DOWLING COLLEGE INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS PLAN
(DCIEP)
January 15, 2015
Table of Contents
Introduction
Dowling College Strategic Plan: Mission and Goals
The Assessment Plan
Assessment Infrastructure
Our Approach to Institutional Effectiveness
Institutional Assessment
Program Level Assessment
General Education
Academic Programs
AES Unit Assessment
Assessment Schedules
Planning, Assessment, and Resource Allocation
Communicating Results
Plans for Increased Integration of AES Units and their Assessment
Conclusions
List of Appendices
Appendices
Introduction
This institutional effectiveness plan replaces the one created in 2008. While that
plan, which was primarily philosophical, was informative, this plan is more specific and
detailed. Specifically, it includes a number of assessment processes, the specific steps for
completing these processes, and ways of monitoring the progress of the various assessment activities. It is the culmination of the work of many dedicated Dowling faculty and
staff who joined together to begin to establish a culture of ongoing assessment in which
the assessment process is recognized as a tool for improvement rather than a tedious burden. For it is only through careful and systematic assessment that Dowling’s mission and
goals will be achieved and Dowling faculty and staff will be able to provide the education
and attendant life opportunities sought for all students.
To determine whether an institution is carrying out its mission requires regular
and ongoing assessment. If Dowling College is to determine whether it is functioning effectively, it must regularly assess the ongoing activities of each of its component parts,
including academic programs and administrative and educational support units. The ongoing reflective process requires that each department, and support unit, investigates and
documents if it is accomplishing its own specific mission and goals and to determine that
their missions and goals appropriately aligned with the mission and goals of the College?
It is only by continually addressing these questions that Dowling College can determine
its effectiveness as an institution of higher education.
Dowling’s Mission and Goals
Dowling College Mission Statement: Dowling College is an independent comprehensive educational institution in the liberal arts tradition whose mission is to prepare
students to succeed in a wide range of careers and creative pursuits. We prepare a diverse
student population to lead and contribute to a global community through collaboration
between an expert faculty and a dedicated staff, all of whom are devoted to a supportive,
individualized learning environment.
Dowling College Institutional Goals:
The goals at Dowling fall into three general categories: student success, academic
excellence, and institutional effectiveness.
Student Success Goals
1.1 Ensure that students have the support to persist in their academic studies until
graduation with a clear path to a career or further education.
1.2 Create a learning environment that includes modern facilities and opportunities
for social interaction and events.
1.3 Foster a campus community that is diverse in its interests, beliefs, culture, ethnicity, and geographic origin.
Academic Excellence Goals
2.1 Provide students with a rigorous and relevant education through programs that
include leadership experiences, service opportunities, and career connections.
2.2 Support an expert faculty that is active in teaching, research, and service to the
College.
Institutional Effectiveness Goals
3.1 Foster a culture of decision making based on the continuous assessment and informed use of data to support the mission of the College.
3.2 Ensure financial planning and practices that are sound, sustainable, and consistent
with strategic planning and the mission of the College.
3.3 Improve communication and connections among faculty, students, administration,
staff and alumni while effectively promoting the College to outside constituencies.
The Assessment Plan
Assessment Organizational Chart
The assessment organizational chart at Dowling College may be found in Appendix A.
President Albert Inserra took the first step in creating a culture of assessment at
Dowling College when he established the Office of Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness shortly after his appointment as interim President in 2014. Dr. Inserra then appointed Dr. Patrick Johnson as Dean of Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness. In the
ensuing months, a number of critical steps have been taken to establish and perpetuate a
culture of assessment. Included have been the following:
•
Establishment of an assessment infrastructure to support organizational efforts to
support institutional effectiveness and the assessment of student learning
•
Creation of an organizational chart to emphasize the different College constituencies involved in the assessment process and sharing of that chart with the College
community generally
•
Collaborative development of this institutional effectiveness plan
•
Meetings with Deans, chairs, and faculty from selected academic programs
•
Meetings with faculty overseeing key components of general education at
Dowling
•
Meetings with staff from selected administrative and educational support units
•
Meetings with committee chairs representing committees historically involved
with program assessment at Dowling
•
Creation of handbooks and supporting materials for faculty and AES staff that
may be found in the attached Appendix B and C respectively
•
Summary log of assessment activities from the Office of Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness
Our Approach to Institutional Effectiveness
The process of institutional effectiveness can be characterized in various ways.
We believe that the metaphor of an ongoing and rigorous research program may be particularly apt for a number of reasons. For example, most college professors are familiar
with and participate in ongoing research programs. Then, too, professors are intimately
acquainted with the peer-review process that is an essential element of institutional effectiveness that involves evaluating and improving academic and AES assessment plans and
activities. Finally, data and its interpretation are central both to research programs and to
the cyclical nature of determining institutional effectiveness. Neither is ever completed
but rather both evolve continuously in response to the data collected and their interpretation. As education generally, and higher education specifically, have emphasized, datainformed decision making more and more, it makes considerable sense to highlight an
assessment system modeled on a continuing rigorous research program as is currently the
case at Dowling College.
As indicated, the research process closely parallels the activities that an institution
of higher education goes through as it conducts ongoing assessments of its own effectiveness. For example, while programmatic research typically begins after the researcher
has surveyed previous work in their particular field, the responsible assessment of institutional effectiveness begins with a survey of what has gone on previously at the institution
in terms of assessing institutional effectiveness. Having completed such a review in September, the Dean of Assessment developed a series of methods or activities to foster and
support institutional effectiveness at Dowling College. The Dean identified data already
collected and began to collect relevant data required for the college to determine whether
the institution is effectively and efficiently accomplishing its goals.
Accordingly, this plan highlights the types of data currently being collected by
academic programs and AES units, the schedules of ongoing assessments of programs
and units, and concludes by identifying potentially valuable future data sources. The
DCIEP concludes with a discussion highlighting how data have been used at Dowling
and the recent changes put in place to ensure more systematic uses in the future. This final section also includes a brief description of the specific ways in which we now link
assessment results to institutional change and resource allocation. Our institutional effectiveness plan includes a number of appendices that provide support for the information
highlighted in this plan.
Institutional Assessment: While Dowling College has participated in the National
Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) since 2011, greater attention is now being given
to its findings and their implications for the institution. Two concrete instances demonstrating how NESE findings have been involved with important changes at the College
relate to student-faculty interactions and internship opportunities are now presented.
With respect to student-faculty interactions, findings from 2011 and 2012 indicated a need to enhance such interactions as it appeared that Dowling students indicated less
satisfying interactions than students at peer institutions. Partly in response to these findings, the administration significantly modified the advisement process to ensure that all
students had to meet with their advisors before registering for classes. One reason for this
change was to enhance the quality of student-faculty interactions. Initial findings from
the 2014 NESE indicate some success in this area as a significant positive change was
observed in students’ responses from 2013 to 2014 with the 2014 cohort indicating greater satisfaction with student-faculty interactions.
Another area where examination and discussion of NESE findings has been involved in academic changes relates to internship opportunities. Results from previous
surveys revealed that, in comparison with peer institutions, fewer of our students reported
involvement in such opportunities. This appeared to be particularly true of Dowling seniors.
In response to these findings, and also because the faculty and administration
strongly believe in the value of career-related internships, discussions were initiated
among faculty and administrators regarding how best to increase opportunities, especially
for seniors. While it has taken some time, a possible solution has now been reached as the
Faculty Curriculum Committee recently voted to allow seniors to substitute an internship
experience for the general education capstone course. This proposal was recently discussed at the Faculty Administration Senate and it is likely to be put into place for the fall
2015 academic year.
NESE and the Future. Recently discussions at the College have begun to determine whether it makes sense to continue with the NESE survey or to develop a comparable instrument that would be administered locally to increase sample sizes and the local
relevance of the survey. At Dowling the NSSE has been administered to freshmen and
seniors and response rates have been unacceptably low. This has compromised our interpretation of findings and limited their generalizability.
To offset this problem, the Dean of Assessment has been focusing his attention on
results that are found more than once in the NSSE. This consistency increases confidence
that findings have been replicated, but still does not eliminate the problem posed by woefully unacceptable response rates.
In addition to these national surveys, Dowling College has begun to develop local
surveys for a variety of purposes. For example, the registrar’s office just developed a survey that is given to any student requesting a transcript, first to determine the reason for
the request such as a job application, transfer, or leaving the College; and then to follow
up with an additional series of questions if the request was made in connection with leaving the College. In this way, we can develop a better understanding of the reasons for
student attrition and address them directly as we attempt to minimize what has been a serious, ongoing problem at Dowling.
The Academic Assessment and Research Committee was recently asked to develop a brief student survey to determine students’ interest in continuing winter session offerings and asked to make suggestions regarding other curricular matters. Using a
Google-Docs format, the survey has just been sent to the Dowling College student body.
After the results have been analyzed, they will be used to make decisions about whether
to enhance or scale back winter session offerings and to make other curricular modifications. A copy of this survey may be found in Appendix D.
Surveys have also been developed for use on a regular basis and a list may be
found in Appendix E. In addition, ad hoc surveys are regularly developed to assess participant reactions to College events such as speakers, student government activities, and
community events held on campus.
It should also be emphasized that our institutional research consultant now reports
directly to the Dean of Assessment. They meet on a regular basis in an attempt to streamline and simplify data collection and to ensure that results are shared broadly with the
Dowling College community.
General Education at Dowling includes a small group of courses required of all
freshmen including introductory writing, mathematics, and a freshmen experience course.
In addition students are required to take 33 distribution credits from a set of core courses
to graduate. While the required courses are assessed annually to insure each is achieving
the purposes and student learning outcomes for which it was developed, courses that
make up the distribution credits associated with the core are assessed on a rotating basis
over a three-year cycle. We have begun this cycle with the most popular core courses and
will end with those containing the lowest enrollment so that sufficient numbers of students should have taken the courses to insure a psychometrically valid and reliable assessment of each.
The general education curriculum was designed to provide Dowling students with
the knowledge and skills required to achieve the institutional student learning
goals/outcomes of the College. These goals include five knowledge outcomes and five
skills outcomes. Knowledge outcomes include:
a. Each graduate shall be knowledgeable with respect to Western culture
and the context within which it is developed.
b. Each graduate shall be knowledgeable with respect to the modes of artistic expression.
c. Each graduate shall be knowledgeable with respect to the nature of the
universe.
d. Each graduate shall be knowledgeable with respect to the dynamics of
contemporary societies.
e. Each graduate shall be knowledgeable with respect to the variety of human experience.
Skills outcomes include:
Be able to read and listen with comprehension and to write and speak with clarity, precision and grace.
a. Each graduate shall be competent in reading.
b. Each graduate shall be competent in writing.
c. Each graduate shall be competent in computation.
d. Each graduate shall be competent in speaking and listening.
e. Each graduate shall be competent in reasoning.
These goals were adopted by the Board of Trustees and the Faculty and Administrative Senate in 1988. Under the guidance of Dr. Richard Wilkens, Dowling’s new Provost, these institutional learning goals are currently being re-examined in collaboration
with the Faculty Curriculum Committee.
Academic Program Assessment. Before requesting academic program faculty to
develop assessment plans, the Office of Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness in
collaboration with various college-wide committees historically involved in the assessment process, including the Faculty Curriculum Committee (FCC) and the Academic Assessment and Research Committee (AARC), developed a Faculty Assessment Handbook
to assist faculty in a step-by-step fashion through the assessment process. The latest version (as a result of faculty input the handbook has undergone a series of modifications)
may be found in Appendix B. In addition a five-column Nichols model assessment template was developed collaboratively between the AARC chair and the Dean of Assessment and representatives of Nuventive, the software company that manages TracDat, the
electronic data collection system the College contracted with in October. This form may
be found in Appendix G.
In addition, a revised version of the Annual Departmental Review form was developed during the past year by the AARC. Now called an Annual Program Assessment
Plan (see Appendix H), it requests that academic programs present their current mission
statement and goals and indicate how these align with those of Dowling College. Programs have also been asked to include learning objectives and student learning outcomes
(SLOs) in their assessment plans.
While the plans start with a mission statement and end with SLOs, the Nichols
model data template begins with SLOs and concludes with results and actions taken in
response to these results. In this way the assessment documents have been designed to
link both logically and logistically to one another. Academic programs from all schools
are currently in the process of developing assessment plans and collecting data to determine the extent to which students are achieving program SLOs.
AES Unit Assessment. At the same time that academic programs were asked to assess the extent to which they were achieving their goals and that their SLOs were being
met, administrative and educational support units were asked to begin to systematically
assess the extent to which they were supporting student learning at Dowling College. A
short form was developed for AES unit staff and meetings were held at which select units
were asked by the Dean of Assessment to develop unit assessment plans, including mission statements and support outcomes aligned with those of the College and to complete a
five-column Nichols model that included at least one student support outcome.
In addition, an AES oversight committee was established to evaluate assessment
plans and the support outcome template. The committee also developed a three-year cycle of reporting at the end of which each AES unit in the College will have developed an
assessment plan and data collection template. Moreover, they also will have shared their
progress with the committee, other units in the College, and the College community both
on the Insight system associated with TracDat and on the Dowling College website that
contains assessment information about ongoing assessment activities at Dowling.
Assessment schedules have been developed for the above activities and may be
found in Appendix I.
Planning, Assessment, and Resource Allocation together comprise essential, intertwined, but difficult to integrate functions at most institutions of higher education. Not
surprisingly, this has been historically the case at Dowling College as well. Recently,
however, serious efforts have been made with the support of senior administration and
the Board of Trustees to establish a more mission-centric budgeting process. This has
been done by requesting that budget priorities be established both within academic programs and AES units in line with the mission and goals of Dowling College. As a result
budget requests that arise in response to the assessment process must be aligned with
these priorities with special attention given to those requests most directly in line with
institutional priorities. While we have recently embarked on this approach, as we assess
the budgeting process and assessment generally, one of our central foci will be to determine the extent to which we were able to adhere to a more mission- and goal-driven
budgeting process.
Communicating assessment results is a critical task of the Office of Assessment
and Institutional Effectiveness and to that end a series of annual meetings will begin this
summer/fall and continue annually thereafter. The first will be an annual AES retreat at
which AES unit staff will gather off site for presentations and discussions focused on assessment. Identified units will present the findings of their scheduled reports and discussions will be planned around the meaning of those results, their implications for the unit
and student support generally. Recommendations will also be solicited at the meeting
from all participants regarding ideas to improve and simplify the assessment process.
Late in the summer a similar retreat with a similar focus will be held for academic
program faculty and staff. Again, results will be shared, implications considered, and
suggestions for improvement encouraged. It should be emphasized that both retreats will
also provide key opportunities for a variety of professional development activities as the
need arises.
Finally, each fall the President will host a college-wide convocation at which assessment results from the previous year for AES units and academic programs will be
featured. In addition, a general discussion of future plans will include all members of the
Dowling College community.
Plans for increased integration of AES units and their assessment are currently
underway at the College. While academic programs and AES units frequently operate
independently on many college campuses, it is in the best interests of students and their
academic success that greater collaboration be developed and supported. To that end,
specific AES units such as career services and counseling have begun to develop presentations and workshops both for students and faculty to participate in. For example, recent-
ly the counseling office sponsored a presentation on veterans and PTSD that was attended
by faculty, staff, and administrators and in which two former veterans, now students at
Dowling, participated.
Then, too, greater collaboration between AES units is being nurtured through the
Provost’s office with the creation of three separate councils designed to improve cooperation, communication, cross-training, and student services. The first is Collaborative Student Assistance Council whose members come from the Provost’s office, our HEOP program, the Learning Center, College Access, Health and Wellness, and the Dowling College Veterans Program. The second is an Enrollment Management Council whose members come from the Provost’s office, Business and Finance, Financial Aid, Degree Audit,
and Enrollment services. The third new group is the International Recruitment and Retention Council whose members come from the Provost’s office, enrollment services, our
ESL program, our international students program, and an international admissions counselor. All of these councils will help the College achieve its mission.
Conclusions. During the past four months major structural and procedural changes have taken place at Dowling College. The driving force behind these changes has been
the desire to enhance institutional effectiveness, to assess the ways in which these changes are impacting students and their academic and non-academic experiences at the College, and, at the same time, to insure the survival, sustainability, and growth of this
unique Long Island college. The College serves many different groups of students including the growing proportion of first-generation college students in the New York metropolitan area. It has committed itself to meeting the challenges associated with meeting the
educational needs of these and all Dowling students and preparing them for successful
careers and fulfilling futures.
List of Appendices
Appendix A=Assessment Organizational Chart
Appendix B=Faculty Assessment Handbook
Appendix C=Six-Step Guide for AES Unit Staff
Appendix D=AARC Winter Session Survey
Appendix E=List of Annual Surveys
Appendix F=List of Ad Hoc Surveys
Appendix G=Five-Column Nichols Template
Appendix H=Annual Program Assessment Plan
Appendix I=Assessment Schedules
Footnote
List of Appendices
A=Enrollment Plan
B=College Organizational Chart
C=Winter Session Survey
D=List of Regular Surveys Developed
E=List of Ad Hoc Surveys
F=General Education Course Assessment Schedule
G=Faculty Assessment Handbook
H=Five-Column Nichols Assessment Template
I=Annual Program Assessment Plan
Appendix A
Enrollment Plan
Office of Enrollment Services. A critical step in strengthening institutional effectiveness
was made with the appointment of Jonathan White as Assistant Vice-President for Student Enrollment Services. Vice-President White and his staff have accomplished a host of
much-needed modifications to enhance Dowling’s enrollment efforts. Included among
these have been the following:
 Created an enrollment strategic plan or road map for the Enrollment Services team to
follow for the 2014-2015 academic year .
 Developed and Implemented a Retention Plan
 Completed renovated the Dowling website
 Assigned Territories and Enrollment Goals
 Cross-Trained Staff and Provided PD Opportunities for Staff
 Increased Use of Social Media and Enhance Dowling Website
Appendix B
Dowling College Organizational Chart—Available elsewhere on this website
Appendix C
Winter Session Survey—May be found elsewhere on this website
Appendix D
List of Regular Surveys
Dowling has successfully developed and deployed a number of additional annual
and ad hoc surveys including the following: Athletics Surveys, Career Day Survey, Diversity Summit Survey, Latino Summit Survey, Open House Survey, and Residence Hall
Survey.
Appendix E
Ad Hoc Surveys
In addition to these annual surveys, Dowling also surveys participants in
numerous other events including speeches, workshops, and various events held on
campus throughout the academic year and during vacations as well.
Appendix F
Program Assessment Schedule
Appendix G
Faculty Assessment Handbook—May be found elsewhere on this website
Appendix H
Five-Column Nichols Model—May be found under assessment forms
Appendix I
Annual Assessment Plan—Form may be found elsewhere on this website