Software Solutions in order to "Close the Loop"

Bruce Gottwig. Team Leader: Bruce Gottwig

Team Members
Wendy Dove, Kyle Gillespie, Jeff Brown, Dave Bonilla, Gail Staples, Megann McDonald, Rob Truax, Doug LeVeque, Charlene Marshall

Goal II. “Close the Loop” on the Assessment of Student Learning

Task D. Research, identify, and employ a college-wide system for storing student learning outcomes data and longitudinally tracking those data to track instructional improvement and target needed interventions to improve student success.

Task E. Implement the process for conducting assessments, recording student achievement of learning outcomes, and reporting those results.

Purpose
MUS-Great Falls has been actively working to develop measurable student learning outcomes that will allow the college to assess how well it is doing. Key to this effort are the Software Solutions team’s tasks to find appropriate software that will allow the institution to collect and analyze data that tracks progress on those outcomes; to deploy that software, and to begin collecting data.

Strategy Progress: Research software, 100 percent. Conduct software demonstrations, 100 percent. Purchase software, 50 percent.
The Software Solutions team began researching various software products – reviewing specifications, watching and working with demonstration versions, and talking to product representatives. The team is working closely with the Sindicate team to make sure the software will work with the data identified by that team.

Timeline
Software research and demonstrations were conducted in Fall 2011. The team participated in demonstrations from two of the vendors (TK20 and Weave). As a result we have contacted Weave and requested a “sandbox” in order to try their product for a short period of time. Weave has provided ten logins for committee members. After testing, the team will contact other campuses using this product to collect anecdotal information. We hope to make a final proposal by the end of January 2012 and proceed to develop a proposal to the College Planning, Budget, and Analysis Committee (CPBAC) to request funds to purchase the initial license for the product and to train selected campus personnel.