Transitioning from Compliance to Innovation
Creating a culture for continuous improvement with academic programs is a challenge. As my institution—Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas—prepared for our decennial accreditation review, I found it difficult to motivate faculty to complete the required program reviews for the compliance report. With some cajoling, 41 faculty reluctantly agreed...
Partnering with Student Organizations to Build First-Year Student Engagement: Special Olympics Young Athletes and Merrimack College
Every day, academic leaders make decisions about what kinds of programming college first-year students will find attractive and engaging. Many colleges’ ideas, however, fail to connect to student interest and experience. Part of the reason for this disconnect is generational. The staff and administrators planning these programs are at least...
Colleges and Universities Need to Master Advanced Analytics (Psst… The Smart Ones Already Have)
Those in the trenches don’t need to be told higher education is facing serious challenges, but the reminders are everywhere. As reported by Inside Higher Ed, there’s a growing shortage of our prized input: undergraduates. Meanwhile the value of our output (a degree) is being questioned. A recent Gallup survey found that...
Fostering Innovation with a Hands-Off Approach
Millersville’s Open Education Working Group was initially formed by like-minded faculty, librarians, and staff who wanted to promote the use of OER across campus. The self-assembled group planned events for Open Education Week and organized a virtual conference to help broaden the understanding and use of OER. The group created an Open...
Program Acquisitions: Lessons for Leaders
In my role as dean of the College of Health and Science at Concordia University, St. Paul (CSP), I collaborated in the acquisition of two resource-intensive healthcare programs associated with university closures. In December 2016, CSP began the acquisition process for a pre-licensure nursing program, and, in March 2019, CSP...
How to Talk to Faculty Who Receive Low Course Evaluations
This article is the second installment on conversations about course ratings. The first installment explored how to frame a discussion with a faculty member who receives average ratings semester after semester. This second scenario may be the most challenging for department chairs. It’s the conversation that needs to occur with a faculty...
Reinventing a University and Reputation: Four Lessons Learned
The higher education landscape has changed significantly over the years, causing universities to adapt and reinvent themselves. More than ever, telling a new story through a refreshed brand promise is becoming an integral part of academic conversations. Student demographics are shifting. And universities are seeing new patterns in data, methods,...
Understanding Course Evaluations: Resources for Faculty and Chairs
Despite a great deal of research on course evaluations, institutional policies and practices are not always well informed by that research. Faculty are often not as informed as they should be either. Anecdotal evidence, myth and folklore tend to prevail. It’s good to encourage faculty to learn more about how...
Gaining Cred: Why Universities Should Embrace Micro-Credentialing
I’ll confess, when I first heard about digital badges in the early 2000s, I thought they were kind of silly. I was just starting my career as an instructional systems designer (ISD)—the original title for learning designers. While I had fond memories of my Girl Scout sash, peppered with badges,...
Designing Meaningful Institutional Assessment Plans: Putting It All Together
Institutions with regional accreditation now have access to a great deal of information about developing assessment plans and many fine examples of general education assessments, academic department assessment plans, and a plethora of student affairs and student support assessment plans. But many institutions are lacking in the overall institutional level...
