Strategic Plan - Teaching & Learning - Strategic Plan

Strategic Plan - Teaching & Learning

Professor instructing a student

Implementation Goals & Accomplishments

3.1 - Advance Academic Assessment: Develop, executive, and evaluate an academic assessment plan that aligns institutional goals with program learning objectives and provides data about student outcomes.

Goal 3.1.1 - Develop, execute, and evaluate an academic assessment plan that aligns institutional goals with program learning objectives, informs objectives, and provides data about student learning outcomes.

Lead Unit: Academic Affairs

Progress: 100%

FY23 Highlights:

https://stockton.edu/academic-assessment/academic-reporting.html

FY22 Highlights:

Middle States and on-site review completed
8 Academic Program Reviews completed
New Director of Academic Assessment determining digital program to facilitate, track and amalgamate assessment results.
Annual Report template revised and instituted across schools, program, departments, and centers
Gray Data purchased and instituted to benchmark program/major and outcomes

FY21 Highlights:

Hired a new designated manager as Director of Academic Assessment.
Initiated a new template process for assessment initiatives to provide a needed degree of consistency across the division.
Revised both annual and periodic review reports for academic programs, as well as centers and institutes, based on recommendations from the Faculty Union and the Faculty Leadership Task Force.

3.2 - Strengthen Academic Programming: Review existing curricula and experiment with new academic programs to respond to emerging fields and pedagogical opportunities.

Goal 3.2.1 - Review existing curricula and experiment with new academic programs to respond to emerging fields and pedagogical opportunities.

Lead Unit: Academic Affairs

Progress: 100%

FY23 Highlights:

Review/revise Essential Learning Outcomes
Developed several new degree programs to respond to market need and student demand.
Developing Scaffolding Certificates to Degrees
Continuing Education
Developed new programs in real estate and fire fighter test preparation.

FY22 Highlights:

Task-Force Created for FY23 to revitalize Essential Learning Outcomes
Developed several new degree programs to respond to market need and student demand.
Reconceptualized several existing programs to reflect field trends

FY21 Highlights:

Added several concentrations to the existing MBA program that allow for greater specialization (beginning in fall 2021): Forensic Accounting and Fraud Examination; Finance; Marketing; Business Analytics; and Hospitality Management.
Expanded University’s Transfer Pathways program to pilot a 2+3 BS/MBA program with Atlantic Cape Community College; this program can scale to include additional county college partners in FY22.

3.3 - Embrace Diverse Teaching and Learning Styles: Diversify course delivery methods and scheduling, including online and hybrid formats, programming for summer and adult learners, and professional development opportunities, to ensure that academic offerings are broadly available to a diverse range of learners.

Goal 3.3.1 - Enhance teaching and learning through services to promote quality and reliable technology support.

Lead Unit: Information Technology

Progress: 100%

FY23 Highlights:

Worked with ARHU to deploy Adobe Creative Cloud to additional classroom spaces.
Performed annual routine classroom update and maintenance while also reviewing and upgrading system controls, Zoom support, and user accessibility.
Reconfiguration of system organization and management policies through Microsoft Intune and Group Policy to provide a more reliable and secure user experience.
Continued to review and update the ITS website with training documentation to reflect new and emerging technology training items available

FY22 Highlights:

Provided on-demand training sessions for individual offices to best meet their specific technology needs based on their own workflows and tasks.
Performed frequent updates to the ITS website with training documentation to reflect relevant technology training items and changes in product offerings available to the campus community.
Coordinated with URM to publish and distribute technology tips in the University newsletter designed around common support requests needs frequently observed by the ITS Help Desk.

FY21 Highlights:

Expanded operator hours to handle influx of questions coming into the University during pandemic.
Reallocated staff when not needed from locations outside of the Galloway campus to handle surge in demand at the main campus.

Goal 3.3.2 - Analyze course delivery methods and scheduling, including online and hybrid formats in light of COVID, and formulate a strategy for modality scheduling based on pedagogical need to ensure that academic offerings are broadly available to a diverse range of learners.

Lead Unit: Academic Affairs

Progress: 100%

FY23 Highlights:

Discuss/assess ability to create OER/OAR as general education requirement for courses.
Three adult learning options in Business, Health Science will start Fall 2023
Assess learning modalities to enhance student persistence.
Assess optimal pathways for students on academic notice

FY22 Highlights:

Definition of Online, Hybrid and Face-to-Face modified with faculty senate support.
Courses met 75% Face-to-Face.
Automating & digitizing Registrar's office through FY23.
Automating and digitizing Advising office

Goal 3.3.3 - Hire and retain through membership, professional development, engagement, and leadership opportunities a diverse community of faculty, staff, and academic leaders to provide the human resources needed to achieve the goals outlined in the University’s strategic plan.

Lead Unit: Academic Affairs

Progress: 100%

FY23 Highlights:

Equitable distribution of $1500 in additional faculty development funding
Academic Affairs provided 11 faculty fellow opportunities to develop leadership experience for the faculty
Two Vera King Farris Fellowship hires occurred in FY 23.
Funding for new search advocates include 30 individual volunteers of which 12 were trained to identify and mitigate unintended bias in the hiring process.

FY22 Highlights:

Equitable distribution of $1500 in additional faculty development funding
Academic Affairs provided 11 faculty fellow opportunities to develop leadership experience for the faculty.
Each program in Academic Affairs, with oversight of the School Dean, reviewed the specific reappointment, tenure and promotion program standards to reflect diversity, equity and inclusion and an attribute in all aspects of faculty life. The guidelines are in the process of actuation.

3.4 - Enhance the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL): Promote a culture of teaching and learning supported by the promotion and tenure process that supports systematic inquiry into student learning, builds an institutional resource repository, and makes inquiry findings public.

Goal 3.4.1 - Establish the ��Ƶ Center for Teaching and Learning Design to facilitate teaching excellence, assessment, and scholarship, supports systematic inquiry into student learning, build an institutional repository of resources, and publicly disseminate scholarship about pedagogy valued and recognized in the promotion and tenure process.

Lead Unit: Academic Affairs

Progress: 100%

FY23 Highlights:

Revised Library as Learning Commons.
Review/Assess ORSP office with recommendations.
Finalize changes to Faculty Evaluation policy
Review preceptor evaluation process and instrument
Work with Student Affairs and Enrollment Management to optimize registration of first-year and transfer students
Center for Teaching & Learning Design (CTLD) filled two vacant positions

FY22 Highlights:

Faculty Fellows program restructured to enhance leadership and succession planning with outcomes
Created a repository to collect best practices about teaching and learning and promote a broader emphasis on the scholarship of engagement
Restructured coordination of New Faculty Orientation, previously housed in the Office of the Provost, to CTLD.

FY21 Highlights:

Established a revised Center for Teaching and Learning Design to oversee both academic assessment planning and ongoing academic professional development.
Created a repository to collect best practices about teaching and learning
Shifted responsibility for ��Ƶ’s Summer Institute on the Peer Evaluation of Teaching (SIPET) to CTLD, beginning in Summer 2021.
Restructured coordination of New Faculty Orientation, previously housed in the Office of the Provost, to CTLD.

Goal 3.4.2 - Adopt innovative technologies and solutions to provide reliable IT infrastructure for teaching and learning.

Lead Unit: Information Technology

Progress: 100%

FY23 Highlights:

Completing work on campus fiber loop project.
Starting work of secondary network operations center.
Started the process of migrating employees to OneDrive to provide a more robust document backup solution and dynamic access to user data.

FY22 Highlights:

Deployed new VOIP-based phone system with remote capabilities to enhance business continuity.
Added redundant data connection to Atlantic City campus in order to enhance data reliability.
Continue to develop and extend Splunk environment to respond to threats to information systems and account credentials.
Initiated the process of upgrading University staff workstations to Windows 11.

FY21 Highlights:

Migration of additional University IT services to Amazon Web Services providing further redundancy in the cloud.
Splunk log aggregation utility fully installed and configured. Reporting has already defended the University from multiple security incidents.
Started migration of employees to OneDrive and SharePoint to provide remote access to University data.

Goal 3.3.3 - Cultivate a culture of teacher-scholarship in the Division of Student Affairs.

Lead Unit: Student Affairs

Progress: 100%

FY23 Highlights:

Successfully submitted and presented five (5) refereed national conference presentations.

FY22 Highlights:

Hosted professional development sessions focused on scholarly writing and institutional IRB research protocols for division.
Served as instructors for 15 courses in AY 22.
Co-led Middles States Accreditation Standards Groups with institutional partners.
Implemented and facilitated common readings for Student Affairs Leadership Council and Residential Life staff.
Served a faculty at national institute for Student Affairs practitioners

��Ƶ has achieved remarkable success in terms of student retention and graduation rates because of its personalized approach to teaching and learning.

Such efforts should continuously be assessed and refined, and incorporate ��Ƶ’s Essential Learning Outcomes (ELOs). Moreover, we will encourage and support faculty research and pedagogical innovations to ensure that we effectively reach a diverse group of learners and that our degrees remain current and competitive.

Academic rigor is at the heart of a ��Ƶ education. Our faculty members bring both recognition in their respective fields and a strong commitment to teaching, informed by their research, scholarship, and creative endeavors. Faculty and staff also bring innovation to bear as they create and sustain a broad range of high-impact learning experiences.

The culmination of this innovation is ��Ƶ’s ability to promote learning that is intellectually challenging and builds critical thinking and workforce skills to last a lifetime. Students develop intellectual curiosity and ethical reasoning competencies in ways that allow them to transition from education to real-world practice.

As ��Ƶ recruits and retains a more diverse student body, it is essential the University offer a meaningful and creative learning environment that embraces diverse teaching and learning styles. As a result, students will develop the tools to become lifelong learners and fully engaged citizens.

We will do this by developing strategies and tactics that:

Enhance information about study skills, time management, and adaption to campus life through a variety of venues, such as Welcome Week, FRST courses, freshman/transfer seminars, and other initiatives, to start students on the right academic footing.
Embrace new academic programs and approaches that enhance teaching and learning, respond to changing social and economic conditions, and prepare students for emerging fields.
Reinforce our Essential Learning Outcomes (ELOs) with students and encourage faculty to align curricular and co-curricular activities to create a well-rounded education, relevant to a changing world.
Support faculty research about, and participation in, professional development opportunities that strengthen the classroom experience, including effective pedagogical approaches for a particular program and its core courses.