• Releases
  • Releases
  • View
  • Search
  • List
• Articles
• Calendar
• 

The Self Study process is one that will challenge institutions as they go through and evaluate their outdoor leadership development programs from within.  The challenge will be to look closely at each aspect of their program; enhance the things they do well, add in things that may be missing, and ultimately make their program better at what it does - training outdoor leaders.  

 

The Self Study is an internal action that results in a document outlining the 'hows' of a particular institution's outdoor leadership training program  This includes how the training program set in place meets the requirements set forth by the WEA Accreditation Council for providing Outdoor Leader Certification and approving Instructor status in the International Registry of Outdoor Leaders.  The Self Study allows the institution to present its curriculum, assessment and evaluation to the WEA Accreditation Council in the format that makes the most sense for that institution.   

 

The WEA Accreditation Council and Self Study review teams are a decentralized all volunteer group.  The WEA recognized that the decentralized nature of the council and teams could make it difficult to distribute self study materials and collect feedback and reviews.  Examining the portfolio program used to implement and maintain the International Registry of Outdoor Leaders, the WEA recognized the potential of online portfolios to be effective at the institutional level as well.  The WEA teamed up again with the staff at Foliotek and have designed an online Self Study submission and review process.  The end product is essentially an Institutional Portfolio that provides a simple framework for submitting the Self Study, but still offers flexibility and freedom for the institution seeking accreditation to present that information in a way that works for them.  With internal rubrics attached to the online portfolio, the review teams will be able to view supporting documents and evaluate them with comments and feedback all within the same portfolio system.  

 

This was an exciting project both for the WEA and the staff at Foliotek as the idea of an institutional portfolio with a review process went from an idea to functional product in a matter of months.  All institutions seeking accreditation with the WEA will be given an institutional portfolio for submitting self study materials.