Guidelines for Academic Program and Discipline Reviews at NOVA

In the Academic Program and Discipline Review report, each of the following sections should be addressed:

Program Viability, Productivity, and Demographic Data: programs compare viability and productivity data with SCHEV’s viability standards. Programs/disciplines also discuss patterns in their enrollment data over the course of four to five years.

Effectiveness of the Curriculum: programs discuss how their curriculum meets the changing demands of the workforce and the requirements of top transfer institutions. Programs/disciplines focus on curriculum revisions, strengths and weaknesses, assessment of student learning outcomes and core learning outcomes, and potential improvements.

Student Success Metrics: OIR provides data on course-success, retention, graduation, transfer, and job placement rates as appropriate to the program/discipline. Each subsection is usually further disaggregated by Race/Ethnicity, Full-Time vs. Part-Time students, and program rates vs. College-Wide rates.

Resources to Support the Academic Program: discusses resources supporting student learning in the program/discipline such as clubs, support services, counselors/advisors, or opportunities for professional development. Includes the strengths and weaknesses of these resources.

Student and Faculty Surveys: focuses on student and faculty opinions about the program/discipline and potential areas of improvement. Major aspects of the student survey are highlighted and major outcomes of the faculty survey are listed.

Action Plan for Improvement: this last section of the report identifies any recommendations and/or suggestions to improve the program/discipline.

The offices of Planning and Assessment, Institutional Research, and other appropriate college units provide administrative support for APDR. The completed review is evaluated by the pathway dean and approved by the VPAA/CAO.