The Academic Program Review (APR) is a periodic assessment intended to provide departments and programs with an opportunity to review and reflect on the totality of their work over the course of the last four academic years. It is also a time for the department, as a group, to identify their strengths and challenges and to begin to plan the future direction of the department and implement any necessary changes. While the APR is a time for the department to reflect on its own work, activities, and future aspirations, the APR is also an opportunity for a department to recognize the ways in which it moves forward in concert with the overall mission, goals, and objectives of the college. This process for APR has recently been redesigned and reintroduced since its update in spring 2021.
Academic Program Review (APR) Process
Context
The APR process is undertaken by each academic department every five years. It focuses on the assessment of results and learnings from the department’s annual activities as well as assessing the culmination of the assessment of identified program learning outcome (PLOs), aligned to institutional learning outcome (ILOs), for each degree program housed in the department over the past four years. This annual information is recorded in the annual planning and assessment report template (A-PART) for each year.
Process / Timeline
The actual APR is fully supported by the Degree Program Assessment Committee and takes three semesters to complete, providing time for data collection, reporting, and external review.
Semester 1 - The first semester focuses on the degree programs housed in the department, utilizing Section 2 of the annual A-PARTs to review assessment of PLOs across the prior four years.
Semester 2 - The second semester expands the review to the departmental activities, utilizing Section 1 of the annual A-PARTs to provide a longitudinal view of the activities implemented by the departments to support all of their departmental goals.
Semester 3 - The third and final semester is when an external reviewer is invited to reflect on the self-study provided by the department and offer recommendations for improvement that will be considered and included in the subsequent A-PART as an action plan to continually improve as a department.
Support for APR Process
Throughout the APR Process, departments undergoing the process will be support by several entities through the three semester that they're engaged. Below is a summary of some of the ways each entity may support academic departments throughout the process:
Office of Institutional Effectiveness, Research, and Assessment (OIERA)
- Develop and communicate resources to support the APR process
- Provide training and support to department chairs, program directors, and faculty undergoing APR
- Provide data guidance and support, as needed
Degree Program Assessment Committee (DPAC)
- Provide APR consultation to academic departments as needed
- Centralize resources for department chairs to access from prior years
- Collaborate with OIERA in offering APR workshops and resources
- Collectively problem solve any barriers to the process and develop solutions to improve the process for academic departments
APR Process Cohort
- Collectively brainstorm solutions to any potential roadblocks in the APR process
- Share drafts, examples, and ideas with each other to help each other strengthen their APR process
- Act as an additional resource to call upon and share challenges and successes with each other, thereby creating community