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of particular help: Professional standards for the various programs can be mapped to learn- ing rubrics and the scores can be auto-generated by the online assessment system for easy reporting when it’s needed.
Other technologies in play include IBM SPSS for predictive modeling; Digital Measures Activity Insight for faculty annual activity reporting and as the system of record for facul- ty workload; and SNAP Surveys to administer paper and online surveys.
In 2013, the university became more tena- cious with moving the needle on student suc- cess by forming a “student success taskforce.” That group posed 19 compelling questions to Ben-Avie, generating several reports from Assessment and Planning, the first done within a month and the others within a few months. Those results led, he said, “to very major chang- es in how we do business.” The advisement cen- ter was changed; an academic success center replaced the traditional structure for tutoring; a role for a financial literacy coordinator was cre- ated; changes were made to how the university approaches remedial math; and on and on.
A key to success for an initiative like this, Ben- Avie said, is “time and patience.” Longitudinal cohort studies “are very complex. They have to be constantly maintained, constantly checked for accuracy. But here’s the advantage: When the university has a question, there’s no need to scramble to find the data,” he noted.
More importantly, the emphasis on data has allowed the institution to shift its mindset to “that which is amenable to change” instead of focusing on student profiles, asserted Ben-Avie. “We can’t change students’ high school experi- ences. We can’t change their demographic pro- files. We can’t change their parent income lev- els. We can’t change their ethnicity. Looking at that which is amenable to change and demon- strating again and again that far more important than these unchangeable characteristics are the experiences they have on campus, relationships that we form with the students — [that] gives us a sense of empowerment that we can make a difference in these students’ lives.”
Dian Schaffhauser is a senior contributing editor for Campus Technology.
Watson’s “starting points”
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