Notes from the TSI Administrative Team Meeting, March 11, 2015
Nisa Bakkalbasi and Zsuzsa Koltay, the TSI Assessment Leads, joined Kate, Jim, Xin, and Bob for a continuation of the discussion begun on Feb. 17th.
We reviewed the goals of TSI, as we recently updated them for the 2nd year project report to Mellon (see below), to determine how best to assess TSI at the conclusion of the grant period: for Mellon and for ouselves. We also talked about the role we envision for JSMIN.
Regarding the revised Goal 1 for Mellon, we identified three kinds of questions we should answer for each of the bullet points, keeping in mind the four drivers (quality, productivity, improvement, and innvoation): (1) whether we completed or did not complete the task, (2) whether we generated savings or cost avoidance, and (3) what is the value of having completed, or at least worked on the task, for 2CUL. In addition to any empirical data we're able to collect, we also considered the idea of interviews with leads for each of the tasks, possibly in conjunction with "journals." Although we will need to flesh out these last ideas further, we could conceivably use the "TSI Goals for 2015" to-do list in Basecamp to address the journal-keeping aspect of this kind of assessment, especially if we keep the three-part assessment strategy in mind. This would also allow us to evaluate both the goals we've made explicit for Mellon and those we're interested in exploring for ourselves. Kate and Jim will solicit some input from JSMIN in the group's next meeting on 3/12.
Regarding the revised Goal 2 for Mellon, we will reissue the TSI staff survey, adjusting its context and wording somewhat to reflect the shift from integration to initiative. We do want to to stick as closely as possible to the perceptions and attitudes we aimed to measure in the initial survey. We also talked about scheduling the survey as close to the end of the project as possible, or even just after the project is complete.
Nisa and Zsuzsa will review these ideas and get back to us.