1. Intelligent Approaches: Leveraging TracDat to Institutionalize, Integrate, and Dialogue
Orange Coast College
Institutional Effectiveness Team
Sheri Sterner Georgie Monahan
Anna Hanlon Gabrielle Stanco
Strengthening Student Success 2015

2. Learning Outcomes
Participants will leave with a practical database design to capture SLO/AUO assessment, program review, and planning/resource allocations in one place
Participants will learn more effective ways for designing and developing an integrated database based on existing campus processes
Participants will learn ways to leverage technology to facilitate dialogue and departmental processes
Strengthening Student Success 2015

3. OCC Overview 2-year Community College Medium-large size
Over 1,000 employees
250 FT faculty, 400 PT faculty
Career technical education & transfer courses
Over 130 programs
More than 2,800 degrees/certificates awarded and > 1,800 students transfer to 4-year schools annually GS
Strengthening Student Success 2015

4. OCC Overview – Students
Younger Population GS
Diverse Population
Strengthening Student Success 2015

5. OCC Campus Culture
California mandates require participatory governance
Bottom-up Planning
Transparency
Accreditation warning due to lack of documentation of processes
TracDat fit into culture because of adaptability
Sheri
Strengthening Student Success 2015

6. Comprehensive Evaluation
Evaluated Continuous Improvement Processes & Educational Master Plan
Recommendations from results:
Explore opportunities for increased involvement for Classified, Hourly, and Part-Time Faculty in the Program Review, SLO/AUO Assessment and Planning processes
Implement integrated database to reduce data entry, tracking and workflow demands
Distinguish processes for instruction/support
GABRIELLE
- First step was to conduct comprehensive evaluation of processes to make clear processes and evaluate them to make sure they were working (any issues identified)
- Discuss evaluation process (two surveys, interviews with all planning councils)
- Also influenced “fresh thinking” for process
Strengthening Student Success 2015

7. Translate & Develop: Define Your Scope
What is it you want to do?
SLOs? AUO? Program Review? Planning? Resource Allocation?
What are the pros and cons
What resources do you have available to accomplish what you want to do?
IT, support staff, budget, senior leadership support, faculty support, research support
Georgie
OCC – we spent a good number of years building support campus wide. We were put on warning, but it provided focus to make this a sustainable process with adequate resources.
Strengthening Student Success 2015

8. Translate & Develop: Understand Your Processes
Database should reflect existing processes, not drive them:
Relied on established and documented processes for SLO/AUO Assessment, Program Review, and Planning/Resource Allocation
Considered output needed and designed with the end in mind
If you know current processes aren’t working – evaluate and make necessary changes.
Sheri
Decision Making document
When you are doing your training, you have opportunity to have conversations that reinforce/refine understanding of processes.
Content
Alignment – Linkages of process; Content of processes
Timelines
Strengthening Student Success 2015

9. Translate & Develop: Align Processes
Alignment
When will the different processes occur? What makes sense? Where are the natural linkages?
Content
Build linkages into process: reduce redundancies
Timelines
Understand timelines for each process and extent to their interrelatedness
Alignment of timelines necessary for linkages
Make adjustments may impact what you need for content.
What do we mean by content? Alignment? Timelines?
Use the feedback collected to identify what makes sense to your institution.
Identify linkages and then build the content into your processes.
Redundant processes are content alignment processes. When you put them into database, they are more concrete.
Understanding alignments necessary to find linkages: How do instructional timelines impact adm services/student services timelines. This requires senior leadership support
Prioritization – senior leadership – give options, let them decide, creates support
Need to take process that don’t align and possibly build more content.
- Example of adding assessment information to program review as example of aligning processes
Strengthening Student Success 2015

10. Example: Process Alignment
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11. Translate & Develop: Understand Your Organization
Need collaborative design team
Stakeholders and those who know data relationships (data and design)
What is the role of each constituent group in your processes?
Find (or create?) your support/champion
Understand which committees/planning courses/ other administrative areas are involved in process.
Adapt “out of the box” design to your campus needs
TEAM
- Need conduit to senior leadership (preferably one who knows planning)
- Not to be afraid to be more creative
Struggling with reports; current options not sustainable
Knowing hockey 
Strengthening Student Success 2015

12. Translate & Develop: Database Design
Each area has 3 Units:
Outcomes Unit (147 units college wide)
SLO/AUO assessment
Program Review Unit (125 units college wide)
Instruction/Support Services/Hybrid
Planning Unit (131 units college wide)
Linking resource requests to goals
This is driven by what was determined in scope, what their processes are and the support (administration)
Strengthening Student Success 2015

13. Translate & Develop: Deployment Considerations
Deployed TracDat through PlanningPoint
Capitalizing on existing portal system
Employee ease of access
No additional logins needed
Centralize resources
Ability to develop “TracDat Dashboard”
Does not appear to be an “add on”
A naturally occurring part of our processes
GABRIELLE
Have been using Sharepoint as internal Portal already, so wanted to capitalize on existing process
Fiasco with State database caused us to realize that deployment matters (challenging deployment)
Transparency
Strengthening Student Success 2015

14. Translate & Develop: Sustainability
This creates additional workload for your campus.
“Who will bake the bread?”
Training & Follow-up
Create documentation
Be flexible
Have multiple people to help
(if possible); cross train
Strengthening Student Success 2015

15. Dialogue & Institutionalize: Increase Transparency & Accuracy
Increased Transparency
Permissions/roles (clearly defined and customized)
Communication and awareness increased through visibility of dispositions within TracDat
Increased Accuracy
Central location for information/documents
No “middle man” of ing files back and forth
Each person has access to information they need when they need it
Green checks! Red flags – feedback icons
E.g., How to enter SLOs  Assessment discussion
E.g., How to enter resource request  What is request process and how is it tied to planning?
Strengthening Student Success 2015

16. Dialogue & Institutionalize: Facilitate & Capture Dialogue
Trainings
Exposes participant’s actual understanding of processes
Created opportunities for further discussion of processes
Help texts (within database) provided additional information related to process
Custom Fields in Database
Opportunity to capture narrative of dialog
Strengthening Student Success 2015

17. Dialogue & Institutionalize: Facilitate & Capture Dialogue (Cont.)
On Demand Data and Reporting
Monitoring progress easily
Access outcomes
Facilitate team discussion of results (e.g., run “in progress” report for editing and dialog)
Data and Reporting
You need data to have robust conversations about what is really happening
Strengthening Student Success 2015

18. Dialogue & Institutionalize: Training Considerations
Determine who is responsible for data entry
Time to design & training is labor-intensive
Schedule formal trainings as well as “open labs”
Create Guides for Process and Timelines
Creates additional documentation of process
Creates opportunity for dialogue
Strengthening Student Success 2015

19. Dialogue & Institutionalize: Reporting Considerations
Understand scope of existing standard reports
Create ad hoc reports as necessary for each process
Options for customization
Consider reports to facilitate integration of processes (e.g., program review notes for planning unit)
Strengthening Student Success 2015

20. Outcomes Unit – CSLO Assessment
Here's what we had
Here's what we did
Here are the linkages – what should be considered?
We did our evaluation and here are things we had to consider while adapting our process into the database.
Strengthening Student Success 2015

21. Outcomes Unit – CSLO Assessment
Evaluation lead to plan for mapping of CSLOs to PSLOs
Strengthening Student Success 2015

22. Outcomes Unit – CSLO Assessment
help text
Our mindset behind the prompts – this is how ours are unique
Strengthening Student Success 2015

23. Outcomes Unit – AUO Assessment
New translation of processes (re: comprehensive evaluation results)
Strengthening Student Success 2015

24. Outcomes Unit – AUO Assessment
Our evaluation supported linking AUOs to college goals here for mapping process
Strengthening Student Success 2015

25. Program Review Unit – Instruction
GEORGIE
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26. Program Review Unit – Instruction
GEORGIE
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27. Program Review Unit – Instruction
GEORGIE
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28. Program Review Unit – Instruction
GEORGIE
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29. Program Review Unit – Support
GEORGIE
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30. Program Review Unit – Support
GEORGIE
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31. Program Review Unit – Support
GEORGIE
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32. Program Review Unit – Support
GEORGIE
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33. Planning Unit
SHERI
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34. Planning Unit
Sheri
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35. Brought to you by…Arrrrrgggghhh! OCC Pirates
Anna Hanlon, SLO Coordinator: Georgie Monahan, Program Review Coordinator: Gabrielle Stanco, Senior Research Analyst, Sheri Sterner, Administrative Director, Research, Planning, & Institutional Effectiveness
Strengthening Student Success 2015