American Public University System: Building a Culture of CollaborationDr. Gwen Hall, Associate Provost of Academic Effectiveness and Student Success, American Public University System

American Public University System (APUS)

• Who are we?• Founded in 1991• Over 100,000 students• 100% online• Students in all time zones• 100 programs at Associate,

Bachelor’s, and Master’s levels• Regionally Accredited

Why Collaborate?

• If collaboration is not present in the development of new ideas, it will not be present in their execution.

•Shared ownership = shared investment Shared investment = shared accomplishment

Shared accomplishment = sense of community and pride

• Potential for organizational transformation

• APUS before collaboration: Student Services separate from Academics, disconnected strategies, inconsistent processes

• APUS after collaboration: Student Services and Academics combined in one department, shared strategies for student success, connected and consistent processes

Four Pillars of Effective Collaboration for Student Success

CollaborativeInquiry

Collaborative Planning

CollaborativeExecution

CollaborativeAccountability

Student Success

Institutional Strategy

Pillar 1:Collaborative Inquiry

Collaborative Inquiry

General Principles:

• Start with strategic objectives. What essential questions can/should be asked in order to achieve them? Asking essential questions collaboratively creates shared foundational philosophy.

• Establish collaborative working teams with breadth (cross-departmental) and depth (multiple organizational levels). Include faculty as often as possible.

• What data do you have? What data do you need?

Collaborative Inquiry at APUS

• Internal initiatives:• Classroom Observations• DFWI Tracking• ClearPath• CIVITAS

• Scope: Department-level• Stage: Implementation

• Sponsor: Gardner Institute• Scope: Course-level• Focus: 5 High DFWI courses• Launch: 2013• Stage: Implementation/Measures of Success

• Sponsor: Higher Learning Commission

• Scope: Institution-level• Focus: Data-based strategies• Launch: 2014• Stage: Data collection and

analysis

• Sponsor: Gardner Institute• Scope: Institution-level• Focus: First-year experience• Launch: 2012• Stage: Implementation/Measures of Success

Foundations of Excellence

HLC Academy for Student

Persistence and Completion

InternalInitiatives

Gateways to Completion

Collaborative Inquiry at APUS

Broad and Deep Participation

Foundations of Excellence• Over 150 participants from 7 departments• 20 full-time faculty • All levels represented, from administrative assistants to executive vice

presidentsGateways to Completion

• 65 participants, including advisors and admissions reps• 19 full-time faculty, some in co-chair roles

HLC Academy on Student Persistence and Completion• 16 participants, including four full-time faculty• Representatives from Academics, Institutional Research, Finance, and

Enrollment Management

Pillar 2:Collaborative Planning

Collaborative Planning

General Principles

• Create and prioritize recommendations for action based on wide consensus across teams

• Create implementation plans that evenly disburse responsibility for action across departments

• Consider appropriate measures of success as you develop action items. Make sure that action items are actionable and that measures of success are measurable.

• Receive input and approval from all team members for final implementation plan

• Be willing to review and revise implementation plan often to maintain relevance and currency

Collaborative Planning at APUS

Creating and Prioritizing Recommendations

Foundations of Excellence• Recommendations created by FoE working team as part of self-study report• FoE Summit (July 2013)

• High-level, cross-departmental group reviewed recommendations and offered input and suggested revisions

• Prioritization process included polling and considerations of ROI (“low-hanging fruit”)

Gateways to Completion• Institution-level recommendations created by G2C Steering Committee.

Course-level recommendations created by G2C Course-Specific Committees.• Prioritization process included virtual polling of G2C committee members,

considerations of ROI, and cross-walking with FoE recommendations already in process

Excerpt from G2C Prioritization Form

Excerpt from FoE Implementation Plan

Pillar 3:Collaborative Execution

Collaborative Execution

General Principles

• Create cross-departmental oversight teams to monitor progress on action items and resolve challenges as they appear

• Meet regularly to ensure effective communication among stakeholders

• Create a template to capture progress on action items

• Create mechanism for baselining and tracking measures of success

Collaborative Execution at APUS

APUS Retention Committee

• Created in 2013 to oversee implementation of FoE recommendations• Members include high-level participants from:

• Academics• Student Services (now part of Academics)• Enrollment Management• Institutional Research• Marketing• Finance• IT

• Meets quarterly to report on action item progress and measures of success• Cross-walks FoE actions items with recommendations from other initiatives to

resolve conflicts and redundancies

Sample of Retention Committee Progress Template

Example of Retention Committee Cross-walk

Pillar 4:Collaborative Accountability

Collaborative Accountability

General Principles

• Measures of success are strategically aligned, accessible to all relevant stakeholders, and regularly tracked and communicated

• Cross-departmental oversight team(s) meet regularly to acknowledge successes and tackle challenges creatively and cohesively

• Progress on important initiatives are communicated effectively to the institution at large

Collaborative Accountability at APUS

Prioritizing Data-Sharing

• Development of institutional dashboards to communicate data on progress to all stakeholders

• Sharing of DFWI data with faculty on a regular basis to acknowledge progress and promote improvement

• Development of predictive analytics tool (Illume) so that all departments can work with the same data to create future persistence strategies

Creating Collaborative Platforms

• Faculty Connect: Communication tool to keep faculty current on all institutional priorities and initiatives

• ClearPath: One-stop student resource center combining curricular and co-curricular support resources

What We’ve Learned

• Collaboration can be resource-heavy. Institutional support should be strong and consistent.

• Communication is key (and hard). Finding effective platforms to keep all members of the institution informed and invested in collaborative efforts is critical.

• A plan is just a plan. Effectiveness is the destination. Be willing to review and revise as often as necessary.

Questions?