Dr. Niakaris, Provost of the Hellenic American University, will present her work: “A Comprehensive Approach to Program Assessment”, in the poster session of the NECHE conference in December. Annual program assessment is part of Hellenic American University’s commitment to teaching and learning as reflected in the New England Commission of Higher Education Standard 6. Each year, in addition to student evaluations, one program is selected on a rotation basis for a broader assessment, which is conducted by the Provost. This assessment draws on input from faculty, students, external reviewers, and classroom observations.
In March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 program assessment for the Informatics and Engineering Division needed to be conducted online. As a newly appointed Interim Provost, and with the approval of the Academic Directors’ group, I took on the responsibility for conducting the annual program assessment. This new role provided an opportunity to question the effectiveness of program assessment in an online environment in regard to student focus groups, virtual classroom observations with the use of a checklist, post lesson discussions with instructors, and input from external reviewers. The poster presentation will address issues relating to the organization of online program assessment, limitations of observation checklists, and use of reflective practice in giving feedback to instructors.