| dc.description | SATURDAY MAY 21, 2011
1. Early Arrivers Reception (Special Event) 5:30-7:30pm –(Attended & Participated)
Highlights: at Waterfall Garden, Toronto Downtown sponsored by Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, and afterwards organized into dinner groups for a tour of Toronto Downtown to experience a flavour of the City’s night life.
SUNDAY MAY 22, 2011
2. Focus Group meeting 1:00-1:45pm(Attended and Participated):
Highlights: Planning Group met to finalize arrangement for collecting information about the Forum and getting attendees to participate in the Focus Group sessions to evaluate the Forum
3. Open Session with Miriam Carver at Conference B Hall 2:00-3:00pm: Information session on institutional research professional development opportunities. Attended and participated.
4. Newcomers Reception and Mentor/Mentee Gathering, City Hall, Sponsored by Inclusive Analytics. 3:30 – 4:15pm (Attended)
Highlights: This reception provided an opportunity for AIR newcomers to meet the Newcomers Committee and AIR Board as well as socializing and networking.
5. Plenary Session 4:30 – 6:00pm Undergraduate Learning and Post-College Outcomes: Findings from the CLA Longitudinal Project, Grand Ball Room presented by Dr. Richard Arum Sponsored by SAS (Attended)
6. Forum Opening Reception Sheraton Hall Sponsored by Digital Measures Inc. 6:00 –7:30pm (Attended)
MONDAY May 23, 2011
7. Special Interest Group: 7:30-8:15am: Canadian Institutional Research & Planning Association (CIRPA) at York Room (Attended and Participated)
Highlights: Introduction of CIRPA members present with current institutional research focus and activities at Canadian institutions. Discussion of the next CIRPA Conference at Halifax, NS, and invitation for volunteers
8. Panel Session: Creating Ongoing Communication and Collaboration Between Institutional Research Personnel and Faculty to Foster an Environment for Program Improvement: 8:30 -9:30am (Attended)
Highlights: The session discussed the communication and collaboration that occur between the Institutional Research Department and Departmental Faculties in an effort to gather and analyze data and then use the data to evaluate and improve programs.
9. Presentation: Foundations of Excellence: A Self-Study and Planning Process that Yields Improved Retention 9:45 – 10:25am: (Attended)
Highlights: The study examined the self-study and planning process for the first college year at a large US university. It provided information about the process and its outcome for institutional participants.
10. Presentation: A Not-Too-Difficult Way to Study Classroom Space Utilization- 11:00–11:40noon (Attended).
Highlights: The session reviewed the motivation and research design for a classroom utilization study at a US community college. The results allowed college administrators to better understand how well the college classroom space was being used by the academic departments.
11. Presentation: An Examination of Master’s Degree Student Retention and Completion 11:55 – 12:35pm (Attended)
Highlights: The session discussed the factors which are likely to predict the retention and graduation of Master’s degree students in the context of doctoral degree enrolments using a logistic regression.
12. Presentation: Is More Always Better? A Consideration of Response Rates and Bias in Higher Education Surveys 12:50 – 1:30pm (Attended)
Highlights: The study explored survey response bias through a review of the literature and examples from the presenter’s own experience conducting a survey of higher education faculty at institutions throughout the US.
13. Presentation: Predictors of Faculty Research Productivity: A Literature Review 1:45 – 2:25pm (Attended)
Highlights: The session reviewed faculty research productivity studies, models, and predictors. A university’s productivity is measured by the performance of its faculty and one measure of faculty performance is its research productivity. Faculty research productivity is variable and the session presented two set of factors that could predict this variance.
14. Presentation: Integrated Campus Planning: Using Cross-Institutional Collaboration to Promote the Alignment of Strategic Directions. 3:00-3:40pm (Attended)
Highlights: The session explored integrated campus planning from an institutional research and organizational development perspective. Results are shared from a survey of colleges and universities across America concerning implementation of campus planning and IR’s roles.
15. Presentation: New Roles for Institutional Research: Planning and Resource Utilization Support in the Emerging Economy. 3:55-4:35pm (Attended).
Highlights: The session presented new perspectives on the roles and functions of the Institutional Research office, which include planning and institutional resource allocation in support of achieving critical institutional goals such as enrollment management.
TUESDAY MAY 24, 2011
16. AIR A Plenary Session: Take Centre Stage: The Role of Institutional Research in Helping More Students Succeed. 8:00 – 9:30am (Attended)
Highlights: The session examined the challenges surrounding the completion of credentials past high school which present opportunities requiring to be taken advantage. Proposals for taking advantage of these opportunities include innovative technologies, creative student supports, dynamic delivery models, cross-sector partnerships, and data-informed policies.
17. Presentation: analyzing Your Financial Health: A Model for Applying Long-Range Planning Scenarios. 9:45 – 10:25am (Attended)
Highlights: The session demonstrated the use of a strategic panning model for developing long-range planning for decision making by connecting enrollment, human resources, and budgetary assumptions of trends. The sample project used a combination of a pilot study, cross-unit collaboration, and training.
18. Scholarly Paper: Measuring Persistence Versus Retention Among Non-Traditional Students. 11:00 – 11:40am (Attended)
Highlights: The study illustrated how institutions that serve non-traditional students who do not enroll continuously through graduation can measure persistence versus retention. While retention is the common measure of student progress, persistence may be the more appropriate measure for students who stop out and re-enroll prior to graduation.
19. Presentation: Establishing An Academic Program Review to Ensure Viable Academic Programs. 11:55am – 12:35pm (Attended)
Highlights: The session explained how a viable academic review was developed and who was involved at a large university in the US. It explained a six factor categories that ensures a comprehensive program review.
20. Technology: Monitoring the University’s Strategic Plan and Integrating Assessment Activities Using Task-Stream: One University’s Experience. 12:50 – 1:30pm (Attended)
Highlights: The session discussed the reasons for purchasing and installing the Task-Stream soft-ware for purposes of monitoring the goals and objectives set forth in the strategic plan. The session addresses the successes and challenges of adopting the soft-ware.
21. Targeted Affinity Group: Dynamic Parameters of Educational Opportunity: Demographics, Labour Markets, and Globalization. 2:00 – 3:00pm (Attended)
Highlights: The session discussed opportunity in higher education in terms of access, choice, persistence, and attainment. While access looks good, choice, persistence, and attainment tend to look bad. Past educational policies have ignored the new demographics, changing labour market requirements for skilled labour, and globalization. The failure to create policy in the context of these realities has produced predictable and consequential results.
22. Presentation: Evaluation of Institutional Financial Aid Policies 3:15 – 3:55pm (Attended)
Highlights: The session presented the effects of institutional financial aid policies on several outcomes such as stop-out behaviour, drop-out behaviour, academic performance, and financial returns for the institution in which the policy is embedded. The session shed lights for university administrators on how to reduce stop-outs and drop-outs and increase academic achievements.
23. Presentation: Exploring the Utility of an Engagement-Based Student Typology in Studying College Outcomes 4:10-4:50pm (Attended)
Highlights: Using data of the 2006 cohorts, the session presented a student typology based on student responses to survey items in the NSSE and then examined the utility of this typology in understanding learning outcomes, self-reported gains, GPAs, and persistence from the first to second year.
WEDNESDAY MAY 25, 2011
24. Research In Motion: Becoming a Published Author: Options, Requirements, and Strategies 8:30 – 9:30am (Attended)
Highlights: This session provided an overview of AIR publications, the emphasis and desired submission format for each publication, and the review and selection process used by each. The panelists shared suggestions about preparing to be submitted for consideration. (I met the Editor for the publication of my Chicago paper as a Professional File monogram).
25. TECHNOLOGY: Creating a Dashboard for Institutional Strategic Planning and Effectiveness. 9:45– 10:25am (Attended)
Highlights: In a climate of high demand for information, it is critical to provide leadership with a vast array of data at their fingertips. Researchers from Missouri State University present the process of creating a new business intelligence dashboard for use by academic administrators. Discussion includes determining types of material to include in a dashboard, combining data from disparate sources, preparing information for presentation, creating a consistent, user-friendly interface, data tables, charts, and advanced features such as OLAP analysis. Discussion is designed to apply to all types of business intelligence tools; specifically, Evisions’ Argos is demonstrated.
26. SCHOLARLY PAPER: Academic Program Life Cycles: An Application of a Dynamic Growth Model: 10:40 – 11:20am (Presented by me) Highlights: The basic mixed-influence diffusion growth model was extended by including economic factors (GDP, Recruitment Expenditures) deemed potentially to influence enrollment demand for academic programs. The regression analysis of the dynamic model yielded better parameter estimates, including magnitude and timing of enrollment peaks. The dynamic model explained variations in the growth of academic programs better than the basic model, and its long-term predictions of enrollments were more accurate than the predictions of the basic model. Parameter estimates were theoretically correct as to their signs and magnitudes. In summary, the dynamic model showed considerable improvement over the basic growth model.
27. Presentation: Assessing the Assessments: A Methodology for University-wide Reporting. 11:25 – 12:15am (Attended)
Highlights: No one-size-fits-all model for assessment in higher education exists. Instead, assessment is often “by committee” or as an add-on responsibility. The table topic discussion focuses on the ways in which campuses organize their assessment work, as well as innovative techniques to enhance assessment capacity such as certification programs. Handouts are provided on examples of in-house assessment certification programs for divisions and frameworks that can guide the work of building assessment capacity. Attendees can expect to leave the table discussion with tangible strategies that they can employ on their campuses to nurture and grow assessment capacity.
28. SPECIAL EVENT: AIR Awards Luncheon12:30 – 2:30pm (Attended)
Highlights: 2011 Forum celebration luncheon, recognition of accomplishments of AIR award recipients, and preview of the 2012 Forum in Louisiana, USA..
THURSDAY MAY 26, 2011
Flight back Home from Toronto, ON, to Edmonton, AB AIR CANADA FLIGHT AC123
Edmonton International Airport; journeyed by road to Athabasca
AIR 2011 FORUM RELEVANCE
The Forum workshops on program assessment, dashboard construction, research in action, scholarly papers, and plenary sessions, special events and social activities were very informative intellectually and professionally as the activities provided insights into the theory and practice of institutional research; building collaboration in higher education for data collection, research, policy analysis and information sharing, as well as new developments/innovations and methods of doing institutional research to inform institutional planning and management, assessment and academic program review, as well as alumni, faculty, staff and student satisfaction surveys. The resources, ideas and knowledge I acquired would greatly provide guidance and direction to inform my institutional studies work at Athabasca University, particularly as Institutional Studies Office is looking forward to building a data program assessment and dashboard to increase opportunities for data analysis and reporting.
My scholarly paper presentation on the life cycle of academic programs: an application of a dynamic growth model was a continuation of my last year’s paper, which has been sent to press for publication as a professional monogram. It should be out in the fall. | en |
