MSCHE/ACOE Self Study

Graduate Program Assessment of Student Learning at Course Level At the course level, assessment of graduate student learning is measured through:  Written examinations  Papers  Oral presentations in seminars  Class participation in seminars  Performance in lab rotations  Oral presentations and participation in Journal Club  Annual oral research presentations  Research proposals Assessment of Student Learning at Program Level At the program level, the primary assessments of student learning include:  Time to graduation Over the past 10 years, 16 students have graduated from the PhD program. The median registered time to graduation for students entering from 1998-2006 was 6 years. This compares favorably with the national median registered time to degree of just under 7 years for the biological sciences (NSF survey). Peer data are not available for programs in vision science, of which there are only a small number in the nation. From 1998-2006, the attrition rate 7 of students in our PhD program was 67% (compared to the 8-year attrition rate of 26% for the life sciences published by the Council of Graduate Schools), while the attrition rate for those students who advanced to candidacy 8 at SUNY Optometry was 33%. For the 12 students who have entered the program since 2007, 11 remain enrolled, with the remaining student leaving after receiving an MS degree. As discussed on page 25, the PhD program has recently undergone a major revision that is intended, in part, to allow admission of students with stronger quantitative backgrounds, making them more likely succeed in a program that has become increasingly more quantitatively oriented. The effectiveness of this change will need to be carefully monitored. For students enrolled in the OD/MS program, 75.5% completed both degrees. Fifty-one percent of those enrolled completed both degrees together after four 7 Attrition rate is defined here as students not completing their degree 8 years after entering the program. 8 Attrition rate is defined here as students not completing their degree 5 years after entering candidacy.  Attrition rate  Publications  Presentations at scientific meetings  Post-graduate placement

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