Transcript MS 2016 meeting powerpoint

SELF-STUDY
WORKSHOP
Middle States Conference
December 3, 2014
First Draft
• Bullets: Don’t worry about prose
• Structurally/visually map out the following: 1) data sets, 2)
analysis, 3) summations of findings, and 4)
suggestions/recommendations (if appropriate).
• Summation: Where we are and what we need to move
forward – issues of institutional improvement – what’s
going on now?
• Ensure that all topics relate back to the enhancement of
the student learning experience and support the overall
student experience.
• All institutional planning and governance support
students!
Research Questions
• To be continually revised/reformulated.
• As work groups conduct research and engage with
community, new research directions will open.
• Additionally, if the work group identifies things needing
change, then address them NOW. It may be possible to
make changes and implement tactics NOW, rather than
writing it as a recommendation and needing to report on it
in the Periodic Review Report.
Narrative Tone
• Informative, not evaluative
• Description for a novice audience
• User-friendly
• Simply presented tables and charts
• No footnotes – use hotlinks (hotlinks as .pdf)
• There will be redundancies!
• Glossary for institutional acronyms
• Organizational chart
• List of planning units and the responsibilities of each.
Tenses
• Reflection/Present/Future
• Discuss the past (history) only to provide a brief summary
context; this is not a history book!
• This self-study is NOT a follow-up on the previous PRR
and earlier recommendations. References to earlier
documents are only for reference/context for a larger
discussion of institutional improvement (e.g. evolution of
assessment plans).
MSCHE Helpful Hints
1. An effective self-study report is designed and written so
that it speaks to both the institution’s unique reality and the
institution’s compliance with the Standards, therefore…
• First, the working groups and then the steering committee
should review drafts to ensure that evidence and
analysis are provided with regard to all of the Standards
being addressed in the report.
Helpful Hints
2. In the end, the self-study report should…
• Be readable, coherent not too short, not too long.
• Capture the unique reality of the institution.
• Focus on the present and future more than the past.
• Be more analytical than descriptive – evidentiary rather
than descriptive.
• Provide evidence for any assertions.
• Provide each member of the visiting team with the
information they need to confirm that the institution meets
the Standards.
• Provide recommendations for improvement.
Helpful Hints
3. Evidence should be…
• Included in the text of the report if 1) it is absolutely vital to
understanding the self-study and 2) it is brief.
• Attached to the report as an appendix if 1) it would help
readers the understand the self-study, 2) all team
members should see it before the visit, and 3) it is too
long to include in the text but not too bulky to send to
each team member.
• Made available electronically if 1) it provides support for
the self-study but is not essential to understanding it, 2) it
is not likely to be of immediate interest to all team
members, and 3) it is lengthy.
Helpful Hints
Evidence should be…
• Directly related to the analysis in the self-study report’s
narrative.
• DO NOT overwhelm your team with too much unrelated
information.
• DO NOT expect team members to dig through reams of
data and endless appendices to find what they need.
• More is not always better!
Suggestions vs Recommendations
What are the issues and what are you going to do about it?
Suggestions: Lower level concerns; “you may want to
consider this or that”, collegial advice to follow or forget
Recommendations: Higher level concerns; you will be
bound to address in the next PRR
Suggestions and Recommendations should be inserted
after each Standard.
Feedback Points – Continual Revisions
• Campus community
• Team chair
• In the end, a good self-study provides the visiting team
with the information and analysis it needs to 1)
understand and appreciate the institution, and 2) evaluate
it in light of the Commission’s Standards.
• In the end, a good self-study answers questions worth
asking and provides recommendations worth following in
a living document that will be helpful to the institution after
the team leaves.
Then??
• Use the self-study and team reports to advance the
institution and inform the strategic planning process on
campus.
• Suggestions and recommendations will become the
actions priorities within FSU’s next iterations of the
Institutional Strategic Plan so we can chart how we
address those concerns and implement relevant tactics.