An Exercise for Collecting and Organizing Evidence of Continuous Improvement

Colleges and universities depend upon external approvals from accreditors, government agencies, and national organizations. These approvals require periodic review of institution-prepared reports and self-studies documenting the continued validity of offered degrees and programs, student support and success, institutional effectiveness, and continuous improvement. Campus leaders generally take one of two approaches to complete this work: deploying working groups and committees or relying on one or two institutional accreditation leaders. This 2024 AALHE Conference session introduced a third approach, a hybrid of the two dominant approaches, which begins with a campus-wide assets-based exercise for gathering information and evidence. Deploying the exercise decreases the time campus stakeholders must commit to these recurring external review processes; provides accreditation leaders with information and evidence that reflect the breadth of the institution’s activities; addresses the problem of a narrow interpretation of assessment activities; and is more effective in the current higher education milieu where institutional effectiveness and continuous improvement are embedded across the breadth of institutionally unique activities.