What is an academic program?

An academic program is any degree granting (undergraduate, graduate or certificate) program that has been assigned a unique Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code. CIP codes for Appalachian's programs can be found in the Academic Program Inventory (API) on the Registrar's website. For the purposes of assessment, each program level (undergraduate, graduate and/or certificate) is considered its own academic program and should have its own set of student learning goals and outcomes.

Assessment of academic programs is not about assessing the work of an individual student, an individual faculty, or a single course. The focus is on the program.

Policy on the assessment of certificates (updated Fall 2017): All certificate programs are required to have current student learning outcomes (SLOs) for the program in the Plans module of Xitracs and published on the University’s website. If a certificate has published SLOs that are a subset of the SLOs for an undergraduate or graduate degree program, then the certificate program is not required to independently report on the assessment of the certificate program and can merge their assessment reporting site in Xitracs with the corresponding undergraduate or graduate program. If a certificate has unique SLOs (separate from an undergraduate or graduate program), then an annual assessment report is required unless the program has less than ten students enrolled. Please consult with IRAP or your college-level assessment committee/representative for further guidance on the assessment of certificates.