Institutional Effectiveness

Demonstration of Learning

Demonstration of learning at Rollins is guided by the essential questions of the learner-centered college: Are our students learning?, How do we know they are learning?, and How does what we know allow us to improve learning? (O'Banion, 1997). Demonstration of learning is an ongoing process at Rollins, one that is inquiry-based, outcomes-oriented, and focused on the interpretation of results to improve teaching and learning.

Demonstration of Learning (DoL) is a faculty-driven effort at Rollins, one designed to ensure that discipline-based values and teaching practices are aligned with the College’s mission of empowering graduates to pursue meaningful lives and productive careers. A faculty-led Demonstration of Learning Team (DLT) advises and provides support to the learning outcomes review process at the College.

The Office of Institutional Effectiveness maintains resources, reporting templates, and archived DoL data in the College's Xitracs^TM assessment and accreditation software system to assist academic departments and programs in developing and documenting their demonstration of student learning outcomes plans and assessment reports. All DoL plans and reports for academic programs of the College are reviewed for completeness and quality each year by the College’s Assistant Provost for Institutional Effectiveness and SACSCOC Liaison, appropriate Deans, and, when required or related to resource allocations, the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost.

A short video orientation to the demonstration of learning efforts at Rollins is available. Watch Video

Questions? Please contact Dr. Toni Holbrook, Assistant Provost for Institutional Effectiveness and SACSCOC Liaison, tsholbrook@rollins.edu or ext. 2128.

O’Banion, T. (1997). A learning college for the 21^st century. Phoenix, AZ: American Council on Education and Oryx Press.

Student Achievement Goals and Data

As an institution regionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), Rollins College is obligated to disclose to students, constituents, and the public statements of “goals for student achievement and the success of students in achieving those goals.”¹ According to SACSCOC, information on student achievement “may include reliable information in retention, graduation, course completion, licensure examinations, and job placement rates and other measures of student success appropriate to institutional mission.”¹

In fall 2014, Rollins established that first- to second-year retention and six-year graduation rates for resident undergraduate students would serve as appropriate measures of student achievement. Following a review of national comparison data detailed in The Condition of Education 2015: Institutional Retention and Graduation Rates for Undergraduate Students,² goals for each metric were established in fall 2015.  Also initiated in fall 2015, using data from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) StudentTracker^SM database, was the monitoring and reporting of six-year graduation rates for students who started their college experiences at Rollins, but transferred to other institutions to complete bachelor’s degrees.³  Rollins began this process with the 2008 new student cohort, following completion of the NSC pilot program that year.

The information presented below is intended to satisfy SACSCOC requirements and is updated annually, most recently in July 2024.

*Note: Graduation rate data obtained from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) StudentTracker for the CLA Fall 2015 cohort forward and includes all degrees.

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¹ Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. (2014). Institutional Obligations for Public Disclosure. Retrieved from http://www.sacscoc.org/pdf/081705/InstitutionalObligationsPublicDisclosure.pdf.

² U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). (2015.) The Condition of Education 2015: Institutional Retention and Graduation Rates for Undergraduate Students. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cva.asp.

³ For information on the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) StudentTrackerSM database, please see www.studentclearinghouse.org/colleges/studenttracker/.

CLA Academic Program Review

Purpose and Process

Introduction

Program review in the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) at Rollins is a developmental process that evaluates the status, effectiveness, and progress of academic programs and helps identify the future direction, needs, and priorities of those programs. As such, it is closely connected to strategic planning, resource allocation, assessment of student learning, and other decision-making at the program, department, and College levels. The goal of a program review should be the articulation of agreed-upon action plans for further development of the academic program.

During the review process, teams of external reviewers assess departmental self-study reports and engage in a site visit. External review teams are invited to consider issues and challenges, and to consult with faculty and administrators on future directions. The program review process is focused on improvements that can be made using resources currently available to the program. Consideration may also be given, however, to proposed program improvements and expansions that would require additional resources; in such cases, the need and priority for additional resources should be clearly specified.

The Review Process

The Dean of the College of Liberal Arts is responsible for the periodic review of all CLA departments and programs. The Assistant Provost for Institutional Effectiveness provides support and guidance on various aspects of the process outlined below and maintains archival records for use in reporting to various external accreditation organizations. The Dean’s Office provides departments with a timeline and makes the initial invitation to external reviewers. The Director of Data Analytics provides departments with data for the self-study.

Departments are responsible for selecting a team of external disciplinary reviewers, preparing a self-study document, conducting a site visit with the external review team, preparing a response to the external review team recommendations, submitting the response and action plan to the Dean, and revisiting progress on action plans. Departments may choose to hold a separate retreat dedicated to the self-study review; these retreats will be supported by the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts.

More Information and Next Steps

Further information and detailed guidance are available to CLA academic programs through a Canvas course site. The following links provide campus-only access.