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American Public University System: Building a Culture of CollaborationDr. Gwen Hall, Associate Provost of Academic Effectiveness and Student Success, American Public University System
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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
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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
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Four Pillars of Effective Collaboration for Student Success
CollaborativeInquiry
Collaborative Planning
CollaborativeExecution
CollaborativeAccountability
Student Success
Institutional Strategy
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Pillar 1:Collaborative Inquiry
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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?
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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
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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
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Pillar 2:Collaborative Planning
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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
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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
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Excerpt from G2C Prioritization Form
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Excerpt from FoE Implementation Plan
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Pillar 3:Collaborative Execution
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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
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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
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Sample of Retention Committee Progress Template
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Example of Retention Committee Cross-walk
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Pillar 4:Collaborative Accountability
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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
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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
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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.
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Questions?