Where’s the O? Building Awareness for Quality Assurance
From OPS #3 Creating a Quality Assurance System
The “missing O” campaign in the United Kingdom embedded a crucial message in the community to bring attention to the dwindling supply of Type O blood in the nation’s blood banks. From graphics and encoded messaging like this city sign for Downing Street, citizens learned of a need in novel ways.
An entire environment can serve as the billboard for information that can drive change. That type of systemic thinking is behind AACTE’s Online Professional Seminar (OPS) #3: Creating a Quality Assurance System.
As Mark Lacelle-Peterson advises, “Every EPP has a quality assurance system, but it is not necessarily recognized. The work of committees, of data reviewers, of stakeholders at all levels contributes to what is essentially the quality assurance provision.”
When a program or college articulates the set of activities, a formal system can be claimed. Systems thinking can then drive continuous improvement, whole-system planning, and calendars for intersecting initiatives.
OPS #3 is one of six courses in the Quality Support Initiative, which in its first few months of operation has already served hundreds of educators looking for guidance on assessment and accreditation. The OPS short courses feature content and asynchronous discussions that can be accessed anytime during their 4-week spans.
The next session of OPS #3 starts next Monday, January 25—so we need to receive your registration by tomorrow. All of the seminars can be taken out of sequence and are open to everyone without prerequisite. The registration fee for AACTE members is $50 per course; nonmembers pay $125. EXCEPTIONS: OPS #1 and #2 are always free to everyone.
To learn more and to register, visit http://aacte.org/professional-development-and-events/quality-support-initiative.
Lillian Chenoweth, Ph.D., is a principal at HCB Digital, which collaborates with AACTE to offer Online Professional Seminars.
Tags: AACTE online resources, accreditation, assessment
