self-study submission mechanics...

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Commission on English Language Program Accreditation © 2017 for training purposes onlyCommission on English Language Program Accreditation © 2017 for training purposes only

W E B I N A RK R I S T E N W Y C K O F F A N D R A C H E L H E R M A N

SELF-STUDY SUBMISSION MECHANICS

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Rachel [Push RECORD button]

Welcome. Today, Kristen Wyckoff and I will be leading the webinar. We have our webcams on right now, so you can see us. But we are going to turn those off because they use a lot of bandwidth.

One quick note: This webinar will be recorded. And a link will be sent to all self-study coordinators & primary contacts who have a self-study report due for this cycle.

Commission on English Language Program Accreditation © 2017 for training purposes only

ZOOM PLATFORM

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Rachel

We are using the zoom webinar platform today. Here’s a quick intro to Zoom. All attendees are muted. You should see at the top of your screen a green bar with View Options. View Options is a pull down menu which allows you to size your screen. At the bottom of your screen, you should see Audio Options to the left. And in the center, icons for Chat, Raise Hand, and Q&A. On the right, you should see Leave Meeting in red.

We will try to take questions throughout. Please use the Q&A feature. Q&A and chat are text-based. You can also use the Raise Hand feature too. Let’s practice the Raise Hand feature. Go ahead and raise your hand if you have a microphone where you are now. Let’s see…

Ok, so if you have a microphone, then we may try to get your audio activated, so you can ask a question if you raise your hand. But since that takes some time, we may limit that.

So let’s start right now with your questions. Jump in – ask what you are thinking about-using the Q&A. And we’ll answer right away, or we may cover the answer a

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little later in the webinar.

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PURPOSE OF WEBINAR

1. Review the submission guidelines

2. Help you ensure that the report is

complete and communicates

effectively to:

• Reviewers

• The Commission

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Rachel

The purpose of this webinar is to talk about self-study submission mechanics. We aren’t going to talk about what you say in the self-study; it’s not about the content of the report. We are going to talk about how the report is put together. We want to help you prepare the self-study report for submission to CEA, ensuring that it’s put together correctly and is complete.

Let’s start with a quick POLL questions:

[Poll 2] Did you watch the previously recorded webinar?

[Poll 1] How many of you attended the CEA Accreditation Workshop? (LIKERT SCALE: Attended more than 12 months ago, between 6-12 months ago, never attended, so long ago I don’t remember) [Close, Share, Hide POLL]

Based on your timelines, most of you have reports due to CEA on Nov 1. Many self-study coordinators have expressed a need to have a refresher about submitting the self-study. To address that need for more sites, we are delivering this webinar to get a broader reach. And, of course, CEA staff are still available by phone or email on an individual needs basis if additional questions arise.


ACCREDITATION PROCESS

• Eligibility• Workshop participation• Self-study plan / Timeline

• Within 2 months

• Self-study report• Respond to 44 standards• Within 12-16 months

• Site visit (2 ½ days) by a review team that verifies claims in the self study and writes a report based on • visiting classes and facilities• interviewing faculty and staff• reviewing documents

• Review Team Report• Within 30 days• Site Visit Evaluation

• Response to Review Team Report• Within 30 days

• Commission review• 13 members• Public announcement

• Regular Reporting• Possible reporting requirements• Substantive change• Annual Report- each Feb.

• Re-accreditation• Interim report

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Kristen

If you attended the Accreditation Workshop, you saw this slide. It maps out the steps of the Accreditation Process. And all of you are [CLICK} here where you see the red arrow. You’ve already completed the previous steps, and your finalizing your self-study report and getting it ready to send to CEA.


RESOURCES

• Accreditation Handbook• Section 2: The Self-Study Report

• pp. 7-12 (Jan 2017 version)

• Self-study Template• Preparing the report p. iii• Submitting the report p. iv

• Mechanics for Submission

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Rachel

For this webinar, it’s helpful if you have your Accreditation Manual from the workshop available. To make this easier for you, we’ve prepared excerpts for you as handouts—and sent them via email. If you don’t have an Accreditation Manual at hand, you can download those from the email message. These handouts provide written support for everything we are going to say. And a recording of this webinar will be available so you can refresh your knowledge on demand.

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MECHANICS

• The self-study report is a (=one single) MS Word document. • Supporting documents may be in any format. • All documents in self-study report must be hyperlinked.• Documents must be stable (no cloud-stored documents).• No supporting documents may have the following

characters in their filenames: “ # % & * : < > ? \ / {}. • Remove/redact all PII (personally identifiable information).• Limit the number of nested folders and the length of

filenames. • Wait to add hyperlinks as the last step in building the report.

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Kristen

Let’s look at the document listing the mechanics and go over the mechanics for submitting the report now. [CLICK]

The self-study report is a (=one single) MS Word document. [CLICK]

Supporting documents may be in any format. [CLICK]

All documents in self-study report must be hyperlinked. [CLICK]

Documents must be stable (no cloud-stored documents). [CLICK]

No supporting documents may have the following characters in their filenames: “ # % & * : < > ? \ / {}. [CLICK]

Remove/redact all PII (personally identifiable information). [CLICK]

Limit the number of nested folders and the length of filenames. [CLICK]

Wait to add hyperlinks as the last step in building the report. [CLICK]

What you see on the slide is an excerpt of the Mechanics of Submission document, please review the entire document.

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SELF-STUDY TEMPLATE/REPORT

• CEA Template• Word document• Expandable• Prompts (aka Questions)

• You add responses to the prompts• Do not delete prompts• Use N/A for non-applicable

• First impressions• Full and accurate description of your program

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Rachel

Now let’s review the template itself and some requirements for managing it. CEA sends you a Word document file. [CLICK] We call this the template. The template has all the parts of the report already included. [CLICK] And it’s an expandable Word document, so as you add your responses, it gets longer. Here is a short video which demonstrates how a site would begin filling in the template.

Kristen – I see a question from an attendee. In the template, CEA provides the questions. When I put in my answers, does CEA want 1 line space? or my answers in italics? or what?

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• First impressions• Full and accurate description of your program

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Rachel

Sites fill in the responses like in this animated video. [CLICK] Over the years, we have seen a few sites really alter the template. Don’t do that! All of the parts and questions in the template must not be changed. If you do alter the template, such as deleting standards or any of the prompts, we will return your self-study report to you to be repaired, and this can cause a delay in the process…sometimes a significant delay.

If there are questions that you don’t plan to answer, or you know are not applicable, use N/A. And do not delete the prompt. Here are two examples. [CLICK] [CLICK]

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• First impressions• Snapshot of primary features (Accreditation Handbook, p. 9)

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Kristen

One piece of advice here: the reviewers who will analyze your self-study won’t know anything about your site. And Commissioners will also need a clear snapshot of your program or institution when they begin their decision-making review. Their first impression is formed when they read the program description section of the self-study report.

On page 9 of the Accreditation Handbook, the instructions for what to include in the Program Description: List the program(s) offered by the program or institution. For each, indicate the general instructional goal of the program (academic, professional, or personal development, etc.), primary instructional approach (skill-based, content-based, other), and any specific methodological approach. For each, indicate the number of levels, frequency and length of levels, and average number of students per term.

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BUILDING THE REPORT

Site’s Self-study Report Files USB Drive to submit to CEA

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Rachel

On the left is what your computer might look like now. You can see the C: drive, other drives, and so on. [CLICK] You can see what a sample site IN PROCESS might look like for their self-study report documentation. [CLICK] They have stored each of the documents separately by standard area and within that by individual standard. [CLICK] You can see the AFC folder and within that folder is a folder for each of the individual standards.

On the right you can see the USB the site is preparing to send to CEA. There is one document [CLICK] (the self-study report) and one folder [CLICK] for all the supporting documents. Inside the Supporting Documentation folder, the site will put all the files. Let’s be clear here – there is a big difference between files and folder. Files means documents, either word documents, excel spreadsheets, pdfs, or the like. The folders they used for themselves to stay organized won’t be sent to CEA. Do not copy “folders within folders”. I want to tell you one example of how one folder is efficient for reviewers and commissioners. The Faculty Handbook, or other handbooks, may be used as documentation for many standards areas, but the site will submit only one copy to CEA as evidence.

Talking about using a handbook, or other potentially long document, in many different standards leads us to our next topic: Hyperlinking. But first, let’s take

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another POLL: How comfortable are you with hyperlinking? (Likert scale: 5) I’m a pro. No worries. 4) I’ve done this before. 3) What’s a hyperlink? 4) The student worker will be doing that. [Close, Share, Hide POLL]

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HOW TO HYPERLINK

B. Verification

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1. Documentation in the report

CEA Mission on websiteStudent Handbook, p. 1

2. Verification on site

Rachel

Let’s create a hyperlink now. Word has support and instructions for creating hyperlinks if you need more help.

Now we are going to look at two basic kinds: 1) URL, or website hyperlink; and 2) hyperlinking an external file.

So Mission is the first standard, and evidence for the mission being available to stakeholders might include the mission on a website [CLICK] and something in a handbook [CLICK]. Let’s use CEA’s mission as an example. So in the B1 box, we have written something like “CEA Mission on website”, then we would follow the hyperlink instructions.

You may create hyperlinks by right clicking on text you’ve highlighted.

Or using the Insert tab on the command ribbon, we would click hyperlink. The icon in the instructions may be a bit small to read, so let’s enlarge that. [CLICK] Using that function prompts us to type in or copy & paste the URL in the Address field and select OK. [CLICK] Now we have our first hyperlink.

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HOW TO HYPERLINK

B. Verification

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1. Documentation in the report

CEA Mission on websiteStudent Handbook, p. 1

2. Verification on site

1. Select the text you want to display as a hyperlink.

2. On the Insert tab, click Hyperlink.

3. Under Link to, confirm that Existing File or Web Page is highlighted.

4. Address should indicate your USB drive, in the Supporting Documentation folder.

Student Handbook, p. 1

Rachel

Next let’s create a hyperlink to another, or external file. We select the text “Student Handbook, p. 1”. In a previous slide, we talked about how the handbook tends to be cited in many standards, and it will be hyperlinked throughout the report. In these long documents, it’s good to include the page numbers in the text of the hyperlink like you see in the example. [CLICK]

1. Select the text you want to display as a hyperlink.

2. On the Insert tab, click Hyperlink.

3. Under Link to, confirm that Existing File or Web Page is highlighted.

The steps to create the two types of hyperlink are very similar, but here are a few hints to look out for. Step 4, before you click OK. [CLICK] Note what the Address field says. It should indicate in your USB drive, AND in the Supporting Documentation folder. If, like it does here, the Look in says Technology Management, this means it’s creating hyperlinks to a different location—not the USB. Hyperlinks which are connected to your computer won’t work for anyone looking at the USB at another location.

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Now let’s talk about the Readiness Checklist.

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READINESS CHECKLIST

4 USB drives

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Rachel

You received this checklist with the template. On the next few slides, we’re parsing it out.

The first item on the checklist describes how you’ll send CEA 4 USB drives. [CLICK] You can see that I have one USB drive in right now. And it’s called Sample.

People often ask if you can mail all 4 USB drives together. And the answer is definitely yes. Some sites mail the USBs using USPS, FedEx, UPS. Whatever service you want to use – it’s up to you.

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READINESS CHECKLIST

2 labeled USB drives with the self-study report and evidence 2 labeled USB drives with AFC 11 & 12

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Kristen

The next two items are about labeling and backups. 2 of drives will have a copy of the self-study report and supporting documentation. 2 will have the responses to AFC 11 & 12.

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READINESS CHECKLIST

The evidence is in a single folder The name of evidence files match the name used in the report The hyperlinks in the self-study have been checked (off my site’s network)

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Rachel

Now I’m going to concentrate here on the self-study because we rarely see any problems with the AFC 11 & 12 responses.

Like we described earlier, the self-study report is one, single Word document with all parts of the report in that file. On the screen now, the self-study report is just named as the template. Kristen? What do you think the name of this file should be for sites?

All supporting documentation should be in one, single folder. When CEA opens the USB drive, only two items should be visible. Of course, when we click the Supporting Documents folder, there will be a plethora of evidence files there. Remember when we talked about hyperlinks earlier? The names of the files were in the B1 box. And that name should match the actual name of the file just in case something goes wrong with a hyperlink. If the hyperlink gets broken for some reason, the reviewer can still find the file by looking in the Supporting Documents folder and searching by name.

The last item on the checklist is confirming that you’ve made the hyperlinks

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correctly. Kristen always says, “Give your USB to someone who doesn’t work with you, off your site’s network, and ask them to test the hyperlinks.” This is an excellent way to ensure your hyperlinks work.

Let’s talk about some common errors CEA sees in regards to self-study report mechanics.

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COMMON ERRORS

•USB not labeled•Hyperlinks don’t work•Evidence files don’t have same name as in report

•“Folders within folders”•Evidence files and/or self-study report available via downloadable link (aka using cloud storage)

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Kristen

The USBs come in and they aren’t labeled. [CLICK] This creates a problem when 30 or so sites submit. CEA ends up with 120 USB drives at one time. Labeling just keeps everyone’s information going into the right channels.

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COMMON ERRORS



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Kristen

Every cycle, CEA sends at least one self-study back to the site to correct its hyperlinks because they don’t work. This can mean a delay which no one wants. Or CEA staff can charge your site to fix these hyperlinks, but no one wants this to happen.

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COMMON ERRORS



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Kristen

Sometimes if it’s just one or two hyperlinks that are malfunctioning, CEA staff just fix it IF THEY CAN IDENTIFY THE FILE in the Supporting Documents folder. But if the evidence files don’t match the names in the report, then the self-study might have to be sent back to you resulting in a delay.

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COMMON ERRORS



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Rachel

By now you’ve heard us say “Folders within folders” a few times. We thought it was worth just one more time showing an example of how it should NOT look. [CLICK] [CLICK] We want to avoid all of this and keep it simple. [CLICK] Use one folder for ALL supporting documents, like in this picture.

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COMMON ERRORS



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Kristen

Finally the last error we are going to talk about is often just a reflection of how people actually work. A lot of sites use some form of cloud storage or web-based collaboration. Just like the earlier example of how you might organize your files one way for yourself, but then change that for the ease of the reviewers. This is a little similar. You may use products like Dropbox, Box, Google Docs, or others. But the Department of Education requires accreditors like CEA to keep an archived copy of what is used in the accreditation review. That is why CEA prohibits sites from using or sending links to cloud storage in the self-study report. CEA is required to follow Dept of Ed procedures, and they don’t allow cloud-based files yet, but do allow website links.

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Commission on English Language Program Accreditation © 2017 for training purposes onlyCommission on English Language Program Accreditation Training © 2017

C E A S T AF F

HEIDI, MARY, JOY, SAMANTHA, KRISTEN, NICOLE, MASHA, RACHEL

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Rachel

All of the CEA staff thank you for participating in this webinar. Here’s another question for you Kristen. What does CEA staff do with the USBs when they are received?

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Commission on English Language Program Accreditation © 2017 for training purposes only 22

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Rachel

One of CEA’s values is promoting continuous improvement – it drives us every day – and to improve we seek your feedback. After this webinar, you’ll receive an email with a link like this one to evaluate the webinar using a surveymonkey tool. Please fill it out and submit it.

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CEA CONTACTS

Kristen [email protected]

Accreditation Process Manager

Rachel [email protected]

Accreditation Specialist

703-665-3400

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Rachel

Contact either of us - Kristen & Rachel – if you have any questions about the mechanics of submitting your self-study. Don’t let yourself turn into this chicken, we’re friendly folks.

Let’s take one last poll now. Question: How do I ask a question? Answers: Use the “Raise Hand” function in the control panel; Use the Questions/Chat function; I don’t know.

A quick note here: we have # in the webinar right now. To manage your questions, we’ll use the “raise hand” function so we can unmute you to ask questions. In the control panel [CLICK] , you can see the “raise hands” [CLICK] icon here. And we’ll also use the “questions” function to take any questions. [CLICK] Which you can see here.

We can take a few questions now. And if we don’t have time to answer it here, then send us an email or call CEA.

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