1. Measuring Course Quality: Development of a Micro-Analysis Tool
Laurie Beatt
Sonja Chamberlin

2. SAIT has just celebrated it’s 100 year!
When SAIT opened in 1916 there were 11 students in motor mechanics and metal working and 7 staff. Within 2 weeks there were 370 students and almost all of those were enrolled in the evening.
SAIT currently offers 83 Diploma, Certificates, Applied degrees and Baccalaureate Degrees serving over 13,000 students. We offer 31 apprenticeship programs serving over 9,000 apprentices.
SAIT has over 62,000 registrations in 1,200 courses in continuing education.
We have students at five campuses.

3. Strategic Plan Strategic Priorities Education Plan
Sustainable Growth
Student Success
Employee Success
Applied Education Innovation
Partnerships
Education Plan
Focus Areas
Student-first Culture
Engaging Students
Effective Teaching Methods
Focused Applied Education Programs
Relationships
Before we take a closer look at the quality framework, we thought it important to first overview SAIT’s Strategic and Education Plans, the institutional education system and our student success framework which all informed the development of our program and course quality frameworks.

4. Strategic Plan Strategic Priorities Education Plan
Sustainable Growth
Student Success
Employee Success
Applied Education Innovation
Partnerships
Education Plan
Focus Areas
Student-first Culture
Engaging Students
Effective Teaching Methods
Focused Applied Education Programs
Relationships
First, we will focus on the Strategic Plan which has five strategic priorities:
- sustainable growth
- student success
- employee success
- applied education innovation
- partnerships

5. The SAIT Education System
MARKETS
Mature
Changing
Emerging
SAIT
SUSTAINABLE
GROWTH
PARTNERSHIPS
GRADUATE
CAPABILITY
Technical skills
21st century skills
Digital skills
SAIT Graduate
Outcomes
Market Demand Input
GRADUATE
REQUIREMENTS
Which programs
Skills
Number of graduates
STUDENT
SUCCESS
EMPLOYEE
SUCCESS
APPLIED
EDUCATION
INNOVATION
Now we will consider SAIT’s Education System and how the strategic priorities fit within it. We believe one of our strengths as an institution is our close relationships with industry. All of our programming is based on market needs. Through market analysis gleaned from Business Intelligence, advisory councils, accreditation bodies, and quality reviews, we determine which programs to offer, the types of skills needed, and the number of graduates needed to meet market demands. We also strive to develop graduates with the appropriate balance of technical skills and 21st century skills including digital literacy. Then as we overlay the five strategic priorities onto this framework, you can see how these support and drive the system. In order to achieve our vision of becoming a global leader in applied education, we are putting our efforts into developing a learning organization culture in which systems are aligned, there is a common language and understanding, and collaboration between departments as well as time and space for reflection, both individually and institutionally. Of course, this requires ongoing focused employee development and in the end, we are striving for an environment where there is consistency in routine processes but room for creativity and innovation to thrive within the current complexities of the higher education landscape.
Now we’ll take a closer look at what’s going in the big red circle shown here in terms of a student success framework.
Enablers:
Systems Thinking/Alignment
Focused Employee Development
Common Understanding
Collaboration
Reflection
Learning Organization
Consistency
Creativity

6. Strategic Plan Strategic Priorities Education Plan
Sustainable Growth
Student Success
Employee Success
Applied Education Innovation
Partnerships
Education Plan
Focus Areas
Student-first Culture
Engaging Students
Effective Teaching Methods
Focused Applied Education Programs
Relationships
The student success framework is guided by the Education Plan which has the themes of:
- student-first culture
- student engagement (through)
- effective teaching methods (and)
- focused applied education programs (which are supported by effective)
- relationships

7. Student Success Framework
SAIT
Accreditation
SAIT Graduate
Outcomes
---
Market Graduate
Requirements
Institutional Inputs
Pedagogical
Subject Matter
Educational Technologies
Facilities
Professional Development
Learner Support
Technical skills
21st century skills
Digital skills
Content
Delivery
Assessment
There are several external forces which influence programming such as market needs and accreditation or other regulatory requirements. Then there are institutional inputs which require consideration such as:
- pedagogy
- educational technology
- facilities
- professional development
- learner supports like counseling, accommodations for accessibility and so on
- professional development of faculty and staff
These factors are all critical as part of the content, delivery of curriculum and assessment of competencies in developing the desired technical, digital, and 21st century skills of our graduates to meet the expected outcomes.
We are also focusing on the student’s complete learning experience and considering not just curricular activities, but co-curricular and extra-curricular as well.
So we are hoping that this provides you with some context and a high-level framework to better understand our program and course quality framework and how it aligns. Now, I’ll hand it back to Laurie to describe our program quality assurance framework.
Student Experience
Curricular
Co-Curricular
Extra-curricular

8. Program Quality Assurance Framework

9. Conduct Program Self- Study
Conduct External Review
Create Program Response and Action Plan
Review by Academic Quality Council & Approved by VP Academic
Program Action Plan Implemented

10. Program Quality Assurance Inquiry Framework
Program Quality Assurance Standards: The framework for the program quality review ensures that each program is assessed against a consistent standard. The standards inform the review in a comprehensive way which creates consistency within the review process. Indicators are seen as a total picture and no particular area dominates.
Quality Management: The program engages in regular quality review that involves faculty, students, industry representatives and other potential stakeholders to ensure continual improvement.
Program Goals: The program results in employment in a specific field or discipline and provides the graduate with the opportunity for career advancement and further learning.
Educational Design: The program’s educational design, including critical factors such as curriculum, instructional methods and faculty, ensures that students are able to meet expected goals and outcomes. These elements impact what happens in the learning environment among learners, faculty and staff.
Educational Experience: The student’s experience is successful and leads to the possibility of lifelong learning and career progression. This includes the program learning experience, SAIT experience, academic relationships and industry application of learning.
Program Resources: The existing physical, technological, financial resources and time are used effectively and appropriately given the program’s anticipated goals and outcomes. This category includes some learning materials, library materials, equipment, facilities, computer hardware, and other tools, specifically as they are used by and affect the program.

11. Learner and Academic Services: CORE Education

12. CORE Education
Provide training in essential employability skills for programs across campus
Offer foundational & elective courses in communications, liberal arts, math, engineering sciences, and technology literacy
Deliver 80+ courses into more than 50 apprenticeship, certificate, diploma, and degree programs
Serve nearly 5,000 students annually
I lead an academic department called CORE Education which offers what we call service instruction to provide training in…..

13. Course Quality Framework
Because my area does not offer programs, the institutional program quality framework that Laurie just outlined did not really work for us. So we collaborated with folks from Institutional Planning and Analysis to develop a course quality framework.

14. Two Pronged-Approach Course Review Program Review
This framework is a two-pronged approach that looks at course quality at the course level and then within the context of the program in which it is offered.

15. Course Review Framework
Student Success
Strategies, techniques, and practices to engage students within the classroom context enable student success
Curriculum Design
Effective curriculum design enables students to achieve learning outcomes
Student Progression
Progression data informs curriculum design and teaching practices
Faculty
Faculty expertise, development and support enable effective teaching practices
Feedback
Feedback processes enable continuous quality improvement to support student success
We’ll start by looking first at the course review component. It has five main standards. If you look on your tables, you will see a document called “Course Review”. On here, you can see the five standards as well as a list of enabling questions for each standard.
<go through each standard>

16. Course Review Program Review
Course review findings inform the program self-study. CORE courses are evaluated in the context of the program – how do course outcomes facilitate achievement of program outcomes? Findings from the program self-study will then feed back to inform required course improvements

17. World Café

18. Instructions
There will be 4 rounds of conversations; participants switch tables after each round
Each table will have a facilitator and a question to discuss; record thoughts and insights on sticky notes
7 minutes to discuss per round
After 7 minutes move to a new table

19. Discussion
Thank you