Academic Affairs Division Strategic Plan

 Strategies:  

1. Review NSU’s current policies and processes, along with best practices recommended by CAEL and ACE, to increase recognition of the prior learning, skills, and knowledge that students possess in order to award appropriate college credit and reduce time to degree or program completion. (Adapted from OSRHE 9B, p. 11)
2. Review academic curricula for appropriateness of awarding CPL. Where CPL is appropriate, identify the appropriate assessment. 
3. Provide professional development opportunities on CPL.
4. Develop a public-facing CPL matrix. 
5. Engage the Office of Marketing and Communications to promote CPL opportunities.  

Measurements and targets: 

1. Increased number of students seeking and receiving CPL 
2. Retention number of students who receive CPL
3. Completion rates of students who receive CPL
4. Time to degree reduced

Strategies: 

1. Continue engaging with current community college partners to develop and maintain transfer pathways.
2. Identify new community college partners to establish new pipelines of transfer students.
3. Communicate transfer opportunities to students through a public-facing transfer matrix.
4. Refine the University-wide process for articulation agreements.

Measurements and targets: 

1. Number of community college partners engaged
2. Number of articulation agreements: new and updated
3. Number of students transferring to NSU.
4. Number of credits transferred toward a degree/certificate.

 Strategies: 

1. Develop a centralized quality assurance process to remove barriers to workforce initiatives and promote continuous improvement.
2. Identify community and industry partners needs to enhance and upskill their workforce.
3. Respond to industry reports through curriculum planning, course offerings, micro-credentialing, badging, and training opportunities.
4. Utilize skills mapping to increase the perceived value of academic program attainment. 
5. Examine and modify practices to encourage workforce course offerings. 

Measurements and targets: 

1. Number of MOUs
2. Number of new students enrolled through MOUs

Strategies:

1. Identify best practices for implementing and supporting flexible delivery options. 
2. Support high-quality flexible course delivery through increased professional development opportunities for faculty and staff.  
3. Use flexible delivery options to maximize faculty resources.
4. Review the academic calendar to increase flexibility for students beyond the traditional semester schedule. (OSRHE 9D, p. 11).
5. Improve flexibility for adult learners through increased access to online degree program offerings and the development of competency-based programs. 
6. Structure course fees to support flexible delivery options. 

Measurements and Targets:

1. Number of courses offered in flexible delivery modalities.
2. Number of professional development opportunities offered supporting flexible delivery.

Strategies:

1. Analyze current programming to see which programs might be effectively delivered online.
2. Investigate articulations with two-year partners that align their online programming with NSU’s.
3. Utilize Gray Market Analysis data to identify potentially high yield programs.  
4. Ensure a consistent general education course rotation is offered online.  
5. Connect department chairs and faculty with NSU Online instructional designers to facilitate online course design. 
6. Implement Quality Matters standards and best practices in all online educational experiences. (Adapted from OSRHE 12C, p. 12)
7. Support innovations that limit student and family costs while increasing educational access, such as the Online Only Non-Resident Tuition policy. (Adapted from OSRHE 14B, p. 12)
   

Measurements and Targets:

1. Number of degree programs online. (Target: increase by ten in next five years.)
2. Number of courses offered online, including regular rotation of general education courses.  
3. Student credit hours generated online as a percentage of overall credit hours.  
4. Number of students transferring to NSU online programs through articulation agreements.
5. Number of faculty working with instructional designers. 

Strategies:

1. Align academic programs with workforce demand and critical occupations. (Adapted from OSRHE 1, p. 9)
2. Remove NSU policy barriers to pursue academic programs aligned with Oklahoma’s workforce needs and critical occupations. (OSRHE 1D, page 9).
3. Improve flexibility for adult learners through increased access to online degree program offerings. (OSRHE 10D, p. 11).

Measurements and Targets:

1. Number of academic programs aligned with workforce demand

Strategies:

1. Identify, communicate, and provide professional development opportunities relevant to student success best practices.
2. Identify programs and colleges not currently pursuing accreditation.
3. Work with those programs and colleges not pursuing accreditation to determine what accreditation exists, and how we might pursue it. 

Measurements and Targets:

1. All programs and colleges for which accreditation exists but has not yet been pursued  are pursuing or planning to pursue accreditation.

Strategies:

1. Ensure every academic discipline develops and meets with an external advisory council.
2. Development of Academic Affairs standard procedures regarding advisory boards (meeting frequency, board makeup, etc.)
3. Identify, develop, and leverage “trusted communicators” to promote the value of higher education to prospective students and other key stakeholders. 

Measurements and Targets:

1. Number of advisory councils.
2. Number of stakeholders, employers, and community partners engaged.
3. Communication audit for effective communication with workforce students and stakeholders.
   

Strategies:

1. Refine General Education learning outcomes to align with 21st-century skills.
2. Align NSU General Education categories to 21st Century skills.
3. Align General Education course descriptions to 21st-century skills through a skills map.
4. Use the NSU website and course catalog to highlight General Education’s alignment to  21st Century skills.

Measurements and Targets:

1. Number of credentialing opportunities embedded in the General Education sequence.
2. Number of courses that have completed skills mapping.

Strategies:

1. Ensure that Experiential Learning opportunities meet the institutional retention priority #7 guidelines approved by Cabinet.
   
   
2. Institution wide evaluation of current experiential learning opportunities including academic and co-curricular opportunities. (KPI 1)

1. Institutional count of available experiential learning opportunities. 
2. Required  - Required as part of the program. (e.g. capstone, course based, required course in the program, etc.).
3. Voluntary - non-required as part of the program (e.g. elective course, study abroad, non-course based internship, co-curricular activities, etc.).
   
   
4. Institutional count of students participating in experiential learning opportunities each year.

1. Required  - Required as part of the program. (e.g. capstone, course based, required course in the program, etc.)
2. Voluntary - non-required as part of the program (e.g. elective course, study abroad, non-course based internship, co-curricular activities, etc.)

Measurements and Targets:

KPI 1:  Institution-wide evaluation of current experiential learning opportunities including academic and co-curricular opportunities.

5-Year Target:  *Every academic degree program will ensure that each student
has the opportunity to apply disciplinary knowledge to real-world problems
through immersive or experiential learning opportunities. 

KPI 2: End of semester survey of students who participate in experiential learning opportunities using validated survey instruments. Survey data seek to measure:

1. 1. Connect the student to the curriculum
   2. Connect the student to the workforce

5-Year Target: *At least 10% of students participating in experiential learning activities will complete the survey data each year

*Determine baseline in year 1. Targets for years 2-5 will be determined during the Year 1 assessment.

Strategies:

1. Identify the process for determining professional development needs.
2. Communicate and provide professional development opportunities to employees.

Measurement and Targets:

1. Procure retention data to show student success.
2. Pre-post participant PD surveys

Strategies:

1. Invest in technology-enabled student experiences that support a hybrid campus (e.g. virtual advising and other academic support services). (OSRHE 12A, p. 12)
2. Improve the academic support/services website and public facing communications.
3. Provide relevant analytics to decision-makers.
4. Improve resources for advising and mentoring.
5. Provide development and training relating to academic support resources and utilization.

Measurement and Targets:

1. Number of students utilizing services.
2. Pre-post participant PD surveys.

Strategies:

1. Support high quality online educational experiences through increased professional development opportunities for faculty and staff and institutional implementation of Quality Matters standards and best practices. (OSRHE 12C, p. 12).
2. Ensure all instructional faculty and staff engaging in online or hybrid coursework are trained in Quality Matters.
3. Develop a quality assurance system for ensuring Quality Matters standards are utilized. (NC-SARA Guidelines, Appendix B, 3.3, 4)
4. Determine professional development needs for faculty engaged in flexible delivery, and offer development to meet those needs.

Measurements and Targets:

1. Increased persistence and retention.
2. Decreased time to complete academic program.
3. Decrease in drop/withdrawal rate.
4. Comparison of success measures between face-2-face and distance learning courses.

1. Survey colleges for needs related to facility infrastructure (HVAC, space configuration, technology availability) on all campuses.
2. Prioritize the need list and identify funding sources and timelines for specific facility repairs / upgrades.
3. Establish standard technology configuration for all classrooms to support the hybrid campus and flexible learning. 
4. Conduct instructional needs assessments and widely share new technologies under consideration. 

Measurements and Targets:

1. Decreased work orders regarding facility infrastructure.
2. Increased number of classrooms configured for use with virtual technology.
3. Increased usage rates for software and technology.
4. Increased number of new software/technologies utilized.

Strategies:

1. Provide relevant analytics to program decision makers.
   1. Data related to student progression
   2. Data related to course scheduling optimization
   3. Data related to enrollment patterns
   4. Data related to course evaluations
2. Use data to identify barriers to student completion and retention.
3. Identify the student course scheduling needs and schedule accordingly.
4. Identify ways to reduce the ancillary costs of instruction.
5. Reduce the minimum number of credit hours in the bachelor’s degree to 120 hours where appropriate. 

Measurements and Targets:

1. The number of retention related reports (see action step a for examples) available at the program level. 
2. The number of new retention related reports available.
3. Program/College usage of the data provided in the reports to impact program retention.
4. Number of academic barriers identified and solutions proposed.
5. Increase in semester to semester persistence per academic program.
6. Increased completion rates.
7. Decrease in the time to complete an academic program.
8. Increased use of OER materials.
9. The percent of course shells/programs utilizing consistent course shells.
10. Equitable distribution of mentees.
11. The number of faculty mentor contacts.
    

Strategies:

1. Develop Academic Affairs Communications Plan to leverage public interest, campus events, and feature academic affairs successes.
2. Improve constituent access to faculty expertise (e.g. NSU podcasts, “Lunch and Learns”,  guest speaker appearances, employer engagements.)

Measurements and Targets:

1. Increase in updated content & types of content 
2. Increase in web interactions & social media audience engagement metrics (likes, shares, etc.)
3. Increase in number of attendees at NSU activities & events
4. Increase in number and type of NSU – community interactions

Strategies:

1. Ensure competitive salaries and benefits (not solely academic affairs purview).
2. Support on and off campus opportunities for professional learning experiences.
3. Ensure the infrastructure supports employees’ abilities to excel. 
4. Timely onboarding of new hires to ensure they have access to Blackboard, etc before the start of the semester. 
5. Investigate and apply best practices for ensuring employee retention.

Measurements and Targets:

1. Increased employee satisfaction.
2. Increased number of PAN, FRC, CTL, and FDC awards.
3. Increased number of CTL workshops offered and attended.
4. Decreased time to onboard new hires and timely access to technology and materials needed.
5. Increased employee retention.

Strategies:

1. Survey colleges for needs related to facility infrastructure (HVAC, space configuration, technology availability) on all campuses.
2. Prioritize the need list and identify funding sources and timelines for specific facility repairs / upgrades.
3. Establish standard technology configuration for all classrooms to support the hybrid campus and flexible learning. 
4. Conduct instructional needs assessments and widely share new technologies under consideration. 

Measurements and Targets:

1. Decreased work orders regarding facility infrastructure.
2. Increased number of classrooms configured for use with virtual technology.
3. Increased usage rates for software and technology.
4. Increased number of new software/technologies utilized.