What is the Self-Study? This is a narrative reflection about your program or department considering feedback from data gathering and analysis phase, while considering future directions, recommendations, and actions. It is reflective and open-ended, telling the story of student learning in an area. Rather than being a business report, it is a reflective document professionally written for an audience external to the College. A template for writing the Self-Study is available here – NIC Self Study Story Outline
Who writes it? The Self-Study is written collaboratively by the Program Review Team. With the support of the Centre for Teaching and Learning Innovation, the Program Review Lead leads the work of the Program Review Team, of pulling together ideas, analyzing the data gathered, collating and synthesizing information, and identifying possible future directions for development of the program area.
When should it be written? The Self-Study is usually written after the Data Gathering and Analysis is completed. That said, some sections could be written before this, for example the
How long do we have to write it? The Self-Study phase normally takes between spring (April) Year 2 and continues to the start of the winter term (January) Year 3.
What should be included? The NIC Self Study Story Outline provides detailed information of what ideally should be included in the Self-Study, for example the values, philosophy and alignment of programs, how the program has developed, is scheduled and delivered etc.
Is there help available to write it? The Centre for Teaching and Learning Innovation can provide support as requested. For more information, contact ctli@nic.bc.ca.
Are there examples available of previous Self-Studies that we can look at? It’s not typical for programs / institutions to share Self-Studies and every institution approaches this slightly differently. That said, there are of course common elements. See University of Toronto – Quality Assurance Process pages 30-33 which address the contents of the Self-Study.
Other useful resources:
BCIT Program Review Manual – section III (pages 24-28)
Ontario Universities Council on Quality Assurance – Quality Assurance Framework– see sections 10 & 11 (Assessment of Teaching and Learning, pages 57-9) + section 16 (Creating an Effective Self-Study, page 71)
