Weekly Report
April 1, 2016
The Office of Planning and Assessment reports its weekly activities and contributions toward Texas Tech
University’s institutional effectiveness efforts.
OUTCOME 1: Texas Tech will be found in compliance with all external accrediting agencies and State
of Texas mandates
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While this is scheduled to be an ongoing IE function, assessment consultations continue to ensure
that departments and programs are prepared for the July 1 internal reporting deadline.
The TracDat Peer Review Collaborative was reported last week. This week OPA scanned and saved
the feedback reports. Reports will be sent to department chairs next week.
DigitalMeasures Activity:
(Number of
Logins)
Activities
Database University
(117,743)
1 Week
1 Month
6 Months
1 Year
308
2,727
54,303
71,590
OUTCOME 2: The Office of Planning and Assessment will contribute to the Office of the Provost’s
institutional planning processes
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The Online Senior Assessment (OSA) is being administered this spring as supplemental assessment
data. The current version measures the previous core curriculum requirements and is therefore not
directly applicable to the new core. However, it will provide “Closing the Loop” data. The OSA was
sent to graduating seniors last week. The response rate on Monday was 4.68% with 137 out of
2,928 students completing the survey. The survey will be open for several more weeks. A final
report will be available by the end of the semester.
The 2016 Raiders Engaged is scheduled to be available for data entry at the beginning of the 2016
fall semester. This week OPA met with Drs. Birgit Green and Kathy Austin to discuss and preview
enhancements to the instrument.
The Office of the CIO has been exploring the implementation of Perform. Perform is designed to
work collaboratively with TracDat. However, recent discussions have resulted in abandoning
Perform to develop an internal process for dashboarding institutional data. OPA will continue to
work with Dr. Austin on this project.
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OUTCOME 3: The Office of Planning and Assessment will continually monitor the university’s
compliance with laws, policy statements, and policies deriving from the State of Texas, THECB, and
SACSCOC
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Included in this week’s Weekly Report is a short description of the Transparency Framework created
by NILOA. The Transparency Framework will likely impact OPA significantly over the next few years.
It is available at the end of this report and is identified as Appendix I.
A memo by Rex. C. Peebles from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board was released on
March 14, 2016 requesting public comment on recommendations for the Mexican-American Studies
Field of Study Advisory Curriculum. A copy of the committee’s proposals is available on THECB
website. Public review and the 30-day comment period ends April 12, 2016. Public comments
should be directed to Mindy Nobles, Program Director, Academic Quality and Workforce Division, at
Mindy.Nobles@thecb.state.tx.us.
A presentation was published on THECB’s website on March 30, 2016 regarding draft legislative
recommendations to the 85th Texas legislature. These recommendations include:
o Regarding Multi-Institution Centers (MITCs): it is recommended that the Coordinating Board’s
role be defined, that statutory definitions of MITCs be clarified, that enhanced authority is
obtained, and that limited THECB authority be provided to review and approve new physical
locations outside of existing main campuses.
o Regarding TEXAS grants: it is recommended limiting grant recipients to 135 semester credit
hours (SCH) (down from 150 currently); requiring recipients to complete 30 SCH per year;
accommodating more middle-income families by limiting grant award amounts to the cost of
tuition, fees, and a book stipend; and removing institutional “matching” requirements if the
student does not meet the priority EFC level.
o Regarding Texas Educational Opportunity Grants (TEOG): limiting grand award amounts to the
cost of tuition, fees, and a book stipend, minus Pell; and requiring recipients to complete 30 SCH
per year.
o Regarding financial aid award notifications: requiring institutions to provide students annually
specific information regarding their indebtedness including amount borrowed to date and
estimated future loan payments.
o Regarding outcomes based funding: implementing the “Graduation Bonus” framework for
public universities developed by the General Academic Institution Formula Advisory Committee.
OUTCOME 4: Texas Tech University faculty and staff will be well-prepared to meet OPA’s faculty
credentialing, assessment, and strategic plan expectations
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The Support Service Level IE Committee met March 30 to review the evaluation rubric for
departmental reports. The members of the committee will each individually evaluate approximately
15 reports, ensuring that each department is reviewed by three individuals. Committee members
are only evaluating 2015-2016 departmental outcomes and means of assessment. The committee
has until May 1 to complete their evaluations. At that time, reports will be reviewed and used for
individual consultations.
April 2016
Assessment of Departmental 2015-2016 Outcomes and Means of Assessment: SSL
Committee will review selected departmental outcomes
May 2016
Departmental Feedback of 2015-2016 Outcomes and Means of Assessment: OPA will use
the feedback from the SSL Committee Review to meet with each department with
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suggested revisions
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September 2016
Complete Departmental 2015-2016 Reports Due: Each department will receive a survey to
complete to update Results and Actions for Improvement as well as 2016-2017 Revised
Outcomes and Means of Assessment
September 2016
SSL Committee will meet to discuss the upcoming assessment.
September 2016
Assessment of Departmental 2015-2016 Results and Actions for Improvement and 20162017 Revised Outcomes and Means of Assessment: SSL Committee will review selected
departmental outcomes.
October 2016
Departmental Feedback of 2015-2016 Outcomes and Means of Assessment: OPA will use
the feedback from the SSL Committee Review to meet with each department with
suggested revisions.
TTU Portfolio developments:
o OPA started a conversation with TTU IT to get Chalk & Wire seamlessly interfaced with
Blackboard. Dr. Justin Louder is assisting in this effort.
o Students in Environmental Engineering 1100 were trained on Friday, April 1 on submitting a
required research paper. The requirements for the assignment as well as a “checklist” rubric
have been set up in Chalk & Wire exactly as the professor, Paula Monaco, preferred. Professor
Monaco will also be trained regarding assessment of this assignment in Chalk & Wire. Audra
Morse is set up as an advisor so she can see all activity in Chalk & Wire regarding this student
submission.
o A meeting was held with Bobbie Brown and Brenda Martinez with TTU’s Registrar’s Office.
Discussion centered around professor verification of portfolio assignments similar to a
registrar’s duty to verify transcripts. OPA contacted Chalk & Wire and received the following,
“When the professor assesses work submitted to them in Chalk & Wire they are essentially
stating that they certify that the work was completed by this student, because the student work
associated with the assessment can never be changed once it is assessed. When students
submit work in Chalk & Wire, the system takes a snapshot of the work that was on the
assignment page at that point in time. If the student were to change the work in their
assignment after they submit it, the submission they made earlier would not reflect these
changes, unless they made another submission.”
OPA has created numerous short training and instructional videos for the Progress Portal. The
videos will be uploaded to the portal at the end of this week. The videos that were created address
the following topics:
o Accessing institutional data;
o Reporting processes;
o Support Service Level reporting requirements;
o “Top Five” DigitalMeasures reports as well as other DigitalMeasures related videos; and
o The differences between course level and program level assessment
OPA worked with Dr. Larry Hovey on Grant information for Higher Education faculty. A report was
sent on Tuesday. Dr. Valerie Paton indicated that the information was very helpful.
OPA met with Dr. Mark Wallace of Natural Resource Management. He indicated that
DigitalMeasures is very helpful and that their department is using DigitalMeasures for their faculty
annual report. This is not something that CASNR is doing as a college.
The HB 2504 Annual Report was completed. The report will be included in Chair Packets. A copy of
the report is included as Appendix II.
OPA met with Dr. Randy McBee, Associate Dean A&S on March 31 to continue the discussion on
processes to make the Annual Report easier and accessible for A&S chairs. OPA has a better
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understanding of the faculty signature process and the need to upload documents easily into faculty
accounts. One we have a better workflow for A&S, the process may be replicated to other colleges.
In addition to direct contributions toward the departmental goals, OPA continues to focus on continuous
improvement measures.
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The WTAC committee conferred on March 28 regarding compensation suggestions given by Kate
McConnell. The decision was made to proceed with Ms. McConnell’s offer to be compensated
equivalent to her compensation at the recent LEAP conference in San Antonio. With the increased
conference registration fee of $100, approximately 130 attendees would cover the fee. Seeking
alternative methods to pay the speaker’s fee, members of the committee will contact vendors to
seek sponsorship.
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Appendix I
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Appendix II
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