Outcomes
Outcomes are generally what we hope to achieve throughout the APPR process. Some outcomes are directly tied to the process and work, while others may be informed by APPR but happen elsewhere. These can also be short, intermediate, and long-term horizons.
Data collection
- Leverage a third-party consultant for data and information collection.
- Provide a broad overview of the current degree programs and produce a summary review of the university’s portfolio and programs.
- Expand the use of data and predictive analytics that reflects a holistic understanding of programs and informs decision-making.
Process making
- Support unit leaders’ decision-making on academic programs by providing equitable access to data and opportunities to include relevant context as they engage with university protocols and policies for program creation, relocation, sharing, or discontinuation.
- Develop a shared multi-faceted program review process across undergraduate and graduate programs that considers enrollment trends and program impacts across locations, draws upon multiple data points and perspectives, and integrates diverse metrics and sources of information, including metrics not typically used by federal, state, and private entities.
- Enhance understanding of which data and metrics are used to evaluate higher education institutions, their impact, and possible public funding decisions.
- Identify and engage opportunities for future growth, balancing mission-based aspirations with market-based reality.
Guiding Principles
Our work will be guided by the following statements, which reflect the way we will pursue our charge, our interactions with each other, and our engagement with the university community. We are committed to conducting our work by being mission-focused, transparent, collaborative, deliberative, respectful, and resource informed.
- Mission Focus: The APPR project teams value the role Penn State has to provide access to education to the citizens of the Commonwealth and beyond with an academic portfolio of undergraduate, graduate, and professional education across a breadth of disciplines, enriched by the faculty, staff, and students who generate, integrate, apply, and disseminate knowledge that is valuable to society.
- Transparency: The APPR project teams embrace the practice of openly and proactively sharing information, including goal and project statements, working team updates, committee membership, timelines, and progress on goals. A variety of mechanisms, such as websites, newsletters, and a webinar series, will provide opportunities to solicit input and to share information with university stakeholders.
- Collaboration: The APPR project teams construct and engage integrated teams of faculty, staff, students, and administrators to develop the project plan’s scope and sequence, engage with the external consultants, and create and communicate sustainable processes that were built through teamwork and cooperation.
- Deliberation: The APPR project teams invest the time to engage in each facet of the work to ensure there are opportunities to generate ideas and explore possible directions, utilize multiple dimensions and quantitative and qualitative metrics, build in feedback loops, respond to and learn from constituent groups, and consider alternatives.
- Respect: The APPR project teams value the expertise, insights, skills, and perspectives brought by each of its members, and demonstrate that respect in their deliberations within the teams and to the university stakeholders and constituent groups.
- Resource-informed metrics: The APPR project teams understand and acknowledge the important role that resources may play as part of a holistic approach to Penn State’s current and future academic offerings. Such resources may include such internal factors as human resources, facilities, and university finances, as well as external factors such as enrollment trends, community, societal, and market needs.