EduCred Services

Say "accreditation" or "self-study" out loud at your next faculty meeting, and you'll probably get sympathetic nods and some quiet "good luck with that"s.

Our newest team member, Kathy Doherty, Ed.D., has a different take: she genuinely loves a site visit and has earned the right to that opinion. Kathy brings more than two decades in higher ed, including serving as Dean of the School of Education at Notre Dame of Maryland University, Associate Provost at Goucher College, and seventeen years as an MSCHE accreditation examiner and appeals panel member.

In her first blog for us, Kathy makes the case that a self-study is one of the highest-value things an institution can do for itself, and leading one can be genuinely satisfying. She shares hard-won advice on building the right team, treating evidence like the air you breathe, and writing honestly about what's not working.

Give it a read, and help us welcome Kathy to EduCred Services. 👋
http://educredservices.com/blog/i-love-site-visits

Why I Love Chairing My Campus Self-Study (Yes, Really) — EduCred Services | Higher Education Consultants Leading an accreditation self-study? Our newest team member, Kathy, shares hard-won tips on building your team, gathering evidence, and writing honestly about your campus.

This Memorial Day, we're pausing to honor the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country.

From all of us at EduCred Services, we hope you have a meaningful, restful weekend with the people you love. ❤️🤍💙

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." – President John F. Kennedy

From our latest blog post:

"AI never gets a hand cramp, never complains about the heat, never misses a shift, never accidentally cuts itself and then has to wear a surgical glove that slowly fills up with blood over the course of a shift (IYKYK)...

Think about what actually makes a meal (or an academic program) memorable. It isn't the efficiency of the operation, though efficiency certainly helps. It’s the synergy of every component and decision purposefully designed to create a transformative experience for the person on the receiving end. The goal is human connection. A transfer of knowledge, passion, and insight. Of course we want knowledgeable, skilled workers who can find good-paying jobs, but we want those things 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 we value the people, and we want them to be able to live their lives with dignity and stability. If we never actually 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵 with those lives, what’s it all for? If you automate the vision and intention out of higher education, why be a part of higher ed at all?"

https://www.educredservices.com/blog/yes-chef

“Yes, Chef!” Putting AI in its Station in Higher Ed — EduCred Services | Higher Education Consultants Should AI write your strategic plan? Develop your curriculum? A higher ed consultant on why AI belongs at the prep station, not the chef de cuisine’s office.

It's Amy's birthday! 🎉

A few things you should know about Amy:

She's the Curriculum Queen 👑
She's brilliant!
She's a literal doctor!
She's a literature scholar who's read thousands of books.
She's generous with her expertise and unfailingly kind.
She's the calmest voice in every meeting.
She makes everyone around her better.

Happy birthday, Amy. EduCred Services is better because you're in it. 🎂

Happy May the 4th! ✨

Before most of us were higher ed nerds, we were regular nerds.

We might have longer and fancier titles now, but a lot of what we loved about Star Wars as kids is still important today. We want to live in a universe where a farm kid from Tatooine can change the galaxy. We believe in the power of mentorship, in standing up for what's right, and in the idea that where you start doesn't have to be where you finish. Rebellions and higher ed are both built on hope, after all. 🚀

So from all of us at EduCred Services, may the Fourth be with you, and may your work this week feel a little more epic than usual.

"Generative AI is, by its nature, a sameness machine. It works by predicting what should come next based on what's most statistically likely given billions of examples of similar content. That's genuinely useful for a lot of tasks, but it’s also exactly the wrong tool for any task where distinctiveness or strategy is the goal."

It's the best proofreader a girl could ask for. It's great for cleaning up clunky paragraphs, summarizing long policy documents, and drafting meeting notes.
But when every institution uses AI for its public-facing language, they all start to sound the same.

Use AI for the boring stuff. Trust a human with the questions about what makes your institution worth choosing (and with writing a blog worth reading 😜)

https://www.educredservices.com/blog/can-ai

Can AI Replace Your Higher Ed Consultant? A Post-Conference Reality Check — EduCred Services | Higher Education Consultants After we wrapped up at the DEAC Annual Conference, AI was the inescapable topic, and the question we kept hearing was whether AI could just do the work of strategic planning and accreditation consulting. It's a fair question, and the answer is more nuanced than you might think.

There is no shortage of strategic planning frameworks in higher ed.

The challenge isn’t finding them. It’s knowing how they actually work together in a way that leads to clear, usable priorities instead of a very impressive-looking document that sits untouched.

Emily’s session today focuses on exactly that.

Using a (slightly pirate-themed) case study, she’ll walk through how PESTLE, SWOT, and the 4Ps can be used together to surface meaningful insights and guide real decisions.

Because strategic planning shouldn’t feel like guesswork.

If you’re attending, we’d love to see you there.