Before Program Review begins:
The coordinating deans will be receiving the following from the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment:
Unduplicated Discipline Enrollment Profile
Program Related Student Profile
Number of Degrees, Certificates Awarded
FTEs; Student/faculty Ratio
Graduate Survey Summary
Transfer Data
Retention data

1. Productivity Evaluation:

Administrative Evaluation: Based on the data from the OIR, the coordinating deans have to make sure that the program meets SCHEV's productivity and the administration standards developed by the Curriculum Committee. The details are in the appendix A.

Semester One

1. Review program goals and objectives to determine the degree to which they:

• Are derived from and support the NVCC mission
• Are consistent with expectations of employers, transfer institutions receiving students, and the needs of the community served
• Are consistent with the purpose of the program as stated in the catalog
• Match with the General Education goals at NVCC (Appendix D) and the core competencies mandated by SCHEV

Each program should identify the knowledge and skills expected of graduates of the program and what they will do when they graduate.

2. Review the current curriculum and describe students:

• Make sure the courses are logically sequenced
• No duplicate content except as needed for reinforcement
• Take into consideration emerging issues in your field or discipline
• Curriculum comprehensive enough to meet goals of the program, general education goals including core competencies mandated by SCHEV
• Changes in curriculum should be recommended at this time but refrain from revising the curriculum till outcomes assessments are out.
• Degrees, specializations included in the program describing if you have the best mix of degree, specializations and certificates
• Campuses that offer that program
• Strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum Courses that support programs other than the one being evaluated
• Relationships with HS (dual enrollment, tech prep) and colleges (specific articulation agreements)
• A description of your current students based on OIRA data

3. Evaluate measures of student performance:
Use the course-embedded assessments (Appendices B and C) first. Go over tests, exams, reading assignments, oral presentations, capstone courses, etc. to make sure that they are assessing student learning. Then consider additional assessment you will need to conduct. You might also look at transfer success data and employment/placement rates.

4. Measuring the goals of the Program:
A variety of methods should be used to evaluate goals and outcomes. The following are just a few examples:

• Employer survey
• Success of transfer students
• Graduate surveys
• Results of licensing exams, if any
• Student satisfaction surveys
• Student engagement survey (CCSSE)
• SCHEV's competency results
• Meeting needs of community

5. Write Chapter One: Program/Discipline Profile including:

• Degree, specialization, and certificates included in the program
• Campuses that offer the program
• A narrative description of the overall purpose of the program
• Courses that support programs other than the one being evaluated
• A description of your current students
• Specific industries or businesses served by the program
• Institutions to which your current students transfer
• Significant developments since the last evaluation
• Emerging trends in your field or discipline

The introduction should include a summary of the current curriculum, not a listing of courses, which can be found in the catalog. When you describe your current students, summarize a narrative from the information about your students included in the Information Packet provided to you by the OIRA.

Semester Two

1. Collection and analysis of data begins the following semester.
Student learning outcomes should be the primary focus. For a multi-campus program, it's good to compare different campuses to see what the strengths and weaknesses are, however, the overall emphasis has to be college-wide.

2. Revise the Curriculum
As the results of the assessment of student learning are analyzed, you may begin to see the need to revise the curriculum. Is the curriculum working for the students? Are they prepared when they enter the workplace or transfer to a senior institution? Occupational/technical programs should meet with their advisory committees to discuss the curriculum. If you conducted employer satisfaction surveys last semester, decide what curricular revisions are indicated by your findings. Transfer programs should carefully consider transfer data on the success of NVCC students at senior institutions.

3. Review Resources
Review the adequacy of resources for your program. In any case where you consider the resources that support your program to be inadequate, you must justify that judgment by evidence that student learning is adversely affected. Consider the support personnel working in the program as well as the instructional and institutional academic support services that are unique and critical to your program. Are the classrooms and laboratory facilities adequate? If not, what must be done to make them adequate? Is the library collection available adequate? If not, consult with the librarians to determine what must be done to improve the holding. What about equipment and supplies? Again, if the data indicates that they are inadequate, you must describe what must be done to correct the situation. Last but not the least, include the budget as well.

4. Evaluate Instructional Modalities
Describe the various instructional modalities that students experience in your program or discipline. Highlight or showcase those that have been particularly effective in producing student learning. Describe how you know that these modalities were effective in producing student learning. Consider how you meet the differing learning styles of students in your program. Describe how the instructional modalities are appropriate to the purpose of the program and the goals of the program or discipline. If students have access to your courses through various distance learning opportunities and instructional delivery systems such as web-based courses, computer-based courses, and the Extended Learning Institute describe how student learning is assessed in these courses. If program includes distance courses for the other colleges, describe it.

Semester Three

1. Summary of Student Learning Outcomes The assessment of student learning outcomes is at the heart of the program review. Before you finalize your report, you should complete a summary of what you have learned about student learning in your program to include in your report. In the summary you should indicate the following:

1. what learning objective (either program goal or general education objective) was assessed
2. the method by which the assessment was done
3. the assessment outcome
4. recommendations based on your assessment
5. actions to be taken to improve student learning

This summary will form the basis for your action plan and will be included along with a copy of the executive summary and action plan sent to members of the Curriculum Committee, provosts, divisions deans, deans of student development, and LRS directors. It will also be included in the annual assessment report to the VCCS. Below is an example of how a student learning outcomes summary might look.

Learning Objective	Assessment Techniques	Assessment Outcome	Recommendations	Actions taken	Actions to be taken
Program goal 1 Gen Ed objective 1:1Students will write in organized, clear, grammatically correct English appropriate for a specific subject and audience.	Written report in (list of courses) graded by program faculty for content and quality of writing appropriate to the program.	75% of the students received a satisfactory grade on their reports.	Students need a better understanding of the criteria for a satisfactory report.	A handout on the requirements for a satisfactory report will be provided to students and placed in the writing lab. Students will be provided with an example of a satisfactory report	.
Program Goal 2 Gen Ed objective 4:1Students will demonstrate	Faculty observationduring class-time devoted to group project work	Faculty observed that 75% of the students demonstrated the ability to	Students have some difficulty in putting the principles of effective teamwork into practice.	Have students critique a video showing a team at work and have them	Actions to be taken
the ability to work effectively on a team.	in (list course).Student written self-evaluation in (list course).	work effectively on a team.90% of the self-evaluations indicated good understanding of effective teamwork	.	indicate which principles were well-employed and which were not.	.
Continue in a similar manner with a summary of other program goals and general education objectives that were assessed.

2. Revise Goals
Now that you have assessed student learning and evaluated the curriculum, instructional modalities, and resources, you may find that your program or discipline goals need to be revised. Be sure to include your revised goals and objectives in your final report and include the general education objectives for your program.

3. Complete the Final Draft of the Review Report
It will be helpful to have an outside reader review your report at this time to help you strengthen it as well as to help spot areas where additional data may be useful. The assessment coordinator can serve in this role.

4. Action Plan and Summary of Student Learning Outcomes
As the results of the various assessments are analyzed, recommendations based on the findings will start to cluster. You should include a chapter in your report that describes actions taken to improve the program or discipline during the evaluation process and provides a plan to accomplish the recommendations and suggestions you make.

As the recommendations and suggestions emerge, so will the action plan. Resist the urge to write the action plan before all the assessments are completed and recommendations are made. Recommendations and suggestions should be placed throughout the report where the supporting data is reported. Make sure that each recommendation and suggestion is clearly supported by the evidence you present. It is very helpful (both to you as you write the report as well as the report readers later) to list all recommendations and suggestions made at the end of the chapter in which they appear. Each recommendation and suggestion that you make throughout the report must also appear as part of your action plan.

A recommendation describes an action that must be taken to achieve the goals and objectives of the program or discipline and to make the program effective. The recommendations must be tied to supporting evidence in your report and must be directly and clearly related to the goals and objectives of your program or discipline. Recommendations are to be related to program or discipline specific issues, not college-wide policies and procedures, and include an action to be taken, a rationale for the action, the title of the person responsible for taking the action, and a due date.

Your cluster chair will be required to report on the implementation of your action plan one year after it is approved by the Administrative Council and again one year after that. Therefore, recommendations should address those areas over which you have some control and influence. Do not, for example, indicate that an action must be taken by "the college," but name the person who will be responsible and accountable for carrying out the recommended action. Finally, remember this is your action plan. It will detail what you and your colleagues plan to do to improve the effectiveness of your program.

A suggestion describes an action that should be taken to improve the program's or discipline's effectiveness. Each suggestion must also define a plan for action in the same way a recommendation does. Obviously, suggestions are not as strong as recommendations and therefore should define areas that while not crucial to the effectiveness of a program or discipline would, if carried out, enhance it.

The following format is recommended for each recommendation and suggestion in your action plan:

RECOMMENDATION: Include the page number in the report where it appears.

RATIONALE: The evidence from your report that supports the recommendation or suggestion.

ACTION TO BE TAKEN: This should be specific in nature. Just what, exactly, is to be done?

RESPONSIBILITY Name a single person (or position) as the responsible party (and it should be someone over which you have influence since this is, after all, your action plan).

DATE BY: Be realistic here. The wheels of academe grind slowly.

5. Write the Executive Summary
The intent of the Executive summary is to allow readers from a variety of audiences to focus immediately on the most important finding of your review. Your summary should be concise and done by chapter and/or section allowing readers to find the part of your review that may hold particular interest for them.

6. Finalize the Review Report
After you have completed the report, send it to the assessment coordinator. Since each division dean and provost who has responsibility for the program being evaluated must be given an opportunity to review and comment on the report, copies will be sent to them along with a comment sheet. A copy of all completed comment sheets will be sent to the chair of your review committee.

In addition to the main body, the final report will include a title page listing the members of the review committee, provosts' and division deans' comment pages, an executive summary, the student learning outcomes summary, the administrative evaluation, and any appendices you feel are essential to the understanding of the report. The review report is due at the end of Semester III. Be judicious in what you choose to include in the appendices and include only what is absolutely necessary for a clear understanding of your report. Overly large appendices are not encouraged due to storage space and in general are not circulated unless specifically requested by a reader.

Your report will then be read by two persons chosen by two Curriculum Committee members. These readers will provide you with written comments on your report. [See Appendix E for a copy of the readers' guidelines.] The executive summary, student learning outcomes summary, and action plan will be forwarded to the entire Curriculum Committee. You will be invited to attend the meeting at which your report will be discussed. The readers will be asked to present their comments to the Curriculum Committee. The committee members may have questions to ask you about the report and may wish to amend the action plan. Finally the action plan is forwarded to the Administrative Council for approval. You will be notified by the assessment coordinator when your action plan has been approved by the Administrative Council.

The deans of student development are sent the action plan and asked to share it with the counselors. The assessment coordinator will report your findings and your action plan to the VCCS in the annual assessment report.