Evidence Collection Process FAQs

HLC Evidence Collection covers a broader range of topics than in the Assessment Clearinghouse. Assessment is a big part of the evidence that we use to tell our story to accreditors, and the Assessment Clearinghouse is a substantial database of academic and non-academic measures, but there are lots of other sources of evidence, like market research, stakeholder feedback, impact studies, planning documents (strategic, capital and financial), and more.

The assessment and evaluation work that each department and educational program completes annually plays a big part in demonstrating that we offer a quality education. Iterative years of these assessments can also show how we operate when a change is needed – how we identify a problem, plan a solution, gather resources for that plan, implement the change and monitor the results of the planned improvement.

The HLC Evidence Committees (also called Institutional Accreditation Committees) oversee the processes of identifying, collecting, and evaluating the evidence (data, information, policies, etc.) that we use to tell our story. The university is large, and we need representatives from across the university to help in the work. These committees are collecting the evidence and background information that we need in order to tell OHIO’s story to the peer reviewers and the public. Just like a research article, these evidence pieces are pulled together to demonstrate our thesis: that we are in compliance with federal regulations and accreditor expectations.

The first year of these committees (2022-23) has been quite a learning process, both for the committee members and for the departments, offices and colleges that were asked to submit evidence. That’s because we were collecting several years’ worth of evidence for different processes, data and policies. In future years, we will only need to collect a particular set of updated data plus evidence related to new strategies or processes. 

There are three reasons we don’t use websites. 1) The HLC system will not allow websites, except for very specific things (e.g., faculty handbook and course offerings).  2) Website content or even web addresses may change between the time of evidence collection and the time of HLC’s review. What seems like great clear evidence now could be gone by Spring 2025. Instead, we need to have a snapshot of how you present the information now.  3) Websites can be very long and complex, and reviewers don’t want to scroll all day. If we have a pdf of the website, we can highlight the relevant part and make the reviewer’s job easier.

The process will get easier in future years due to familiarity and because the evidence collection process will be refined. It’s always a little rough when you first begin in earnest.

Departments and offices can do a few things to make it easier to tell the story of Ohio University, how we provide a great education, and how we constantly work to improve:

• In minutes or documents, include the rationale for a decision that you are making. It’s helpful to include who was involved in a decision, what data or information was considered and what was decided.
• When new information comes out (survey data, enrollment or employment trends, student success metrics like retention and graduation rates, etc.), share it across your department/unit and discuss and document relevant findings.
• Use any existing annual reports to record your decisions AND to review progress on what you decided to implement the prior year.

We advise to remove student names when possible from any document submitted for evidence review. As evidence committee members and employees of Ohio University, we are obligated to follow FERPA guidelines on public vs. confidential student information. During the initial review of the evidence done internally by employees only, we can see documents with student names as it falls into the FERPA exception of school officials with a legitimate educational interest. Student names and other student identifiers will be removed from the evidence that we upload and share with HLC.