Registrar's Office

Assessment Plan

Students, faculty/staff, and the general public who interact with Registrar’s Office staff know that they, the customers, are respected and valued. As a result of their interaction with office personnel, our customers will value WSU as an institution of higher education. Customers will understand and value the regulations of the University and feel a sense of responsibility for the consequences of their actions.

Customers know the criteria and procedures for submitting requests for exceptions to University policies.
Customers know where and how to obtain enrollment and degree verification services.
Students know when and how to register for classes.
Students know when and where their classes meet.
Academic colleges/departments are satisfied with the classroom scheduling process.
Within established policies/procedures, students are able to register for courses at their convenience: in-person, via the web, or by phone.
Instructors are able to submit end-of-term grades in a way that is satisfactory to them.
Students are able to obtain end-of-term grade information in a manner that is satisfactory to them.
Students, faculty/staff, and alumni value the accuracy of the official academic record.
Students and alumni are able to order copies of their transcripts in a manner convenient to them.
Students know when and how to apply for graduation.
The graduation application process is satisfactory to users.
Students and advisors know which degree requirements have been fulfilled and which requirements have not been met.
Graduates value the look and feel of their diplomas and their diploma covers.
The academic community values the student progress and eligibility information that is furnished to them.
Students know their academic standing at the University.
Students know when they are approaching the deadline to declare a Program of Study.
Advisors know the academic standing and progress of those they advise.

• Outcomes Assessed	• How Assessed	• Frequency
• 1a, 1b, 1c, 6, 13, 14	• Customer satisfaction survey- (locally developed, Noel-Levitz, and/or other)	• annual or biannual
• 2, 3, 4a, 4b, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11a, 11b, 12, 15a, 15b, 16	• Questionnaires - completed by those who have used a specific service provided by the office	• ongoing, as service is used
• 4a, 4b, 6, 7, 8, 11b	• Focus groups - staff, faculty and student focus groups	• biannual
• 6	• Direct measures	• each semester

Annual Assessment Results
- Tab Title
- 2018-2020
- 2016-2017
  Institutional Mission/Goal Reference:
  - Weber State University’s Mission Statement: “Weber State University provides associate, baccalaureate and master degree programs in liberal arts, sciences, technical and professional fields. Encouraging freedom of expression and valuing diversity, the university provides excellent educational experiences for students through extensive personal contact among faculty, staff, and students in and out of the classroom. Through academic programs, research, artistic expression, public service and community-based learning, the University serves as an educational, cultural and economic leader for the region.”
  - The part of Weber State’s Mission Statement that in particular is addressed by this assessment is the University’s Declaration of providing “excellent educational experiences for students through extensive personal contact among faculty, staff, and students in and out of the classroom.” The Registrar’s Office is geared towards streamlining registration and academic record processes in order to ensure that both students and faculty are able to have quality services available, that will both prove to be beneficial and effective in their educational experience.
  Division Common Purpose
  - We help individuals achieve their educational dreams!
  - Registrar's Office Mission Statement: The Registrar’s Office has adopted the division mission statement to better align with the common purpose. Our mission is: We help individuals achieve their educational dreams!
  Introduction
  - In the past year, the Office of the Registrar designed and implemented a new transfer articulation system. The purpose of the system is to manage previously established business processes regarding the articulation of new courses transferred to WSU from other regionally accredited institutions.
  - In an effort to provide a better service and advising for transfer students the College Deans and the Provost Office agreed that all new courses from regionally accredited institutions should be articulated within five days from the point of transcription. Each department provides a primary and a secondary articulation person to manage articulations. The Office of the Registrar provides the department with the course description and when the course was taken. The primary articulator has three days to return the course and the equivalent course to back to the Office of the Registrar. If no response was received after three days, the course is sent to the secondary articulator. If there was no response from the secondary articulator, the course is sent to the Dean.
  - Until the new transfer articulation system was built this process was manually managed by the Office of the Registrar. Originally flash drives were sent to the departments with courses that needed to be articulated, which gradually evolved to google spreadsheets with articulations. This process was still very time consuming for both the department and the Office of the Registrar. Thus, there was a need to implement an articulation system that could automate the majority of the process.
  - The Office of the Registrar and IT collaborated together to create a system to manage the articulation process. The result was a system that efficiently managed the articulation process. The Record’s staff time was reduced by 50% and the departments were provided with a system made it easier to manage and track articulations.
  Assessment
  - This assessment is focused on the latency of when an articulation is sent to the department and when it is returned back to the Office of the Registrar. As stated previously the first articulator has three days to return and articulation. If the first articulator fails to meet the deadline, the articulation is passed on to the secondary articulator who has two days to return the articulation before it is then passed on to the dean. The goal for the institution is to turn around all articulations within five days.
  Outcome
  - It is reasonable to assume that the majority of articulations are returned within a timely manner. It is hypothesized that 90% of articulations are returned with in five days from the point that the Record’s Office staff sends the articulation to the department.
  Data Collection
  - Data were collected when the system was initiated in on November 23, 2016, to August 22, 2017. The data represents the time that has passed, recorded in a number of hours, from when the articulation was sent to the department and when the department completed the articulation evaluation for an individual course.
  Results
  - Between November 23, 2016, and August 22, 2017, 13,815 articulations were completed. The results of the assessment indicate that the campus is doing better than initially hypothesized. The vast majority of articulations, 98.67% (13,631), were completed within the 5-day threshold, whereas only 1.33% (184) were completed within 6 days or more (see Figure 1). No articulation has exceeded more than 9 days.
  - The bulk of the articulations were completed in less than 1 day (74.63%, 10,310). Furthermore, by the third day, 95.48% (13,191) of the articulations were completed (see Figure 2 and Figure 3). The average articulation was completed within 20.68 hours (SD 31.57).
  - Twenty-seven departmental subject codes of 56 are averaging less than a 1 day turn around for articulations (A department may have more than one departmental subject code). Only 3 departmental subject codes are averaging over three days to complete articulations. The other 26 departmental subject codes completed articulations within one to two days (see Appendix A).
  Conclusion
  - It is evident that the new transfer articulation system has reduced the latency of when a transfer course is received and articulated. This reduction of latency is noteworthy because it allows the student to have a greater understanding of how their transfer credit has been applied to their record. Moreover, it provides timely and accurate information that the advisor needs to help advise students on which classes to take.
- 2015-2016
- 2014-2015
  Institutional Mission/Goal Reference:
  - Weber State University’s Mission Statement: “Weber State University offers associate, baccalaureate and master’s degree programs in a broad variety of liberal arts, sciences, technical and professional fields. The university provides excellent educational experiences for its students through extensive personal contact among faculty, staff and students in and out of the classroom. To accomplish its mission, the university, in partnership with the broader community, engages in research, artistic expression, public service, economic development, and community-based learning experiences in an environment that encourages freedom of expression while valuing diversity.
  - It is the 2nd sentence to which we associate so strongly. In that we believe our role is to foster “extensive personal contact among faculty, staff, and students in and out of the classroom” through effective class scheduling, registration, grading, transcript delivery, enrollment evaluations, graduation/degree evaluations, and transfer articulation.
  Division Common Purpose
  - We help individuals achieve their educational dreams!
  - Registrar's Office Mission Statement
  - The Registrar’s Office has adopted the division mission statement to better align with the common purpose. Our mission is: We help individuals achieve their educational dreams!
  Administrative Outcomes
  - The various offices under the umbrella of the Registrar embarked on two outcomes to be assessed during the 2014-2015 academic year. Both outcomes were focused on how new adjustments made to the graduation process improved services to our constituents. Our goal is to improve services to allow students to pursue their educational dreams.
  - Outcome 1- The graduation roster and graduation roster email will be seen as useful tools by the 75 percent of constituents who use them.
  First means of assessment & criteria for success:
  - Our focus for graduation processing has shifted from being reactive to proactive. In an effort to be more proactive we started sending out a graduation roster email to departments to catch any graduation issues before the automated process is turned on. This roster shows any graduation issues that need to be addressed prior to graduation. Department contacts can choose how often they receive these emails: daily, weekly, bi-monthly or monthly.
  - Means for Assessment: Department contacts will be sent a survey to gage if and how they are using the graduation roster email.
  Summary of Data Collected
  - In order to determine if and how the graduation roster email was being used, an eight question survey was sent to 80 designated department contacts asking them about their experience with the roster. There was 58.8 percent response rate for the survey (n=47). Appendix 1 contains the survey logic, while Appendix 2 contains example graduation emails.
  Summary of Results
  - Of those surveyed, 70.2 percent (n=33) report that they are made aware of student graduation issues via the graduation roster email. As a follow-up, respondents were also asked to report the specific ways in which they used the graduation roster email. The majority (n=21, 63%) report using it to communicate with students. The full breakdown of responses is found in Figure 1 below.
  - Of those who reported using it, 82.8 percent (n=24) receive the graduation roster email weekly. The most cited use of the graduation roster, 75.9 percent, (n=22), is to communicate with students directly about graduation issues. Communication on items such as information on ceremonies was used 24.1 percent of the time (n=7). Finally, 93.6 percent (n=44) of all respondents report being able to resolve the graduation issues they were made aware of via the roster email. Those respondents who reported that they did not use the graduation roster were directed to the end of the survey while several further questions were asked of all others.
  Along with the quantitative methods above, qualitative methods were also utilized. When asked how the graduation roster could be improved, most responses were positive, stating that the roster met the needs of the departments. Some suggestions for improvements include:
  - Adding a way to take notes on the roster itself so users can note who they’ve already dealt with week to week
  - Adding an interactive capacity to the report
  - Adding a link in the email to the eWeber portal
  - Adding a way to sort by college
  - Adding a link to information about the specific issues.
  - A second qualitative question asked for feedback as to why the graduation roster was not being used. This question seemed to be misunderstood. Based on the wording of the question, respondents replied that they did not know they could communicate with their students within the roster.This question did not lead to useful responses and should be reworded for the next administration of the survey.
  - Outcome 2- The automated graduation system will lead to an increase in efficiency for graduation processes. Using the automated system, greater than 75 percent of students will have their degree automatically posted to their transcript within one to five days once the system is turned on each semester.
  First means of assessment & criteria for success:
  - Our new automated graduation process has significantly increased our speed in how we post degrees at Weber State. With this new process it is estimated that 75 percent of our students who have applied for graduation, have their degrees awarded on the first day after grades are officially posted.
  - Means for Assessment: An in-depth investigation of the graduation roster will be conducted comparing fall 2014 and spring 2015 semester efficiency rates.
  Summary of Data Collected
  - A data analysis of the graduation roster for both fall 2014 and spring 2015 was conducted. All graduations posted prior to and on the day that the automatic system was turned on for each semester were counted as successful automatic postings. Furthermore, student email requests to have their graduation adjusted were also explored.
  Summary of Results
  - Using the logic outlined above, 79.7 percent of Fall 2014 graduations processed automatically. This number dropped to 74.0 percent for Spring 2015. This information is found in Table 1 below. Further investigation of this drop in rate was conducted by determining what happened to the students who did not graduate in the spring. It was found that, at this time, 173 students who applied for graduation in the spring actually had their graduation term moved to the summer semester. Looking at email requests, students often indicated that they intended to graduate in the summer but wanted to participate in the spring graduation ceremony and so applied during the spring term. If these students are removed from the spring cohort, the rate of graduations processed automatically increases to 78.3 percent. This suggests that the incentive to participate in the graduation ceremony in the spring may be influencing students who know they do not qualify for graduation to apply anyway. It should be noted that the Office of the Registrar is still working on processing some of the Spring 2015 graduation information. Thus, the number of applications moved may actually increase.
  Table 1:
  
  There are a variety of reasons a student’s graduation request may not have processed. Table 2 lists a breakdown of the status of those students who did not have their graduation automatically processed. Table 3 investigates this in more depth, and shows the number and type of specific issues that led to a student’s application not processing.
  
  Table 2:
  
  Table 3:
  
  Discussion
  - Based on the data above, two conclusions can be made. First, the data on the automatic graduation processes suggests that students and staff may both benefit from a change to the current application allowing students to indicate when they plan to participate in the graduation ceremony. This would serve to alert staff that a student’s application may need to be moved.
  - A second suggestion that could improve the tracking of students would be the addition of either an additional column of data or possibly a separate report that tracks changes to the student graduation records over time. This would allow a more precise analysis patterns in student behavior as they relate to the graduation application. Once patterns are identified, more can be done to adjust policies and practices to meet student needs. In turn, this has the potential to improve the efficiency of graduation processes.
  - In another effort to keep our original graduation roster data intact and yet track a student’s graduation application history, a duplicate application could be made and moved to another semester if the student has requested the application be moved. An additional suggestion would be to create another column within the graduation roster for applications that have been moved to a different semester.
  - A final item to consider is the graduation roster itself. Based on departmental feedback, potential changes to the roster were identified and more should be done to see if these changes can be implemented to assist departments in resolving graduation issues.
  Appendix 1: Example Survey Logic
  
  Appendix 2: Example Graduation Emails
- 2013-2014
- 2012-2013
Program Review

This information is part of the cyclical program review process. Details such as mission statements, learning outcomes, etc., are updated as part of the biennial assessment reporting process, an integral component of program review.