Toward Understanding Impacts of Virtual Visits on Accreditation Review Effectiveness, Quality, and Best Practices

Accreditation standards and criteria motivate much of the efforts to continuously improve public higher education institutions in the United States. A key mechanism in this accreditation process for many agencies is an onsite physical visitation of the institution and/or program by an accreditation visiting team. This visit can provide tangible information, observation, and characterization of the institution or program under review, which informs a final accreditation decision. Due to the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and the ensuing travel and physical distancing protocols, many accrediting agencies were required to hold traditional onsite visits virtually during the spring of 2020.Not only was this an ad hoc transition, but it was also made without full knowledge of the impact that the shift in evaluation mode would have on the effectiveness and quality of accreditation reviews against accreditation standards and criteria. Therefore, a critical need exists to evaluate the efficacy of the virtual mode of accreditation review. This study analyzed the impacts of virtual site visits on accreditation review effectiveness and quality. Using survey data collected from the Association of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering (ATMAE)’s Board of Accreditation, from visiting team members, and from institutional contacts involved in the 2020 accreditation visits, an assessment of the effectiveness and quality of accreditation reviews was performed. Qualitatively, strong themes were found in the data set revealing the impacts of the virtual modality on accreditation review effectiveness and quality; advantages, disadvantages, and opportunities to leverage the remote modality were also discovered and are highlighted. Quantitatively, the virtual modality was overwhelmingly reported to be effective for most accreditation standards, whereas impacts on quality were more negligible. The results of this study help characterize the impacts on accreditation amid the COVID-19 pandemic, provide a picture of lessons learned from the use of this modality, and begin to lay a preliminary foundation for best practices for future virtual accreditation site visits.