Criterion 3 - 3.A.

The rigor of the institution’s academic offerings is appropriate to higher education.

3.A.1.
Courses and programs are current and require levels of student performance appropriate to the credential awarded.

IU Southeast confers degrees at the bachelor’s and master’s levels. In some cases, departing qualified students can receive an associate’s degree. For example, associate’s degrees in Liberal Studies, awarded by the School of Arts and Letters, are distributed to students who have stopped out, met the requirements, and have no plans on returning in the foreseeable future. This allows students to receive a credential for their work (24-0185).

Credit hours for program completion are congruent with those required by other IU campuses and professional accreditation bodies. Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees require a minimum of 120 credit hours, 30 of which must be at the 300-400 level. Degrees awarded at the master’s level require a minimum of 30 credit hours earned. Please see the IU Southeast 2021-23 Undergraduate Bulletin (24-0132) and Graduate Bulletin (24-0186) for complete listings of degrees and requirements.

In alignment with Indiana University policy ACA-54 (24-0187), admissions standards at both the B.A. and B.S. levels assure that incoming students are prepared to meet the academic requirements of their programs (Bulletin). Fully qualified high school applicants must have Indiana Commission for Higher Education Core 40 or Core 40 with Honors or Technical Honors (or 28 college preparatory high school courses for non-Indiana residents and those graduating prior to 2011) and at least a 3.0 GPA. Applicants with a 2.5 GPA can be admitted with an SAT score of 950 or an ACT score of 20. Transfer students must have at least a 2.0 GPA to be admitted, and those transfer applicants with fewer than 26 credit hours are required to meet the standards for new incoming students.

Indiana University policy ACA-65 (24-0086) commits the institution to academic and artistic excellence in part through systematically evaluating academic programs, maintaining and expanding program accreditation, and continuously improving curricula using a rigorous and effective assessment process. In addition to the continuous review process managed by the assessment committee, programs undergo regular external review. IU Southeast maintains specialized accreditation for its professional schools: School of Business (AACSB: 24-0143; 24-0527), School of Education (CAEP: 24-0144; 24-0528), and School of Nursing (CCNE: 24-0145; 24-0531). Additionally, the Indiana Department of Education has approved all IU Southeast teacher education programs (24-0428), the Bachelor of Science in Chemistry is accredited by the American Chemical Society (24-0146; 24-0529), our Bachelor of Science in Health Information Management is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (24-0427; 24-0530).The Masters of Clinical Mental Health Counseling program is in the process of being reviewed by CACREP, the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs and the anticipated site visit will be spring 2024 (24-0496). Other programs have a defined review process (24-0188) and are currently on a rotational cycle (24-0189) following a specific timeline (24-0189).

New courses are processed through Indiana University’s remonstrance process, which entails review at the school, campus, and university level (24-0541). The course requests are then published so that faculty may ask questions or raise concerns before new courses are adopted. Faculty may access the Remonstrance List via IU’s central web portal (24-0191). Our faculty/course evaluation system, eXplorance Blue, allows students to give feedback on their educational experience within each course. This information serves as material for self-reflection, pedagogical recalibration, and conversations between deans and faculty members during the annual review process.

3.A.2.
The institution articulates and differentiates learning goals for its undergraduate, graduate, post-baccalaureate, post-graduate, and certificate programs.

IU Southeast began developing institution-wide student learning objectives at the undergraduate (24-0001) and graduate (24-0503) levels in 2022. Ad-hoc committees of faculty and staff were formed to develop these goals, considering both curricular and cocurricular learning outcomes across campus. The preliminary institutional undergraduate learning outcomes were approved by the faculty senate at their November 2022 meeting (24-0192) and finalized in February 2023 (24-0193, p. 1). Degree programs have also developed their own student learning outcomes appropriate for bachelor’s level and master’s level students (for a complete list of program-level learning outcomes aggregated by school, please see: 24-0436).

Degree proposals must include learning goals and assessment plans, a rationale for need, a description of how the newly proposed degrees relate to existing degrees, a description of the program competencies, learning outcomes and a description of an assessment plan (24-0201; 24-0202). Degree proposals go through a general matrix (24-0203) for approval that considers Indiana Commission for Higher Education (ICHE) and accreditor requirements. Faculty craft proposals to update or develop certificates, degrees, minors, or specializations. Once approved by their school and reviewed by the Faculty Senate’s Academic Policies Committee (APC), the proposal goes up for a vote for consideration by the Faculty Senate. After approval at the Faculty Senate level, documents are uploaded into the APPEAR (Academic Program Proposal Evaluation and Review) system by the Associate Vice Chancellor to track additional approvals (24-0205). In total, proposals are reviewed and approved by:

• Department/Division/School Faculty
• University Graduate School (for graduate items)
• Campus Academic Officer and/or Chancellor
• Academic Leadership Council
• Indiana University President
• Indiana University Board of Trustees
• Indiana Commission for Higher Education (ICHE)
• Higher Learning Commission (HLC)

Building a proposal and navigating through the system is described on the Academic Affairs page, and on the Faculty Senate webpage (24-0204).

If a program is online, collaborative, or hybrid, then additional approvals are needed from the Office of Online education (24-0206; 24-0207; 24-0208). The office of Online Education provides a report for all campuses about the status of online approval tracking (e.g., 24-0209). A document representing the developments that have been through this process provides a glimpse of faculty efforts to ensure the currency and responsiveness of degrees being developed to meet community needs (24-0210). For example, during spring 2023, 24 program updates occurred, including 5 new concentrations (Marketing concentration, Finance concentration, Economics concentration, or an Accounting concentration in the BSBA collaborative online program; and a Cybersecurity track for BS in Computer Science), 1 new degree, (collaborative online BS in computer science), 1 new certificate (Organizational Communication), and 1 new minor (Organizational Communication). There were 15 updates to curricula in the form of transcript notations (e.g., reduction in credit hours, changes to BA in English, Nursing BA now accepting any social or behavioral science).

Evaluation of new and existing student learning outcomes (SLOs) occurs according to regular procedures in schools and programs with their own accreditations. Each dean works with their faculty to establish policies to ensure SLO consistency and appropriate level SLOs for coursework are considered (24-0211). The School of Nursing, for example, has a curriculum committee which meets every year and is made up of all faculty. In these meetings, the school reviews existing SLOs to ensure they are being met and revises outcomes based on new needs for nursing students (24-0212). Similarly, the School of Business uses a five-year cycle that consists of a faculty-driven process of discussion, review, and adaptation of the SLOs at faculty meetings, curriculum review committee meetings, and with individual faculty. The school has undergraduate and graduate curriculum review committees as part of its assurance review process (24-0663). The undergraduate and graduate committees are charged with reviewing SLOs and sharing those with faculty for review and voting. The School of Education has a quality assurance team for CAEP standards (Quality Team 1) that oversees content and pedagogical knowledge, including course-level SLOs. Committee members propose and discuss course-level changes in SLOs before bringing suggestions to the faculty (24-0213). Other schools have developed policies for reviewing SLOs. In the School of Social Sciences (24-0214; 24-0217, p. 15) and School of Natural Sciences (24-0215; 24-0216), each program designated as being under review for that year gathers the SLOs for courses that the program has offered in the past three years. Programs will be designated under review once every three years, timed so as not to occur in the same year as program reviews. Programs under review will examine the documents and develop the criteria to differentiate appropriate student learning outcomes for lower-level and higher-level courses appropriate for their discipline. Programs make revisions as necessary to the student learning outcomes in particular courses, the level of courses, or both, to bring their programs into alignment with expectations. Programs then submit a report to their deans outlining both the criteria used to differentiate appropriate student learning outcomes at each level and the revisions made to bring their programs into alignment with expectations.

3.A.3.
The institution’s program quality and learning goals are consistent across all modes of delivery and all locations (on the main campus, at additional locations, by distance delivery, as dual credit, through contractual or consortial arrangements, or any other modality).

IU Southeast SLOs for given courses are consistent across all delivery modes and locations. Delivery modes include face-to-face, online, hybrid, and dual-credit courses offered in local high schools. The location includes the main campus in New Albany, the Graduate Center for Business, Education, Nursing in Jeffersonville, Indiana, Education New Albany, and Education at Greater Clark. The program curricula, course requirements, learning outcomes, assessment, and instructors' credentials are consistent, across delivery modes and locations. Learning objectives are reviewed at the school level and by the AVCAA to ensure that multiple sections of the same course maintain matching SLOs, and feedback reports are delivered back to the schools for review (e.g., 24-0212; 24-0218; 24-0219; 24-0220, 24-0221).

Faculty development support is offered for teaching using different modalities. The Institute for Learning and Teaching Excellence (ILTE) offers local support for instruction of all modalities and for any instructor teaching a course for IU Southeast (24-0664). In addition to face-to-face instruction, a variety of training sessions on hybrid and online teaching are available through ILTE, which has also incorporated Quality Matters (QM) training and rubrics within their guidance for faculty members working in the online realm. QM certification helps to build consistency for courses, regardless of the field. As of June 9, 2023, 65 IU Southeast courses have received QM certification, the most of any of the IU campuses, a number which has only grown in recent years (see table below). QM training has also been incorporated into new faculty orientation (e.g., 24-0542).

In April 2019, Faculty Senate approved a policy that outlines guidelines for online learning by requiring measurable learning outcomes, a five-year course review, and training for faculty teaching online courses. Subsequently, each school developed its own policy for reviewing courses that are taught online. For instance, the School of Social Sciences, in March 2020, approved a procedure for online courses that requires Measurable Learning Objectives, Accessibility, and Interaction (24-0217, pp. 14-15).