Office of Assessment & Curricular Affairs

Program Review is a continuous process for evaluating and improving the quality and effectiveness of academic and non-academic (co-curricular) programs. Program review involves a thorough, evidence-based evaluation of a program's strengths and areas for improvement. Every five years, faculty engage in a 12-month-long program review process. Staff from the Office of Assessment and Curricular Affairs support and collaborate with the faculty during this time by leading a kickoff meeting at the beginning of the process, setting up a Teams site for collaboration, and providing program-specific data and resources. Some of the key data metrics include enrollment, retention, persistence, graduation rate, course completion rates, student and faculty demographics, and End of Course Survey and Alumni Survey data. Faculty are provided various resources, including templates, guides, and examples to assist in drafting the self-study document.

The first phase of a program review is self-study. The self-study phase includes inquiry, data analysis, and self-reflection, which culminate in a self-study document that summarizes key findings and insights. This phase is faculty-led and should involve the entire program faculty, as well as invite input from other stakeholders such as students, alumni, and administrators. Throughout the process, formal check-ins are scheduled at the fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth, and eleventh month marks by the staff to ensure that deadlines are being met.

The peer review phase affords programs a unique external perspective in identifying strengths, opportunities, and areas for growth. Two external reviewers that serve as subject matter experts from other institutions are invited to participate in a two-day virtual review as part of the program review process. The self-study is made available to the external reviewers two weeks prior to the virtual visit as part of the external review process. The external reviewers provide a critical evaluation of the program and make recommendations for improvement. At the conclusion of the visit, a report is provided by the external reviewers. This report contains key findings and recommendations based on the self-study, information obtained during the site visit, discussions with fellow reviewers, and the background and expertise of the review team.

The self-study and peer-review/site visit phases provide the program with opportunities to reflect on the strengths of the program and possibilities for its improvement. Now, faculty take some of the lessons learned and transform them into achievable ambitions for the program, as expressed in a strategic action plan. Faculty create action items and interventions that are aligned to strategic initiatives, enrollment, retention, and/or student learning. The action plan is mission-driven, strengths-based, and forward-leaning; it is grounded in a clear sense of shared purpose, addressing concerns but not limited to them, and informed by aspirations for the program during the next stage in its development. The action items are the other final deliverable for the program review process and are approved at the Department Chair and Dean levels. The results generated from this in-depth, data-driven, multi-perspective analysis are used to inform planning and budgeting with the ultimate goal of continuous improvement. The action items are monitored and tracked on a quarterly basis by the staff over the course of the next five years until the next program review cycle.

The Bachelor of Science in Health Information Management (BSHIM) and the Master of Public Health (MPH) within the College of Arts and Sciences include an on-site internship/practicum requirement where students are provided an opportunity to work in a professional environment under the supervision of an expert in that field. As part of the programs' requirements, students are required to submit a criminal background check prior to enrolling in the program and starting the practicum. The Practicum Specialist facilitates the criminal background check at both checkpoints for the student to ensure that students are prepared.

The BSHIM meets the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) accreditation which includes the 40-hour Professional Practice Experience requirement. Students complete this internship during their last class of the program over a five-week period. Most commonly, students complete the hours within one-to-two work weeks, where they are assigned two Health Information Management (HIM) projects and required to attend a departmental or organizational meeting, review an annual budget, and present an HIM topic to a small group.

The MPH requires a 90-hour practicum experience, where the student addresses a public health disparity. The 90 hours are completed over the last nine to 18 weeks of the student’s program, with a maximum of nine hours completed per week. Remote opportunities are accepted, though most experiences are on-site or hybrid in nature. The practicum concludes with the submission of a written report of the experience and a formal presentation to the Faculty Advisor/Mentor and the Program Chair.

Students in both programs are responsible for identifying a local facility willing to host them, and the Practicum Specialist supports the student in executing the affiliation agreement between UAGC and the facility. The Practicum Specialist is also responsible for maintaining all records associated with each student, including but not limited to affiliation agreements, memorandums of understanding, hourly log charts, supervisor feedback forms, student feedback forms, and student work associated with the practicum experience. The Practicum Specialist also serves as a resource and advisor for BSHIM and MPH students to ensure that students are on track to complete their practicum prior to graduation. Each program has a specific Practicum Resource Center (PRC) located in Canvas, and the Practicum Specialist manages both PRCs to ensure that the program-specific handbooks and forms are current. Students can also contact the Practicum Specialist directly via email, via the PRC, or through program-specific inboxes [email protected] and [email protected]).

Student success is at the heart of our mission. By fully integrating assessment practices into the fabric of instructional development, the University of Arizona Global Campus provides a consistent and interconnected approach to the development, alignment, and analysis of student learning outcomes.

Supporting both curriculum development and assessment of student learning is a team comprised of assessment specialists, academic content specialists, multimedia designers, and video producers.

The Assessment Specialists collaborate with faculty to ensure every course and program has measurable, achievable, and relevant learning outcomes which communicate to students the knowledge, skills, and values they are expected to obtain upon graduating. They also ensure the learning outcomes are appropriately scaffolded in the course, aligned to all elements of the course, and measured throughout each course and program. Faculty create grading rubrics which are used in Waypoint to assess student learning. 

The data captured from Waypoint is used to analyze these outcomes and is used by faculty to update and improve curriculum processes, program alignment, course design, course content, and course delivery methods.

Academic Content Specialists build each course in the learning management system. They work closely with all stakeholders involved in the course development process, including the faculty, video and multimedia producers, assessment specialists, and the Learning Technology team, to ensure each course is built according to the design standards of the university. A critical area of course design is the creation of innovative and engaging multimedia and video production.

Our multimedia designer collaborates and ideates with faculty on creating interactive animation and/or other multimedia learning objects, including interactive UX/UI design, 3D/2D design, animation, accessibility, and publishing. The multimedia designer resolves any multimedia repairs, changes, and bug fixes in addition to collating and analyzing deliverable projections, project data, and forecasting.

The video producer oversees and performs all aspects of video production for UAGC courses. These duties include: meeting with stakeholders to discuss scope and deadlines, establishing milestones, creating storyboards, voice-over recording, creating and collecting assets, editing, publishing, ordering and receiving transcripts and closed captioning, occasionally supporting third party vendor projects, and managing the storage of project files and assets.

Finally, Academic Quality Specialists support program review and curriculum development by acting as a quality assurance check by reviewing self-studies and course guides for alignment, clarity, formatting, grammar, and syntax.