increasing academic quality and productivity - Huron Consulting ...

INCREASING ACADEMIC
QUALITY AND PRODUCTIVITY
1-866-229-8700 | huronconsultinggroup.com
GLOBAL EDUCATION
INSIGHTS
A Huron Education Series
Global Education Insights features highlights of conversations between Huron and leading experts from the
Global Education Insights podcast series. To hear the full conversation, visit www.huronconsultinggroup.com/fohe.
WILLIAM MASSY
Dr. Massy is owner and
founder of the Jackson
Hole Higher Education
Group, Inc. He is an
emeritus professor of
higher education at
Stanford University, where
he founded the Stanford
Institute for Higher
Education Research. From
1996 to 2002 Dr. Massy
directed the National
Center for Postsecondary
Improvement’s project on
educational quality and
productivity. He is the
author or co-author of
several books, including
Honoring the Trust: Quality
and Cost Containment
in Higher Education
(2003), and Remaking
the American University:
Market-Smart and
Mission-Centered (2005).
William Massy, former vice provost for research and
emeritus professor of higher education at Stanford
University, sat down with Edwin Eisendrath, managing
director, Huron Education, to talk about improving the
academic quality of colleges and universities around
the world through the use of technology and creative
approaches to management. Dr. Massy is an expert in
faculty productivity, student learning and instructional
design and support. What new techniques in improving
the quality of teaching and increasing academic
productivity can traditional research universities adopt?
While the marketplace of online learning
technologies is noisy, the technology
available to universities continues to get
better and more affordable
The course redesign process has shown that adopting
certain innovations can reduce costs without sacrificing
quality – such as putting some aspects of courses
online. Used well, technology improves the quality of
learning, and makes courses more efficient. Integrating
technology strategically – for example, placing some
learning components online for students to master on
their own or with a lower cost teaching resource before
entering seminar discussions with faculty – allows
faculty to perform at their highest and best use.
While the feasibility of such an approach has been
demonstrated, and some of the great traditional research
institutions have achieved economies of scale they
haven’t before, few institutions are using it.
Traditional research universities can learn from
developments in the for-profit higher education
sector, in particular as it relates to cost
effectiveness and effective utilization of faculty
Some for-profit institutions invest significant upfront
resources to create new courses – USD 1 million is not
out of the ordinary as a budget for some of the larger
institutions, such as the University of Phoenix. Worldclass
faculty develop courses, and institutions then learn
to replicate the class over many geographic locations
and for many types of students at a low marginal cost.
To teach courses, these universities employ adjuncts
who undergo more rigorous training than in traditional
institutions to make sure that students achieve learning
objectives. Data analysis measuring student learning
ensures that the classes are working as intended. Many
traditional institutions could learn from this approach
allowing for greater specialization among the traditional
faculty roles of research, instructional design, teaching
and assessment.
The stereotype of the “sage on the stage” is
primed to be shattered with advancements
in the management of academic quality and
methods of evaluating academic productivity
“Management of academic productivity is an oxymoron,
according to many,” said Dr. Massy. However, research
shows that course designers can benefit from
conducting academic audits in which they spend time
thinking about fundamental measures of quality such as
the objectives of the curriculum and mapping content.
By subsequently tying those ideas to the methods of
teaching and assessing the performance of students,
institutions can improve performance and quality.
This holds true especially if the process becomes a
continuous improvement cycle. The typical result is
that the curriculum is much more connected to what
students are learning, and administrators can find the
gaps in learning. Although some faculty members may
initially express skepticism about this process, most are
pleased with the results it can yield. This approach does
not require huge investments of time, and the rewards

2
INCREASING ACADEMIC QUALITY AND PRODUCTIVITY
for both faculty and students are significant. Information that
already resides in university systems can also assist in tracking
productivity by assembling it into databases to monitor ongoing
activities in departments.
Does your university innovate as well as it could to enhance
student experience, improve faculty productivity, and ensure
operational efficiency? To continue the discussion, contact:
Edwin Eisendrath
eeisendrath@huronconsultinggroup.com
P: (312) 880-0414
James DeVaney
jdevaney@huronconsultinggroup.com
P: (202) 585-6817
1-866-229-8700 | huronconsultinggroup.com
© 2012 Huron Consulting Group Inc. All Rights Reserved.