Higher education data quality evaluations, synonymous with data audits, are becoming increasingly important to institutions aspiring to provide evidence of student learning and success to a variety of stakeholders. This evolution is spurred by increased accountability and realizations that decision-making requires insights gleaned through data, preferably collected over time, and triangulated across multiple methods. The audience for this publication includes program coordinators, department heads, data analysts, and institutional leadership across different institutional types and sizes. Individuals with varying levels of data expertise can also benefit from this guide as the information is designed for cross-functional teams and extends beyond an individual role.

A major goal of this guide is to provide resources and direction for how to facilitate data quality evaluations at the readers' respective campuses or organizations. Another, equally important, aim is for institutions to build capacity for data collection, communication of results, and associated best practices, including establishing key partnerships that will support current and future data-focused projects. Data sources and technology platforms may have increased substantially over time. However, the method by which campuses connect information, particularly student-level data, in consistent fashion is far less developed. This publication addresses some of the prevailing challenges in continuing to move the needle on data audit best practices. It also provides recommended activities to advance readers' understanding and application of successful data quality evaluation strategies.

The First-Year Seminar: Designing, Implementing, and Assessing Courses to Support Student Learning and Success, a five-volume series, is designed to assist educators who are interested in launching a first-year seminar or revamping an existing program. Each volume examines a different aspect of first-year seminar design or administration and offers suggestions for practice grounded in research on the seminar, the literature on teaching and learning, and campus-based examples. Because national survey research suggests that the seminar exists in a variety of forms on college campuses -- and that some campuses combine one or more of these forms to create a hybrid seminar -- the series offers a framework for decision making rather than a blueprint for course design.

The series includes:
Volume I: Designing and Administering the Course
Volume II: Instructor Training and Development
Volume III: Teaching in the First-Year Seminar
Volume IV: Using Peers in the Classroom
Volume V: Assessing the First-Year Seminar

Editors/Authors:
Volume I: Jennifer R. Keup & Joni Webb Petschauer
Volume II: James E. Groccia & Mary Stuart Hunter
Volume III: Brad Garner
Volume IV: Jennifer A. Latino & Michelle L. Ashcraft
Volume V: Daniel B. Friedman

Published in partnership with the Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education

First-year seminars and learning communities are two of the most commonly offered high-impact practices on U.S. campuses. The goals of these initiatives are similar: helping students make connections to faculty and other students, improving academic performance, and increasing persistence and graduation. As such, it is not surprising that many institutions choose to embed first-year seminars in learning communities.

This volume explores the merger of these two high-impact practices. In particular, it offers insight into how institutions connect them and the impact of those combined structures on student learning and success. In addition to chapters highlighting strategies for designing, teaching in, and assessing combined programs, case studies offer practical insights into the structures of these programs in a variety of campus settings.

Published in partnership with the Office of Student Engagement, University of South Carolina

For more than a decade, educators have focused on illustrating the effectiveness of educational interventions by measuring changes in grade point averages, retention, satisfaction, and participation. What such measures don't tell us is what students know or are able to do as a result of their educational experiences. Yet, this is the kind of data colleges and universities are increasingly asked to report by state legislatures, regional accrediting agencies, and a number of other stakeholders. Responding to this call requires new assessment vehicles that report success through the eyes of students using measurable learning outcomes for courses, programs of study, and cocurricular experiences. A Faculty and Staff Guide to Creating Learning Outcomes presents a framework for developing and assessing student learning outcomes in a brief, accessible format.