How One Institution Used the Accreditation Module to

Achieve SACSCOC Reaffirmation

Tony Adam, Director of Institutional AssessmentLeah Coleman, Coordinator of Institutional Assessment

Blinn College

SPOL User ConferenceFort Lauderdale, FL

September 27-30, 2015

Presentation Outcomes

• Utilize SPOL’s Accreditation Module• Write compliance report narratives • Manage the approval process • Organize support documentation• Publish final compliance reports with ease• Respond to accreditors’ follow-up requests

Blinn College Basics

• Four campus locations in southeast Texas• 18,000+ students• 120 academic and support programs• Academic transfer and workforce programs• 750 full-time and part-time faculty• Accredited by the Southern Association of

Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges

Blinn’s Recent Record with SACSCOC

• Reaffirmation visit – 2004• Fifth-Year Interim Report (2010)– Prepared entirely on paper– Built support webpage with help of campus Academic

Technology– Cited as non-compliant on four criteria

• Referral Report (2011)• First Monitoring Report on 3.3.1.1 (2012)• Second Monitoring Report on 3.3.1.1 (2013)• Second Monitoring Report accepted (2014)

Preparing for the next round

• Users unhappy with TracDat for assessment purposes

• Investigated alternative products with eye toward assessment and accreditation needs

• Purchased SPOL in January 2013• Licensed cloud-based Advanced Edition,

including Assessment, Budgeting, Planning, and Accreditation Modules

• Began set-up of modules in April 2013

Reaffirmation Timeline

• Compliance Report due – March 2014• Offsite team review – May 2014• Onsite peer review visit – October 2014

How Did We Proceed?

• Established Leadership Team, Compliance Certification Team, and Editorial Team

• Formed mini-teams of colleagues with knowledge/experience of specific areas (for example, faculty credentialing)

• Almost all team members were already SPOL Users and were at least aware of basic issues such as logging on, using tabs and arrows, etc.

Using the Accreditation Module

• SPOL already has the current SACSCOC criteria loaded in the Accreditation Module

• Using single sign-on avoided any problems with forgotten or confused passwords

• Basing SPOL on the cloud let users work from anywhere with no server or other problems

• Almost all writers were already SPOL Users – make sure everyone understands the workflow process before they begin writing the narrative or uploading documentation

Accreditation Homepage

SACSCOC Standards Screen

Standards Outlined

Standards Further Outlined

Self-Study Progress Report

Use the Approval Status lights to

track progress!

Self-Study Progress Report

Progress lights also appear on

each Details page

Accreditation Details Page

Embed document links in your narratives – the reviewers can click the links for your support

documentation.

Narrative Template

Approval Roles

One individual can appear in many

approval, editing, and writing roles – you can

also change roles as necessary

Associated Outcomes & Objectives

Associating Objectives and Outcomes from the

Assessment and Planning Modules easily adds

documentation to your report

Document & Link Management

Convert your documents to pdf

whenever practical for format consistency

and viewing ease for the reviewers

Use external links sparingly – they could break or disappear after

you’ve submitted your report

File Naming Conventions

Standardize your filenames – missing

documents are easier to spot, and the list the

reviewers see is easier for them to read

Organizing Documentation

Organize and label your folders and subfolders with simple names, so

writers can load documents easily

Publishing the Report

Publishing the Report

The publishing process takes time – don’t wait until the last minute!

Responding to Compliance Issues

Responding to Compliance Issues

Results?

“The SACSCOC Board of Trustees reaffirmed accreditation. No additional report was requested. Your institution’s next reaffirmation will take place in 2025 unless otherwise notified.”

--official notification letter from SACSCOC, 1 July 2015

First time in Blinn College history that we were not required to produce any Monitoring Reports!

Recap – Helpful Hints

• Give yourself more time than you think you need on all phases of the accreditation process

• Organize your Document Management folders logically according to the criteria

• Standardize your document formats prior to uploading to the Document Management folders

Recap – Helpful Hints

• Train your users as soon as possible in the basic of using SPOL

• Train a few employees to help users along the way (e.g., how to upload documents, how to embed links in text)

• Don’t hesitate to contact the SPOL Helpdesk!

Questions

For more information:

Tony Adam tony.adam@blinn.edu

Leah Coleman leah.coleman@blinn.edu

Joe Baumann joe.Baumann@blinn.edu