Frequently Asked Questions
Program Review Workshops are offered in the Teaching Effectiveness Center (TEC) in Building 800. In partnership with Staff Development, workshops and drop-in sessions are available with Program Review Committee members available to help faculty. Available in the TEC are one hour overviews for each section of the Instructional Program Review Template the 20145-2015 Cycle. After each one hour workshop, two hour drop-in sessions are available with at least one Program Review Committee member present to answer questions. During the presentations, questions arise and responses from the Program Review Committee Chair are listed below by Section. General Questions FAQ
I heard that some people are using the wrong form. How do I know I have the correct form?
That’s correct, some people have shown up in the TEC with the wrong form. Use the Instruction Program Review Template 2014-2015 Cycle.
When is the template due and how do I send it?
According to the Program Review Committee, the self-study is due November 21 to your dean for the 2014-2015 cycle. Email the self-study as a Word document to your dean. The cover page requires the author, department coordinator, and dean signature. It is recommended that you ask your front office for assistance in scanning Page 1 with signatures and re-place the cover page (Page 1) in the self-study with included signatures before it is sent to the VPI Office on December 10.
What’s different about this template?
A few things. We broke up Section 2 because it was too long and as a result, there are now eight sections instead of seven sections. In Section 4, the focus is on program outcomes instead of course outcomes. In Section 6, we no longer ask for program goals and resource requests separately but ask more about the how and what you need to achieve your program goals. These are strategic action plans (SAP’s)and if funding is needed, the resource requests are listed directly below the plan. In Section 6, please order your plans from most important to least important regardless of whether there is funding needed.
Sections 1 Introduction FAQ
I see that mission, vision, core values, and goals are explicitly stated with a colon at the end. What is implied by this?
The committee is asking that you respond directly as to how your program supports the mission, the vision, core values, and goals of the college. Rather than have a long narrative that interweaves these four elements, the committee asks that you respond to each separately (hence the colon). The commended Real Estate and Child Development self-studies from 2011-2012 on the program review website homepage are good examples of what the committee is looking for in this section. Also, you might want to print out the Program Review Reader’s Guide 2014-2015 (to the right on this page) as this will provide guidance as well.
Do I need to respond to each core value?
Select ones that illustrate how your program supports the core values of the college is fine. It is not required to respond to every one of the core values, but you are welcome to account for all core values or as many as you feel are appropriate.
Sections 2 KPI Performance Indicators (KPI Data & Trends)
What do I need and how do I fill out Table 2.1?
For Table 2.1 you will need the KPI data provided by the Office of Institutional Research and Planning (OIRP). Your dean or department coordinator should have a copy. Append a copy of the KPI data at the end of the self-study. In Table 2.1, provide a narrative of your trend analysis supported by five years of annual data. The recommended format for Tables 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3 are provided here. You do not need to fill anything for Transfers. If you don’t have a program or don’t have certificates, leave it blank. It is not intended that you have only a one or two sentence response. Don’t forget that the Word template is expandable so include more narrative when appropriate.
What do I need and how do I fill out Table 2.2?
For Table 2.2, you will need to collect data from the Chancellor’s Office Data Mart. I have included videos and step-by-step instructions on how to access the data on the toolbar to the right. The recommended format for Tables 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3 are provided here. You will need to collect at a minium of three years of data and since there is no annual data for the success and retention rates in the Data Mart, the committee asks that you include (as a minimum data set) the last three Fall semesters listed in the Data Mart: F2013, F2012, and F2011. A list of peer instituions are provided on the toolbar to the right. The PDF is titled Peer Institutions for Section 2. If you can, use asterisked peer institutions as they are closer demographically to our institution than others.
Should I use KPI or the Chancellor’s Office Data Mart for Fullerton College data?
The Office of Institutional Research and Planning recommends use of the KPI data for Fullerton College data in Tables 2.1, 2.2, an 2.3.
Why aren’t some of the neighboring colleges included as peer institutions?
That’s a good question for OIRP. You might want to have a further conversation with them, but apparently their population and demographics are not similar to ours. If you want to know more, Appendix D of the most recent ARCC report describes the statistical analysis used to group peers.
What do I need and how do I fill out Table 2.3?
For Table 2.3, list the annual data with the format recommended in the file here . It may be difficult to comment on some of the groups such as other, etc. The focus is primarily on underrepresented groups of reasonable number in your program and how they success and retention rates relate to the achievement gap. If you have specific comments or narrative to include for table trends or data , include it below the table.
Section 3 – SWOC Analysis
What is appropriate in a SWOC analysis?
I would definitely emphasize your strenghts and don’t be bashful – we have great programs at Fullerton College! Discuss any weaknesses and opportunites you have. Don’t forget to include external opportunities – partnering with companies and the community. Challenges – well, anything faculty has some control over is fair game. Keep the challenges focussed on elements that affect your program. Just remember the statement is stronger any time data is used to support your narrative.
Section 4 Program Outcomes
Why the emphasis on Program Student Learning Outcomes (PSLOs)?
Well, after all, this is a program review. Fullerton College has embarked on a data driven, outcomes-based program review process so we can make informed decisions about our programs based on evidence and outcomes. The committee suggests your program should have measurable outcomes for students in your program. How do we measure program outcomes? While we don’t have exit assessments for programs, we do have course assessments. Just remember that any time you assess students in a course you are, in effect, assessing students in the program as well. The Program Review Committee encourage analysis of student assessments and that the this process drives meaningful program outcome conversations within your department.
In addition, ACCJC requires that program outcomes results are posted for public use on a website. It is likely that Table 4.2 will be posted online in the near future.
My department is undergoing program review, but my set of courses does not lead to an AA, AS, or certificate. Do I have to complete this section?
Yes, all instructional programs invovled in program review will complete this section. Your organized set of courses may not lead to an AA, AS, or certificate, but it does lead to a body of knowledge that qualifies by Title 5 definition as an instructional program. However, you don’t have any PSLOs if you don’t have a program that leads to
an AA, AS, or certificate degree that is defined by the Chancellor’s Office as an educational program. Your courses then, don’t have PSLOs, but some outcome or expectation must be met when students exit a course or set of courses. In this case, the umbrella of outcomes a set of courses that do not have PSLOs fall under is the set of four Institutional Student Learning Outcomes (ISLOs). All courses have to fullfill the Institutional Student Learning Outcomes so in this case, copy the four ISLOs where the PSLOs should be listed in Table 4.1. If your department or program does not lead to an AA, AS, or certificate, I created another Section 4 with ISLOs and you can download it here. Just replace Table 4.1 and 4.2 with the one in the Word doc and carry on.
What date(s) do I use for Date of Assessment Completed in Table 4.1?
We don’t have exit assessments for program SLOs, so you need to use the dates you assess the course SLOs. Since you are referring to a specific PSLO in each case, I would list the date assessment completed as the last date you assessed a CSLO that is aligned with the PSLO you are considering. If that was yesterday or 2.5 years ago, fine. Try to get as close to the date as possible (month, year) that you plan to use for program outcome analysis. A clarification of all the headings in both Table 4.1 and Table 4.2 is provided here.
What date(s) do I use for Date of Assessment Analyzed in Table 4.1?
When you got together with your department and discussed your CSLO results and (hopefully) the impact of those results on your program. Alternatively, you may have completed a CSLO form or PSLO form listed under Resources at slo.fullcoll.edu. These are the forms you submit to the SLO representative of your division. You might want to check to see if they have any dates or forms stored for your department. You can use the date(s) included in those forms. A clarification of all the headings in both Table 4.1 and Table 4.2 is provided here.
What date(s) do I use for Date(s) Data Used for Improvement in Table 4.1?
This speaks to ‘closing the loop’. Suppose you just ‘closed the loop’. Plan, Implement, Assess, Report/Revise are the four steps involved in the loop. By virtue of assessing CSLOs, you have planned, implemented, assessed your PSLOs and you are now reporting/revising, so you just closed the loop and you are now going to go through the cycle – again. You do need to have those important conversations within your department to start improvement of your program and start planning again. Don’t forget that ‘take no action’ is a plan as well so don’t report or revise your program in such a fashion that results are unnecessary or unhealthy for the program. Regardless, whatever date you had the conversation and started planning for future improvement, that is the date you should report for a discussion of improvement. If you want to document multiple conversations on separate dates, feel free to do so. If the list is long (several department, coordinator, and divsion meetings over a long period of time), include it as an Appendix. A clarification of all the headings in both Table 4.1 and Table 4.2 is provided here.
What is meant by Number of Cycles completed?
If you have closed the loop, that’s a cycle. Said another way, if the date(s) listed in Date Used for Improvement is in the past, you closed a loop, and that counts as a cycle. If you have multple Dates Used for Improvement, there is no clear cut answer for this. I would expect that you would have to consider how often CSLOs were assessed and how often you talked about them in terms of improvement of your program. I am expecting responses of 0 or hopefully 1, but there could be more if your department is very involved in assessment and improvement of the program. A clarification of all the headings in both Table 4.1 and Table 4.2 is provided here.
Is the Intended Outcomes column in Table 4.2 the same as the PSLOs?
Probably, this just may be a cut and paste of the first column in Table 4.1. Some people may have changed their PSLOs in the middle of the cycle or perhaps there were some unintended consequences and what was assessed was not exactly what was intended in the PSLO. The committee allowed for some leeway here, but it may have caused some confusion. If you are reporting on the PSLOs in Table 4.1 without any changes, just copy and paste. A clarification of all the headings in both Table 4.1 and Table 4.2 is provided here.
Section 5 – Evaluation of Progress Towards Goals
What is the distinction between previous goals and Strategic Action Plans (SAP’s)?
The committee is referring to the fact that in Section 6.0 of the 2011-2012 program review self-study, we asked you about your program goals. In the future we won’t be asking you about your program goals and assume you have goals. In the future, what will be asked about are the plans to achieve your goals aka you SAP’s. Some people feel the goal and the SAP are the same and this is a matter of semantics. I claim that typically a goal does not identify a responsible person, timeframe, and expected outcomes, but the SAP does include these elements.
What previous goals is referenced in this section?
For now, the committee would like to know if you had plans and/or received funds for your program goals in Section 6 of the 2011-2012 review, what was achieved? Depending on what happended, you may have to re-visit and adjust your plans to achieve the goal, undergo a new path, or develop new goals. Regardless, we want to know in this section what happened to the program goals and plans in Section 5.1 and accompanying resource requests in Section 6.0 of the 2011-2012 review.
Section 6 -Action Plans and Resource Requests
Why are Strategic Action Plans by Division listed on the website in this Section?
To give you an idea of what your division listed as plans from 2013-2015. Sometimes specific programs, departments, or people are listed as responsible for the plan and it is a ‘heads up’ for you. Additionally, it gives you an idea of the scope of a strategic action plan.
These are really Strategic Action Plans in this Section?
Yes. These are not intended to be tactical or operational plans. The SAP provides a brief overview of your general plan to implement the project/activity, measurable outcomes,whose responsible, and timeframe. However, the SAP is not meant as a detailed description of every step of the plan; it is a broader plan than the step-by-step events. Your program will need to plan out all of the operational steps to complete the plan, but it is not necessary to report each step here. If for some reason more detail is needed to support a resource request than provided in the self-study, PBSC (the Planning & Budget Steering Committee) may be in contact with you after the self-study is submitted.
I can only have three SAP’s? I only see room for three SAP’s.
You can have as many as needed! The Word doc you downloaded is completely expandable. If you add SAP’s, do try to remember to change the number at the top so the SAP # changes. Rank your SAP’s by level of importance (high to low).
Should I order my SAP’s?
Yes, please order your SAP’s from most important to least important regardless of funding. If your most important SAP does not require money, that’s fine. The PR Committee copies all funding requests in order and provides them in a spreadsheet to PBSC (the Planning & Budget Steering Committee) so if they get your requests are ranked, that can be taken into consideration.
What does Goal # and Objective# refer to? How do I fill this part in?
The Goal number and Objective number refer to one of the three college goals and one of the college goal’s objectives. The Goals and Objectives are found in the PDF here Just enter in the Goal number and objective number. The committee has a list of the goals and objectives by number so, you don’t need to type in the whole goal and objective, jus the number is fine.
Should I include faculty allocations in this section? What should I include as a salary?
Yes, include faculty allocations. As with everything else, there are no guarantees you will receive any of the funds or allocations requested, but it is documented if needed in the future. Salaries are posted on the District website. A range or approximate reasonable salary is fine. No one will hold you to the salary, just be reasonble and do include it.
Should I include facilities in this section?
Yes, include any facility needs. As with everything else, there are no guarantees you will receive any of the funds or the facilities requested, but it is documented if needed in the future.
The program just filled out Instructional Equipment forms. Should I include these as well?
Yes, you might not receive some or any funds requested and you may want to request it in the future. All resource requests over $500 are included in your self-study. Don’t lose out on an opportunity to receive equipment just because it was not included in the self-study!
Should I include supplies in this section?
No, anything less than $500 should not be included.
I don’t have a bid for the item. Do I need to include a bid or the price?
Yes, include a price even if it is an approximation. If you have a bid, that’s fine, include it in an Appendix or simply list the price in the table. If you are requesting something, the committee realizes you may not have bids, but we do expect that you are interested enough in receiving the item that you have inquired somehow and have an approximate idea of the cost. If approved by PBSC and the amount is not accurate, you will need to take that up with them. The Program Review Committee role is to confirm that the resource request supports the outcomes and goals of both your program and the college.