OFFICE OF INSTITUTIONAL ASSESSMENT, RESEARCH AND PLANNING

Overview:

Effective institutions demonstrate a commitment to ongoing, comprehensive, and integrated research-based planning and evaluation processes that (a) focus on institutional quality and effectiveness and (b) incorporate a systematic review of institutional goals and outcomes consistent with its mission. An institutional planning and effectiveness process involves all programs, services, and constituencies, is linked to the decision-making process at all levels, and provides a sound basis for budgetary decisions and resource allocations.

It is critical that administrative support services are provided effectively for the institution to obtain its strategic goals and operational efficiency. These offices serve the institution's educational mission much more indirectly than those related to educational programs or academic and student services. Still, they are just as critical for the ability of the institution to achieve its mission.

While these units rarely have “expected learning outcomes,” “expected outcomes” for administrative units typically include outcomes such as efficiency and quality of service targets (e.g., energy usage, response times, error rates, “clean report” targets, satisfaction rates); monetary targets (e.g., fund-raising targets, research grant targets, auxiliary income targets). The goals are often explicit parts of the budgeting process or strategic plan components.

Process:

“Administrative” divisions and units are defined as those areas which contribute to the university's overall mission, thus in a more indirect way than offices specifically designed to support educational programs or provide academic or student support services. Division and unit leadership work with the Office of Institutional Assessment, Research, and Planning (OIARP) to determine the best strategies for examining the achievement of identified outcomes in their respective divisions depending on the organizational structure and identified mission and priorities.

Administrative units also work with OIARP to determine the level at which assessment will be most useful and efficient for the division and accompanying strategies for documenting these practices. Some divisions focus on their overall effectiveness and efficiency in meeting the institution's mission and the university community's needs. In such instances, assessment efforts are predominantly at the division level (e.g., Office of the VP for Institutional Advancement). Other divisions, however, are composed of a number of distinct and unique units or functions. Within these divisions, division leadership determined documenting assessment efforts at the unit level would be most beneficial (e.g., within the Office of the Vice President of Finance and Administration). Whether at the division or unit level, the expectations remain the same with respect to identifying expected outcomes and routinely determining the extent to which the outcomes are achieved.

Those selected administrative support units are expected to participate fully in the institutional effectiveness process and are responsible for following our workflow through AEFIS located at site HTTPS://tamiu.aefis.net

Assessment Cycles:

In AY 2022-2023, we implemented our new cycle process. Our cycles follow a year-and-a-half timeline. We plan the semester before the academic year starts using the previous academic year's results to guide the planning for the upcoming cycle collection of data. This decision was made to give the departments and divisions the necessary time to use results for continuous improvement. The first full cycle to utilize this method is AY 2023-2024, although it was implemented in the calendar year of Fall 2022. Thus, two cycles will occur at the same time in a semester. Fall will close out the previous AY while still collecting for the current AY. Spring will be planning for the upcoming AY while still collecting for the current AY.

2022-2023 Assessment Timeline:

2023-2024 Assessment Timeline:

Administrative Support (AS) Application and Institutional Effectiveness Guidelines:

Rubric for Evaluating and Providing Feedback for AS Plans & Reports	Reviewer Feedback for AS Plans & Reports
AS Institutional Effectiveness Workflow	Quick Guide

Assessment Process Training

Resources

All Administrative Support units are encouraged to utilize any of the resources below throughout the assessment process.

• Direct Versus Indirect Measures
• Strategic Plan