Tool URL: https://www.pueblocc.edu/IR/ToolKit/

Institution URL: https://www.pueblocc.edu/

Use the link to the PCC IR Tool kit and Choose the "Strategy Sorting Tool"

Pueblo Community College is an open access 2-year public institution with three campuses located in Pueblo, Canon City, and Mancos, Colorado.

The sorting tool was developed to take the input of the President’s Cabinet to prioritize the top eight out of thirty-three strategies in the strategic plan that would have the greatest effect on Retention, Completion, FTE, and Transfer. Originally, the Sorting Tool was introduced during a training on the use of Business Intelligence and Predictive Analytics.

• Efficiently prioritize strategies (inputs) to achieve desired goals (outputs) in a repeatable process using group input.
• Adoption College wide for all prioritizing needs.
• Used for curriculum design for an English course that applies to CTE Students.

The Sorting Tool is designed to efficiently prioritize strategies (inputs) to achieve desired goals (outputs) in a repeatable and efficient process. A group of individuals can through a number of different ways prioritize a list of strategies. The challenge becomes how this group or an institution completes this task consistently and efficiently when time is at a premium. The Sorting Tool makes the task of prioritization efficient and repeatable while involving multiple stakeholders. Two different approaches can be taken to complete the sorting tool. Group consensus can be achieved through having each individual in the group member complete the ratings on their own and then take the mode of the ratings to enter as the group rating or have a consensus vote of the rating while the group is present.

Directions for use are located on the spread sheet combined with drop down rating features to force the ratings into the log scale to force sorting and grouping of the strategies.

The tool is customizable to allow any number of strategies (inputs) to be sorted to best meet the goals (outputs) by an individual or group of stakeholders.

• Prioritization of inputs to desired outputs can be determined using group opinion in a matter of minutes.
• The process of prioritization using the sorting tool is applicable to any situation that requires determining the top inputs that will affect the desired outputs.

The achieved outcomes from the development and the use of the sorting tool were was the prioritization of the top eight strategies in the strategic plan that would have the greatest effect on Retention, Completion, FTE and Transfer. In addition, the institution now has a tool that can be used for endless applications involving prioritization.

The sorting tool has been applied campus wide in more than eight different areas in the institution and was embedded into the new leaders program. A modified version of the tool has been used by the Curriculum Committee to develop content for new courses based on the wishes of other departments.

• It is important to explain to the participants that not everything receives a rating of nine. That does not mean that the strategy is not important it just does not have that great of effect on the desired outcome.
• Do not dwell on the ratings. Read the strategy, determine effectiveness, and issue a rating.
• The tool has improved effectiveness with increasing numbers of participants, as the grouping effect becomes more pronounced.

RESOURCES NEEDED

None

COSTS

No Cost – (Excel Worksheet)

Continue use of the sorting tool throughout the institution and embed it into trainings concerning Business Intelligence and Predictive Analytics.

NA

Kevin Milder 
Director of Institutional Research 
Pueblo Community College 
900 West Orman Avenue 
Pueblo, Colorado 81004 
Phone: 719-549-3195 
kevin.milder@pueblocc.edu

Kevin Milder 
Director of Institutional Research 
Pueblo Community College 
900 West Orman Avenue 
Pueblo, Colorado 81004 
Phone: 719-549-3195 
kevin.milder@pueblocc.edu