Higher education systems around the globe have undergone deep structural changes, spurred by advances in technology, increased accessibility by a wider range of students, and expanded ideas about the purpose of higher education. Technological innovations have had a significant impact on postsecondary education by facilitating increases in online learning, by enhancing corporate-academic partnerships, and by increasing globalization and putting education within reach of more individuals around the world. This massification of higher education has led to increases in demands for Quality Assurance.  Increased quality has been a focus of the Bologna Process and the Lisbon Strategy just as it has in the United States in its regional accreditation processes.  On both sides of the Atlantic, given the tenets of institutional autonomy, “the primary responsibility for quality assurance in higher education lies with each institution itself” (Berlin Communique, 2003).  

            Though assessment of educational quality is not new to the higher education landscape, there is still some mystery attached to how to institutionalize the process so that it leads to continuous improvement across the university, in academic programs as well as administrative ones.  Leadership commitment is often cited as a necessary prerequisite to create a successful assessment process.  Faculty buy in and ownership of the process is another perceived cornerstone of successful assessment efforts.  Strong associations with strategic planning efforts and an appropriate place in the administrative structure are two other often cited elements necessary for assessment to be successful at a college or university.  This workshop, rather than isolate on key elements, focuses on developing an institution’s capacity to develop routine assessment into the life of the organization.  Context, infrastructure, purposeful socialization, resources, and knowledge production will be examined as inputs for building capacity for assessment.  In addition, key activities, resulting in short, medium and long-term process outcomes will be explicitly developed through interactive discussions in this workshop.  Institutional case studies will provide the examples for this examination.

     The objectives of this session are to encourage participants to go beyond individual facilitating factors of the assessment of quality and to provide them with a more holistic, contextualized perspective for developing an effective process at their institutions.  Participants in this session will be able to discuss the inputs, activities, and outcomes of a building capacity model to examine effective assessment processes.  Specific evaluation approaches will be discussed.

Adelman, C. (2008). Learning accountability from Bologna: A higher education policy primer. Washington, DC: Institute for Higher Education Policy. Aper, J., Culver, S., & Hinkle, D. (1990). Coming to temrs with the accountability versus improvement debate in assessment. Higher Education, 20, 471-483. Banta, T. W., Jones, E., Z., & Black, K. E. (2009). Designing effective assessment: Principles & profiles of good practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Banta, T., Griffin, M., Flateby, T., & Kahn, S. (2009). Three promising alternatives for assessing college students' knowledge and skills. Occasional paper #2. National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment. Culver, S. M., Puri, I. K., Spinelli, G., DePauw, K. P., & Dooley, J. E. (2011). Collaborative dual-degree programs and value added for students: Lessons learned through the Evaluate-E project. Journal of Studies in International Education. DOI 1028315311403934. Culver, S. (2010). Educational quality, outcomes assessment, and policy change: The Virginia example. International Education, 40(1), 6-20. Loukkola, T., & Zhang, T. (2010). Examining quality culture: Part 1 - Quality assurance processes in higher education institutions. European University Association. Rhoades, G., & Sporn, B. (2002). Quality assurance in Europe and the U.S.: Professional and political economic framing of higher education policy. Higher Education, 43, 355-390. Royal Society. (2011). Knowledge, networks, and nations: Global scientific collaboration in the 21st century. Royal Society Policy Document 03/11. London: The Royal Society. Westerheijden, D. F. (2003). Accreditation in Western Europe: Adequate reactions to Bologna Declaration and the general agreement on trade in services? Journal of Studies in International Education, 7(3), 277-302.