Dean’s Report
Department of Information Technology
and Administrative Management
Academic Program Review
December 20, 2005
The Academic Program Review Process
The Academic Program Review is one of the most viable and cogent activities, in which
the faculty of a department engages to assess its programs and its effectiveness as an
academic unit. The assessment includes curricula, instruction, advising, scholarship, and
service. As stated in the preamble to the APR guidelines document, the program review
process “is the faculty’s opportunity to scrutinize itself, to publicize its accomplishments
and examine its shortcomings.” Within the context of the Central Washington University
Strategic Plan, the Academic Program Review process is an opportunity for the faculty
and staff in the department, as well as the college dean and the Associate Vice President
for Undergraduate Studies, to determine the degree to which a department meets the
mission, vision, core values, and strategic goals of the university. Moreover, the
Academic Program Review provides a formal process by which the department’s faculty
and staff can examine their academic activities in the context of their own mission and
strategic goals.
Commendations for the Department of Information Technology and Administrative
Management
The Department of Information Technology and Administrative Management prepares
students for productive and challenging careers in information technology and
administrative management and for a lifetime of creative thinking and adaptive learning
as productive citizens. Within our programs, emphasis is placed on developing
leadership, communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving competencies. Our
mission is accomplished in four ways:
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Providing students with a caring, creative, supportive, and student-centered
learning environment;
Promoting education based on industry and skills standards in the areas of
Information Technology, Administrative Management, Retail Management and
Technology, Fashion Merchandising, and Business and Marketing Education;
Supporting faculty in their teaching, academic advising, curriculum development,
scholarly research, professional service, and community involvement; and
Serving the University and our professional communities with leadership and
distinction.
The department’s mission and goals are compatible and complementary with both the
Central Washington University and the College of Education and Professional Studies
missions and goals. Both the university and the departmental missions acknowledge a
responsibility to prepare students for employment and to serve industry, agencies, and
businesses by providing highly competent employees to lead into the future. Therefore,
the ITAM programs, instruction, advising, scholarship, service, and other professional
activities focus on a foundation of academic preparation, which includes directing
students to principles of resources relating to information technological advancements,
diversity, and informed decision making. The viability and commitment to the university
and departmental visions are strengths and guiding principles, which are manifested
throughout the department and include the following commendations:
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Internship opportunities for students are a major strength in this program. Each
student’s internship provides a transition between the content of the classroom
with the activities in the field.
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Faculty are dedicated to their students. They also understand the dynamic nature
of the field of information technology monitoring and seek their own professional
development to meet curricular and student needs. Faculty are actively involved
in their state, regional and national professional societies.
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Faculty have also worked hard and creatively to maintain and upgrade their
hardware and software programmatic needs. This is particularly noteworthy in an
environment of budget constraints.
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The faculty are also to be commended for their ground breaking work in
developing the Bachelor of Applied Science. This degree is the first one in the
state to meet the needs of students with an applied associate’s degree who want to
expand their employment possibilities through a baccalaureate education.
Recommendations
The following recommendations are based on the ITAM self-study and the report from
the external reviewer:
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The department needs to begin work immediately on assessment of their
programs and students both in terms of entry to the major and end of program
assessment. There is no data to demonstrate what students have learned in their
program.
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There is a critical need to establish an end of program assessment for curriculum
and students. Faculty should consider a capstone course that students take at the
end of their program and which the students will demonstrate having met the
standards established by the faculty. Other options include requiring a student
portfolio, a major field assessment test, or using data gathered through the
students’ internships. It is then critical that the faculty use the data gather through
the end of program assessment to feed back into curricular, personnel, and
resource decisions.
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The department should work with the CEPS Dean and CEPS Development
Officer to establish an Advisory Council made up of faculty, alumni and
professionals in the information technology field. The council will advise
concerning the curriculum, advancements in the industry and employer needs.
This advisory council can also assist the department in the development field to
bring in additional resources such as in-kind gifts or monetary awards. There are
several models of effective advisory councils at the university including the
teacher education professional advisory boards.
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The faculty should conduct a curriculum review with focus on the specializations
and minors. The data on pages 30-32 of the self-study demonstrate the need to
focus on a limited number of majors, minors and specializations. There appears to
be too many specializations and minors without the student enrollments needed to
support the programs. The outside evaluator specifically mentions reviewing
advertising and fashion merchandising as possible outliers for a strong
information technology program. As a part of this curriculum analysis, the
department needs to align their specializations with their current instructional
resources using the strengths of their faculty to create a limited number of student
options.
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Two specific curricular recommendations include reviewing IT 101 and other
lower division courses to ascertain that there is no unnecessary duplication.
Second, faculty need to under take an examination of a broader interdisciplinary
approach to their programs, possibly using course work from other departments to
augment their own curriculum. Specifically mentioned was the need for students
to learn the software, Photoshop, as a part of the information technology
curriculum.
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General Education is an area of both strength and challenge for the department.
Currently the ITAM department is responsible for offering one course in the basic
skills section of the general education program and the computer science
department offers another choice in the same section. The recommendation is that
the ITAM department take the leadership in information literacy and, working
with the computer science faculty, develop standards for information literacy
within the basic skills section of the general education program. Additionally, a
method for students to challenge the competencies taught in these courses should
be established.
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Faculty involvement in scholarship needs to reflect the information technology
field.
Moving Forward
The Department of Information Technology and Administrative Management is one of
quality, strength, and promise. The faculty are dedicated to the students, their fields of
expertise, and to the university. The department has a good professional reputation. Some
of the faculty are known regionally for their scholarship and contributions to their
professional societies. The challenges and recommendations are, therefore, to be used to
enhance the department.
I look forward to working and collaborating with the ITAM faculty, staff, students, and
Department Chair to meet the challenges and to supporting the department as it
progresses to becoming a premier Information Technology provider.