Critical Resources for Financial Impacts of Change
Intended Audience
Higher education administrators, faculty involved in campus-based change efforts; change agents on a campus; directors of centers for teaching/STEM/etc.
Overview
Have you ever felt as if you were faced with an impossible decision regarding allocation of funding or resources? In higher education we are often called upon to improve educational outcomes with scarce institutional resources. We are asked to make difficult fiscal decisions without the tools we need to determine the possible fiscal and moral implications of supporting new initiatives and projects. If you have wondered whether it is possible to make modest changes that have a great impact, while also saving money and resources, the answer is yes.
The ASCN Financial Alignment with Inclusive Teaching Effectiveness Critical Resources (FAITE) Working Group created this resource list to share tools and examples that can help with evidence-based fiscal decision making. These resources demonstrate that it is possible to invest scarce institutional resources wisely to advance your priorities. They were gathered to address questions and issues you might be facing at your institution, such as:
- Increasing learning outcomes for all students;
- Adopting instructional practices to improve retention, increased enrollment, persistence, etc.;
- Articulating and communicating the benefits of institutional change to potentially skeptical decision-makers both inside and outside the university;
- Quantifying both the cost and return on investment of implementing instructional change during transitions and over the long-term;
- Determining how to best implement institutional change into institutional budgeting, planning, and decision-making.
- What are some of the cost categories associated with implementing instructional change during transitions and long-term?
- Have the costs of instructional change initiatives been documented and has the return on investment been measured?
- Is there guidance about how to undertake such measurement at my institution?
- Are there any strategies in place for embedding considerations of potential benefits and associated costs into institutional budgeting, planning, and decision-making? What are some of these strategies?
- How can we make explicit increased learning outcomes for all students associated with instructional change?
- Other than typical benefits like improved learning outcomes and more satisfying teaching experiences, what other kinds of benefits are envisioned from improving instructional practices at the department, college or university level (e.g., retention, increased enrollment, persistence, etc.)?
- What are some ways of articulating and communicating various types of benefits to potentially skeptical decision-makers inside and outside the university?
Change Topics (Working Groups)
Program Components
Target AudienceResults 1 - 5 of 5 matches
How UT-Austin's Bold Plan for Reinvention Went Belly Up
Lindsay Ellis
This article provides a cautionary tale about large institutional efforts to redesign undergraduate education and the challenges of measuring what works. In 2016, UT Austin pledged to revamp undergraduate education, adding state-of-the-art online classes, redesigned curricula, and short courses, among others, to produce less expensive degrees, teach practical skills and expand access via technology. Dubbed "Project 2021" it also committed to measure what worked and adjust accordingly. By 2019, the project was deemed too ambitious and lacked support to continue. Several lessons about the impact of changes in undergraduate teaching are useful. For example, implementing regular quizzes in large classes narrowed grade disparities between students from different socioeconomic groups. Massive online classes modeled after late-nighttalk shows were hailed as a national model for using technology to deliver remote instruction and billed as next-generation undergraduate programs. Yet, while students rated the online courses highly, evaluations of student learning showed no advantage to the course delivering mode, and the cost for the heavily produced studio quality courses was high. Key conclusions from the project evaluation is that it was very complicated and lacked direction, got caught in bureaucratic processes, and was expensive.
Target Audience: Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, College/University Staff, Non-tenure Track Faculty, Institution Administration
Resource Type: Website, Report
Program Components: Institutional Systems:Strategic Planning
Instructional quality, student outcomes, and institutional finances
Jessie Brown; Martin Kurzweil
A report from the American Council on Education exploring the question of whether improving instructional quality can increase an institution's revenue. Principal Conclusions (p.22): As the cost of college grows and sources of funding of decline, college and university leaders face mounting pressure to find effective and efficient ways to improve their core business: educating and graduating students. Numerous studies show that research-based pedagogical practices and participation in faculty development can help institutions achieve these goals by increasing student learning, engagement, persistence, and degree completion. There is also evidence that improvements in retention increase revenue and have a positive return on investment. Other interventions—including remedial course redesign, increased course-taking in the first year, and more comprehensive first-year curricular and co-curricular reforms—have been shown to improve cost per degree.
Target Audience: College/University Staff, Institution Administration, Non-tenure Track Faculty, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty
Resource Type: Report
Program Components: Institutional Systems:Strategic Planning, Evaluating Teaching
What Is the Potential for Applying Cost-Utility Analysis to Facilitate Evidence-Based Decision Making in Schools?
Fiona Hollands; Yilin Pan; Maya Escueta
The authors investigated the feasibility of applying a decision-making framework based on cost-utility analysis to facilitate decision-making. A key challenge was guiding decision makers to find suitable evidence.
Target Audience: College/University Staff, Institution Administration, Non-tenure Track Faculty, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty
Resource Type: Journal Article
Program Components: Institutional Systems:Strategic Planning
Return on Investment Toolkit
EDUCAUSE; rpk Group
This toolkit provides videos, webinars, articles, infographics, tools, and case studies focused on applying anROI lens to innovation and investments to support student success.
Target Audience: College/University Staff, Institution Administration, Non-tenure Track Faculty, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty
Resource Type: Toolkit
Program Components: Institutional Systems:Strategic Planning
The Economic Impact of Increasing College Completion
Sophia Koropeckyj; Chris Lafakis; Adam Ozimek
While this report does not include institutional-level guidance on measuring costs and benefits of instructional improvement, it does offer helpful context for broader economic effects of student success and degree completion. Many institutions are working to be responsive to demands by the public and policy- makers that they articulate their economic impact. Arguments and data included in this report can be helpful in that messaging, and can help change leaders tie program improvement to broader outcomes, which may help to garner leadership support.
Target Audience: Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Institution Administration, Non-tenure Track Faculty, College/University Staff
Resource Type: Report
Program Components: Supporting Students:Student Engagement, Institutional Systems:Strategic Planning, Incentive/Reward Systems