February 13, 2013

I don’t know about you, but when I experience poor customer service, especially…especially when I am paying for the service, I tend to get a little bent out of shape. It seems much too often in today’s world that there is a growing indifference to customer satisfaction, which brings me to the purpose of this blog.

It came to my attention the other day while attending a brown bag luncheon on the Findlay campus (where I teach) that a number one complaint of Owens students is that many of our instructors, who teach online, do not respond to student emails in an expeditious manner. I seem to recall that Noel-Levitz consultants reported the same concern.

Certainly, responding to online students in a timely manner,  is one area Owens can improve upon. My thoughts are that if just half of the online instructors commit to answering student emails responsibly, our customer service profile would improve significantly. Please join with me in spreading the word that Owens could perhaps corner the market in becoming known as the college with the best customer service in NW Ohio. On second thought, why not aim for being the college with the best customer service period! By the way…I continue to work on my own online performance.

Marian Moore

Assistant Professor

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Greetings, colleagues of APC.   I’m pleased to take my turn writing a blog posting about AQIP.  I have been involved in AQIP since the days of process management, around 2005,  with Dr. Jensen and his famous camper he worked out of.  I have represented my department since AQIP’s inception.  Over my 16 years as a member of the Owens family I have been proud to serve the college community through process management as well as on the APC.

Observing the process over time has been a very interesting experience, especially as it has become more inclusive.  The college community’s thinking has evolved significantly since I first began my employment in 1996.   The inclusiveness of various departments from throughout  the college has been one of the most positive aspects of AQIP.   I was also pleased to see many people realize that quality improvement, as a process, is never truly complete.  It is an evolutionary process where members of the Owes community can continually strive to improve the Owens brand and continue to work towards the goal of providing the best service possible to our students and the community.   This is a philosophy each employee can apply in his or her own way.  I look forward to continuing to serve the college community applying the values I have learned in APC over the years.

Owens Community College Foundation Scholarship applications are still being accepted for the 2013-2014 academic year, but the deadline is quickly approaching.  Applications are due February 15, 2013.  Any applications and essay materials can be returned to the Oserve office at any of our four locations.  In addition, scholarships that are awarded based on financial need also require students to have their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) filed by February 28, 2013.  The Oserve office can assist students who need help filing the FAFSA as well.  Please encourage student to apply.  Applications are available in the Oserve office as well as online at https://www.owens.edu/foundation/scholarships.html.

One of the 2013 Owens Leadership Academy team, the Resourceful has accepted the task of sprucing up the Source Learning Center.  The project entails adding carpet to the main hallways, hanging pictures of the Toledo/Findlay campus, and Arrowhead Park, and branding the Owens logo in key areas of the Source Learning Center.  The Resourceful are very hopeful they can complete this project by mid-April 2013. 

Best wishes to Team Resourceful

The  Student Learning Assessment Committee  (SLAC) is inviting all faculty and staff interested to join us for a one-hour update/training on writing our assessment of student learning reports.  We feel this will be helpful for anyone involved in the process of assessment. Our goal is to help everyone involved in the assessment writing a collection of data to better understand what is required, what is the most efficient and effective way to produce and write these reports, and ultimately, save time for everyone that is involved in this very important process.

The dates are:

Tuesday, February 12  in Findlay at 3:00  in the tiered classroom 111

Wednesday, February 13  in Toledo at 3:00 in AV 121-124

Thursday, February 14  in Toledo at 3:00 in AV 121-124

We will be discussing FAQ such as collecting direct and indirect evidence, and the difference between the two. Discussing artifacts–what to look for, what’s important, what to collect and why.  How to write a mission statement that is concise and tied to the college’s strategic plan.  Closing the loop in the assessment cycle, using the feedback that is provided from the previous cycle to make changes in the assessment process that reflect continuous quality improvement.  We will be providing hints for writing a quality report (and it doesn’t have to be long). We will have handouts and other information that will be helpful for everyone who has any part of our student assessment process.  We will be discussing the proper way (easiest way) to map to a strategic plan, the AQIP categories, and discipline specific criterions. 

We will outline how our reviewers critique an assessment report. This will be helpful for you when you are writing—knowing what the particulars are during the review process. While we have rubrics, it’s helpful to understand the dynamics behind the reviewing process.  Understanding the difference between developing, demonstrated, established, as it relates to the goal of continuous quality improvement.  Understanding Taskstream, and in particular, the recent changes we made to enhance the process and utilize the opportunities the software provides.  This and many more informative topics will be covered. We are doing this in order to improve the quality of the assessment report writing college wide.  Our goal is to not only have 100% of reports submitted, but to help you in advancing your areas to the established level of review. Please join us for these forums in which we tried to space out so that everyone has an opportunity to attend.

The purpose of this posting is to generate a conversation around other ways we might work to improve the process of assessment . We would appreciate your feedback and input as it comes to how we can improve the quality of our assessment process. In the spirit of continuous quality improvement we value the ideas of those who are doing the work. Please share your insights.

 We received notice just before the holiday break that the Higher Learning Commission’s, Internal Actions Committee, at its December 19, 2012 meeting, had met for the second vote on our reaffirmation of institutional accreditation, and it was overwhelmingly successful!

The College’s accreditation has been reaffirmed for another seven-year AQIP cycle with no conditions. It’s important to share this information with everyone internally and externally, so certainly feel free to proudly pass this information along to our stakeholders. It’s also important to note as we celebrate this monumental event, of the College’s honorable mention in several areas of the accreditation and quality progress.

 To quote the HLC reviewers, “Owens Community College has established themselves in our view as one of the best AQIP colleges in the country”, said H.O. Brownback.  I invite you to review the comments and the full report that is posted on our AQIP website on the Intranet, with the links provided below.

 https://intranet.owens.edu/aqip/HLC-reafirm-rpt20120928.pdf   

It’s an outstanding report that you can all be very proud of.  The reviewers noted several times how Owens is a leader in continuous quality improvement and the AQIP process. They were extremely pleased with our shared leadership model. It’s because of your commitment, dedication, enthusiasm, participation and innovation, that we were able to achieve such a status, not only in this report but with the Commission. After interviewing and having conversations with over 200 people during their visit, the reviewers were overwhelmed with the acceptance and engagement in continuous quality improvement and AQIP. We plan to do a formal celebration in February of this successful accomplishment of a very important College initiative. During that celebration, we will provide more details. 

Keep in mind, quality improvement is not a destination, but a continuous journey. We will begin the next cycle soon. Our next systems portfolio is due November of this year. We are forming teams now.  We have set the bar high as the Commission will expect us to meet and exceed the level of excellence that we have achieved during our first seven-year cycle. As most are aware and in the spirit of continuous quality improvement, the HLC has changed the criteria for accreditation, which has become more detailed and rigorous in its expectations. Owens is ready for that challenge!

As we begin the new cycle of accreditation I would invite your comments on what we’ve accomplished over the last seven years as well as any recommendations for improvement as we begin  the next process cycle time.

Recently the School of Business received the ACBSP Evaluation Site Team’s Feedback Report from the ACBSP national office. The team conducted a site visit on February 26-29. We are fortunate to report all six standards were met.  We expect to receive formal notification of our reaffirmation in mid-May.   Thanks to all faculty,  staff, and students  in the School of Business and to those outside the School of Business who met with the evaluation site team to validate the report.  The School of Business has been accredited since 1995, and this is our second reaffirmation.  We continue to use accreditation to validate the quality of work the School of Business engenders.

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Krista Kiessling, Director, Service Learning organized a service learning project at the Learning Center at the Source; Owens Has Heart. Mr. Cleveland Henderson and Mrs. Caryn Tilly-Pflager, adjunct instructors at the Learning Center at the Source added this project to the class assignment as a service-learning experience. The service-learning project offers students an opportunity to participate in service learning while helping fellow students. Students were asked to self-identify or identify someone in one of their classes who is in need of food or clothing. The project asked student to donating backpack at the Learning Center at the Source. Once the backpack collection was over, Mrs. Kiessling packed the backpacks with three to five days of food. The identified student(s) were instructed on how they would receive a backpack. Krista decided backpacks would be a discreetly way to help Owens students.

Last fall, the Owens Community College Foundation, working with The Clements Group, conducted a feasibility study in the community. The feasibility study was designed to ascertain how much could be raised in a major gifts campaign and what projects the community would support through donor dollars. This is exciting because although the College and the Foundation have engaged in targeted campaigns (i.e. for the Center for Fine and Performing Arts) this  is the first general major gifts campaign we have considered.

I would be very interested in meeting with faculty and staff to present the results of the feasibility study. If you have 10 or 15 minutes at a department or staff meeting please call me at (567) 661-7184 or email me at elizabeth_savage@owens.edu.