Title: Spotlighting Student Success: A Stakeholder Approach to Analyzing and Improving Student Performance Through Program Reviews
Stream: Assessment Theories & Methodologies
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
Authors:
Evelina Atanassova, University of Massachusetts Global, United States
Laura Galloway, University of Massachusetts Global, United States
Abstract:
The purpose of every academic program is to deliver to students a set of courses for the achievement of specific learning outcomes. Universities engage in program reviews to assess the effectiveness of a program and to identify needs for curriculum revisions and updates. In this paper we will discuss a program review approach that zooms in on student success through two lenses. The first is a multi-stakeholder approach to collecting data, including administration, student support, full-time faculty, adjunct faculty, students, external stakeholders, and industry experts. The second lens is an assessment approach that focuses not only on analyzing student performance related to learning outcomes, but also on currency of the offered knowledge, relevance of learning outcomes to industry needs, connection between curricula and novelties in the field, and ultimately - on the student positioning as an expert in their chosen profession after successful completion of the program. We will offer a discussion on the importance of each stakeholder group for analyzing student performance and on the diversity of thought and discoveries they convey regarding improving students’ success. We will further discuss the data collection tools we developed for each stakeholder group, the way we operationalize the variables of interest, and the triangulation approach we adopted to data analysis. We will next present our findings from the multi-stakeholder program research and how they influence our decision-making on program improvements from a system approach - from updating the program learning outcomes to creating more current and practical learning activities.
Conference Comments & Feedback
Place a comment using your LinkedIn profileShare this Presentation
Comments
Powered by WP LinkPress