How do you innovate on innovation? Western Governors University is private, non-profit, online, and 100% competency-based. The directors of the College of Business over mentoring and program development will share their experiences developing strategies to bridge the unique silos from our organizational structure in an effort to continuously improve.
How do you innovate on innovation? Western Governors University is a unique institution. We are private, non-profit, online and 100% competency-based. Started in 1997, WGU was created to expand access and reduce cost for adult learners. As such, WGU is extremely mission-driven and strives to be the most student-centric university in the world. “The principal mission of Western Governors University is to improve quality and expand access to post-secondary educational opportunities by providing a means for individuals to learn independent of time or place and to earn competency-based degrees and other credentials that are credible to both academic institutions and employers.” This mission has resonated with adults across the nation. We have had a 21% compound 5-yr annual growth in enrollment and a 41% compound 5-yr annual growth in graduates. As of Dec 31, 2016 WGU enrollment was 76,722 students, with 75,010 graduates. With this rapid growth has come great success for our students. WGU consistently rates higher than average in a wide range of areas, from student experience, graduate outcomes, and cost on surveys from Gallup, Harris, and the National Survey of Student Engagement.
WGU’s competency-based model also includes an organizational structure with a disaggregated faculty role. WGU has four colleges: College of Health Professions, College of Information Technology, Teacher’s College, and College of Business. We are student-obsessed. We are data-driven and follow a continuous improvement model. This is culture of student-obsessed, continuous improvement means that we will always be looking for new innovations to move the dial on our students experiences and outcomes as far as we can. Better than average, can always be even better. Our problem then is how do you continue to advance the student learning experience and outcomes?
The College of Business is the largest college in the university. WGU’s structure is primarily organized by the disaggregated faculty role, with three major departments; Mentoring, Evaluation, and Program Development. Within each of these departments are faculty dedicated to teaching, grading, and curriculum/assessment for each of the four colleges. Therefore, the role structure is primary and can create unnecessary silos. The directors of the College of Business over mentoring and program development will share the experiences of the College of Business in developing strategies to bridge the unique silos from our organizational structure in an effort to continuously improve. We worked to bridge this gap by building cross-institutional program teams.
In this session we will discuss in detail how we did this and the multitude of considerations related to change that we had to manage, such as; culture, maintaining disaggregated roles, innovating on our approach without impacting the good already occurring, rethinking our strategic plans, and communication plans. We will also share the early results of our efforts. To date they have led to positive outcomes in all of our College of Business programs across our metrics of course completion, student on time progress, term-to-term retention and drop rates. Student satisfaction increased and our faculty also report higher levels of satisfaction. This session will be interactive to encourage engagement and transfer of learning. During each portion, participants will have time to consider and discuss their unique setting in relation to the presentation and ask questions. We will conclude the presentation with additional time for questions and discussion on change management.