Quality Matters and Continuous Academic Innovation

Radford University piloted an innovative retention program for high-achieving incoming freshman students during the Summer of 2014. Dubbed “Accelerate" the program moved from concept to launch, including the creation of a new semester and five compressed schedule courses, in less than 30 weeks.  This was largely possible due to a systematic program design and improvement process that utilized QM throughout. This session details how QM was utilized to stand up an innovative retention program for high-achieving freshman students, including how QM was used to generate planning, development, process, and product feedback from program concept to implementation.  Session participants will experience concrete ideas for relating the QM course improvement model to systematic academic innovation at their institutions.