Why institutions need data visualization & reporting tools to get academic accreditation with ease

As top colleges and universities continue to dominate the higher education industry with high quality programs, greater number of institutions are realizing the potential of getting their course accredited and adopt the continuous quality improvement process from admission to graduation. Not only can this help educational institutions a unique opportunity to provide quality programs and courses to students, but it also represents a tremendous opportunity for educators to drive enrolment and improve program ranking globally. 

What is accreditation?

Higher education courses and institutional accreditation is a quality assurance and improvement process in which the programs offered by the institution are critically evaluated by an external agency to verify that the programs meet the applicable standards. If the institute complies with the standards, accredited status for courses and the institute is granted by agencies after review. Higher education institutions are carrying out the quality assurance process for the academic programs to ensure that the academic aims and objectives of the institution are fulfilled.

Pain points in the accreditation process

The accreditation process relies heavily on inefficient, and manual methods. Moreover, the process is very complex, and the painstaking preparation of self-assessment reports, program-specific records, and submission of cumbersome documents to the agency is time-consuming and frustrating. 

How accreditation management solution can improve the quality of education 

Implementing the quality improvement process throughout the academic lifecycle and meeting the compliance standard is easy and quick with accreditation management software. Gathering data, creating various types of accreditation reports with data visualization and reporting tools, and implementing continuous quality improvement in teaching and learning can be accomplished with a cloud-based accreditation management system, which is accessible on desktops, smartphones and tablet devices. Once a college or university gets accreditation from the agency, it will make a huge impact on student enrolment and career opportunities.

Why top colleges & universities gravitate to an automated accreditation process?

Automated accreditation gives peace of mind in managing the compliance process, surveys, audits and assessments. The ease-of-use and simplicity of the accreditation management software is incredibly helpful to institutions. Here are the features colleges need to streamline the accreditation process:

• Configurable workflows
• Customizable dashboards
• Online reviews
• Online assessments 
• Curriculum mind mapping 
• Robust reporting
• Task management
• Scoring Tools & Gap analysis
• Rubrics calculation
• Assessment reports
• Document Management & Sharing
• Online accreditation forms
• Surveys & Questionnaire
• Tracking of standards
• Performance evaluation
• Scheduling meeting & training
• Bulk email notifications & SMS alerts

What are the benefits?

Education institutions must demonstrate evidence that they are meeting applicable external standards and drive continuous quality improvement. Accreditation management solutions can

• Automate repetitive tasks
• Easy to review applications for accreditation
• Easy to upload documents
• Better collaboration and information sharing between faculty and staff - within department, across campus 
• Total quality management
• Reduce costs and risks of compliance with continuous performance improvement 
• Powerful form builder to collect documentation online & manage information easily
• Customizable dashboards & flexible reporting tools
• Make accreditation renewals easy
• Improve communication with bulk email notifications
• Real-time status tracking of accreditation process
• Enhance the branding of the institution

Using Gap analysis, scoring tools, data visualization and reports enable institutions to complete the accreditation process in a timely manner and ensure that all outstanding issues were resolved.Outcome based education has become a central feature in the accreditation process. Opting to pursue outcome based accreditation is a monumental decision which requires minimal exertion of staff. Although the process may seem daunting, the result—a high-functioning college or university that is committed to total quality improvement of programs—is well worth the challenge.