Continuous Improvement, Quality Tools and Improving Student Services

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Continuous Improvement, Quality Tools and
Improving Student Services

• Dr. Kevin Pollock
• Vice President of Student Services
• West Shore Community College
• Scottville, Michigan

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Assessing your Shop

• What it is, what to do, and how to present
  information

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West Shore Community College

• Located in Scottville, Michigan
• Approximately 1400 students
• Two-thirds of the students are women
• Sixty percent are part-time students
• The average age is 27
• Enrollment growth is slow and steady
• Most recent study 46 of student body was first
  generation
• Nearly 42 of students are eligible for aid and
  considered economically disadvantaged

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• 1995 NCA required a Student Outcomes
  Assessment Plan (SOAP)
• 1999 Created a West Shore Quality Institute
• 2001 Joined AQIP
• One of first three action projects was to Improve
  the Outcomes of the Colleges At-risk students
• New action project Implement Quality Tools
  Training

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From 1999-2003 employees were trained in
workshops

• The Leadership Essence and a Quality Culture
• Total Quality Management and the Deming Culture
• Demings Fourteen Points and Profound Knowledge
• Leadership and Leading with your Heart
• Teamwork
• The Fish! Philosophy
• Ken Blanchards Whale Done! theories

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Why Assessment and/or Quality Tools?

• Extend individual effectiveness
• Help solve problems
• Gather information and analyze data
• Assist in making decisions about processes and
  systems
• Ability to respond to internal and external
  drivers

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Define Assessment

• Dont let assessment scare you!
• Assessment is any effort to gather, analyze, and
  interpret evidence which describes institutional,
  divisional, or agency effectiveness.
• Assessment Practice in Student Affairs Schuh and
  Upcraft (2001)

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To Add Quality Tools Educators need to

• Think adapt rather than adopt
• Understand that tools add leverage, strengthening
  or extending ones ability to work more
  effectively and efficiently
• Realize that it is the human factor that makes
  tools effective or ineffective
• Realize that an opportunity overlooked may be an
  opportunity missed
• Model lifelong learning of tools holds promise to
  education, accepting that how and where to use
  these tools is the responsibility of everyone
  within the profession
• Tools for Achieving TQE, Volume 10 (1994)
• Raymond F. Latta Carolyn J. Downey

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Putting the Pieces Together
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Structured Improvement SystemDefine System

• Conduct Survey
• Conduct Forums
• Prioritize Problems

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Measuring Customer Satisfaction

• What do you want to measure?
• How will you measure it?
• How will you present the information?

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Two Types of Assessment

• Qualitative
• Quantitative
• Take the guess work out of knowing how you are
  doing

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Qualitative is

• Qualitative researchers are interested in
  understanding how people make sense of the world
  and their experiences in it (making meaning,
  explaining their lives, reporting experiences)
• Qualitative research usually requires fieldwork
  (interviews, observing people, collecting and
  reviewing documents)
• The detailed description of events, people,
  interactions, and observed behavior
• Assessment Practice in Student Affairs Schuh and
  Upcraft (2001)

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Quantitative is

• Use of sampling techniques (such as consumer
  surveys) whose findings may be expressed
  numerically, and are amenable to mathematical
  (statistical) manipulation enabling the
  researcher to estimate (forecast) future events
  or quantities.
• "a formal, objective, systematic process in which
  numerical data are utilised to obtain information
  about the world" (Burns and Grove cited by
  Cormack 1991 p 140).

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Performance Feedback is

• Satisfaction Surveys
• Personnel Evaluations
• Program Reviews

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What do you want to assess?

• Drop and adds
• Wait times
• Length of lines
• Emails
• Phone calls
• Anything else?

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How to present data The Seven Basic Quality Tools

• Histograms
• Pareto Charts
• Scatter Diagrams
• Trend/Run Charts
• Control Charts
• Cause-and-Effect/Fishbone Diagrams
• Flowcharts

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CQI TOOLS
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Histogram

• A columnar graph showing the frequency
  distribution of data on a given variable. The
  height of each column displays the frequency
  (number) of a given measurement. Data is
  tabulated and arranged according to size.
• Examples track attendance by year, track
  enrollment by department, track enrollment by age
• All definitions for the Seven Basic Quality
  Tools
• Tools for Achieving TQE, Volume 10 (1994)
• Raymond F. Latta Carolyn J. Downey

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Histogram
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Pareto Chart

• A Pareto Chart is a type of bar chart,
  prioritized in descending order of magnitude or
  importance from left to right.
• Examples Using the total number of student
  unexcused absences in a year, determine the
  reasons why students are gone and sort the totals
  by group

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Pareto Chart
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Scatter Diagram

• A Scatter Diagram is a graph that plots one
  variable against another usually used for a
  cause-and-effect relationship.
• Examples Compare test scores of students with
  the number of days they are absent, compare age
  of students with grades, participation in
  work-study and persistence in courses, mentoring
  and persistence in courses

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Scatter Diagram
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Trend/Run Charts

• A trend chart shows a running tally of some
  measureable characteristic over time. Trend
  charts are often referred to as run charts
• Examples Compare enrollment by fiscal year,
  compare headcount by year, compare number of
  applications each fall

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Trend/Run Chart
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Control Charts

• A control chart is a graphic representation of
  sequential or time-related performance of a
  process determined with either practical or
  statistical upper and lower limits. It basically
  shows actual process performance relative to
  certain established limits.
• Example Track enrollment plotted against past
  upper and lower limits

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Control Chart
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Cause-and-Effect/Fishbone Diagrams

• A cause-and-effect/fishbone diagram is a
  structured form of brainstorming that graphically
  shows the relationship of possible causes and
  subcauses directly related to an identified
  effect/problem.
• Example What causes students who apply not to
  enroll

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Cause and Effect Diagram
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Flowcharts

• A flowchart is simply a visual way of charting a
  process from beginning to end. (Perhaps the most
  powerful of basic tools as it provides a complete
  picture of a system or process)
• Example Track students from inquiry through
  enrollment,

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Flowchart
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Chart of System Enrollment for Classes
Stakeholders (Groups and individuals served)
Processes (Procedures, steps actions required to
produce the outputs) Campus Web setup Assignment
of PINS roles removal of holds on
new students Opening of registration notifications
ASSET testing Advising Train students Campus
Web Depts add/drop courses Web tuit pay plan
update Financial aid transfer to Bus Off Wait
list calls Purchase books Billing statements
mailed charges collected
Inputs (What you rely on to make your processes
work) Students Parents of students ASSET
Counselors Annual Schedule of Classes Online
orientation Roxy Irma Press Releases, video
text, email Campus Web Bookstore Computers Fina
ncial Aid, 3rd party sponsors, tuit pay
plan Instructional departments
Outputs (Services and products) Student access to
courses, their schedules charges Students
registered for classes Accurate placement into
math english courses courses appropriate to
students goals Students have necessary books for
classes Daily count date stats Comparative data
on MACRAO IPEDS web sites Class rosters for
faculty Reports to State and IPEDS
Internal Students Parents of students Faculty Busi
ness Office Financial Aid Office Instructional
Departments
External State federal government MACRAO
members Employers other 3rd party sponsors
Indicators that stakeholders are satisfied with
outcomes Class scheduling survey No complaints
from 3rd parties
Indicators that processes are functioning Pilot
test Campus Web functions Students self register
on web On time T F payments students tested
advising appts with counselors
Indicators that processes produce their intended
outcomes Headcount credit hrs generated Reports
completed Student success in developmental courses
Indicators that Inputs meet processes
requirements Schedule available orientation
updated ASSET schedule developed Books
ordered Procedures for Campus Web setup
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Possible matches

• Attendance by year Histogram
• Drop and Adds Trend Chart
• Wait time Pareto Chart
• Length of lines Trend Chart
• Number of emails Trend Chart
• Number of phone calls Trend Chart

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Questions, Comments, Suggestions, Ideas, Thoughts