FutureSTATE 2015

Achievements of the past year:

• For 2007-2008, educational awareness and socialization of the institutional effectiveness initiative occurred through the Office of Institutional Research. Institutional Effectiveness awareness meetings were held with approximately two hundred and eighty MSU personnel participating, which included the Vice Presidents of all divisions, Deans, Directors and Department heads as well as faculty members. Defining of the institutional effectiveness units occurred for educational programs, administrative support services, and educational support services.
• With the defining of these units, an intranet assessment repository was established with the assistance of ITS, which was the first for the university to have ever implemented. A user-friendly assessment template was developed and placed on the intranet assessment repository to assist the university on the institutional effectiveness initiative.
• To establish a systematic process regarding institutional effectiveness/assessment, a planning/assessment cycle was developed for the university and a timeline placed on the Assessment link of the Office of Institutional Research website.
• During the Spring 2008 semester, a brown bag luncheon entitled "Tying It All Together" was held through the Center for Teaching and Learning. This brown bag session focused on Institutional Effectiveness, Classroom Assessment, and Regional Accreditation.
• Additionally, consultation meetings with individual departments to develop and implement their institutional effectiveness/assessment expected outcomes and measures have been facilitated by the Associate Director of Institutional Research.
• An additional assessment efforts that has occurred for the institutional effectiveness initiative for 2007-2008 is that the university has participated in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) with approximately 5,724 freshmen and senior undergraduate students having the opportunity to participate and provide feedback on their undergraduate experiences. The university along with 770 other universities participated in this national survey. Mississippi State University was asked to share marketing strategies in a recent webinar with the other participating universities. As of March 31, 2008, NSSE indicated a 30% response rate for MSU. This exceeds any on-line response rate for such a survey at MSU. No doubt, this successful response rate is attributed to the marketing efforts in launching this project. During the fall 2007 semester, the Office of Institutional Research also administered to Mississippi State University juniors and seniors, the Short form of the College BASE national examination, which assists with assessment efforts for General Education.
• An ad hoc committee for General Education was named in Spring 2008 from the University Committee on Courses and Curricula (UCCC), with its purpose to review the core curriculum, review and revise the expected outcomes, and determine existing assessments in place.
• In addition, a review of commercial general assessment instruments is occurring by the committee which will help the university become a participant in the Voluntary System of Accountability.

Goals for the next year:

• Resurrect the Assessment/Institutional Effectiveness committee as a "working committee."
• Designate an Assessment Coordinator for each college of the university.
• Continue to facilitate Institutional Effectiveness Awareness Meetings including the research units and the community/public service units.
• Implement revised general education expected outcomes to include a new commercial assessment instrument of one of the following: Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP), Measure of Academic Proficiency & Progress Test (MAPP) or Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA).
• Recommend an assessment software system for purchase that would tie strategic planning, budgeting, and institutional effectiveness together.
• Perform an official inventory of university-wide institutional effectiveness instruments from awareness meetings.

Constraints to full implementation of this initiative:
The constraints to fully implement this initiative are budget and additional personnel. Additionally, in order for this initiative to be a complete success for the university and to successfully meet upcoming accreditation requirements of the Southern Accreditation of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the implementation and use will need to be covered over the next four years.

Proposed modification of the initiative:
No modification is being proposed. This initiative is extremely important to complete in order for the university to be successful in its upcoming SACS reaffirmation visit and to ensure MSU exemplifies continuous improvement.

Overall assessment of the status of the initiative or other comments:
Great strides have been taken for the 2007-2008 year regarding the institutional effectiveness initiative. It is at partial completion status. The administration, staff, and faculty have shown through their participation at the awareness meetings, the great importance for this initiative to be implemented. In order for Mississippi State University to be successful in this initiative, every facet of the university must be involved to continue enhancing the quality of our educational programs as well as our services.