Reimagining academic program review

David Houghton

Chair, School of Business, Oklahoma Baptist University

The views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of EAB.

At OBU, academic program review was frequently a path to nowhere. Academic units were on a five-year cycle, could choose from multiple data sources to assess their programs, and almost always concluded their reports with a call for more resources whether the program was growing or struggling.

The five-year cycle was not responsive to competitive forces. Because only a few programs were assessed each year, it was difficult to compare programs in a comprehensive portfolio analysis. Allowing programs to choose from a wide variety of metrics created a fruit basket of data that made meaningful comparisons impossible. This led us to reimagine our academic program review process.

Relying heavily on two reports from EAB, Academic Vital Signs: Aligning Departmental Evaluation with Institutional Priorities and Rightsizing the Program Portfolio: Executive Imperatives for Balancing, Revitalization and Discontinuance, a task force is developing a common dashboard that will be used across all programs at the university. All academic programs will be assessed annually through the common dashboard. This will allow for a comprehensive portfolio analysis with meaningful comparisons that are linked to the university’s strategic plan.

The new dashboard will use S.M.A.R.T. goals that will focus on student learning outcome assessment, student success, and the program’s financial contribution to the university. In measuring student success, factors such as sophomore graduation rates, DFW data, major migration, and job placement rates will be reviewed. A program’s financial contribution is complex, but we anticipate reporting student credit hour production for full-time and part-time faculty.

In addition to the annual dashboard, programs will conduct a S.W.O.T. analysis every three years. The S.W.O.T. will consider regional trends that are likely to affect program enrollment. The program’s response to the S.W.O.T. will be part of the annual narrative as program leaders provide formal reflection on the annual dashboard report.

Because all program chairs will be able to see the dashboard data for all university academic programs, it is hoped that the transparency will lead to more timely and effective decisions that will support the university’s strategic plan.