Building Regional Capacity through Institutional Collaborations

Marc Singer, Vice ProvostCenter for the Assessment of Learning

Thomas Edison State College

Ohio PLA with a Purpose SymposiumApril 29, 2014

The Problem

• How to balance local control and uniqueness with increased need for accountability, tightened funding, technological change, and the College Completion agenda

• Local Control vs. Economies of Scale

Past and Present

• Past: Colleges sought to shape their students’ worldview—Yale created the “Yale Man”

• Present: Many institutions outsource much of what used to be proprietary:– Food service– Parking lots– Technology services– Instructional Design resources– Grading

What is our core mission?

• Teaching and Learning• Helping students achieve success• Serving the state’s workforce development

needs?

Acceptance of PLA

• Does acceptance of PLA = giving up control over some learning?

• Learning can come from anywhere, and you didn't direct or control it.

• Is learning from elsewhere just as good as what happens at your institution? Data suggests yes: – Fueling the Race to Postsecondary Success shows high success

rates for PLA students– 60% of community college students who transfer to four-year

schools graduate within four years (National Student Clearinghouse Research Center)—compares with 59% overall graduation rate

– May be a tribute to accreditors, independent validators of learning

Scale

• Advantages of Scale• Dangers of Scale—centralized/standardized• Advantages of Local Control

A Middle Ground?

• Partnerships with other Colleges--Difficult to create without mandate

• Example: Excelsior and Thomas Edison State College: testing and portfolio– Each has its own expertise – Assign one program to each? Share staff and resources?– Logistics, ego, job security got in the way

Program Review Consortium

• Includes six institutions that conduct reviews of training, licenses, and certificates:– Thomas Edison State College– SUNY Empire State College– Excelsior College– Vermont Community Colleges– Charter Oak State College– Granite State College

• Goals: Share reviews with one another, share resources, establish a common definition of college-level learning, ensure standards

NJ PLA Network

• Includes most two-year and four-year public institutions in NJ

• TESC coordinate sharing of standards and methods for evaluating prior learning—all contribute

• Institutions without PLA programs send students to Thomas Edison State College for same price

• Faculty at other institutions will be trained to evaluate portfolios, review training

• Network might expand to other NJ institutions, neighbors in Pennsylvania and Delaware

• Issues: transcripting, “ownership” of process

Where Partnering Can Work

• When the other organization(s) has/have a different mission or set of goals

• Example: Saylor Foundation and TESC• Where there are mutual benefits• No one is subordinate to the other• We can assess the final products

ourselves• Medium Scale