Portland State University UUPP Campus Report - May 2000

Kathi A. Ketcheson Campus Project Director Current Status of the Project During the past year, the Portland State University project team has focused on completing two sections of our portfolio, "Community Pathways" and assessment of learning outcomes, in time for our spring audit visit, April 2000. We also made substantial progress in outlining and gathering materials for sections on faculty development, metropolitan outreach, institutional effectiveness, and research and sponsored projects. We have begun linking the body of evidence collected thus far to the university's mission statement and an overarching "message" statement that was written by Provost Mary Kay Tetreault. Several of our advisors, from community members to faculty to our IRB members, have urged us to develop an overarching message to give context and meaning to the body of materials contained in the portfolio. Although we struggled with this for some time, we have decided on "Portland State University: A Model of the Urban University of the Twenty-First Century." This theme emerged through conversations at the Council of Academic Deans' retreat in January in relation to our new strategic budget initiatives. We plan to integrate the theme into our "cover page" for the portfolio and link subsequent pages back to it through narratives and examples. Advances in Portfolio Design PSU's portfolio focuses on five specific audience groups: prospective students, PSU faculty, staff, and current students, businesses and employers, organizations and individuals in the Portland metropolitan area, and boards and accrediting agencies interested in accountability information. Materials in the portfolio can be accessed through questions of interest posed on each of the audience pages; the questions vary according the perspective of each audience group. Materials are sorted under five broad themes: community engagement, teaching and learning, research and scholarship, institutional effectiveness, and student life. Specific examples of authentic work, narrative reports, or other forms of evidence are found under chapter headings within each theme. In addition, the front page of the portfolio includes links to sections that explain the purpose of the portfolio and its connection to PSU's urban mission, a site evaluation form, and an archival page where minutes of the faculty meetings and other related materials are stored. Our theme of "Community Pathways" is the furthest developed. Here we have included examples of three recent Senior Capstone courses, including course syllabi, student work, assessment tools, and videos and audio clips of students' comments about their experiences in the courses. We also have included student comments about their community-based learning courses, a description of courses provided to the business community by the School of Extended Studies, and narratives with links to PSU Web sites that describe research and degree programs that serve the metropolitan area. The project has been successful in pulling together assessment materials from the University Studies general education program that have not been published previously. Assessment in this program continues to be a topic of interest on campus and we see the portfolio as a way to communicate plans, procedures, and results to both internal and external audiences. These materials are collected under the "Teaching and Learning" theme as part of a broader chapter on university-wide assessment. We hope that our success with University Studies will extend into the collection of materials from the University Assessment Council, which is the coordinating body for assessment across all university programs and departments. Work is continuing on the overall design of the portfolio. We contracted for professional services from a local Web site designer who has been responsible for developing a consistent file structure and templates for the site. Compliance with Human Subjects Research Review Last fall, we obtained a memorandum from the Human Subjects Research Review Committee that granted us a waiver from compliance with HSRRC policies in collecting information for the portfolio. We developed an "informed consent" form that is used whenever we collect examples of authentic work or other written materials, or when we interview, tape record, or film anyone for inclusion in the portfolio. On the form, we individuals are given a choice as to how they will participate in the project. We maintain the forms in both paper and electronic format, indefinitely. Public Accountability We have been soliciting input from members of the external community through presentations and workshops that have featured the portfolio. Recently, we presented a portion of the portfolio to the Oregon State Board of Higher Education and the PSU Vice Provosts' council. In addition, we have planned focus groups with faculty leaders on campus, student groups, and academic professionals and support staff during summer and fall 2000. By maintaining a focus on audiences and questions of interest, we are able to link portfolio content to assessment and accountability concerns. Indicators of Effectiveness The Oregon University System launched performance indicators for the seven state system institutions in 1998. These indicators include "the usual suspects," such as freshman retention, graduation rates, and alumni satisfaction. Few of these measures are effective in demonstrating PSU's performance as an urban comprehensive university, and none are related to student learning. In the portfolio, we have identified assessment of student learning as a key indicator and have begun gathering assessment plans and evidence from programs across campus. We have also identified community engagement, which is our most fully developed portfolio theme, as a key indicator. Institutional effectiveness, which includes a user-friendly version of our statistical portrait, strategic budget plan, statewide performance indicators, and information about accreditation currently is under development. We hope this theme will be most interesting to those looking for quantifiable, summative measures. Assessment and community engagement will contain both summative and formative measures related to student learning and faculty life. Data from surveys, including the NSSE and our own panel of student satisfaction surveys, will be reported mainly under Institutional Effectiveness, but will also appear in condensed form within the assessment chapter. 2000 Site Visit Portland State University's portfolio review team visited campus on April 18 and 19, 2000. Team members included Pat Hutchings, Roland Smith, Jackie Donath, and Susan Kahn. Prior to the visit, PSU provided the team with the Web site's URL and a set of questions to guide the visit. Three members of the team had seen versions of the Web site during UUPP meetings earlier in the year and the full team had been able to monitor development of the portfolio electronically, prior to visiting campus. The visit began with a dinner, during which the visiting team discussed details of the visit with PSU project staff. They were provided with a folder containing an agenda, project status report, and information on some of the campus initiatives highlighted on the Web site. All members of the team were familiar with PSU and its process for developing the portfolio. The team expressed an interest in focusing on the portfolio and the messages it conveys, rather than on specific initiatives or activities. April 19 was spent in meetings with individuals whose work is featured in the portfolio. This work focused primarily on community engagement and learning goals; other portfolio sections that were partially completed included assessment, faculty development, and institutional effectiveness. Each session was designed to encourage dialog, rather than lengthy presentation of materials. The discussions emphasized two issues, the public nature of the information presented and how PSU can institutionalize the portfolio. The dialog format was successful in two ways: one, by helping the site visit team understand the messages PSU is trying to convey in the portfolio, and two, by helping PSU faculty and administrators who did not have a clear idea of the project to understand its purpose and objectives. By focusing on the portfolio itself, rather than on PSU's initiatives, the visit served to advance the project and prompted new ideas on how to communicate its work to audiences within and outside the university. Outcomes and Lessons Learned The most important process outcomes from the past year have been our success in gathering examples of assessment and student learning from departments across campus and in involving the upper administration more directly in the project. We have learned the importance of widening faculty participation in beyond the faculty advisory group; not only does this bring higher visibility and acceptance to the project but it is essential to gathering content for the Web site. Once we were able to begin adding content to the portfolio themes, it was easier to demonstrate the site to various audiences on and off campus and to solicit meaningful feedback. We also learned the importance of including a person with strong Web site design and maintenance skills on the project team. Essential to the portfolio are the coherent file structure, easy to use navigational aids, and artistic touches provided through the professional services that we were able to obtain through a contract arrangement. Campus Leadership and Involvement Mary Kay Tetreault assumed the position of Provost at PSU in August 1999, replacing Michael Reardon, who retired. Dr. Tetreault receives a monthly update on the project and has been involved in Faculty Advisory Committee meetings. The President also receives periodic updates and has agreed to be interviewed during the summer for inclusion in the introductory sections of the portfolio. Kay Woodruff, who served as the IR Research Analyst assigned to the project, resigned in December 1999. She has not been replaced, pending a funding request from Academic Affairs. Youske Eto has served as Graduate Research Assistant and will be replaced by Todd Schooler in June 2000. All other members of the team have remained the same. Although all members of the Faculty Advisory Committee have agreed to continue next year, we plan to add some new faces. We also plan to have a public launching of the site sometime next fall and to hire a replacement for Kay Woodford. Visibility of the Project; Strengths and Weaknesses The process we have employed at PSU has been highly successful thus far in ensuring both faculty involvement and a tangible product. We also have been successful in enhancing the status of institutional research staff in the eyes of faculty and upper administration. The portfolio has received positive comments from our various audiences and appears to be well on its way to completion. Here is the URL for the site: www.oirp.pdx.edu/portfolio. In the coming year, we will spend more time soliciting input from a wider range of individuals and in making the project more visible on campus. Because of the amount of work involved simply in developing the Web site and adding content to the themes, we have not always taken the time to discuss the project in depth with the campus leadership, students, or staff in student affairs. Concerns about the continuation of the project beyond the grant period, obtaining hardware, software, and staff to maintain it, and the issues related to the management of such a large Web site still linger and need to be addressed directly during 2000-01. We also need a broader discussion of how the portfolio will be accessed from the main PSU home page and where its underlying data base will reside. Goals We have set the following goals for the last year of the project: Hire a full-time staff person who will devote half time to the project Set a date for a public launching of the site during Fall Term Complete the first full iteration of the portfolio by December Continue to solicit feedback from campus and community groups Employ graphics art students and writing students to refine the portfolio design and narrative content