Accreditation Seminar- Dubai- Resolving Practical Issues in Accreditation

7/29/2019 Accreditation Seminar- Dubai- Resolving Practical Issues in Accreditation

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The Keys toResolving Practical Issues

in Accreditation


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Training Overview

Introductions

Getting to Know You Survey

Accreditation Defined Stages of Accreditation

AccreditationA Self Evaluation Identifying your Audience

Determining Beliefs Key Action Exercise

Plan & Implementation Create a Culture

Provide Strong Leadership Funding is Essential

Select the Right People

Support Your People

Establish Structure


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Training Overview

Organizational Conditions of Accreditation

Key Action Exercise

Common Accreditation Concerns Assessing Student Learning

Transfer of Credit Qualified Faculty

Partnering Principles


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Getting to Know You

Introductions

Name

Title

University/College

What you want to take away from this training.

Getting to Know You Survey


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Accreditation Defined

Accreditation is built upon a core set oftraditional academic values and beliefs.

Higher education institutions have primaryresponsibility for academic quality;

Institutional mission is central to judgments ofacademic quality;

Institutional autonomy is essential to sustainingand enhancing academic quality; and

Academic freedom flourishes in an environment ofacademic leadership of higher education.


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Stages of Accreditation

Inquiry

Application

Candidacy

Self Study Report

Team Visit

Team Report

Post Evaluation Assessment

Response

Accreditor Action Ongoing Reporting


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Accreditation A Self Evaluation

Organizational Commitment to Accreditation

In order for any organization to be successful inseeking and obtaining accreditation, there must bea commitment from all levels of leadership, facultyand staff to comply with accreditation standards.

Management must endorse and communicate thebenefits and challenges that accreditation willpose.


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Accreditation and the self study process requiresstrong presidential and board support.

The president and board are expected to havehigh expectations for institutional learning fromthe self-study process.

Without these expectations, self-study can becomea compliance activity.

Clear evidence of support inspires stakeholderengagement.


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Accreditation draws on the expertise andcredibility of recognized leaders at the institution.

As does any task important to the institution,effective self-study taps the talents andcommitments of leaders who make the effortcredible.

This is not a one man band. Leaders mustgenerate and support the involvement of others.

Leaders must call on people with expertise whocan make the process both efficient and effective.


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Accreditation and self-study requires evidence toshow that the standards are being met.

The accuracy and quality of an institutionsresponse to the standards are contingent upon itsproduction of substantive evidence that isevaluative.

Documentation must be collected and analyzedfrom all sources, departments and the community.

An evaluative self-study connects and interpretsdata and makes judgments about fulfillment of thestandards accordingly.


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The Self-Study Stage poses the greatestchallenges.

An effective self-study process builds on the

context of the institution and its ongoingplanning.

In order to obtain and maintain accreditationinstitutions must first conduct a through selfevaluation.

Continuous

Accreditation is ongoing and provides the foundationfor continuous institutional improvement.


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Achieves stated goals that guide the design andthe conduct of the process.

Knowing what is to be accomplished through theself-study process helps an institution remainfocused.

This means that goals shape the design and theprocess, rather than emerge from them.

Moreover, to create successful strategies,participants need to understand the goals.

Effective self-studies typically have a limitednumber of recognizably significant goals.


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Promises to have an impact on the institutionbeyond the site visit.

A self-study process ultimately connects to aninstitutions ongoing visioning, budgeting, andplanning processes.

Highly effective self-study processes producefindings and recommendations that the institutionshould address.

When the leadership of the institution affirms thatthe self-study report will be a living documentrather than gathering dust on a shelf, theinstitution will grow and flourish.


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Accreditation via self evaluation engages multipleconstituencies of the institution.

An institution is best seen through multiple lenses.

A successful institution involves the work of many.

Contributions of the various constituencies makethe whole greater than the sum of its parts.


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Builds naturally on existing and ongoing self-evaluation processes.

A well-designed self-study builds on what isalready in place, adding to it or, sometimes,transforming it into a more effective means ofevaluation.

Makes use of data that already exists somewherein the institution, whether in the institutionalresearch office or another area that routinely or

periodically gathers information for reporting orinstitutional use.


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Identifying your Audience

A well-designed self-study report may have manyaudiences, but the Accreditor is obviously one ofthe more important.

The self study bears the weight of providing

evidence that the institution warrants a grantof accreditation.

It allows the evaluation team to conduct anefficient visit and informs the people who

participate in the review and decision-makingprocesses.

The self-study report links solidly with thefindings produced by the self-study process.


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Identifying your Audience

The self-study process requires the institutionscommitment to peer review. In evaluating both the comprehensiveness and the

integrity of the self-study report, team members discoverhow seriously the institution approaches peer review.

A team also takes into account the quality of thedocumentation an institution provides.

Collectively the team evaluates, votes and consultsregarding the content of their report.

The team report reflects strengths and challenges, and ifapplicable how subsequent evaluation teams measured acolleges commitment to peer review in part by how theinstitution had maintained those strengths and remediedthe challenges.


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Determining Beliefs

Key Action 1

INDIVIDUAL EXERCISE

Qualities of your Institution

Students and Their Performance Institutional Effectiveness

Areas of Improvement

Survey ofBeliefs

GROUP EXERCISE Top 5 Shared Beliefs

Impact of these Beliefs

Evidence

DeterminingSharedBeliefs


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Create a Culturethat Encourages

& SupportsAccreditation

Provide StrongLeadership

Funding IsEssential

Select the RightPeople

Support YourPeople

EstablishStructure

Plan & Implementation


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Create a Culture

Create an innovative mindset among all participantsinvolved in this endeavors.

It is crucial everyone that is involved is excited about theprocess and view themselves as innovators.

Note, these individuals are taking a risk, and movingaway from the security of what they know they can doeffectively.

These individuals should be commended for taking onthe challenge, and provided with an opportunity to

explore, try new out new ideas, and take risks in a safe,supportive environment.

In turn, they can then communicate this approach totheir colleagues, students, governing bodies and in theself-study report.


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Provide Strong Leadership

Institutional leaders must:

Create the stated institutional goals or outcomesfor the process and set clear timeframes.

Identify anticipated changes or improvements thatneed to be integrated into the self-study process.

Make explicit the institutions values and culturethat the self-study process must honor.

Understand all compliance components of variousgoverning bodies.

Establish a steering committee.


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Provide Strong Leadership

Very early, the leaders and the steeringcommittee portray a united front.

Define the expected outcomes of the process.

Stress transparency both good and bad.

Timeframes.

Set reasonable timelines with the steeringcommittee for all stages of the process.

Tasks to be done.

It is good practice for the leadership to provide aformal written charge to the steering committeeand its coordinators and to make the chargeknown to the within the institution.


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Funding is Essential

Budget for the process.

The budgeting process should be realistic,accounting for anticipated direct costs, and takinginto account a variety of indirect costs.

Successful self-study processes usually includefunds to cover such things as attendance atworkshops, annual meetings and programs toreward and recognize those who oversee theprocess.


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Select the Right People

The steering committee should include peoplewho are:

Experienced with accreditation, including, ifpossible, a few veterans who did it a decadeearlier;

Able to focus on the institution, mitigating againstsilo-thinking;

Recognized for their credibility within the

institution; and

Highly visible and influential within the institution.


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Establish Structure

Establish and Use Effective Structures, Processes,and Techniques

Create reporting structure;

Create subcommittees or small working groupswith specific tasks or projects;

Use technology for data collection, communication,and networking; and

Coordinate all processes within the larger self-study process.


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Establish Structure

Steering committee must coordinate effective datamanagement.

Create an inventory of existing collections of data in theinstitution.

Avoid multiple surveys that overburden students, faculty,and staff, and result in diminishing returns.

Support the gathering of new data that speak toinstitutional trends.

Collect evidence-building data throughout the process.

Overseeing effective use of the budget for the self-studyprocess.


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Establish Structure

Writing the Report

Choose one or more writers/editors and clearlydefine their responsibilities.

Create a timeframe for writing, and createstrategies for review and revision.

The timeframe should allow for multiple drafts,and the review and revision should involve thesteering committee, the leadership, and others

identified by the steering committee.

Develop the strategy for providing data in thereport. The steering committee, not thewriter/editor, should determine what evidence

must appear in the report.


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O i ti l C diti f


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Organizational Conditions ofAccreditation

Exercise

Resources and Support Systems

Policies and Procedures

Quality Information

Effective Leadership

Faculty


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Common Accreditation Concerns

Effectively Assessing Student Learning

Transfer of Credit

Qualified Faculty

Effective Faculty Committees



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Assessing Student Learning

Assessment of Learning Outcomes:

The institution defines and assesses theknowledge, skills, and competencies acquired byits learners both from the curriculum and fromlife/work experience in order to assign credit and

confer degrees with rigor.


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Transfer of Credit

Each institution determines its own policies andprocedures for accepting transfer credits,including credits from accredited and non-accredited institutions.

An institutions periodic review of its transferpolicies and procedures should include evaluationof their clarity to those who administer them, tothe students who follow them, and to employersand other stakeholders.

It should also include the consistency of theirinterpretation and application throughout theinstitution, and their responsiveness to new typesof learning opportunities outside institutions ofhigher education.


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Transfer of Credit

Transfer of credit policy should contain clear andaccurate information on the following:

Minimal acceptable grades and/or grade pointaverage.

Types of courses that will be considered, includingany courses offered outside of an institutionalsetting, such as those offered by the military, inthe workplace, through apprenticeship and/ortraining programs

Any options for earning credit through recognized

certification examinations Any limits on the number of courses or credit

hours that can be accepted for transfer and/orhow recently the coursework was taken.


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Transfer of Credit

Transfer of credit policy should contain clear andaccurate information on the following:

Any requirements for comparability of programcontent to the program in which the student willenroll.

Documentation that will be required, e.g.,transcript, catalog, syllabi, or course outlines.

Procedures to be followed when requestingtransfer of credit.

Procedures to be followed when appealing transfer

of credit decisions. Methods by which tuition and fees are adjusted.

A description of any fees assessed for testing,evaluation, or granting transfer of credit.


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Qualified Faculty

Accreditors and their evaluators considerqualified faculty as people who by formaleducation and tested experience know whatstudents must learn.

Faculties create the curricular pathways throughwhich students gain the competencies and skillsthey need.


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Qualified Faculty

Knowing What Students Must Learn

Within a specific discipline or field of study,knowing what students must learn refers to afaculty members ability to understand and conveythe essentials of the discipline that a student

should master at various course and programlevels.

Qualified faculty engage professionally withcolleagues in determining the specific, statedlearning objectives for all graduates of a specificprogram or degree awarded.

Qualified faculty also know the broad learningobjectives of the college or university for all of itsstudents.


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Qualified Faculty

Qualified faculty develop curriculum that allowsstudents to gain a breadth of knowledge andskills and the exercise of intellectual inquiry.

Qualified faculty are able to determine the

usefulness of curricula to students who live andwork in a global, diverse, and technologicalsociety.

Qualified faculty not only know what students

should learn but whether and how much theylearn, since an institution should be able to provideevidence of student learning and teachingeffectiveness that demonstrates it is fulfilling itseducational mission.


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Qualified Faculty

Using Tested Experience as a Basis forDetermining Qualified Faculty

Tested experience implies that some objectivemeasure ensures knowledge and expertise aresufficient for the program taught. For example:

A faculty member teaching BA courses in HR mightnot have a degree in business, but can provideevidence of effective work as a practicing laborrelations attorney;

A faculty member teaching AA courses in IT, may

not possess a graduate degree, but this personmight have the industry certification and years ofpractical work experience;

A faculty member teaching clinical MA coursesmight not have a PhD in education but, hasdocumented recognition of excellence in teaching;


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Faculty Committee

Before recommending new or revised curriculum thecommittee should assesses the following criteria: How does this new program fit within the mission?

Are resources currently available to support this program?

What are the admission standards for students entering thisprogram?

What are the student learning outcomes for this program?

What are the employment opportunities of program graduates?

Are current faculty qualified to teach this program?

Are current classrooms and labs adequate to offer this program?

Are current facilities/space capable of supporting this program?

Are the educational institutions library and/or learning resources

capable of supporting this program? Are there any special challenges to offering this program?

Will current faculty have the time to develop the new program?

Will current staff have the time to support the new program?

Is there a commitment of support from corporate, management,faculty, and staff for the new program?


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Institutions engaged in or planning to engage indeveloping campuses or moving educationalprograms abroad need to consider the following:

The accredited institution is responsible forwhatever is done in its name.

The accredited institution bears the responsibilityto assure that the international entity does notclaim for itself or infer any accredited status otherthan that held by the accredited institution.

The accredited institution is expected to bear the

costs of reviews and visits required by theAccreditor.

The accredited institution must supplant its statedcriteria and requirements for accreditation uponthe partner.

Documents

Accreditation Seminar- Dubai- Resolving Practical Issues in Accreditation