Assessment in the Registrar s Office: A Necessary State of Mind

Transcription

1 Assessment in the Registrar s Office: A Necessary State of Mind AACRAO Annual Meeting Orlando, Florida March 26, :30-9:45 AM Crystal Ballroom J2 Session ID = 470

2 Outline What is assessment? Gathering information Tools The 5-year Reality Check Making decisions Enhancing the assessment and planning cycle

3 What is assessment all about? Good perspective from the Georgia Tech Office of Assessment: In essence, the Georgia Tech Office of Assessment exists to help decision-makers make more informed decisions. Through assessment, we facilitate Georgia Tech's ability to evaluate and demonstrate the effectiveness of the Institute's initiatives so that decisions truly enable the best opportunities for our students. Source:

4 What am I making decisions about? Registrar s office role in student learning outcomes Registrar s Office Services How and how well When Where Resources Technology Staffing Budget

5 Assessment Tool Tips Arapahoe Community College Are the questions phrased to give you good information? For instance, if you receive a negative response, what will it help you know and do? Is it cost-effective and providing useful information for improvement versus simply a perfunctory exercise? Can any tools be combined across departments and reduce duplication? How and when will data be collected, interpreted, and utilized by whom and for what end? Who is collecting the assessments? Is there anonymity? Is assessment handled through a neutral party? Create tools that will lead to program, departmental, and institutional improvement. Use multiple measures.

6 Tools/Multiple Measures Surveys Interviews Benchmarking Internal Audit Other Focus groups Associate Deans Advisory board Georgia Tech Academic Advising Network (GTAAN) External reviews/consultants AACRAO Consulting Office of Organizational Development Office of Human Resources Use different means to gather information and set baseline data.

7 Surveys Good News & Bad News Good news lots of help and examples for just about any kind of survey that you want to do AACRAO session, Designing Effective Questionnaires and Surveys Software products AACRAO consulting Assessment folks and IR folks very good sources of information and in my experience always willing to help Bad news students and other clients of the registrar s office are being surveyed all the time about something

8 Surveys Different kinds, different purposes Customer service Graduating students Web site Special survey related to software decision See handout for web sites and examples

9 GA Tech Customer Service Survey See handout Survey given for the first time in August 2007, second week of class Office of Assessment helped design it Hired students to give survey to walk-in customers Issues: Quality of questions Staff know the survey is going on Feel good effect from high ratings Is it worth doing again?

10 Surveys: The Georgia Tech Solution What we are going to do: Comment card on the web site (see handout ) Comprehensive survey every 5 years (5-year reality check) Pop-up questions related to a specific issue What we are not going to do: Will not do a full-blown customer service survey on the web site Survey on the web site about the web site (the one we did was not really useful)

11 Five-Year Reality Check Every five years or so a comprehensive set of questions addressing key functions of the office would be very useful Would put enough time between surveys that we could implement changes and see how they work

12 Draft Questions for Comprehensive Survey See handout Director of assessment to review draft questions We will then determine the time & method for deploying the survey So, who is managing all this?

13 Focus Groups Process Redesign of our web site Staff Students Faculty Format Georgia Tech Office of Communications and Marketing does a lot of this.

14 External Reviews and Consultants AACRAO consulting project Technology Office of Organizational Development comprehensive review Overall review of Registrar s Office Office of Human Resources analysis of core competencies for managers and staff What skills are most important?

15 AACRAO Consulting Project Focus on use of technology Consultants visited campus and delivered a report based on interviews with key staff Survey: Related to use of technology, funded by the GT Athletic Association Looked at similar institutions in terms of size Included NCAA Division I schools Results to be published by AACRAO

16 AACRAO Survey Questions Survey questions mainly focused on: Student Information System Degree audit NCAA data and reporting See handout for more details

17 What was the assessment question? Benchmarking: What does GA Tech have in common, as far as technology applications, with schools of a similar size in Division I? What is our relative position in regard to the cutting-edge use of technology?

18 How did we use the information? Reality check To assist in the discussion of where we see the greatest need to improve technology To prioritize those needs What major decision was impacted by this review?

19 Office of Organizational Development Review of the Registrar s Office Project scope Collect benchmarking information from other institutions telephone interviews and web searches Interview stakeholders on campus individuals and groups Develop and administer online survey instruments Analyze and communicate results See handout for sample survey questions See handout for sample benchmarking questions

20 What was I trying to find out? Major areas of discovery through surveys and interviews: Current structure Climate Effectiveness Resources

21 Making Decisions Work began in late Spring 2007 Final report August 2007 Reorganization of the Registrar s Office implemented in October 2007 Outcomes, examples: Functional areas Technology area Triage Team concept Job rotation Internal and external training programs What was the most significant change?

22 Follow-up Projects After the reorganization, other projects needed to make informed follow-up decisions Georgia Tech Consulting Services Training, short and long term New leader transition Process Improvements Georgia Tech Office of Human Resources Competency modeling pilot project for the campus

23 Training: Assessing the Needs Who needs training? What kind of training? How will it be delivered? Who will deliver it? How do we keep the content current? What are tools that can be used to facilitate it? How did we gather this information?

24 New Leader Transition Acceleration: New Leader Transition Aviat Ann Arbor,MI Management Team Retreat Associate Registrar Team Retreat This is one of the best exercises I have done in a long time. Assistant Registrar Teams Retreat

25 New Leader Transition Specific information gathered on leader s: Management style Performance expectations Decision making process Personal style Communication preferences SWOT issues

26 New Leader Transition What we were we trying to learn about: Existing members of the team New members of the team Over-managing or under-managing Working together Expectations

27 What am I going use the information? Use it to design developmental plans for each of the managers Associate Registrar Assistant Registrars

28 Process Improvement Banner at age 12 Assessing where we are with the Student Module Project includes three phases: (1) documentation of existing processes; (2) expert advice from a SunGard Banner consultant; and (3) redesign and documentation of improved processes based on the consultant s advice.

29 Process Improvement Target specific areas: How do you know where to start? Degree certification Transfer credit New position dedicated to this area

30 Competency Modeling Pilot project with the Office of Human Resources Management Team Leadership Retreat Leadership Competency Modeling Competency Modeling is the output of researching and identifying the characteristics (or competencies) of workers that underlie successful For this initiative, we will be piloting the competency modeling process developed by David Dubois, PhD and William Rothwell, PhD of Strategic Performance Improvement Associates.

31 Competency Modeling What am I trying to learn/assess from this process? What will I do with the information? Why do I think of this as part of my assessment process?

32 Defining Leadership Competencies Effective communication Subject matter/technical expertise Effective decision making Effective in dealing with difficult situations Team player Valuing employees and demonstrating it Effective utilization of resources Ability to achieve results

33 How am I going to use the information? Individually assess our capabilities against each of the selected competencies Create a personal development plan and obtain plan approval from supervisor HR will begin working with each member of the team to develop their technical competency model Repeat the process for the staff How does this fit into my assessment process?

34 You have to have a plan Understanding where you are, with a little help from your friends (and enemies) Making informed decisions Setting an informed course for where you wish to go next Determining the effectiveness of your initiatives

35 Planning & Assessment See handout

36 Wrap-up Assessment of services, delivery media, technology Core competency modeling Using assessment data to make decisions, set priorities, and determine operational goals Assessing staff success in reaching performance goals

37 Contact Information Reta Pikowsky Registrar Georgia Institute of Technology 225 North Avenue Atlanta, GA