Introduction
(Summary of Year One)
Year 1 – Key emphasis: General reflection on previous CPR, delegation of responsibilities, and preliminary planning for upcoming cycle
The program begins its 7-year CPR cycle by reflecting upon how the previous program review report understands program quality and effectiveness in relation to disciplinary, institutional, sectoral, national, and international markers of excellence. The manner in which a program devotes attention to the previous program review’s recommendations and observations will vary depending on local norms and program size. Normally, medium, large, and extra-large programs will designate or strike appropriate subcommittees to take up area-specific report observations and recommendations within which plans for their study and for action will be developed. Smaller units may choose to assign such tasks to individual program members or set aside time for the unit to consider the previous CPR’s observations and recommendations as a committee of the whole. Larger programs’ subcommittees will regularly report back on their planning work to the unit as a whole throughout the year. Typically, such subgroups may include:
Curriculum,
Pedagogy/Teaching,
Student experience, and
Research.
This reflective work will naturally interleave with and inform the program’s ongoing business, focused on honing the effectiveness of and otherwise enhancing curriculum, teaching and learning, research, complement planning, institutional and sectoral alignment, etc. Normally, the previous CPR’s recommendations and observations should inform subcommittees’ and programs’ ensuing plans of work. In year 1, these two elements – a) reflection on the previous CPR and b) carrying out and planning steady-state ongoing work – occupy each program subcommittee’s attention. An effective planning sequence – for each subcommittee and for the program as a whole – will typically take up the key emphases of each of the following 6 years.
Internal deliverables:
- Program delegates responsibilities to subcommittees or program members
- Subcommittees develop action plans based on prior CPR for ensuing 6-year period. These will normally include plans for:
- Researching program, comparator, and other relevant sectoral data
- Identifying optimal directives for the program
- Implementation and operational steps
- Reflection and review
- Subcommittees develop specific preliminary plans for:
- “Year 3 – Program Outcomes,” including preliminary organization of student survey, updating of alumni contact information, etc.
- “Year 4 – Curriculum,” including preliminary review and organization of documentation for degree expectations, learning objectives, course outcomes, etc.
Provostial deliverable
- Online template/form for program drafts that will incrementally generate the internal bulk of the eventual CPR report.
- Check-in meeting with program lead to discuss priorities identified, obstacles, strategies to overcome them, opportunities, resources, etc.
