Department Chair and Program Director Guidance

There are three reports within each 5-year cycle:

• Biennial Program Quality Report (years 1 and 3)
• Program Viability Check (years 2 and 4)
• Five-year Program Review (year 5)
   

You can view which report is due and when on our assessment schedules page.

The Philosophy of Assessment at Weber State University

The purpose of continuous assessment is to ensure that the university community, through its courses, programs, and units, is engaged in a continuous process of intentional self-reflection and improvement by direct evidence of student learning and student academic support.

Weber State University assessment practices have moved well beyond the era of compliance. The process of assessment is well-established, albeit fluid. Recent discussions have moved from compliance to allowing departments and programs the autonomy to develop assessment strategies that are meaningful, relevant, and authentic. Biennial assessment activities should support the longer-term program review process and both of those efforts should align with each department or program's strategic planning processes.

Assessment allows us to document success and improve when needed. It should be meaningful, measurable, and manageable.

The Role of Assessment in Institutional Accreditation

Our accreditor, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), is one of seven institutional accrediting bodies in the U.S. NWCCU's accreditation of postsecondary institutions is a voluntary, non-governmental, self-regulatory process of quality assurance and institutional improvement. In 2020, NWCCU updated the standards by which member institutes are evaluated. Of note is the renewed emphasis on student learning. Four standards, in particular, address outcomes and assessment:

1.C.2 The institution awards credit, degrees, certificates, or credentials for programs that are based upon student learning and learning outcomes that offer an appropriate breadth, depth, sequencing, and synthesis of learning.

1.C.5 The institution engages in an effective system of assessment to evaluate the quality of learning in its programs. The institution recognizes the central role of faculty to establish curricula, assess student learning, and improve instructional programs.

1.C.6 Consistent with its mission, the institution establishes and assesses, across all associate and bachelor level programs or within a General Education curriculum, institutional learning outcomes and/or core competencies. Examples of such learning outcomes and competencies include, but are not limited to, effective communication skills, global awareness, cultural sensitivity, scientific and quantitative reasoning, critical analysis and logical thinking, problem solving, and/or information literacy.

1.C.7 The institution uses the results of its assessment efforts to inform academic and learning-support planning and practices to continuously improve student learning outcomes.

(the full set of standards can be seen here.)

It is important that our assessment processes support our ongoing accreditation. NWCCU gives each member institution a high level of autonomy in identifying and implementing assessment processes that resonate with each institution.

What Role Biennial Reports Play in Assessment and Student Success

Biennial reports answer the question " are you on track?" The biennial monitoring of student learning, performance, and achievement provides information about continuous improvement in achieving program outcomes. This formative assessment can help address a number of questions:

• Are students developing mastery of a program's identified learning outcomes?
• Are all students achieving?
• Are students able to accumulate the credits they need in a timely fashion?
• Are students provided opportunities to engage and be challenged?
• Are programs holding onto their students? 
• When shortcomings or concerns are identified, what actions are put into place to address the issues?
• How are those actions evaluated for efficacy?

 

General Biennial Report Layout and Information

Biennial reports occur every two years (unless a Program Review is being completed).

The template for the biennial report includes the following sections:

• Mission Statement
• Student Learning Outcomes
• Curriculum Grid
• Program Contact Information
• Assessment Plan
• Student Achievement 
• Evidence of Student Learning (including General Education course ALO assessment)
• Program Review Updates
• Program Faculty Information
• Questions about topics such as AI, Online vs Face-to-face Courses, Concurrent Enrollment, etc.

 

A new template will sent out each year with updates determined by Faculty Senate and the Assessment Committee. 

Feedback on the biennial report will be provided by a group of faculty, under the guidance of the Assessment Committee. The team discusses the reports and provides a formative feedback response to the program chairs or directors. That feedback is based upon training the faculty received and a rubric developed by the Assessment Committee. The rubric used for this review is sent along with the template of the biennial report. A Canvas course has also been created to guide the training; chairs or directors are welcome to be included in the course if that would be helpful. Please let us know if you are interested in access to the course. If you wish to participate in providing feedback to other programs, please send an email to OIE@weber.edu.

OIE can also help make your assessments even easier! Canvas has the option to add program learning outcomes to course assignment rubrics and quizzes. The best part about adding these outcomes, is that OIE staff can run a report at the end of a semester and send you information about whether students are meeting your learning outcomes or not (which can be used in your biennial report in the evidence of student learning section!). If you want to learn more about how this process works, and how to incorporate this fantastic feature into you and your faculty's courses, please reach out to OIE@weber.edu, and we can set up a meeting.

If you want to see templates, EOL worksheets, and more details, you can visit our reporting page.

The Purpose of The Program Review

The program review is an opportunity for programs to seek insight from peers - internal and external - as well as an opportunity to collectively reflect on the past 5 to 7 years of the program. 

The resulting self-study provides a point-in-time document that summarizes student achievement, faculty contributions, and departmental strategies of the past 5 years while also allowing faculty to reflect on the evidence that is gathered. The evidence that is contained in the self-study can be multi-faceted. Some evidence is derived from the biennial assessment process, but additional evidence may come through meetings with industrial or association advisory boards. Faculty research and professional development provide yet another avenue of evidence that can be used to strengthen both program outcomes and planning. The program review self-study brings all of these pieces together. 

Biennial reports play a key role in completing the program review. In the 5 year program review reporting cycle, there are at least two biennial reports. The information and data gathered for those reports can be used in answering many of the program review standards, so it is important to have well written biennial reports that supplement the larger review. 

The process covers two years (4 semesters).

1. The fall of the first year is when the self-study is due
2. The following spring is when the site visit occurs
3. The end of spring and following summer are for gathering additional key documentation (such as the site visit report, the departmental response, and the dean's response) 
4. The second fall semester is for the program presentation to either Faculty Senate Executive Committee or Graduate Council, and the summary documentation for USHE is written (by OIE) and submitted to Provost's Council, President's Council, Board of Trustees, and then to USHE. 

 

There are some data that OIE provides for this review. You will receive job market data and program student/financial data from the staff in OIE. Typically these data are sent to chairs and program directors a few months before the self-study is due. 

If you want to see templates, a more detailed timeline/checklist, and more details about key documentation, you can visit our reporting page here.

Student evaluations of teaching, also referred to as course evaluations, will be administered each semester once 80% of the academic days are completed. Because each block and semester is a variable length, the use of a 'percentage of days completed' will provide a more consistent time frame than identifying a specific week.

Please access the Course Evaluation section of the website for detailed information.

We can support you and your faculty by showing how to access and utilize the Report Gallery and Argos and all the dashboards/reports available within.

While we are primarily users of these to applications in eWeber, the Offices of Student Success Analytics (OSSA) and Institutional Research (IR), have the data analysts to help you create custom dashboards and reports if needed. 

In OIE's experience, here is a list of a few important dashboards/reports that we recommend chairs and program directors be familiar with:

• In Report Gallery
  • Program Review Undergraduate and Graduate Dashboards
  • Course Information
  • Student Persistence and Success
  • Ten Year Trends Enrollment FTE Graduation & Majors
• In Argos
  • Graduation Application
  • Student Degrees Awarded
  • Program of Study
  • Cohort Dashboard

There are great how-to videos and guides created by OSSA for most of these dashboards and reports. If you need to have detailed training for either yourself or for your faculty as a group, reach out to Daniel Jensen in OSSA to schedule a meeting.

OIE can support/supplement your reports or external accreditation efforts with additional data or a survey if requested. Please reach out to OIE@weber.edu for inquiries. 

Weber State University is accredited through the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). NWCCU accreditation follows a 7 year cycle with interim reporting and visits from peers.

From the NWCCU website:

"Institutional accreditation is a process of recognizing educational institutions for performance, integrity, and quality that entitles them to the confidence of the educational community and the public. In the United States this recognition is extended largely through nongovernmental, voluntary membership associations that establish accreditation criteria, evaluate institutions against that criteria, and approving institutions that meet the criteria."

"Institutions accredited or pre-accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities are required to examine their own missions, goals, operations, and achievements. The Commission then provides expert analysis by peer evaluators, and, later, commendations for accomplishments and recommendations for improvement from the accrediting body. Since the accreditation status of an institution is reviewed periodically, institutions are encouraged toward continued self-study and improvement."

When accreditation is granted, it applies to the entire institution and indicates that "the institution as a whole is substantially achieving its mission and that it meets the Commission's expectations for compliance with the accreditation criteria."

If you would like more information about the 7-year reporting cycle, and copies of the last few years of reports, you may find that on the institutional accreditation page here.