Program-Review Process Ohio University Link to Program Review Web Site

Purpose Academic program reviews, which include the preparation of program self studies and the completion of site visits by review committees, are qualitative and quantitative assessments that play vital roles in the university’s mission of delivering excellent undergraduate and graduate instruction and furthering Ohio University’s research and service profiles. Initiated and conducted by the Program Review Committee of the University Curriculum Council (a committee of the OU Faculty Senate), program reviews are important sources of information for faculty, administrators, trustees and other stakeholders regarding the size and reach of academic programs, programmatic strengths and weaknesses, the status of faculty and staff resources, student profiles, curricular outcomes, and equipment and space needs. These are important considerations in light of Responsibility Centered Management (RCM) and are areas of significant interest to the Higher Leaning Commission, the university’s accreditor. All academic programs on the OU Athens and regional campuses are reviewed periodically— every seven (7) years, normally—to help identify program, college, and university priorities, goals, and accomplishments, and help measure the progress of ongoing initiatives.

Guiding Principles ✓ Program review is part of an overall assessment plan that provides a portrait of program strengths and limitations and should result in program improvement. ✓ The process should be broadly participatory. ✓ The process should facilitate assessment planning, curricular development, faculty workload and scholarship responsibilities, and resource allocation. ✓ The program-review process allows OU to account for its use of resources, develop support among its various constituencies, and provide collegial and objective review to ensure academic-program quality.

Schedule / Phase I March Chair of the Program Review Committee Notifies Programs Up for Review During the Subsequent Academic Year No Later than July 30 Programs Submit Lists of Potential External Reviewers to the Chair of the Program Review Committee Sept. 15 Program Self Studies Due. Submitted to Chair of Program Review Committee and External Reviewer(s). All UCC Business Tabled if Deadline Not Met. Oct./Nov. Site Visits of Review Committees (External and Internal Reviewers)

The site-visit report must be submitted to the chair of the Program Review Committee no more than two (2) weeks after the visit. The chair of the Program Review Committee then distributes copies of the report to the program chair/director and to the program’s dean. Program chairs/directors and the program’s dean each have no more than two (2) weeks to comment on the report; such responses, which are submitted to the chair of the Program Review Committee, will be attached to the report and proceed with it throughout the remainder of the process. The correction of factual errors is of particular concern and the site-visit committee is under no obligation to change any recommendations, criticisms, conclusions, etc. If a program’s chair/director and/or dean do not provide comments to the Program Review Committee during the two-week window, the committee will interpret their absence as the tacit approval of a site-visit report by the chair/director and/or dean. If the report includes the evaluation a graduate component, the report and any comments from the chair/director and dean goes to the Graduate Council, which has the span of two (2) meetings to review it. If there is no graduate component, the report, once reviewed by the program and dean, goes to the University Curriculum Council for approval (upon the endorsement of the Program Review Committee). After consideration and a vote by the University Curriculum Council, a program’s review is then placed on the agenda of the Ohio University Board of Trustees by the Provost as an informational item. The entire process (from notification the previous March to the documentation’s appearance on the Trustees’ agenda at the end of the Spring Semester) should take no more than 15 months. Schedule / Phase II

Programs Submit Self-Studies to the Chair of the Program Review Committee (Sept. 15) Site Visits Conducted (October-November) Self-Studies and Site-Visit Reports Submitted to Program Review Committee and Provided for Comment to Program Chairs/Directors and Appropriate Dean. Program Review Committee Forwards Documents to Graduate Council for Review. University Curriculum Council Vote to Accept; Documentation then Forwarded to OU Trustees as an Informational Item on Meeting Agenda (Late Spring) Process Overview : Programs With Graduate Components

Programs Submit Self-Studies to the Chair of the Program Review Committee (Sept. 15) Site Visits Conducted (October-November) Self-Studies and Site-Visit Reports Submitted to Program Review Committee and Provided for Comment to Program Chair/Directors and Appropriate Dean. Program Review Committee Forwards Documents to the University Curriculum Council Vote to Accept; Documentation then Forwarded to OU Trustees as an Informational Item on Meeting Agenda (Late Spring) Process Overview : Programs Without Graduate Components

Resources Program Review Committee (Chair):Dr. David Ingram, Provost Faculty Fellow for Program Review:Dr. Patrick Barr-Melej, Assoc. Provost for Faculty and Academic Planning:Dr. Howard Dewald, Exec. Assistant for Faculty and Academic PlanningAnita Leach,