The Other 85 Percent

Accountability in higher education: The right thing to do

August 20, 2008 | Filed under: Capella, Capella University, Chronicle of Higher Education, Mike Offerman, The Other 85 Percent, Transparency by Design, college, college degree, continuing education, distance learning, elearning, higher education, online education, online learning, online university

Recently the Chronicle of Higher Education had two articles on the same day reporting on accountability issues being discussed at the annual meeting of the Association for Institutional Research.

http://chronicle.com/news/article/4552/colleges-must-prepare-for-new-wave-of-federal-oversight-speaker-warns?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/05/2972n.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

In the first article, the speaker “expressed regret” that the relationships of colleges, accreditors, and federal regulators are being transformed and predicts a number of new data will need to be reported to the federal government. The second article reports on comments made by the accreditors who call for use of data to drive college and university improvements. The view of this group is reported to be that “colleges must be candid with the public about how they measure their success . . . or risk inviting government regulation that is not so respectful of colleges’ individual identities.” This group calls for colleges to be honest with data and to use it to drive improvement rather than simply brag about what went well.

See an earlier entry to this blog, http://www.theother85percent.com/?p=4, that describes Transparency by Design. This is an effort by several institutions, including Capella University, that serve adults online to focus on learning outcomes, both general learning and program specific outcomes, as the most important marker of success. The goal is to be transparent about how effectively we are delivering the desired learning outcomes. While the institutions in Transparency by Design are not pleased to see the plethora of new data the feds may require, we are prepared to go beyond what they ask and to voluntarily report on meaningful learning outcomes … and to use the information we create to drive institutional and higher education improvement.

We hope the accreditors are right that this type of action that will slow down the growth in data demands made by regulatory bodies, including federal and state government. Whether that happens or not, we are committed to greater transparency about learning outcomes and use of the resulting data to drive improvements because it’s the right thing to do.

Mike

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