Response Report to the Visiting Committee (Web)

Response to the SACSCOC 2013 Report of the Reaffirmation Committee Recommendation 1 3.3.1.1 Institutional Effectiveness - Educational Programs The institution identifies expected outcom

TEXAS WOMAN’S UNIVERSITY

DENTON – DALLAS – HOUSTON

Response to the 2013 Report

of the Reaffirmation Committee

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools

Commission on Colleges

Response to the SACSCOC

2013 Report of the Reaffirmation Committee

On-site Committee Visit April 9 – 11, 2013

Texas Woman’s University

304 Administration Drive Denton, TX 76204

Submitted by: Dr Barbara D’Auria Lerner, TWU SACSCOC Liaison

Table of Contents

Introduction ii

Instructions for Electronic Viewing ii

Response to the SACSCOC 2013 Report of the Reaffirmation Committee 1

Recommendation 1 1

3.3.1.1 Institutional Effectiveness - Educational Programs 1

Recommendation 2 3

3.3.1.2Institutional Effectiveness - Administrative Support Services 3

Recommendation 3 5

3.3.1.3 Institutional Effectiveness - Academic and Student Support Services 5

Recommendation 4 8

3.3.1.5 Institutional Effectiveness - Community and Public Service within its Mission 8

Recommendation 5 10

3.3.2 Quality Enhancement Plan 10

Recommendation 6 12

3.3.2 Quality Enhancement Plan 12

Recommendation 7 16

3.7.1 Faculty Competence 16

Introduction

TWU provides this response to the SACSCOC 2013 Report of the Reaffirmation Committee

to address the seven recommendations that were identified The hardcopy of TWU’s

response does not include the supporting documentation; however, the electronic version

provided with this document includes hyperlinks to all supporting materials

Instructions for Electronic Viewing

TWU wants your review to go as smoothly as possible The following instructions will make navigating and viewing files much easier All of the documents have been provided in

electronic format on a USB drive, which contains the following documents:

• Response to the SACSCOC 2013 Report of the Reaffirmation Committee

• TWU’s original Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP)

Although not required, there are four steps that will optimize your experience viewing the

PDF document First, it is recommended that you have the most current version of Adobe

Reader or Adobe Acrobat Pro The free Adobe Reader version is available online at

http://www.adobe.com/products/reader.html Second, when you click on a link, a PDF file should open in a new window If the file does not open in a new window, you will need to

modify your Adobe Preferences (see instruction A) Third, when you click on a link you may

receive a security warning that states, “This document is trying to connect to…” You may

click the Allow button; or, if you would like to disable these alerts, you will need to modify your Adobe Preferences (see instruction B) Finally, to avoid damaging the files on the

TWU-provided USB drive, use the eject feature of your operating system before removing

the drive (see instruction C)

A Open Links in New Window

Navigate to Edit > “Preferences”

Select “Documents” and uncheck box for “Open cross-document links in same window”

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C Ejecting USB for Mac Ejecting USB for Windows

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Response to the SACSCOC 2013 Report of the Reaffirmation Committee

Recommendation 1 3.3.1.1 Institutional Effectiveness - Educational Programs

The institution identifies expected outcomes, assesses the extent to which it achieves these outcomes, and provides evidence of improvement based on analysis of the results in

educational programs, to include student learning outcomes

Findings of the On-Site Reaffirmation Committee

TWU provided the On-Site Reaffirmation Committee with 2011 reports of all programs, with the exception of certificate programs In addition, TWU provided a sample of reports from its former Academic Institutional Effectiveness System (AIES) With the exception of

certificate programs, the reports provided were sampled in such a way as to represent all

degree levels and all of TWU’s colleges The relative newness of TWU’s Academic

Institutional Improvement System (AIIS), does not yet allow for the documentation of

evidence of improvement However, when considered in conjunction with the AIES, TWU is able to document the on-going nature of TWU’s assessment of educational programs,

including student learning outcomes The On-Site Reaffirmation Committee recognizes that the new AIIS represents an attempt by TWU to implement a more effective assessment

documentation process The On-Site Reaffirmation Committee also acknowledges that TWU has a plan to begin to assess its certificate programs; however, this process has not yet been fully implemented and no reports of results or use of results are yet available

The Committee recommends that the institution document that it assesses the extent to which it achieves outcomes in its certificate programs and provide evidence of

improvement of its certificate programs based on analysis of the results, to include

student learning outcomes (Recommendation 1)

TWU Response

TWU’s response addresses two areas specific to the Comprehensive Standard 3.3.1.1

recommendation: (1) actions taken since receipt of the Report of the Reaffirmation

Committee and (2) an action plan that will ensure the standard is met

Actions Taken

TWU offers 27 certificate programs and enrolled a total of 88 “certificate only” students in Spring 2013 To implement student learning outcomes (SLOs) assessment of these certificate programs, the Director of Academic Assessment (DAA) briefed the TWU Council of Chairs

[1 - see item 9] on the certificate assessment process and introduced the Academic

Institutional Improvement Assessment Plan – Certificate Programs (AIIAP-CP) template [2]

and a timeline for implementation [3] Subsequently, the Academic Council, chairs, directors, and certificate program faculty coordinators received two communications detailing

certificate program SLOs assessment at TWU [4][5], accompanied by copies of the

assessment plan template [2], timeline for implementation [3], and a Guidelines for

Preparing the TWU AIIAP-CP[6] resource for development of the assessment plans

The DAA conducted orientation sessions on the development of the assessment plans [7] for chairs, directors, and/or certificate program faculty coordinators in May 2013 to outline

expectations, provide clarification of the assessment plan sections, and recommend potential strategies to use in development and implementation of the plans

Program faculty developed certificate program SLOs assessment plans during Summer 2013 The DAA provided feedback on initial plan drafts and met with individual faculty and/or

academic units to clarify expectations and assist in the development of the plans

Certificate program faculty coordinators submitted assessment plans at the beginning of the Fall 2013 semester The TWU Academic Institutional Improvement – Certificate Program

Audit Spreadsheet [8] identifies the (a) responsible academic unit, (b) certificate program

level, (c) certificate name, and (d) direct access link to each assessment plan

Action Plan

To ensure accomplishment of the CS 3.3.1.1 recommendation, TWU developed an action

plan [9] that delineates steps to be taken and a schedule for achieving the plan The first

Academic Institutional Improvement Reports will be submitted in Spring 2014 Certificate program SLOs assessment at TWU is now comprehensive, systematic, and fully integrated into the Institutional Improvement assessment system

Supporting Documentation

[1] Council of Chairs Minutes – April 19, 2013

[2] Academic Institutional Improvement Assessment Plan – Certificate Programs

[3] Timeline for Certificate Program SLOs Assessment Implementation

[4] Email – Student Learning Outcomes Assessment of Certificate Programs

[5] Academic Assessment Official Roll-Out Letter

[6] Guidelines for Preparing the TWU AIIAP-CP

[7] AIIAP-CP Orientation Session PowerPoint

[8] Certificate Program Audit Spreadsheet

[9] Action Plan to Accomplish SACS-COC CS 3.3.1.1 Recommendation

Recommendation 2 3.3.1.2 Institutional Effectiveness - Administrative Support Services

The institution identifies expected outcomes, assesses the extent to which it achieves these outcomes, and provides evidence of improvement based on analysis of the results in

administrative support services

Findings of the On-Site Reaffirmation Committee

The Off-Site Reaffirmation Committee reviewed the document provided for assessment of

administrative support serves and was unable to clearly identify the on-going assessment and use of results The institution provided several examples of annual assessment reports dated March 2013, but did not provide evidence of an assessment process that documents annual goals, the extent to which these goals are achieved and evidence of improvement based on

results There were no prior assessment reports available to evaluate progress

TWU provided the On-Site Reaffirmation Committee with a sample of assessment reports The reports provided are from March 2012 and January 2013 While the evidence provided demonstrates the wide-spread implementation of the new assessment process, the majority of the improvements documented in the March 2012 and January 2013 reports are presented in future tense, indicating the improvements are yet to be implemented In addition, little

evidence is provided to support the evaluation and use of results prior to the implementation

of the new process Only a few reports from the previous system were provided as part of the Focused Report and most of those reports dated back to 2003-2004 Interviews conducted with the Associate Provost for Institutional Improvement and Vice President of Student Life indicated that while reports had not been centrally collected, many of the units were engaged

in ongoing improvement, planning and assessment In an effort to document this, the on-site team requested previous reports from units specifically selected to cut across TWU divisions While TWU did provide reports, the majority of the reports did not sufficiently document the use of results for improvement Furthermore, several units did not document that they have a systematic assessment process in place

The Committee recommends that the institution provide evidence of the use of

assessment results for improvements in its administrative support services units

(Recommendation 2)

TWU Response

TWU introduced a new integrated and comprehensive assessment program for monitoring

the effectiveness of administrative service units in Fall 2011 This program, overseen by the Associate Provost for Institutional Improvement, has produced widespread participation

among the 20 administrative support units involved At the time of the on-site visit of the

Reaffirmation Committee, the first two cycles of reports had been received and were

presented as evidence for ongoing assessment Since then, a third cycle of reports has been received with full participation, illustrating the maturation of a robust process [1]

Ongoing Process

At the macro level, all units submit progress reports and dashboards twice yearly, in January and in July These reports and dashboards are collected centrally in the Office of

Institutional Improvement and are reviewed for broad-scale progress on stated goals

At the micro level, each unit determines its own process for regularly reviewing assessment data and the use of results to manage improvement For example, Institutional Development

[2] tracks and reports four meaningful measures to the Chancellor and President on a

monthly basis and to the Board of Regents every quarter Development staff record

fundraising requests and gifts received, entering information into a database to facilitate

analysis and reporting These data are reviewed at monthly staff meetings and are used to

measure the effectiveness of TWU’s fundraising strategies while providing constant feedback about progress towards goals As a second example, Technology Service Desk staff track

four meaningful measures [3] These measures are used to compare TWU’s performance

with industry standards The staff collaborate regularly (weekly at the work group level and biweekly at the department level) with immediate and senior leadership, with other Office of Technology work groups, and with members of the university community to evaluate

performance and steer the Service Desk in a direction of continuous improvement and

customer satisfaction

Use of Results for Improvement

As a result of these macro and micro processes, which involved making tactical and strategic decisions during the past six months, both units reported improvements on their meaningful measures during the July 2013 reporting cycle For instance, in Institutional Development, both the number of gifts and donors, that had fallen to all-time lows during 2011-2012,

showed increases in response to the strategy of engaging and targeting younger alumni in

fundraising efforts In the example of the Technology Service Desk, both the call

abandonment rate and the first contact resolution rate improved as a result of the strategic

decision to implement Footprints, a new information technology services management

system that has empowered service agents to be more efficient The attached table

summarizes the processes and use of results for improvement in these units, as well as all

other units featured in the Focused Report [4] Sample reports from July 2013 detail the full processes, actions, and results ofongoing monitoring and improvement activities in Facilities Management and Construction, Enterprise Programming and Reporting, and the Office of

Research and Sponsored Programs [5] Sample reports from March 2012 and January 2013

are included from the Focused Report as a point of reference [6]

Supporting Documentation

[1] I2 Activity Update July 2013

[2] I2 Development Report July 2013

[3] I2 Technology Service Desk Report July 2013

[4] I2 Sample Processes and Use of Results for Improvement

[5] I2 Sample Reports July 2013

[6] I2 Sample Reports March 2012 and January 2013

Recommendation 3 3.3.1.3 Institutional Effectiveness - Academic and Student Support Services

The institution identifies expected outcomes, assesses the extent to which it achieves these outcomes, and provides evidence of improvement based on analysis of the results in

academic and student support services

Findings of the On-Site Reaffirmation Committee

The Off-Site Reaffirmation Committee reviewed the document provided for assessment of

academic and student support services and was unable to clearly identify the on-going

assessment and use of results The institution provided several examples of annual

assessment reports dated march 2012, but did not provide evidence of an assessment process that documents annual goals, the extent to which these goals are achieved and evidence of improvement based on results There were no prior assessment reports available to evaluate

a cyclical process of institutional effectiveness or clear documentation of sampling

strategies The annual reports document prior year performance but it was not described

within a process of continuous improvement

TWU provided the On-Site Reaffirmation Committee with a sample of assessment reports The reports provided are from March 2012 and January 2013 While the evidence provided demonstrates the wide-spread implementation of the new assessment process, the majority of the improvements documented in the March 2012 and January 2013 reports are presented in future tense, indicating the improvements are yet to be implemented In addition, little

evidence is provided to support the evaluation and use of results prior to the implementation

of the new process Only a few reports from the previous system were provided as part of the Focused Report and most of those reports dated back to 2003-2004 Interviews conducted with the Associate Provost for Institutional Improvement and Vice President for Student Life indicated that while reports had not been centrally collected, many of the units were engaged

in ongoing improvement planning and assessment In an effort to document this, the on-site team requested previous reports from units specifically selected to cut across TWU divisions While TWU did provide reports, the majority of the reports did not sufficiently document the use of results for improvement Furthermore, several units did not document that they have a systematic assessment process in place

The Committee recommends that the institution provide evidence of the use of

assessment results for improvements in its academic and student support units

(Recommendation 3)

TWU Response

TWU utilizes the same new, integrated, and comprehensive program introduced in Fall 2011 for monitoring the effectiveness of academic and student support service units as for

administrative support units This program, overseen by the Associate Provost for

Institutional Improvement, has produced widespread participation among the 22 academic

and student support units involved At the time of the on-site visit of the Reaffirmation

Committee, the first two cycles of reports had been received and were presented as evidence