Comprehensive Standard: The institution places primary responsibility for the content, quality, and effectiveness of its curriculum with its faculty.
X Compliance
Partial Compliance
Non-Compliance
Narrative:
The faculty at Georgia State University are primarily responsible for the content, quality, and effectiveness of the curriculum.
The process for establishing new courses and programs begins in the departments with faculty proposals, and is continued in faculty curriculum committees of each college. New courses and programs must then be approved by the faculty of the college. [1] New programs are then considered and approved by the Academic Program Committee of the University Senate, composed exclusively of faculty, before being forwarded to the President and Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia for final approval. [2] (Cf. Standards 3.4.1 and 3.4.6 for additional discussions of approval practices.)
Ongoing evaluation of the content, quality, and effectiveness of the curriculum is also the responsibility of the faculty. One primary mechanism for this evaluation is the Academic Program Review process.[3] This process begins with a faculty produced self-study. The self-study is reviewed by a panel of outside faculty reviewers who make a report back to the faculty of the department and to the internal review team. The internal faculty review team considers all the documentation and provides a report back to the department which can include recommendations for curricular changes, as warranted.
Another important mechanism for this ongoing evaluation is the annual learning outcomes assessment report process, by which findings can trigger re-evaluation of curricula. These annual reports are available on WEAVEonline, [4] and student learning outcomes assessments are discussed more fully in Standard 3.3.1.
Supporting Documentation:
1. College Bylaws
2. GSU Procedures for the Creation of New Degree Programs and Majors
3. Academic Program Review
The narrative for 2.7.2, Program Content, includes a more complete description of Academic Program Review.
4. WEAVEonline, Assessment Management System