The Purpose of this website is to manage information sharing so that it serves the interests of readers who have varying decision-making and reporting needs. It provides information about HOW WELL the University is performing in prioritized areas, not describing everything the University does overall. Information is developed from coherency among the following planning processes: 1) Annual Program Improvement Research (PRISM), 2) Program Review Action Planning, and 3) Institutional Strategic Planning. The website supports the continuous improvement efforts of the University.

What is Continuous Improvement?

More and more universities, such as CSU, are adopting continuous improvement systems. Whereas institutions once had programs do evaluative research once every five or six years and regional accrediting agencies once had institutions do evaluative research or self-studies once every ten years, both of these processes now require information gathering to occur on a continuous, annual basis. In addition, innovations in information technology are demanding faster turnaround of evaluation research; quality attainment can no longer work in intervals of six or ten years. Effective evaluation websites must support this new emphasis on continuous self-evaluation.

The Planning Context that supports this website is the information sharing component of CSU's Plan for Researching Improvement and Supporting Mission (PRISM). This continuous improvement system requires that the University community have constant access to research data and evaluation resources. In addition, it requires that the University provide consistent feedback of assessment and improvement research information to the University community and external constituents. Click on PRISM to view a brief tutorial on the University's institutional plan for continuous improvement (phase 3, part 11).

The Access Methodology of this site is designed to overcome the jargon of assessment and the mysteriousness of institutional data and their titles. The method is also designed to attract the interest of more constituent group members, hopefully engaging them in the evaluation research of the University. It uses sets of questions, each relating to a particular constituent group listed on the website. In turn, the questions lead readers to research information or data resources that provide evidence for answering the questions. The University uses the questions that constituencies select to identify interest areas that may require more or better research information. Alternatively for those who are familiar with improvement research and its terminology, the site also provides a resource index for quick navigation to targeted items. A reference supporting this relationship between decision-maker questioning and planning for change processes is: Jones, Dennis P. "Expanding Information and Decision-Support Systems." In Planning and Management for a Changing Environment: A Handbook on Redesigning Postsecondary Institutions, ed. Marvin W Peterson, David D. Dill, Lisa A. Mets and Associates, 267-87. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1997.