Abstract:

Webster University receives its institutional level accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission (HLC). To maintain its accredited status, Webster University is required to go through a major accreditation review once every ten years, and its next review will occur in spring 2018. Among the campuses to be visited during this review are St. Louis, Missouri, and Geneva, Switzerland. Both campuses will need to demonstrate that they meet five accreditation criteria established by the HLC. This paper will be concerned with criterion 4, which is devoted to the evaluation and improvement of teaching and learning.

As Arese Visconti and Sandhom-Bark's paper will demonstrate, the most important ingredient that has fostered an alignment of campuses in Webster University's multi-campus environment is the collaboration and personal contact that occurs between individuals across campuses. The paper will discuss the assessment processes of the Media Communications department, supervised by Arese Visconti, and the General Education Program, led by Sandholm-Bark, at the Geneva Campus.

The Media Communications Department is housed by the School of Communications. Its mission is to prepare graduate and undergraduate students who achieve excellence in ever-changing global communication fields. The School provides theory and practice in media and communication courses framed within a liberal-arts-based curriculum, augmented by personalized mentorships and professional development opportunities. There are three Student Learning Outcomes which are common to all the Media Programs of Webster University. By the end of their studies in the School of Communications, students will be able to critically analyze media messages, demonstrate strategic use of media in contest and show creative problem solving through the application of professional knowledge and skills. In order to ensure the consistency of the programs throughout the Webster global network an assessment procedure is in place.

The General Education Program (renamed Global Citizenship Program in 2012) is a multi-disciplinary academic program which oversees courses in the liberal arts. The program's mission is to ensure that students graduate with fundamental knowledge and skills that will enable them to adapt quickly to a changing work environment. To complete the program, students take two seminars - the First-year Seminar as new students and the Global Keystone Seminar as juniors – and eight courses spanning the social, behavioural and human sciences as well as a set of skills (written communication, oral communication, critical thinking, intercultural competence, and ethical reasoning). Students are assessed on their performance in all the courses they take in the Global Citizenship Program. Each student is assessed on specially-designed knowledge and skill rubrics that correspond to the knowledge and skill area for which the course is coded. The assessment data, which is entered into a system called Tk20 - forms the basis of annual reports on each course in the GCP, and that data and those reports are used to determine the continuing fitness of courses for GCP coding and in making decisions to recertify courses on a rotating, tri-annual basis.

This paper will show that, despite its complexity, the assessment process works effectively thanks to the necessary support of the personal communication and collaboration of the individuals involved in the procedure.

Keywords:

Assessment, accreditation, education, process, collaboration.