The Department of Linguistics & Languages is going through the IQAP process in 2017-18. I agreed to take on the undergraduate component of the self-study and set out to tackle the self-study as a SoTL project. When a colleague at the MacPherson Institute suggested recruiting student partners who would collaborate on the project, I jumped at the idea. The two student partners, Julia and Paige, ran focus groups with our in-course undergrads and conducted interviews with all our faculty members. They also analyzed all the data supplied by IRA.
In August 2017 we presented our findings to the department, so that the faculty can begin deliberating about enhancements and potential changes to the program in response. We identified some misalignments between the stated Program Learning Outcomes and the current course offerings, and offered suggestions for potential enhancements to courses that would address some student needs.
In November 2017, Paige and I gave a workshop about completing IQAP in partnership at the Research on Teaching and Learning (RTL) conference. In Winter 2018, the department finished its self-study report, to which Paige and Julia had made substantial contributions. Paige and I are now working on a paper for submission to the International Journal for Students as Partners, which will document our experience working on the program review process in partnership.
Catherine Anderson, McMaster University 