SERVICE, ENGAGEMENT, AND ACCREDITATION

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SERVICE, ENGAGEMENT, AND ACCREDITATION

• Measuring Outcomes
• Indiana Campus Compact
• Indianapolis, IN
• November 10, 2005

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DEVELOPMENT OF GOALS/OUTCOMES

• Mission statement(s) vision, values, goals
• Goals and objective for general education
• NSSE/benchmarking
• Defined in course requirement(s)
• Strategic planning goals
• Freshman year experience
• Goals/outcomes to fit specific types of students
• Institutional definition/promotion/distinctiveness
  

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PROCESS

• Mission revision
• General education review
• Lilly funding stimulus
• Clearer definition of purposes of existing
  partnerships
• Just start, then shape and define
• SL or CE office leadership
• Triggered by self-study/AQIP processes

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PROCESS

• Incubators (faculty/departments)
• Created through partnership projects

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EVIDENCE

• Transcript/course numbering
• Student work/journals/course products
• Student identification of learning
  outcomes/growth/change
• Basic bean counting (how many did . . .)
• Integrate into capstone experiences
• Community survey
• Creative data mining

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EVIDENCE

• Testimonials (agency, students, faculty)
• Sampling?
• Portfolios (structure, discipline)
• National tools (NSSE)
• Kellogg Study framework (7 part test)
• Include student organizations and clubs

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CHALLENGES

• Soft money
• Lack of valid instruments for measuring
• Measuring competencies
• Fit of service learning for working adults
• Conundrum of definitions/tracking
• Cost of accessing some useful information
• Incentivization that gets results
• Role of faculty rewards/recognition
• Highly decentralized nature of varieties of
  engagement on campus

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CHALLENGES

• Politicization of many social justice
  issues/voting
• Faculty buy-in/sharing responsibility--adjuncts,
  too.
• Distinguishing actions of individuals from
  university position
• Appropriateness of triad to what institutions
  want for student
• Maintaining relationships over the long haul.
• Moving beyond listing to critical reflection
• Fit to minority students/communities
• Who defines outcomes in a partnership?

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CHALLENGES

• Differential value of projects to the
  college/community
• Urban/rural differences
• Relationship of service learning to needs that
  are driving the economy

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SUGGESTIONS

• Conferences Florida State Institute on College
  Student Values Educators for Community
  Engagement . . . .
• See this as shifting cultures, not just tinkering
  with what exists
• Use the scholarship of engagement/service e.g.
  Michigan Journal of Community and Service
  Learning
• Social justice vs social responsibility
• Be satisfied with temporary answers as you search
  for longer term solutions

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COMMENTS

• Unique position of Indiana
• Shifting campus culture is hard although not
  impossible.
• Unique window of opportunity who shapes the
  academy and for what ends?
• Central role of faculty, but new openness to
  issues of learning and pedagogy.
• Asking questions is a good thing and not a bad
  place to be.

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INDIANA CAMPUS COMPACT

• Jackie McCracken
• Executive Director
• jacmccra_at_iupui.edu
• www.indianacampuscompact.org