Building Regional Capacity through Institutional Collaborations Marc Singer, Vice Provost Center for the Assessment of Learning Thomas Edison State College Ohio PLA with a Purpose Symposium April 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