Five-Year Review Guidelines: Academic

5-year Review Self-Study Format - Academic

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The self-study represents a current snapshot of a department or unit, as well as a roadmap for where it has been and where it plans to go. Self-study documents should be written so that they are sufficiently comprehensive for an external expert in the field, as well as accessible to the internal team who is comprised of members outside the field. Putting together this document should involve all members of a department and not be done at the last minute. Ideally a department will start constructing their self-study the semester before the 5-year review and use the time to construct a well-organized and fully developed document.

Described below are the required core criteria for the self-study of an academic unit or department. Each department/unit is free to adjust the organization based on what flows best for them, but please be sure to address each area for a complete and cohesive review. The final document should be clear, reflective, and concise. It is recommended to use headings, page numbers, and appendices where needed, and also include a table of contents, so your reviewers can easily locate sections of the report. Reports should be a maximum of 25-30 pages, excluding appendices.

1. Executive Summary
   1. Provide a brief summary of the full self-study (1-2 pages) including the current strategic direction of the department/unit, any significant changes since the last 5-year review, and summarized plans for the future

1. Department Profile
   1. Provide a brief overview of the department’s history over the past 5 years
   2. List the department’s structure, faculty, staff, and facilities
   3. Discuss any interdisciplinary relationships within your Unit/department
   4. Discuss anything that makes your department/Unit unique from other departments/Units

• Response to Previous Program Review
  1. This section should briefly address the Unit Response to the last five-year review and the action steps taken over the past five years. The purpose of including this section is to address any outstanding issues and acknowledge the work completed since the prior review and its impact on the unit/department
     1. For some departments, this may be best incorporated into the above department profile as you discuss the history of the department and any significant changes over the past five years
     2. For other departments it may be useful to write a brief paragraph here and create a table detailing the recommendations, the status of those recommendations, and the impact of those incorporated changes and include that table in the appendices

1. Strategic Direction
   1. Detail how the mission of the department helps to support UMSL’s mission and current strategic plan
      1. How are faculty planning the program’s strategic goals for the next five years and ways to meet them? What metrics are used and how will those goals be assessed annually?
   2. Assess the quality of the program by identifying peer and aspirant peer programs. Describe what distinguishes this department/unit from its peers nationally.
      1. Things to consider: How do the department’s research, creative works, and scholarship compare to peer programs? How does the department gauge performance? Does the department map the field’s current and future priorities relative to its mission, and if so how?
   3. Describe how you expect the field to change nationally over the next five years.
      1. Given constant resources, what are the strategic plans to enhance the quality and stature of the department for the future?
      2. What is the financial outlook for the department over the next five years?

• If there was an opportunity for increased funding how would that be used and what would the anticipated outcomes be from that investment?

1. Teaching and Learning

Degree Program Assessment

1. List all degrees, certificate programs, and accreditations (if applicable) as well as all program-level outcomes for each degree and program (include CAP curriculum maps as appendices).
   1. Relate the learning goals of the educational program to the underlying structure of the curriculum and the rationale for requirements for majors, minors, and graduates.
   2. Discuss any major changes to the degrees over the past 5 years.

• For any general education courses discuss how they contribute to the overall learning goals within the department and as Gen Ed courses. How is this assessed at a department-level?

1. Discuss how program quality and learning goals are consistent across all modes of delivery and instructors.
2. Provide evidence of student learning through assessments
   1. What expectations are there for assessing student learning in courses? How is this tracked?
3. How have your assessment efforts resulted in programmatic changes?
   1. Please discuss any changes made based on assessment separately for your undergraduate and graduate programs. Please include specific examples.
   2. Provide CAP assessment plan and provide evidence to support the plan. Have any adjustments been made to the plan since it was created? How has the assessment plan addressed success/fail rates within your courses?
4. Describe any action plan and goals (if applicable)—at the undergraduate and graduate level—for gender, racial, and ethnic diversity (both for faculty and students), and how you monitor and assess your progress in this area. Include any tables/charts as appendices.
5. Provide a table and/or chart (See Sample Tables 1 & 2 below) showing enrollment history and number of graduates, degree program(s) and degrees awarded. Include a breakdown of gender and ethnic background (can be provided as appendices). Explain the findings.

Student Success

1. Describe the department’s approach to undergraduate and graduate advising.
   1. How do you assess the effectiveness of advising? What changes to advising have been made since your last review?
   2. What strategies do you use to recruit and retain undergraduate and graduate students, including how you handle courses or programs with large dropout rates?
2. How does your department assess job readiness for your graduates? What adjustments have been made to this over the past five years?
3. How do you measure the success of transfer students versus first-time campus students in your program? What adjustments have been made based on your findings?
4. How do you collect and analyze information on student retention and degree completion? How is that information used to make improvements?
5. How has the department been tracking average credit hours upon graduation and what efforts are being made to bring those hours down?
6. Describe the support mechanisms you have in place to facilitate and promote the academic success and retention of students who may be struggling.

Teaching Effectiveness

1. Describe how teaching responsibilities are assigned. At each course-level (e.g. intro-level undergraduate, upper-division undergraduate, and graduate), what percent of courses are taught by: tenure-track faculty, tenured faculty, non-tenure track faculty, and other academic titles?
2. How are graduate teaching assistants trained, supported, assigned and evaluated?
3. Describe how your department/unit analyzes the quality of teaching and teaching effectiveness.
   1. How do departmental leaders assure themselves and others that the designs for curricula, teaching and learning methods, and student assessments are being implemented as intended?
   2. How do you assure that other priorities don’t push teaching and learning to the sidelines?

• How do faculty evaluate their teaching effectiveness?
  1. How is this used for course design?

1. Describe how you support educational innovations within and beyond the classroom.

Table 1 Student Enrollment & Student Credit Hours

Table 2 Student Enrollment and Degree Awarded

1. Research
   1. Describe the stature, scholarly activity, and diversity of faculty research including recent achievements, awards, research strengths, and research support over the past five years
   2. Funded Research (if applicable)
      1. Tabulate total sponsored research and how it has changed in magnitude and focus over the last five years.
      2. Briefly describe major research projects underway (for funded projects: list sources, amounts of funding, and duration of funding).
      3. How do these findings relate to or affect your strategic vision for the next five years?
   3. How does the department’s research and scholarship contribute to its educational programs? To what extent are undergraduates involved in research and how does research benefit those who are not directly involved? How does it ensure that time spent on research does not undermine teaching effectiveness and education quality improvement?
   4. If applicable, how good is the department’s doctoral program relative to peer programs and what evidence is used to make this judgment? How does the department train and mentor students on research and teaching skills and how does it track their progress toward the degree?

1. Community Engagement & Service
   1. Describe how faculty engage with the broader public, and any efforts you have to support those activities.
      1. How do you track and recognize faculty public engagement efforts?
   2. Describe any efforts to help students to identify public engagement opportunities—such as service learning and internships—that serve their educational goals
   3. Describe any Unit/department student organizations and how they support students and degree programs
   4. List and describe major extension and other outreach programs (i.e., interactions with off-campus audiences including corporate contacts). Include program evaluation data or other indicators of impact when available.
      1. How are outreach and extension responsibilities distributed among faculty of different ranks?
      2. What are the conclusions from the analyses and what changes, if any, to outreach and extension is the department considering in response to this analysis?
   5. Describe how service obligations are assigned and recognized within your department, as well as any specific service obligations held by non-tenure track faulty members.

1. Appendices
   1. Notes on Preparation of the Document
      1. Briefly describe the process used to complete the self-study, including a list of who was responsible for the content of the final report and how faculty was engaged to provide feedback.
      2. As previously mentioned, departments are strongly encouraged to create a Program Review committee to lead the development of the self-study.
   2. Faculty Curriculum Vitae
   3. Action Plans & Academic Maps (related to Teaching section)
   4. Previous 5-year review
      1. Include a table that summarizes any recommended actions, whether the action was taken, and whether any changes were considered to be successful.
   5. Department’s Strategic Plan, if available
   6. Department’s Annual Reviews for the last two years