The Other 85 Percent

Comparing the Voluntary System of Accountability and Transparency by Design

October 13, 2008 | Filed under: Capella, Capella University, The Other 85 Percent, Transparency by Design, distance learning, elearning, online education, online learning, online university

Change Magazine, in its July-August 2008 edition, covers the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA).  The VSA publishes the College Portrait, which provides consumer information on public colleges and universities.  It is a joint project of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC) and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU).

This is a very positive and important initiative.  And the interview with George Mehaffy and David Shulenberger, the two men who have led development of the VSA, is very interesting.

I have previously written about Transparency by Design (TxD), which is similar in some ways to the VSA.  But, it is also different in some substantial ways.  Like the VSA, work on TxD began before the Spelling’s Commission Report was issued and was influenced by both that report and the early work of the VSA group.  Those of us working on TxD decided that we needed to do something different than the VSA because that effort is focused on undergraduate programs intended to serve a campus audience.  Inherent in that approach is an emphasis on serving the high school student who comes to campus and studies full-time.  The TxD group is part of the Presidents’ Forum, which is made up of institutions and programs that serve adult students.  It is our strong belief that serving adults is different than serving traditional-aged students and requires different consumer information.  Here are some differences in Transparency by Design and the Voluntary System of Accountability:

•    Student population addressed:  TxD deals with adults rather than traditional-aged students assumed in VSA
•    Type of information made available:  Existing and newly generated data in TxD rather than only existing data in VSA
o    New TxD data:  program-level learning outcomes and common alumni survey questions
•    Degree levels included:  Both undergraduate and graduate data in TxD, while only undergraduate data in VSA
•    Publisher of data:  TxD is working with WCET (Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications) as the independent aggregator and publisher of its data, while VSA is published by the two sponsoring associations
•    Method of publication:  Transparency by Design will use an interactive Web site, while VSA uses PDFs

The institutions and programs involved in Transparency by Design are committed to developing new information on program-level learning outcomes and alumni feedback because we understand that adults want to know what they will be able to learn and do upon degree completion. Their focus is on immediate impact in their work and careers.  We also know that many adults are in graduate programs, so we must produce consumer information for those programs as well as undergraduate programs.  We do not have a formal association that could publish the Web site. Instead, we use a third-party publisher, and believe that may be an added advantage in that a third-party could engender higher levels of user trust, confidence, and assurance that the site is not being used primarily for marketing. Finally, having a Web site is intended to create a more user-friendly consumer information site that allows greater flexibility.  Because we are generating new data, our first reports will be made in early 2009 using data collected during 2008.

While Transparency by Design has these differences from the Voluntary System of Accountability, the two efforts are complementary to one another.  And, together, these represent serious efforts to provide useful and important higher education consumer information.

Your reactions? I look forward to reading your comments.

Mike

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