Continuos Improvement

Continuous Improvement

Overview

Market forces place increased pressure on organisations to improve their products and services. To remain competitive in this environment, organisations must continually seek ways to improve all aspects of their business - including workplace relationships, processes, products and services. While the focus on achieving quality products and services is not new, it has shifted from being reactive (inspect and fix) to proactive (plan to get it right the first time).

This practical program will equip frontline managers with the vital skills to ensure the quality and continuous improvement process is team-centred and team-driven.

Continuous Improvement is designed for:

• all managers working at the frontline of an organisation

o from supervisors and team leaders

o through to business unit and divisional managers.

Content

• continuous improvement systems and their benefits

• performance levels and benchmarking

• management responsibilities in continuous improvement - managing systems, team development, customers, suppliers, statutory and regulatory requirements

• responsibility and authority for internal communications

• barriers to effective internal communication

• documentation and records control for a quality management system

• maintaining quality improvement systems and processes through team participation

• widening the ownership of continuous improvement

• improvement activities - corrective and preventative

• predicting problems which may impede the quality process

• enhancing organisational performance through continuous improvement processes

• action plan for organisational assessment.

Learning outcomes

• implement continuous improvement systems and processes

• monitor, adjust and report performance

• consolidate opportunities for further improvement.

Units of competency

• BSBMGT403A Implement continuous improvement

• BSBMGT516A Facilitate continuous improvement

Duration

1 day

Register

For fees and onling bookings, please choose the delivery location (clicking on the links below will take you to the corresponding AIM Divisional website):

• Adelaide

• Brisbane

• Canberra

• Melbourne

• Perth

• Sydney

Continuous Improvement System

Walden is dedicated to creating and sustaining a “culture of evidence” in which data about achievements in student learning and the experiences that support student learning are continuously collected, analyzed, and shared for the purpose of continuous program improvement. As part of that commitment, the university was one of the early participants in The Higher Learning Commission’s Academy for Assessment of Student Learning. Responsibility for assessment of student learning experiences is shared by faculty from each program, the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment, and the University Assessment Council representing each school and college, as well as key support services.

Assessment for continuous improvement at Walden takes place through four systems designed to provide faculty and administrators with multiple insights and perspectives on the student experience. These systems include:

Learning Outcomes Report (LORbook)

The Learning Outcomes Report (LORbook) has been issued since 2004 as a continuing document summarizing the outcomes assessment plans of each program within the university. Each year, college and school administrators on the University Assessment Council work with the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment to produce the report, which specifies program learning outcomes and their alignment with the program, assessments for each outcome, available data from direct and indirect assessments, and recommendations made and actions taken as a result of the previous LORbook. The LORbook is distributed to Curriculum and Academic Policy committees throughout the university to make recommendations to school and college leadership for improving student learning in each program. The LORbook is published twice per year. The report for doctoral and educational specialist programs is published annually in the winter term. The report for master’s and bachelor’s programs is published annually in the summer term.

Academic Program Review

Each degree program is expected to participate in an academic program review every five years. Academic program review is a comprehensive process designed to ensure that its programs adhere to university values of quality, integrity, and student-centeredness and are accountable to academic and professional constituencies. Walden’s current academic program review process is aligned with standards set forth by the Council on Graduate Schools in 2005. In this yearlong process, a program review committee made up of academic administrators, faculty members, and operational partners completes a comprehensive self-study on the program’s organization, mission, curricula, faculty, students, and support services. A panel of faculty members from other higher education institutions then reviews the self-study, visits with the review committee at the academic headquarters in Minneapolis, and issues recommendations for program improvement. The program review committee uses the self-study and external faculty feedback to create a final plan with recommendations for program improvements that align with the budget cycle. These recommendations are then followed up after one year to check their status and determine whether additional support is needed.

Course Evaluations

Course evaluations are administered by the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment to students at the end of each online course. The evaluations solicit information from students on instruction performance, course design and content, student learning and application of course materials, and student support services. Information from individual course evaluations is made immediately available to individual faculty members and program administrators and allows for ongoing improvement of instruction and course content. Data from these evaluations is then compiled and reported on a quarterly basis for the programs and the university. These reports supplement other sources of data used by school and college leadership in planning for improvements to support student learning.

University Surveys

Each year, Walden conducts student, alumni, graduate, and faculty satisfaction surveys. These surveys ask about all facets of the student experience, including instruction, course design, online tools,

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