Learning Resources

Abstract: Introverts constitute a large percentage of campus populations, especially in STEM institutions, yet the higher education climate is moving towards an extroverted pedagogy. Much of campus design today is centered on an extroverted conception of engagement and community. How do you design for both personalities? This session will explore the introvert’s voice in creating these shared living and learning environments. Come learn how to plan and design a campus environment that provides a sense of layering—from refuge to public engagement—to address the needs of all students.

Abstract: This session will discuss how we used the Living Community Challenge (LCC) to frame master planning for San Francisco State University's Romberg Tiburon Campus. LCC is a next-generation approach to sustainable and resilient planning and design, with aggressive energy and water goals. We will demonstrate how we used an LCC-focused master planning process for a bayfront site to integrate facilities conditions, programming, site analyses, impacts of climate change and sea level rise, and net-positive energy and water for more healthy and productive research and learning environment.

Abstract: Financial stability is critical to success in college. The new economics of college create conditions of poverty for many students. It’s an outdated assumption that if a young person works hard enough, they’ll be able to get a college degree and be on the path to a good life. That’s simply not true anymore.

Points of entry to higher education are increasingly out of reach. Increased enrollment of lower- and moderate-income students coupled with inadequate employment opportunities and high college prices mean that making ends meet while attending college can be very difficult. In fact, a growing body of evidence suggests that a previously unnoticed challenge has emerged: basic needs insecurity. Goldrick-Rab’s seminal research provides a better understanding of the complexity and the urgency of the crisis that many students face. She communicates a transformational vision for higher education in America that stresses affordability and access for all, especially lower- to middle-income students and first-generation college students.

Sara Goldrick-Rab is best known for her innovative research on food and housing insecurity in higher education, having led the three largest national studies on the subject, and for her work on making public higher education free. She is the recipient of the William T. Grant Foundation’s Faculty Scholars Award and the American Educational Research Association’s Early Career Award, and in 2016 POLITICO magazine named her one of the top 50 people shaping American politics. Her latest book, Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream (University of Chicago, 2016), is an Amazon best-seller and a 2018 winner of the Grawemeyer Award, and has been featured on The Daily Show With Trevor Noah. The Chronicle of Higher Education calls her “a defender of impoverished students and a scholar of their struggles,” she is ranked 6th in the nation among education scholars according to Education Week, and in April 2018 the Carnegie Corporation awarded her the Carnegie Fellowship.

Abstract: Data is only as powerful as your understanding around it. Analytics makes possible new understandings of students and their needs, and creates an advanced ability to improve student success through use of new software being implemented on campuses around the world.

This handbook is designed to help any higher ed leader unleash the power of data that is always available but seldom leveraged. It helps to answer the questions, (1) How does a campus strategically develop a plan for use of analytics in better supporting their students? (2) Once a culture is in place, how do leaders effectively move new evidence into action? This primer walks readers through each step of the analytics adoption.

Abstract: Challenging times continue for higher education: calls for more accountability, assessment of outcomes, evidence of institutional performance, relevance for life and careers, and student success. Integrated strategic planning and decision making in this ever-changing environment is critical for campus leadership. To maximize accountability, assessment, analytics, and accreditation, it is imperative for campus leaders to develop an integrated approach that begins with standard metrics, aligns with performance-based goals, and connects with accreditation requirements. Analytics, learning analytics, and learning management systems provide the crucial link to learning standards that support the reporting, monitoring, and improvement of student learning.

Abstract: This article describes execution of the balanced scorecard (BSC) strategic framework in a School of Nursing (SoN). The SoN strategy map was the outcome of the development phase. The two-year implementation phase incorporated balanced scorecards that linked outcome measures to the priority strategies. Thirty-two percent of the defined outcome measures were met. Factors in adopting the BSC framework included development of a strategic plan that supports the college mission and vision, improved communication within the SoN, a united effort to institute strategies to sustain the SoN’s future, and establishment of performance indicators to measure success in achieving those strategies.

Abstract: Much like routine dental exams, accreditation reviews can create anxiety and generate short-term institutional activity that simulates long-term healthy habits. Authentic, ongoing planning and assessment aligned with accreditation standards reduces anxiety and produces successful results through holistic, efficient, and sustainable efforts. This session shares how one institution efficiently integrated and aligned planning and assessment activities with accreditation standards and cycles. We'll discuss how you can adapt a similar process at your institution so your institution can avoid redundant activities while achieving optimal institutional wellbeing.

Abstract: Student success analytics promise to dramatically improve our capacity to increase student success across the entire spectrum of the student life cycle and throughout the student experience. Institutions will move beyond institutional accountability statistics to improve performance at the level of student success processes, practices, and interventions. Ultimately, these new processes, practices, and interventions promise to enable institutions to reinvent and personalize approaches to success.
By leveraging analytics and data science, leading-edge institutions “optimize” student success for individuals and cohorts by making student success a mission-critical, overarching institutional strategy. “Student success science” is a critical ingredient in reimagining higher education. This article provides a road map for institutional leaders on how to raise their analytics IQ so that they can leverage these practices to better serve their students, improve performance, and demonstrate value.
The use of analytics is potentially a key ingredient in sense making and decision making in all aspects of institutional performance and is critical in improving student success. Enlightened higher education leaders are committing to analytics and data science that deliver active interventions that improve student success.

Abstract: Many institutions of higher education develop assessment systems to demonstrate evidence of value added and to meet accreditation requirements. The sustainability of such assessment systems is usually defendant on creating a culture of assessment, which entails establishing shared values and principles and implementing practices designed to meet organizational goals. A survey of 119 assessment professionals revealed both the challenges and facilitating factors in creating and sustaining a culture of assessment. This article presents the survey results organized by an institution’s stage of development in establishing a culture of assessment: beginning, progress, or maturation. The article also provides specific examples to help institutions move along the continuum or improve their current practices and concludes with a discussion of policy implications

Abstract: The Balanced Scorecard is a planning model used extensively in business to provide direction and accountability to an organization. Despite the demonstrated success of the model, it has not been widely used in higher education. This article compares and contrasts the use of the Balanced Scorecard by two small, private colleges. The article includes examples of how the model was implemented, how it is used for cyclical improvement, and how it can be used to improve communication concerning institutional planning.