Faculty Success Improvements

In 2021, Watermark changed the name of Digital Measures to Faculty Success. TTU is in the process of changing over documents and handouts. We will be updating our videos in the summer to reflect the new change. We will begin using the abbreviation FS to refer to the software. Thanks to everyone for your patience as we all incorporate this change.

Work Requests

One of the less commonly known procedures surrounding Faculty Success (FS) is how reports or screens are updated. While TTU owns the FS data and have full control over the environment, we rely on FS developers for updates to the user interface (UI), data imports with large datasets, and general consultation for errors and site use. When a change is requested, OPA considers the request and considers the functionality of the request as well as whether the request is possible. In some situations, the best solution is a simple one that can be put into place with little or no disruption to site use.

The below chart shows how OPA has handled work requests in the past year. Work requests were categorized by Minor, such as altering the wording of a metric or completing a data copy request, by Major, which would include data imports or adding the School for Veterinary Medicine to our various screens, and by Fundamental, which would include the Grad School Expansion Project-related requests or requests that update our query or create new screens in the system.

Over the past year, OPA handled about 145 requests, and we categorized them to be about: 37% Minor requests, 52% Major requests, and 11% Fundamental requests. We are pleased with this breakdown, though the larger Major category may need to be determined differently. Part of the issue with determining the category is that often requests' importance is unknown until we begin working with Watermark. This is not to be confused with the OPA support email, which handled around 400 troubleshooting requests last year. The OPA support email allows faculty to directly request troubleshooting, particularly for issues like being unable to log in or manual changes to data.

HB2504 Compliance

TTU kept with the consistently high syllabus compliance in the Spring of 2022. Compliance was right at 99% as OPA continues to work with departments on HB2504-related issues. This term there were some extenuating issues with the HB2504 query that required additional attention and required us to pause the import at times while we continue to work on the Graduate Student Expansion Project.

Other Faculty Success Improvements

Throughout the year, OPA must be reactionary towards some work request or troubleshooting issues. For example, during the Spring term, many requests come in for updates to Annual Faculty Report templates or to other screens in FS that need a change. During the Fall we often receive more questions about evaluations and general records compliance. OPA is always willing to hear and make changes when possible and beneficial to do so. In the past year, some of the changes to FS include:

1. Development of a Comprehensive Performance Evaluation form in Faculty Success
2. Preliminary creation of a Tenure Dossier, which will allow for a single report to be run for P&T procedures
3. Graduate School Expansion Project and development of an Individual Development Plan report to allow tracking of Gad student research, accolades, and progress
4. Continuous improvements to the data query which populates FS, this includes enrollment values updating consistently, faculty/staff rank, and the new inclusion of a Student College and Department, which will allow faculty and staff to list their studies as well as to help categorize our students when they are added to the system.
5. Many other changes have been made over the past year, but these all represent changes that will affect users across the system. It is our goal to continue making the system easier to use with the assistance of faculty and administration.

Please join us for the annual Texas Association for Higher Education Assessment conference on the Riverwalk in San Antonio!  The proposal submission site is open through April 15.  We'd love to have TTU faculty representation in San Antonio.  For more information about the conference, visit https://txahea.org/.

Highlights from the Support Services Institutional Effectiveness Committees

As part of Texas Tech's SACSCOC accreditation, OPA meets bi-annually with the Support Services Institutional Effectiveness (SSIE) Committee which is tasked with the direction and scope of our assessment process as it pertains to Administrative, Academic, and Student Support Services. The Committee serves in an advisory capacity to guide OPA in effective and representative assessment that aligns with the needs of both the university and SACSCOC. We are grateful to the following representatives for serving on the Support Services IE Committee:

The SSIE Committee met in January 2022 where they began the peer review process of the 2020-2021 Administrative, Academic, and Student Support Services assessment reports, providing valuable feedback to our departments. All members participated in a simple training session on how to use the Support Services Assessment Rubric. Committee members completed approximately 7-8 reflections on their peer Support Service departments. 

During this meeting, Kara Page updated the Committee about the changes that had been made in the annual assessment report. These changes primarily reflect a more business-centered terminology, which better represents the processes and practices in our Support Service departments. The information about these changes was well-received and there is consensus that the new format will help the departments more accurately demonstrate their impact on students and the university.   

The University-Level Institutional Effectiveness Committee (ULIEC), which has historically been comprised of College representatives, has also expanded to include representatives from our Support Services units. It is OPA's goal to assess the student experience across the entire university and not simply within the higher profile units. To ensure we have complete department representation, OPA has expanded its assessment review process to include the following programs as part of the Administrative, Academic, and Student Support Services:  

Athletics 

Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion  

International Affairs 

Risk Intervention and Safety Education 

Title IX 

eLearning and Academic Partnerships 

Institutional Advancement  

Institutional Research 

Office of Research & Innovation 

Office of the Provost 

Payroll and Tax 

Safety and Security 

Student Financial Aid & Scholarship 

University Outreach and Engagement 

President's Office 

Provost's Office 

Texas Tech Alumni Association 

It is worth noting we have updated the name for this group of people from Non-Academic representatives to Support Service representatives. We feel as though the term Support Service better represents the wide-variety of necessary work that they do.

Changes to Nuventive Improve Reporting

It is OPA's goal to continuously improve, and thus, we are happy to announce that our annual academic reporting process has been updated based on faculty feedback. We want programs to be able to portray their successes in updating or improving the student learning process. Rather than reporting multiple actions for improvement and subsequent follow-up statements, Program Coordinators will report one narrative discussing actions taken to improve or a plan for improvement of student learning. The reflection section now takes a holistic view of degree program improvement as opposed to solely assessment method improvement. This broader scope allows programs to showcase curriculum or course sequence changes, faculty training, or any community engagement that may influence the students' opportunity to master the program's specific outcomes.

Here is a snapshot of our changes:

To assist Program Coordinators in navigating these changes, one can view any of these instructional documents or visit our page on OPA website:

Annual Reflections
Analysis of Results
OPA Website Assessment Page

OPA Assessment Spotlight
Auxiliary Services

Patrick Albritton

By: Kara Page, Senior Administrator
 
What is your position and what do you do for Texas Tech?
I am the Assistant Vice President of Auxiliary Services, a non-academic division of Administration & Finance that extends beyond the learning environment of classrooms. We are the golden thread that enhances the Red Raider quality of education through student experiences and services. We are a central office home to the following service departments: Hospitality Services, University Student Housing, Student Union & Activities, University Recreation (URec), Student Health Services and the TTU Campus Store (Aux Svs). Our mission is to attract and retain a diverse community that provides the essential programs and services required for every Red Raider to achieve their highest potential. We strive to continually enhance campus life for every Red Raider.

How long have you been at Texas Tech?
I have been with Texas Tech for 6 months. After graduation, I spent 25 years in the Air Force before returning to my alma mater.

How did you get involved with assessment?
As an engineer and retired military officer, feedback and assessments are critical in understanding how a system or organization is functioning. Upon starting my new position at Texas Tech, my team and I developed Auxiliary Services' strategic goals, theme, mission and vision to align with and support Texas Tech University's Pathway to 2025 Strategic Plan. To capture and assess our progress, from divisional goals to individual growth and productivity, we decided to line up our annual assessments using the Office of Planning and Assessment's Nuventive Improve with yearly evaluations, and we adjusted our input timing to accommodate the evaluation's schedule. We developed our annual report to highlight the impact of the services we provide and how those services lead to a better student experience. In our annual report, we introduced the “Golden Thread” to illustrate how Auxiliary Services weaves a thread of excellence to increase student success. Using the Nuventive tool allowed us to standardize departmental inputs and get on an existing, repeatable cycle. Auxiliary Services assesses programs, services, facilities and teams from aspects of financial stewardship, customer needs and enrollment impacts to Texas Tech University. 

How do you use assessment in your job? What are some interesting assessment techniques you have used or are planning to use?
Texas Tech Auxiliary Services has partnered with Rawls College of Business' Center for Sales & Customer Relationship Excellence to develop a strategy to enhance student enjoyment and recognize which aspects of Auxiliary Services have the greatest impact on our stakeholders.  Utilizing the Sales & Customer Relationship Strategy Competition, we look to uncover which factors inhibit enjoyment and what activities are the biggest areas of complaint for our students.  Knowing this information will allow us to establish opportunities to improve our Housing, Hospitality and URec programs and services. 

Is there anything else you would like to share about assessment?
Assessment is critical in the execution of my job. I am a student of the OODA loop, a decision-making process developed by U.S. Air Force Colonel John Boyd. The OODA cycle, observe-orient-decide-act, requires the system to be assessed through examination and compared back to goals prior to implementation of decisions. This is very similar to Dr. Deming's Plan, Do, Study, Act cycle of continual improvement. This is exactly what the annual assessment forces the Auxiliary Services' leadership team to do – evaluate the effectiveness of previous decisions before we align next year's actions. 

What is your hometown or where do you tell people you are from?
I grew up in Austin, Texas.

What do you like to do when you are not working?
Spend time with my family – it doesn't matter what we are doing.

What is something you have not done but would like to do?
I have landed in Shannon, Ireland, several times returning from overseas deployments, but I have never had the chance to set foot outside of the airport. I hope to one day take a tour of Ireland.

Long-Term Reaffirmation Planning