OIE Accreditation

OFFICE OF INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

Accreditation

The OIE manages the accreditation process for Middle States Commission on Higher Education. The Director of Institutional Effectiveness serves as the institution’s Accreditation Liaison Officer (ALO) and leads the institutional self-study process.

Institutional self-study is a mandatory process to evaluate the effectiveness of its programs and activities. It reveals strengths and weaknesses in the institution. It is done with the aim of making sure the institution is working to accomplish its educational mission. Accreditation is also of significant importance because it is an indication that the academic programs of the institution conform to federal or state established standards. Accreditation acts as a benchmark for institutional effectiveness and validates to the public that the institution is a worthy investment in higher education.

DMGS Assessment Manual and Calendar

The Office of Institutional Effectiveness (OIE) instituted the DMGS Assessment Manual and Calendar in summer of 2018. The OIE maintains the assessment manual and calendar ensuring that each planned assessment is completed and analyzed for institutional improvement and effectiveness purposes. In addition, assessment is a core instrument to ensure DMGS meets its mission.

Analyzed reports are distributed to the respective stakeholders by OIE. The respective stakeholders are required to implement needed improvement through the production of changes based on the recommendations by the OIE. Each unit that is assessed must report out on whether needed changes were implemented for future assessment purposes.

Metrics for Measuring Institutional Learning Outcomes

Following recommendations by the MSHCHE evaluation team in April 2019, the Office of Graduate Studies and Office of Institutional Effectives worked to further define our institutional learning outcomes (ILOs). Specifically, the offices worked to offer guidelines on how to measure whether a program was meeting each ILO.