FAR - Results from the Bachelor of Arts (General) Program

2023 IQAP Review of the Bachelor of Arts (General) Program - Final Assessment Report and Implementation Plan

In accordance with the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) Institutional Quality Assurance Process (IQAP), this Final Assessment Report (FAR) provides a synthesis of the external evaluation and internal response and assessments of the undergraduate program offered by the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities in Bachelor of Arts (General). This report identifies the significant strengths of the programs, together with opportunities for improvement and enhancement, and sets out and prioritizes the recommendations that have been selected for implementation.

This report includes an Implementation Plan that identifies who will be responsible for approving the recommendations set out in the Final Assessment Report; who will be responsible for providing any resources entailed by those recommendations; any changes in organization, policy or governance that will be necessary to meet the recommendations and who will be responsible for acting on those recommendations; and timelines for acting on and monitoring the implementation of those recommendations.

Overview of Programme Review Process

The Program Self-Study Report was completed on Sept 19, 2023.  For the program under review (BA General) it contained the degree level expectations for the program, an analytical assessment of the program, course outlines, program-related data, survey data from the Office of Quality Assurance and appendices with sample examinations and CVs of faculty members. Two arm’s-length external reviewers (Erica Fraser, Ph.D. Carleton University, and Robert Smith, Ph.D., University of Alberta) were selected from a list of possible reviewers and approved by the Deans of Social Sciences and Humanities. An internal reviewer, Geoff Pond, Ph.D. from the Department of Management, was also selected for participation on the ERC.  They reviewed the self-study documentation and conducted a virtual site visit to RMC from 29 to 30 January 2024.  During the site visit, the ERC met with the VP Academic, the Director of Quality Assurance, the Dean of Social Science and Humanities, the Program Chair, faculty members, alumni, students registered in the programs under study, the Head of the Writing Centre and the Librarian-in-chief.

The reviewers submitted their report on 26 March 2024.  In their report, the ERC expresses the opinion that the BA (Gen) program is a unique, valuable degree that provides working military professionals, and adjacent civilian government employees, the opportunity to complete a Bachelor’s degree that builds their workplace credentials.

Significant Strengths and Areas of Concern of the Program

The ERC identified a number of strengths of the BA (Gen) program:

1. The online delivery of the program and accompanying flexibility for students;
2. Its interdisciplinary focus; and
3. Its dedicated Program Chair and administrative staff.

The ERC identified a number of areas of concern for BA (Gen) program:

1. The ERC sensed this degree for many students, faculty, and administrators alike is an afterthought or a lesser path than the BMASc or other four-year degrees;
2. The program relies heavily on adjunct/sessional faculty to teach core courses who are not always supported in preparation, delivery of teaching materials, mentorship, and a sense of how their course fits into the BA (Gen) program overall;
3. There does not seem to be any quality control/ support for adjunct/sessional faculty teaching online in particular, and the quality of these courses seems variable; and
4. The Self-Study report as well as conversations with students and alumni confirm that library resources are inadequate for supporting an online degree.

The Program Chair, after consultation with faculty and staff in the programs, submitted a response to the ERC Report in June 2024.  The Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities prepared this Final Assessment Report on 25 September, 2024.  Specific recommendations are discussed, and follow-up actions and timelines provided.

Summary of the Reviewers’ Recommendations with the Dean’s Responses

The ERC identified several areas of concern or issues that require attention.  These issues are discussed in the order that they appear in the ERC Report.

Recommendation 1

We recognize the great value as well as the great potential of the degree and we recommend taking steps to “grow” the degree within RMC by more clearly framing its value (particularly as an online program for working professionals) and increasing its presence within the institution. Further sub-recommendations are as follows:

1. Have the Program Chair serve a longer term, perhaps five years instead of three, to better establish their presence and clout, and to have greater consistency in the program’s administration;
2. Improve communication with units that contribute teaching to the program so that both full-time and adjunct/sessional instructors know that they are teaching BA (Gen) courses, especially those teaching core courses; and
3. As part of improving communication, work with departments offering standardized courses taught by adjunct/sessional instructors to provide clear ways for the instructors to report problems with the course materials.

Departmental Response

1. As noted in the report, the position of Program Chair is new and was a response to a recommendation made in the previous IQAP review (2016). The position was officially filled in 2022; up until that point the BA(Gen) program fell under the hands of the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. The Chair of BA(Gen) has a three-year term which comes with two teaching reliefs per year. If compared to similar positions at RMC this appears to be the norm. A recommendation is also made in the report for the creation of a co-chair position. This position, as presented in the report, would, among other things, help in the planning and administering of Dual Delivery courses. Related to this last point, the Dean of art has created the position of RMC Online Coordinator in 2023. This new position will serve to mend the gap between departments and online programs, such as the BA(Gen), as well as look after the planning and administering the Dual Delivery courses. Since this position was only recently created, we cannot yet speak on the impact it will have on issues highlighted in the report. We do see the creation of this new position as a positive step in the administering of online courses at RMC. As such, we do not feel that the creation of a co-chair position is necessary at this stage. We suggest a reassessment of the RMC Online Coordinator’s impact on the BA(Gen) program at the beginning of the 2025-2026 academic year.
    
2. We welcome very positively the idea of providing the instructors with a 1- page bulletin at the beginning of each semester to present the program’s goals and unique student base. The RMC Online Coordinator has just published an instructor Guide for Online teaching, to which a section detailing the specific characteristics of the BA(Gen)program could be added.
    
3. As a multidisciplinary program, the BA(Gen) offers courses from different departments (Business Administration; History; Psychology; English, Culture, and Communication; Littérature française, langue et culture; Political Science; and Economics). As such, the BA(Gen) is heavily dependent on those programs and on its relationship with the different department heads and chairs. None of the classes fall under the BA(Gen) itself (they remain under the administration of their respective department) and the Chair of the BA(Gen) does not have control over the offering nor the instructors. This sometimes creates confusion among students and instructors. Since the 2016 IQAP report, we have been working to mitigate the issues that arise, especially when it comes to course material. However, we recognize that it is still an ongoing problem. As this is an online program, we do not rely on the RMC bookstore for course material, and we recognize that this has been a source of confusion for instructors and students alike. We do believe however that with the creation of the new RMC online Coordinator, we will now have a clear point of contact that can serve as a bridge between the Department Heads and the Program Chair and facilitate communication. We also want to highlight the tremendous work done by the BA(Gen) Program Representative in the past few years to help the students navigate the issues of course material.

Dean’s Response:     

1. The term of the newly created BA(gen) Chair is three years. We do not intend to change the term at this time, which is in line with the mandate of the other programs offered at the College. If the term were to be extended to five years, we would risk having difficulty recruiting program chairs, who might find such a term too binding in the long term. The practice in many programs at RMC, however, is for chairs to be renewed for a second term, which allows both flexibility for leadership changes if necessary, but can provide continuity for chairs who serve two consecutive terms, for a total of six years.
2. For three years now, the program chairs of the UG programs, including the BA (gen) chair, have been participating in heads+ meetings, which bring together department heads and program chairs on a weekly basis. This is an excellent opportunity to communicate the needs and the challenges of the program and share information with institutional partners and, above all, the departments contributing to the program. In these meetings, the program chairs receive the same information as the department heads and get the same visibility. In addition, the RMC online coordinator participates in the same meetings, which ensures that everyone gets the most recent and unfiltered information. Despite these improvements in communications, we recognise there are still challenges in this regards. We welcome the initiative of providing the instructors with the bulletin and the Guide for online teaching. We will support other initiatives to provide information to all parties involved in the program, including communication with the students.
3. Course improvement is an ongoing concern within the Faculty of SSH. We recognize that some online courses are starting to get a bit dated and could use some updating. We are looking to increase the means to develop courses when the College budget allows.

Recommendation 2

We recommend expanding access to Dual Delivery courses for BA (Gen) students. These courses have a few moving parts, and our recommendation comes with the caveat that any expanded access must not be done at the expense of students who are enrolled in this program because they require asynchronous online courses. Dual Delivery courses, in which both in person and online students can attend the same class, have the potential to expand the number of courses offered for online BA (Gen) students (which both the Self-Study document and students with whom we met identified as a problem). These courses also have the potential to enrich the classroom experience by placing students who would otherwise not have the opportunity to interact in conversation with each other. Further sub-recommendations as follows:

1. Take steps to ensure all faculty teaching Dual Delivery courses get their 1.5 credits per course;
2. Ensure that all Dual Delivery courses that are part of the BA (Gen) degree include quality recordings of lectures or classroom activities, to allow online students with inflexible schedules to watch the videos or submit their assignments according to a more flexible timetable; and
3. Investigate whether Dual Delivery might be a feasible option for increasing the frequency of courses in the BA (Gen) program that currently have low availability, such as Math and Physics.

Departmental Response

1. The report highlights the fact that DD courses have the potential to expand the number of courses offered for online BA(Gen) students. We agree that the course offering for our students could be improved: DD courses have been identified as a potential solution. As such, we welcome the three sub-recommendations made by the ERC. The first sub-recommendation is to ensure that all faculty teaching DD courses get their 1,5 credits per course. As noted in the report, DD courses can be very demanding for instructors. As a response to the 2016 IQAP report, the Dean of Arts implemented a 1,5 credit of teaching for each DD course instead of the standard 1,0. However, the report has shown that these 1,5 teaching credits is not uniformly recognized among departments, which gives less incentive to teach these courses. We fully support this recommendation. The Dean of Arts has done a good job at reminding Department Heads of the 1,5 credits for DD courses. However, it seems that they often get forgotten, which leads to frustration among instructors. However, the Chair of the BA(Gen) has no oversight over instructors, and therefore can only remind Heads of Department of the importance of keeping track of the 1,5 credits. A follow-up will be done on this by the Program Chair, in collaboration with the DL Coordinator, just before the teaching plans are due to the Dean in Winter 2025.
    
2. The ERC highlights the importance of having quality recordings of lectures and classroom activities and flexible schedules and timetables. On the first point, we believe that DD instructors should have priority over multimedia classrooms. It is our understanding that the previous Dean of Arts had made arrangements with RMC Room Booking to ensure that classes identified as DD be automatically given those classrooms. We suggest that the newly appointed RMC Online Coordinator remind RMC Room Booking of the importance of assigning multimedia classes to DD courses. On the second point, instructors offering DD courses can choose to teach their class asynchronously or synchronously. Although we recognize that the former is more suitable to BA(Gen) students and offers a greater flexibility, we recognize that each instructor can decide to teach their classes as they wish. When the synchronous model is preferred, all students - BA(Gen) included - need to comply with the timetable determined by RMC. In order to familiarize instructors with our program and encourage more DD offering, we suggest that the RMC Online Coordinator and Program Chair meet with each of the ten departments to present the program, the students and the options available.
    
3. Discussions are currently underway with the Math Department on this regard. However, the Department of Mathematics is still unsure of what they can offer and when. The Chair of BA (Gen) will keep track of these discussions.

Dean’s Response:     

1. I welcome the recommendation and the three sub-recommendations. I would like to point out that the allocation of 1.5 credits is now systematic for all courses offered in double delivery, at least for courses offered in SSH. It is indicated that there is some frustration that these additional credits are not always compiled. However, the VPA has developed a way to record these credits in the staffing plan. The credits recorded there are honoured the following year.
2. I support the department's response above. I am continuing my predecessor's policy of prioritizing multimedia room allocations to courses offered in DD. I would add, however, that not all courses can be offered in dual delivery mode, due to the significant teaching resources that this approach takes up. At present, the number of DD courses is limited, but if the number were to increase, choices would have to be made. In that scenario, choice will be given to instructors who agree to record their courses to allow students in our online programs to have access to these courses in asynchronous mode.
3. I suggest that not only the chair of the BA(Gen) keeps track of the math course, but also the RMC Online Coordinator.

Recommendation 3

We strongly recommend establishing guidelines and policies concerning the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the classroom, with a focus on this degree program in particular. The BA (Gen) has two key features that incentivize students to use AI in unsanctioned ways: it is an entirely online degree where professors might never meet their students, and it is a degree that students complete in order to access further promotions within the military or civilian defence institutions. Conversations about AI usage in the classroom are happening all over the world right now, of course, and there are no easy answers, but the BA (Gen) degree needs special attention on the matter for the reasons outlined above. To be blunt, its students have particularly strong incentives and opportunity to submit work generated by AI. We are particularly concerned by academic integrity issues around online exams. There are various options for proctoring online exams–for example, Exam Lock and Smart Exam Monitor–and these options should be seriously considered.

Departmental Response

As an institution, RMC has always taken a hard stance on Academic Integrity Violation. Instructors can launch an Academic Integrity Investigation when they believe a violation has been committed. The investigation then goes in front of the Academic Integrity Committee who imposes sanctions when a guilty verdict is reached. We do recognize however that the new AI developments have created a new and larger issue. We also agree that the nature of the BA(Gen) program makes it more conductive to violations. A lot of work in this regard has been done by Lucie Moussu and the GenAI committee. They have provided several documents that can be distributed to students and faculty, such as the instructor guidelines and the student self-assessment. The RMC Online instructor guide aforementioned contains a paragraph that covers this aspect. A link to the documents produced by the Gen AI committee could be added to the RMC Online webpage.

Dean’s Response:

As in all academic institutions, we continue to observe the spectacular developments in AI. It is true that online courses present an additional challenge in this regard due to the lack of supervision of students enrolled in these courses. We will explore the possibilities offered by conducting supervised work or writing exams in sites where proctoring is offered, as was the case at the time of the DCS.

Recommendation 4

As we touched on in point 2.2 above, we recommend growing the program and increasing its diversity and inclusion by further considering the potential appeal of this flexible, online degree to two (overlapping) population groups: military spouses, presumably mostly women, and people with disabilities both in the military and in civilian defence. Military spouses potentially include many younger women who might be at home with children and/or otherwise stationed far from their families of origin; socially as well as academically, studying for an online degree with a military and military-adjacent cohort could benefit these spouses immensely. People with disabilities and/or injuries and medical conditions resulting from their military service could likewise be served well by this kind of flexible degree program. Sub-recommendations as follows:

1. For military spouses, we recommend the program send targeted information at regular intervals (by mail or through community groups) about the BA (Gen) as a unique online opportunity for  spouses to complete a degree from afar;
2. For officer/naval cadets, ensure they are assessed at the end of their second year in the program according to certain benchmarks in the non-academic pillars; and
3. Make every attempt to maintain open communication between BA (Gen) administrators and those for other undergraduate programs regarding this cohort of students, with the goal of minimizing surprise (from BA (Gen) officials and migrating students alike) about these students ending up on a different degree pathway.

Departmental Response

1. Although this discussion goes beyond our program, we do see this as an interesting venue to grow the BA(Gen) program. We now have other examples of programs at RMC opening their public to more than just the military community. The Department of Political Science for example has proposed a new certificate in Law that would be open to all public servants within the Government of Canada. The Chair of BA(Gen) should investigate these possibilities with the Dean of Arts and other Heads of Department who have already engaged in that direction. We also agree that the BA(Gen) needs to be able to better promote the program within the CAF. In the past, BA(Gen) and BMASc sent representatives (the Program Chair or the Program Representative) to military fairs across Canada to promote the program. If we look at the number of registrations for the years this was done, we can see that they were quite successful at recruiting new students. We believe the idea of attending these military fairs should be reviewed with the Dean and budget permitting, we should look into sending a representative to promote the program. This would give more visibility to the BA(Gen) and allow us to reach potential students that we would otherwise miss.
    
2. The report recommends that officer/naval cadets be assessed at the end of the second year and that if some need to be moved to the BA(Gen) it be done before their third year rather than late in their fourth. Unfortunately the Chair of the BA(Gen) has no control over decisions made by the training wing. However the Chair raised the issue with the new Commandant in the Spring of 2023 and was assured that efforts would be made to make the transition to the BA(Gen) in the third-year rather than the fourth. We have also been informed that this assessment would be done in the second-year in order to avoid the unceremonious transfer of students we experienced in 2023-2024.
    
3. Although we recognize that this is, for the most part, out of our hands, we welcome this recommendation wholeheartedly. With the support of the Dean we hope for a more open and complete communication with the training Wing on these transferred students.

Dean’s Response:     

I endorse the answer from the Department. I would simply add that the participation in military and other fairs is conditional to our budgetary capacity and travel cap.

Recommendation 5

We believe it is worth considering some ways to make the program more ‘Student Friendly’ that go beyond the points raised in other recommendations and work towards establishing a stronger ‘Learning Community.’ To this end, we strongly encourage consideration be given to:

1. Short start-of-the-year greetings from the Dean, Program Chair and Program Representative that could be delivered in the form of a 10-minute or so video;
2. Short ‘Meet the Instructor’ videos are posted ahead of the start of a course so that students have some sense of their instructor;
3. Consider certificates and other awards that might be given to students as they progress towards their degree, as both recognition of their efforts and encouragement to continue;
4. Consider hosting and actively maintaining an online social hub particularly for students in the BA (Gen) degree and promoting it regularly (especially at the beginning of each semester);
5. Update and improve the Program website to aid the flow of accurate information to students’; and
6. It seems to us that the lack of timely information for students on what courses will be taught in any year is a fundamental problem that needs to be addressed.

Departmental Response

1. We fully support this idea.
2. This should be added as a suggestion in RMC Online guide given to instructors (recommendation 1).
3. Many departments already do so and present each semester or each year a prize or certificate to the students with the highest grade in each year. With the help of the Program Representative, the Program Chair could do the same with students who enrolled in classes for a certain year. This could be announced through a video on the Online Hub (see sub recommendation 4) or through an email sent by the Chair.
4. We also welcome this recommendation positively. The Program Representative should coordinate with the DL coordinator to see if the RMC Online webpage, which is currently being reviewed, could include this, and/or contact Trevor Wilson (responsible for Moodle at RMC) to create a Moodle page specifically for the BA(Gen) Program. As pointed out in the report, once built, it should not require too much extra time to monitor and answer questions. We suggest this is done by the Program Representative with the collaboration of the Program Chair.
5. We agree with this recommendation. Although much discussion has been had around this topic over the past few years, we have not been able to fully update the RMC Online website. We recognize a lot of work still needs to be done for it to provide accurate and up to date information. We hope that the newly created RMC Online Coordinator will be able to facilitate this work.
6. We also agree with this recommendation. Unfortunately, in the past few years, the lack of coordination between departments and online programs forced the Program Chair and Program Representative to create their own database. As with the previous point, we are confident the RMC Online Coordinator position will allow for better coordination between Online programs and RMC departments when it comes to knowing what courses will be offered in the upcoming terms.

Dean’s Response:     

We appreciate each of the six sub-recommendations and support the responses provided by the program chair. I would simply add that with the help of the RMC Online coordinator, we developed a three-year course offering plan during the winter of 2024. In September 2024, together with the VPA, we also revised the cancellation policy for courses with low enrollment in order to limit last-minute cancellations, or even cancellations of courses before the registration period had even ended. These different strategies should allow students to anticipate when courses will be offered and to better plan their studies.

Recommendation 6

We recommend paying more attention to the as-taught courses offered in the BA (Gen) Degree. In particular, resources available for online teaching have expanded in recent years (e.g., breakout rooms with synchronous online lectures and tutorial sessions or asynchronous group work and written community contributions). As such, there are new opportunities for establishing new pedagogical practices that can enrich the learning environment and help to strengthen what can be termed the ‘Learning Community’ by bringing students together in new ways, as well as improving the means for individual learning.

Departmental Response

Since the pandemic, the way we do online teaching has evolved tremendously. We know that many departments are currently working on updating their online material not only to make sure they are up to date but also to reflect new pedagogical practices in online teaching. We encourage that a part of the departmental budget for the next few years be put aside for that task specifically. The ERC suggests that online teaching workshops be made available to instructors with “lunch and learn” type sessions. We are happy to note that we already have “Lunch and Learn” sessions at RMC and that they’ve offered multiple sessions on online teaching over the past few years. We would like to encourage the new RMC Online Coordinator to work with the people responsible for these sessions to keep offering workshops that could be useful for our instructors and to professors who would like to teach DD courses. The RMC Online Coordinator could then make sure that online instructors are aware of what is being offered to them and let them know that every session can be joined via Zoom.

Dean’s Response:                 

We encourage innovation in teaching and the use of best practices in the field. Software that allows online teaching, not only Zoom sessions, but real tools developed for teaching such as Big Blue Button (or BBB) offer applications that are not always used in our online courses. We encourage training sessions for instructors who want them and the creation of specific Lunch & Learn sessions for online education. The staff of the Writing Center who organizes these sessions is very competent. We will make sure to make their activities known to all teaching staff, including teachers in online programs, so that they also benefit from these professional training sessions.

Implementation Plan

Recommendation	Proposed Follow-up	Responsibility for Leading Follow-up	Timeline for Addressing Recommendation
1. Better integration of the BA(Gen) program within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences	Reassess the RMC Online Coordinator’s impact on the BA(Gen) Add a paragraph detailing the specific characteristics of the BA(Gen) program to the newly published Instructor Guide for Online teaching	Program Chair (both sub-items)	Beginning of the 2025-2026 academic year. Fall 2024
2. Expand access to Dual Delivery courses for BA (Gen) students.	Through DL Coordinator, ensure that all faculty teaching DD courses get their 1,5 credits per course Coordinate with the RMC Online Coordinator to remind RMC Room Booking of the importance of assigning multimedia classes to DD courses. In coordination with RMC Online Coordinator, during the Heads+ meeting, meet with each of the ten departments to present the program, the students and the options available, in order to familiarize instructors with our program and encourage more DD offering. Investigate the possibility of using DD courses toincrease the frequency of courses in the BA(Gen) program that currently have low availability	Program Chair (coordinate with CMRC) Program Chair (coordinate with CMRC) Program Chair (coordinate with CMRC) Program Chair and program representative	Winter 2025, just before teaching plans are due to the Dean Fall 2024 Fall 2024 Fall 2024
3. Establish guidelines and policies concerning the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the classroom, with a focus on this degree program in particular.	In coordination with RMC Online Coordinator, ensure links to the documents produced by the Gen AI committee that pertain to students be added to the RMC Online webpage.	Program Chair, in coord with VPA (to ensure streamlining of policies across the College)	Fall 2024
4. Grow the program and increasing its diversity and inclusion by further considering the potential appeal of this flexible, online degree to two (overlapping) population groups: military spouses, presumably mostly women, and people with disabilities both in the military and in civilian defence.	Investigate the possibility of military spouses and all public servants within the Government of Canada being allowed to register in the BA(Gen) program. Send a program representative to military/career fairs to promote the BA(Gen)	Program Chair (both sub-items)	A/Y 2024/2025 - Mfrc’s for advertising - PSO’s (mixed understanding of RMC). Fall 2024
5. Consider ways to make the program more ‘Student Friendly’ that go beyond the points raised in other recommendations and work towards establishing a stronger ‘Learning Community.	In coordination with RMC Online Coordinator, create of a start-of-the-year greeting from the Dean, Program Chair and Program Representative. This could be in the form of a short, 10-minute video. In coordination with RMC Online Coordinator, add to the Online instructors guide a suggestion to create short “Meet your instructor” videos to be posted at the start of each course on Moodle. Look into the possibility of creating certificates or awards to be given to students as they progress towards their degree. Coordinate with the DL coordinator to see if the RMC Online webpage could include an online hub for the program, and/or contact Trevor Wilson (responsible for Moodle at RMC) to create a Moodle page specifically for the BA(Gen) Program.	Program Chair (all sub-items)	Fall 2024 (all sub-items)
6. Pay more attention to the as-taught courses offered in the BA (Gen) Degree. In particular, resources available for online teaching have expanded in recent years (e.g., breakout rooms with synchronous online lectures and tutorial sessions or asynchronous group work and written community contributions).	In coordination with RMC Online Coordinator and the RMC Teaching and Learning Group, offer workshops that could be useful for our instructors and to professors who would like to teach DD courses.	Program Chair	Fall 2024

Conclusion:

The ERC Report provided positive feedback on the outcomes of the Bachelor of Arts (General) degree and confirmed that the program compares favourably with nine other interdisciplinary, 30-credit (or three-year) BA degrees at Carleton, Guelph, U Ottawa, Laurentian, Queen’s, Athabasca, Lakehead, Windsor, and Waterloo. However, the ERC did identify areas that had room for improvement, and RMC is, or has already taken, taking steps to address the issues raised. RMC will continue to work toward program enhancement and improve student success in the BA Gen program.

The Dean of Social Science and Humanities, in consultation with the Program Chair for BA Gen, is responsible for monitoring the Implementation Plan.