AALHE 2018 Annual Conference

Graduate program directors and administrators utilize direct and indirect methods to measure program effectiveness. Here we detail a universal methodology designed to collect unbiased direct and indirect program assessment data for students in both master's and doctoral programs strategically using placeholder (zero-credit) courses to assess graduate students' progress toward degree. Within a college of arts and science, graduate students study a wide range of fields and being able to track each student effectively allows for accurate and efficient reporting of data and for data-based decision-making. For example, a zero-credit placeholder course for each program's master's comprehensive exams, college-wide, permits the college to analyze the average time it takes for a student to become eligible for the master's comprehensive exam and pass rates by program, by semester. Faculty may then assess pass rates in conjunction with course offerings. Using a zero-credit placeholder for doctoral students qualifying exams, the program and college can analyze how long it takes a doctoral student to advance to candidacy and determine how long it takes for a student to defend their dissertation after course work completion. We believe this novel methodology provides valuable indirect assessment data to drive curricula review and revision.