Volume 91 - Winter 2005	Download

Assessing Program Directors' Attitudes Towards Use of Electronic Self-Studies by Maria E. Delost, MS, MT(ASCP), CLS(NCA) Histology Educator on CLSPRC

Recently, NAACLS assisted me by hosting a survey which had been developed as part of a student project at Youngstown State University. We were conducting a study related to assessing the attitudes of program directors towards electronic Self-Study Reports.

A total of 533 program directors of NAACLS accredited programs were surveyed with 127 individuals returning the survey, a response rate of 23.8%. There were respondents from CLT/MLT, CLS/MT, DMS, CA, HT, Pathologists' Assistant and Phlebotomy programs. Many of the respondents were from institutions with multiple programs.

Respondents represented a variety of different types of institutions and institutional settings (as seen in the chart below), and the majority (94.5%) of the respondents were program directors.

Just over two-thirds (68.5%) of the respondents agreed that they would favor an electronic (non-paper) submission of the entire Self-Study Report. Twenty-six percent disagreed. A few (5.5%) had no opinion. There was less consensus on "the current process for submitting the Self-Study Report in paper form and making other required materials available to the site visitors is acceptable and does not need to be changed:"
 

Also mixed and with more disagreement than agreement was the response to, "An electronic submission of accreditation materials would present an overwhelming task and require more time to produce than the current paper version:"
 

Response Toward Increased Difficulty
Response Number Percent
Disagree 735 7.5%
No Opinion 16 12.6%
Agree 38 29.9%

There was major agreement that, while programs have the computer and technical resources to produce an electronic Self-Study Report, scanning documents and making PDF versions of those documents would be problematic (77.2% agree). A strong majority (75%) favored electronic submission of curriculum to site visitors prior to the site visit. Seventy percent thought the Self-Study Report should reference, but not reprint, items available on the program's web site. Eighty-seven percent of the respondents favored the option of submitting either an electronic or paper self-study.

Finally, respondents were asked to identify advantages and disadvantages to submission of an electronic Self-Study Report. Advantages listed included: a) reduced use of paper; b) greater efficiency; c) decreased mailing costs, and d) the similarity to electronic methods required by other accreditors. Disadvantages included: a) the cost of volunteers printing these documents for review; b) the time and technology required to produce the documents; c) issues of electronic security and formatting, and d) the need for technical assistance.

The CLSPRC, at its Winter 2006 meeting, discussed results of this survey, and has forwarded it to the NAACLS Board for review and consideration. NAACLS committees and the Board of Directors have a commitment to examine ways to simplify the accreditation and approval processes and to respond to requests for change. It is hoped that data such as obtained from this survey will contribute to a careful planning process.

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			Assessing Program Directors' Attitudes Towards Use of Electronic Self-Studies by Maria E. Delost, MS, MT(ASCP), CLS(NCA) Histology Educator on CLSPRC
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