Report on
Self-Evaluation
Each department and program (including major components of the Collegiate Center) conducts a self-evaluation approximately once every seven years. The Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, in consultation with the Provost and the Committee on Faculty, sets the schedule for self-evaluation and initiates the process annually with the selected departments and programs. The current review schedule appears in the Faculty Resources section of the Hendrix website.
An external review has four parts: a self-evaluation narrative, an external consultant’s report, a departmental response to the consultant’s report, and a concluding response to the department or program from the Committee on Faculty. The final full report comprising all parts is available to members of the department or program, the Assessment Committee, and the Committee on Faculty and is kept on file in the Office of Academic Affairs.
Narrative
The self-evaluation narrative should include the following items as appropriate to the particular department or program:
Role and Scope
- The nature of the discipline and the role of its content and methodology in the liberal arts and in the mission of the College;
- The department or program’s approach to the presentation of the discipline to students, including how that approach fosters student learning, student interest in the discipline, and student engagement in the intellectual life of the department or program;
- The role of the department or program in implementing the Vision for Student Learning and participating in the Collegiate Center;
- The learning goals of the department or program for students with majors or minors in the department, including a description of how those goals are articulated to your students and how those goals are assessed by the department or program;
- The documented outcomes of the department or program assessment results, together with supporting documentation specifying the methods used to reach conclusions about these outcomes, including those of the department or program’s Collegiate Center courses;
- The results of the department or program’s current self-evaluation, plans for addressing identified problems or needs, and specific questions for the consultant to address in relation to the narrative.
Courses and Structure
- Offerings and the typical path or paths of study for general liberal arts students and for the major, and the connection between departmental or program aims and course scheduling;
- Relationship and distinctions between multiple majors and minors within the department or program;
- Rationale for the number of classes, course rotations, course sequencing, course numbering, and course content scaffolding;
- Typical teaching and learning activities in and out of the classroom, including Odyssey experiences, and the connection between learning goals and these activities;
- The structure and success of any capstone experiences within the department or program;
- Alignment with other departments and programs including interdisciplinary studies programs and the compatibility of the major for students with double majors.
Resources
- Summaries on the staffing, equipment, budget, and space issues, including a description of any other resources available to the department or program;
- Descriptions of any regular course reassignments for faculty in the department or program for research activities or administrative roles. This should also include descriptions of teaching assignments for faculty in the department or program thatsupport the Collegiate Center rather than courses supporting the department or program.
Additions to the Narrative
The consultant should also be supplied with copies of, or web links to the following:
- Relevant public materials in the Catalog, course schedule, assessment plan, department or program web pages, and the Faculty
Handbook;
- Relevant non-public materials including assessment reports, curricular maps, enrollment data, and any available student outcome records;
- A sampling of current course syllabi and an example of a student capstone project;
- Current cvs for department or program faculty and staff.
Consultant’s Report
The report of the department’s external consultant should contain responses in two primary areas:
- Evaluation of the material included in the self-evaluation narrative and a verification of the narrative based on the site visit, together with recommendations and suggestions for improvement;
- Evaluation of the student learning assessment plan and recommended revisions to the student learning assessment plan including improvement plans for integrating assessment into the planning process.
Departmental or Program Response
The response by the department or program to the consultant’s report should address the consultant’s recommendations and suggestions. Utilizing these recommendations and suggestions, the department or program should articulate the goals for program enhancements and strategies achievable over the next seven years.
Committee on Faculty Final Review
The Committee on Faculty reviews the process and content of the self-study, the consultant’s report, and the department or program response as well as the pace and implications of any plans for change moving forward. This process informs the Committee on Faculty’s actions on assessment and faculty hiring as well as the Provost’s management of department and program budgets.
Additional details including a timeline and planning notes for the process can be found in Section I.7 of the Faculty
Handbook.