness. The proportion of students disagreeing on provision of roadshows to enhance awareness mayimply non-utilization of available academic development program and unmet counselling needs that calls for areview.

Language and Quality Assurance: A Case Study Highlighting the Effects of Power, Resistance, and Countertactics in Academic Program Reviews

Quality assurance has been recognized as being important in higher education; however, there are numerous reports that it is challenging to engage faculty members in quality assurance processes in a meaningful way. A frequently cited reason for faculty members’ resistance is that they find the process to be authoritarian and non-collegial. This paper presents a case study which shows that changing the tone of the language used to communicate with academics about the institutional quality assurance process—from a bureaucratic and authoritative tone to a more collegial one—can serve as a countertactic to help mitigate the resistance of faculty members to this process. Using corpus-based techniques, we investigate the language used in documents to communicate with faculty members about quality assurance. We then demonstrate that, following a linguistic revision to introduce a more collegial tone to these communications, faculty members appear to be more willing to engage in the quality assurance process in a meaningful way.

The All-Administrative Campus: University of British Columbia, Okanagan

The focus of the paper is on internal governance and management at UBCO as it has evolved since 2005, in particular with respect to traditions of shared academic governance in university management. The paper is informed by the analysis of Ginsberg (2011), and is divided into four sections. The first discusses the insights of Ginsberg and how they can be applied in this case. The second discusses general issues of consultation, communication and commitment to shared academic governance by the senior administrators of the new campus. Third, budgetary management, accountability and transparency is discussed. Finally, strategic academic planning is analyzed, along with academic program review and performance. The paper ends with some concluding comments. To anticipate the results of the analysis, the paper tends to confirm the words attributed to Professor Henry Rosovsky, economic historian and past Acting President of Harvard University, that the quality of a university campus is likely “negatively correlated with the unrestrained power of administrators” (Ginsberg, 2011, p. 3). On this slope of correlation, UBCO is not an outlier.

Education in Nuclear Deterrence and Assurance

This study elaborates on actions taken by the United States air force towards the goal of increasing critical thinking of members of the nuclear enterprise about nuclear deterrence and assurance. Critical thinking is best sought via education, as opposed to training and accordingly member of the nuclear enterprise has several new options for part-time distance learning education supported by the air force together with military and civilian academia. Especially since the air force had just begun sponsoring members, these students could be considered “beta-test” cases, and the air force has initiated a rigorous academic program review to solicit student feedback in addition to professional feedback from the student’s organizations (to ascertain if the education is improving critical thinking at work).

Report of the 2014-2016 AACP Research and Graduate Affairs Committee

INTRODUCTION The Research and Graduate Affairs Committee (RGAC) was charged in 2014-2015 with an important and timely charge from President Patricia Chase. The members of the RGAC were assigned to develop a report recommending a competency-based yet practical model of graduate education and post-graduate education (including postdoctoral training both basic and clinical) applicable to the diversity of programs offered by the colleges and schools of pharmacy. Examination of accessibility, affordability and accountability of graduate and research education has been addressed by this talented and committed group of dedicated committee members. Under the leadership of Natalie Eddington (Chair), the RGAC received an extended appointment and all members agreed to continue their service. This group was charged by President Cynthia Boyle to complete the original charges, advise the new chief science officer (Joan Lakoski), participate in AACP strategic planning to develop future goals for research and graduate education, and provide evaluation and feedback on the newly formed Academic Research Fellows Program (review of the initial two cohorts; 2013-2014 and 2014-2015). The RGAC met twice in person and by conference calls throughout the duration of the appointment. BAKCGROUND: GRADUATE EDUCATION IN ACADEMIC PHARMACY Review and discussion of competency-based models of graduate education began in the fall of 2014 and has continued throughout the second year of the RGAC activities. Following an intense yet productive discussion at the November 2015 committee meeting, the decision was made to collect additional information on the current issues facing graduate education in the colleges and schools of pharmacy via two formats, including (1) focus group discussions and (2) a customized survey to the colleges and schools of pharmacy. Both the focus groups and survey were conducted to address the gaps in current knowledge of the status of graduate education, including postdoctoral training, in the academic pharmacy community; any duplication of information from existing AACP surveys was carefully avoided. Overall, the goal of this data collection effort was to provide the most current snapshot possible of the graduate education in the colleges and schools of pharmacy to inform the work of the RGAC and the pharmacy schools engaged in training the next generation of researchers. Graduate Education Focus Group Discussions The focus groups were held during the AACP Interim Meeting in February 2016 (Tampa, FL). Due to the substantial interest in this topic, three separate focus groups were held with the same series of questions presented to each group (see Appendix 1 for AACP 2016 Research and Graduate Affairs Focus Group Questions). A total of 36 individuals participated in three focus group discussions and representing 36 colleges and schools of pharmacy. The focus group questions were designed to provide a qualitative picture of the opportunities and challenges facing the participants, most of whom had responsibilities for oversight and stewardship of graduate (predoctoral) and postdoctoral education that span training for research in basic, clinical and translational settings. The RGAC is most grateful to the individuals who took time to participate in a focus group as these discussions were most helpful in providing important illustrations of the challenges facing each of the participants. Graduate and Postdoctoral Education Survey The RGAC also developed a series of questions to gain quantitative data on the current status of graduate and postdoctoral education and training; all colleges and schools of pharmacy were invited to participate in this web-based survey conducted in March 2016. The survey questions were carefully developed by the RGAC on the themes of accessibility, affordability and accountability (see Appendix 2 for AACP 2016 Research and Graduate Affairs Survey Questions). …

Retraction Note to: “Global Assessment in the World Bank Education Strategy 2020”

This article published in Volume 2, Issue 1, pages 29-41 (DOI 10.5195/ehe.2011.41) has been retracted at the request of the editors. The editors became aware of the issue on 21 March 2016 and quickly began investigating the situation. Several locations in the article contain plagiarized texts from various authors, either with inadequate or no attribution. Specifically, these include: excerpts from Marilee J. Bresciani’s 2006 book Outcomes-Based Academic and Co-Curricular Program Review: A Compilation of Institutional Practices appearing on page 30; excerpts from Tom Schuller and Stéphan Vincent-Lancrin’s chapter in the 2009 book International Organizations and Higher Education Policy: Thinking Globally, Acting Locally? appearing on page 31; excerpts from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) website “UNESCO, OECD guidelines for quality provision in cross-border higher education” appearing on page 31; excerpts from David H. Kamens and Connie L. McNeely’s 2010 article, “Globalization and the Growth of International Education Testing and National Assessment” published in the Comparative Education Review appearing on page 31, and; excerpts from E. J. K. McKellar’s conference paper “Change our assessment practices? Why should we? The theory behind assessment practices” appearing on pages 32-33. The author apologizes to the journal and to its readers for the errors noted above.

Business librarians and new academic program review

ABSTRACTThe article aims to examine the role business librarians play in the new academic program proposal process on university and college campuses. Results of a nationwide online survey showed that current practices in this critical area varied. Although more than 60% of the respondents thought that librarians should play a part in the proposal process, more than 65% of them indicated that they were never involved. Among those that participated, the levels and outcomes also differed greatly. The authors held in-depth interviews with survey participants reporting higher-than-average involvement to find out about their strategies for success.