Initial audit task: The auditors start audit tasks with a line of verification. Before the auditors arrive at a campus, the TEAC staff and the auditors will have created a set of initial audit tasks that focus on the parts of the Brief that are relevant for one or another of the TEAC principles and standards. They are called initial tasks because the auditors may also employ follow-up tasks and new tasks that they have created on the spot or that they draw from the large set of potential audit tasks the TEAC staff has created.

Inquiry Brief: An analogue to a research report or monograph, the Inquiry Brief includes the claims a faculty makes for its graduates, a rationale for the assessment of those claims, a description of the psychometric properties of the evidence that is presented to support the claims, the findings related to the claims, and a discussion of what has been learned from the data. In addition, the Inquiry Brief reports on the faculty’s efforts to evaluate the rigor of its own quality control system.

Inquiry Brief Proposal: A program faculty that does not yet have convincing evidence for its claims of student learning but has evidence of its capacity of its program for quality may submit an Inquiry Brief Proposal. The program must, however, have evidence of a sound quality control system, evidence that the institution is committed to the program, and a plan and rationale for acquiring evidence over time to support its claims that it will meet the requirements of the TEAC system.

Inquiry committees: For the purpose of their participation in the governance and activities of TEAC, the members of the program faculty, or faculties, are encouraged to form inquiry committees, composed of representatives of all groups that play a role in the programs.

Institutional learning: One of TEAC’s quality principles, institutional learning suggests that every program has in place a quality control system that responds to data about the program, from student outcomes to faculty competence. According to this principle, it is not enough for faculty to collect data about all aspects of the program; the program faculty must also learn something about its program as a result of this process and demonstrate learning by making appropriate accommodations.

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