Assessment Matters from RPA 12/7/16

RPA Comprehensive Program Assessment and Review Team
A heads-up – Research, Planning and Assessment (RPA) is scheduled for Comprehensive Program Assessment this year and Maren Hess of Campbell University will be our external reviewer, while the internal reviewers are David McLennan and Brandon Stokes. The review is to take place on January 17-18, 2017, and the agenda will be distributed soon. There will be sessions for particular groups, as well as an open session for anyone who cannot make one of the scheduled sessions or who wishes to participate but is not part of the scheduled groups. The open session is 1-1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 18, in the Marketing Conference room in Johnson Hall.

Meredith College Survey Policy:
Because there has been no central approval mechanism, in recent years the number of surveys being deployed by various constituencies on campus has increased, sometimes leading to overlapping surveys in the field, the duplication of questions and confusion among those being surveyed. Studies find that over-surveying can result in survey fatigue among various target audiences, resulting in decreased response rates. To address this, a Meredith College Survey Policy has been developed and approved by the Executive Leadership Team. In future, all surveys conducted on students, faculty, and staff of Meredith College need to be directed through RPA. Please familiarize yourself with the policy by going to My Meredith>>RPA and scrolling down to “Requesting a Survey” to review the policy.  A form requesting approval is located on this page.

Freshmen Views about Online Learning
During orientation, all freshmen were surveyed about their expectations and preferences for online learning. Results showed that more than half of freshmen students (52%) were interested in taking online courses as part of their general education requirements, but only a little over a third (36.5%) were interested in online courses as part of their major. More than half the students (54.9%) had never taken an online course and nearly half (47.5%) were moderately to very comfortable with taking online courses. The full report is also available on the RPA My Meredith site.

Strategic Plan Update
The updated Meredith Forever Strategic Plan report can be found on the RPA My Meredith page. This report was presented to the trustees at the October Board of Trustees meeting.

–Submitted by Director of Research, Planning and Assessment Dianne Raubenheimer