Texas Christian University

Decennial Report and Beyond: Fostering an Inclusive Model for Data-Informed Decision-Making
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Overview

One of the many challenges for higher education is remaining ready for re-accreditation. For accreditation review to be meaningful to all stakeholders, it needs to be inclusive, organized, collaborative, and authentically driven by the desire to improve. Preparing a self study should not be an onerous and overbearing task that only happens when an institution or program is up for re-accreditation. Rather, it should be a regular way of working at all levels of an institution.

Read the case study to learn how Texas Christian University (TCU) used the HelioCampus Assessment & Credentialing platform to accelerate their timeline and deliver their decennial report for SACSCOC despite limited time and resources. Through this digital transformation process, TCU is establishing a sustainable process for integrated planning that informs ongoing continuous improvement efforts across the institution.

"At one of the first SACSCOC training sessions I attended many years ago, the reviewer said, ‘don’t get ready for re-accreditation, stay ready’ and the best way I can translate that into practice is to ensure we have a quality assessment process and system to ensure we are ready for any report, data request, and review everyday. HelioCampus helps us do that.”

Dr. David Allen, Director of Institutional Effectiveness

Texas Christian University

Supporting Features & Workflows

  • The HelioCampus Evidence Bank served as TCU’s starting point for report submission. The evidence bank allows institutions to assign users to tag evidence by self study standard and substandard to sections of their report, as well as connect that evidence to standards, outcomes and keywords.
  • This unique and critical feature enables institutions to support a culture of continuous improvement. It also serves as a data repository for accreditation and other reviews, including strategic planning, program review and programmatic self-studies.
  • Whatever the case, if your evidence changes, the user only needs to swap out the old version and add the revised document. Wherever that evidence is linked in the self study, it will be automatically updated without having to change anything within the narrative.

What's Next?

The digital transformation of TCU is just getting started with the successful submission of the Decennial Report. The next phase is to set up academic and administrative support services annual assessment planning and to integrate their Learning Management System (LMS) Brightspace by D2L to their assessment platform.

Through day-to-day collection of direct student assessments from the LMS, program assessment through workflows, and a regular cadence for meeting and reviewing data for improvement, Dr. Allen and his team are always ready for the next review cycle.

Learn More About the Results 

Read the Case Study