A Case Study Of Four Years Documenting The Changes In The Process Of Self-reporting Academic Program Plans Alongside The Perceptions of Program Coordinators

Major Advisors: Suzanne Martin, Ph.D., Laura Blasi, Ph.D. Universities in the United States of America are faced with numerous challenges concerning quality assurance such as the quest for Continuous Quality Improvement. Implementation of technology has been a priority of many developing institutions of higher education. A large metropolitan institution of higher education has put into practice a technology based, on-line program quality assessment system, for its academic and administrative programs. This dissertation was a study of the changes reported over four years, 2001-2005, within ten initial teacher preparation undergraduate programs at the College of Education at this institution. Using a mixed method approach, this study addressed the following primary questions: 1. Since the system was introduced; a. Has the process of monitoring quality in the academic units changed? b. If changes have occurred in the program plans, how have they been documented and implemented? 2. What are the limitations/benefits of the system, as perceived by its users? This study is a case for its readers to understand the process of quality improvement as practiced in a college of education within a metropolitan university