ABSTRACT
Introduction Academic accountability regarding student learning has been increasing and administrators at institutional, state, and national levels others are looking for evidence of student learning beyond course grades (Huisman & Currie, 2004; Middaugh, 2007). Accountability is tied with accreditation, a voluntary quality assurance process (e.g., https://www.voluntarysystem. org/) designed to help higher education institutionsmake curriculumandother improvements in an effort to improve student learning, yet essentially imperative in that the vast majority of academic institutions undergo this “voluntary” process. In most countries, government organizations coordinate the process; in the USA, it has involved peer review by accreditation commissions andmember institutions for more than a century, with the federal government having peripheral involvement (https://www.advanc-ed.org/). Despite concerns of many critics (e.g., Huisman & Currie, 2004; McLendon, Hearn, & Deaton, 2006; Shin, 2010), regular reporting of program goals and student learning outcomes, assessment methods, results, and use of results are expected in present-day academia, one of many challenges in the changing landscape of higher education (Erickson, 2012).
