Accreditation, Curriculum Model, and Academic Audit Strategies for Quality Improvement in Higher Education

Continuous Improvement in Academic Computing Programs is Rarely Comprehensive

“…Three more situation-specific professional development aspects of faculty CI are also addressed: accreditation, quality management, and curriculum design [24]. Faculty's training to effectively perform and complete accreditation-related tasks and activities is relevant for those programs that actually apply for accreditation.…”

“…The struggle to fit anything else into a schedule is real and usually results in faculty's resistance to any form of new CI efforts [8]. One way to overcome this challenge is to provide faculty with just-in-time training on accreditation tasks and tools [24], [34]. Embedding a pedagogical expert with the faculty is another approach to help ease the time scarcity problem [30].…”

“…Course: Since most of a student's learning is conducted in a classroom for a course, course CI is considered the nucleus of CI throughout a computing department [23], where all CI efforts eventually contribute to better course offerings. Course CI is often presented as part of a wider curriculum CI plan [24], [31], [34], [36]. Improving the curriculum and its objectives will help improve individual courses [24], [32].…”

“…Course CI is often presented as part of a wider curriculum CI plan [24], [31], [34], [36]. Improving the curriculum and its objectives will help improve individual courses [24], [32]. From an almost opposite perspective, course CI is sometimes presented as an independent process [37] reflecting an existing perception that each instructor fixes and changes their own course in isolation [36].…”

“…CI of curriculum also generates data that benefit other CI components. Changes and improvements in a curriculum highlight both required and outdated faculty skills [24], [32]. A computing program can help their faculty acquire those skills or hire new faculty members who already have them.…”