My primary professional goal and driving passion is  to serve as a higher education program manager who will enable faculty to develop and deliver academic plans that possess rigorous disciplinary depth, cohesion with an essential liberal education foundation, and optimal rhetoric for the promotion of student success.

Colleges and universities attract some of the greatest minds in their fields, but faculty can have many obligations pulling at their attention — research, teaching, service, and administrative responsibilities. Educated, collaborative, and articulate staff can provide necessary relief to help faculty incorporate the most advanced educational theory into their programs and navigate the complexities of higher education administration in order to better service the students, the community, and society. Because academic plans must both catalog expected student experiences and communicate the value of those experiences to the student, the rhetoric of academic plans requires an educated, practiced, and steady hand. The rhetorical and editorial stewardship by an experienced professional also allows academic plans in similar disciplines to be connected within an institution and across institutions.

Exemplary academic plans require effective design rooted in the needs of its discipline and proven educational theory, sound pedagogy, and reliable and valid assessments methods. Once established, academic plans must strive for continuous improvement based on rigorous program reviews.

Design of Academic Programs

A quality academic plan begins with demand — demand for a population to receive  theoretical, technical, or professional training in a particular field that is not being met — and faculty expertise to determine how those needs must be met. However, faculty have many differing levels of expertise, and although they may be some of the greatest minds in their fields, they may not be up to date on most effective ways to design programs. Program managers and associates can help faculty incorporate the demands of quality disciplinary knowledge into effective academic plans.

Research has shown that the most effective academic plans not only catalog the essential academic and  non-academic experiences students must have to be successful in a given field, but academic plans must communicate to students why these experiences are necessary to their advancement in the field of choice (Banta & Palomba, 2015). For this reason, research recommends that academic programs are built around program learning objectives: statements about what behaviors, attitudes, and values students should be able to exhibit to demonstrate upon completion of the program. Program learning objectives are important organizational and rhetorical tools in the arsenal of program design, because they explicate how different courses and experiences within a plan link together through mapping. Program learning objectives match course-level objectives, making students aware of why they engage in an experience as it happens. In addition, program learning objectives are also important signposts when reviewing the quality of programs.

Faculty primacy and ownership of the academic plan is critical. Like the best editors, exemplary program managers help shape the words and intentions of the faculty authors into the most effective proposals and copy. I have been collaborating with faculty in the proposal of academic plans since 2012. For an example of my work assisting faculty with program design, please see this Proposal for a Bachelor of Science in Integrated Social Sciences. The published ISOSC academic plan can be found in the Penn State University Bulletin. (Please note that the final program code was outside of my control).

Delivery of Academic Programs

Although academic plan design, conception, and review are my favorite parts of program management, I have much experience in the myriad activities that must occur once a program is being delivered. This involves budgeting, identifying instructors, compiling enrollment reports, scheduling upcoming semesters, and considering marketing strategies. I have served on the program teams for 13 baccalaureate programs and two master’s programs offered from Penn State University Park online via Penn State’s World Campus representing the interests of the dean’s office in the College of the Liberal Arts.

Although faculty design and teach courses, the program manager does have some important roles in course delivery. Program managers can connect faculty to professional development for teaching and pedagogy or other resources made available by the institution. Program managers can serve as the faculty member’s tether to institutional-level movements and resources.

Review of Academic Programs

Inherent to the promise of higher education is the guarantee that academic programs consist of the highest quality. In order for that guarantee to be in place, academic programs and their academic plans must go through regular and rigorous program review and, as deemed  necessary, revision.

In support of program review, a strong body of literature and options for best practices has evolved around assessment of student learning, particularly learning outcomes assessment. In learning outcomes assessment, faculty return to the program learning objectives for a given program, and through direct evidence and indirect evidence of student learning, determine whether or not the students’ outcomes successfully meet the intended objectives. Although faculty are the final determinants of the assessment faculty, program managers can keep faculty informed on the most effective and prominent assessment methods.

For a detailed example of a departmental learning outcomes assessment plan proposal, please see my Proposal for Assessment of Student Learning in B.A. Law and Society (LAWSC) Program.

In addition, a key habit of mind for the program manager and academic plan cultivator is the ever increasing drive to improve one’s knowledge and practices in pursuit of better ways to understand academic programs. For this reason, I have been exploring the use of narrative inquiry as a methodology in program reviews to better understand how students experiences align to faculty and staff expectations and how program learning objectives interact. As a firm believer in the power of personal narrative to shape human experience and identity, I am compelled to find ways to better understand how students interact with academic programs and how that information can be used to make academic plans stronger.

For more information on how narrative inquiry may be beneficial in program review, please see my capstone paper, Narrative Inquiry in Post-Secondary Education Program Reviews.

References:

Banta, T. W., & Palomba, C. A. (2015). Assessment essentials: Planning, implementing, and improving assessment in higher education. (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.