Institutional Effectiveness Plan: Developmental Studies

Mission:

The mission of the Developmental Studies program is to provide academic preparedness for students in our two-year programs as well as those planning to transfer to four-year schools through appropriate diagnostic assessment and innovative instruction using emerging teaching technologies and pedagogies in developmental courses.

2009-2010 Assessment Outcomes & Use of Results

College Goal: Develop and implement instructional programs and services, both traditional and distance learning offerings, that are consistent with the assessed needs of the constituent groups in the College’s service area and with state and national standards, including training and retraining of the workforce.

Division Goal: Provide credit and non-credit programming to enhance economic development of the service area.

Program Goal: Improve students’ comprehension and critical thinking skills through reading contemporary novels.

Objectives: Provide students the opportunity to read a contemporary novel to prepare them for the literary components in ENG 111 and to prepare them to interpret articles used in other AA/AS courses.

Action Plan: Investigate novel offerings. Develop a pool of novels to choose from. Choose a novel and use it each semester. Test the students after completing the novel to determine their comprehension and critical thinking skills. Developmental reading instructors will compare findings.

Assessment Strategy: Minutes of meetings Novel list Novel tests

Assessment Outcomes: The Associate Dean met with the developmental reading instructors individually. A list of possible novels was created for future use.

Use of Results: Teaching supplements were purchased for use with these novels. The new novels will be implemented in 2010 Fall semester.

College Goal: Develop and implement instructional programs and services, both traditional and distance learning offerings, that are consistent with the assessed needs of the constituent groups in the College’s service area and with state and national standards, including training and retraining of the workforce.

Division Goal: Provide credit and non-credit programming to enhance economic development of the service area.

Program Goal: Provide students in MAT 060 seated sections with instruction in the use of spreadsheets to create charts and graphs.

Objectives: Students will demonstrate the ability to create various charts and graphs utilizing spreadsheets given a set of raw data.

Action Plan: Integrate the use of spreadsheets into the instruction of graphs and charts in the Statistics portion of MAT 060.

Assessment Strategy: Students will complete a homework assignment demonstrating their ability to create various charts and graphs utilizing spreadsheet software.

Assessment Outcomes: Students successfully demonstrated the ability to create multiple charts and graphs in a lab environment.

Use of Results: The use of spreadsheets will be integrated into the instruction of graphs and charts in the Statistics portion of MAT 060 in future semesters to further student understanding.

College Goal: Provide an environment that supports employing and retaining a quality faculty and staff and promotes enhanced student learning, achievement, and development.

Division Goal: Provide access to and guidance in professional development opportunities to strengthen instructional delivery and to prepare for accreditation initiatives.

Program Goal: Enhance instructional faculty performance through the appropriate professional development opportunities

Objectives: Provide opportunities for Developmental Studies instructors to gain new teaching methodologies and participate in workshops geared toward their instructional area.

Action Plan: The Associate Dean will request a budget for professional development for the academic year. Each instructor is to attend a workshop/conference or take a course that is in his or her instructional area. Submit the appropriate travel forms Coordinate with the Dean of Education Technology for technology training for faculty members of the Developmental Studies department

Assessment Strategy: Department budget Professional development log for all AA/AS faculty members Departmental travel forms

Assessment Outcomes: The budget constraints did not allow for instructors to travel to off-campus professional development activities unless the instructors paid for the activities out their own pockets. There were several professional development sessions provided by the Dean of Educational Technology during the fall break.

Use of Results: The budget will determine the possibility for participation in off-campus professional development activities during the next academic year. Otherwise, the associate dean will continue to request the Director of Distance Learning/Faculty Professional Development for technology training for the department in the upcoming academic year.

Institutional Effectiveness Plan
2010-2011

College Goal: Provide an environment that supports employing and retaining a quality faculty and staff and promotes enhanced student learning, achievement, and development.

Division Goal: Provide access to and guidance in professional development opportunities to strengthen instructional delivery and to prepare for accreditation initiatives.

Program Goal: Enhance instructional faculty performance through the appropriate professional development opportunities

Objectives: The Associate Dean of Arts & Sciences and developmental studies instructors will engage in professional development

Action Plan: Due to the anticipated state budget restrictions, the associate dean and each instructor will attend the general faculty meetings in Fall 2010 and Spring 2011. The associate dean will forward any professional development opportunities that become available that are cost-free (those that are sponsored by publishers, etc and possibly provide a stipend for registration or those that can be done over the internet). Coordinate with the Director of Distance Learning/Faculty Professional Development for technology training for faculty members of the AA/AS department

Person(s) Responsible: Associate Dean and faculty

Anticipated Date for Achieving Objective: March 2011

Assessment Strategy: Emails Professional development log for all AA/AS faculty members

Budget Needs to Accomplish Objective: none

Assessment Outcomes: Will be completed in March 2011

Use of Results: Will be completed in March 2011

College Goal: Develop and implement instructional programs and services, both traditional and distance learning offerings, that are consistent with the assessed needs of the constituent groups in the College’s service area and with state and national standards, including training and retraining of the workforce.

Division Goal: Provide credit and non-credit programming to enhance economic development of the service area.

Program Goal: Utilize manipulatives to instruct students in the multiplication and factoring of polynomials.

Objectives: Students will demonstrate the ability to multiply and factor polynomials utilizing manipulatives.

Action Plan: Integrate into course instruction the use of manipulatives.

Person(s) Responsible: Associate Dean/Program Head of Developmental Studies; Developmental Studies faculty

Anticipated Date for Achieving Objective: March 2011

Assessment Strategy: Students will complete various in-class activities demonstrating the ability to utilize manipulatives to multiply and factor polynomials.

Budget Needs to Accomplish Objective: Department

Assessment Outcomes: Will be completed in March 2011

Use of Results: Will be completed in March 2011

College Goal: Provide facilities for student learning that capitalize on state-of-the-art instructional applications.

Division Goal: Provide facilities, staffing, and services that support educational program delivery.

Program Goal: Increase the percentage of Developmental Studies faculty participation in supplemented courses on the Blackboard to 100%.

Objectives: Each permanent faculty member will have at least one supplemented Blackboard course in both fall and spring semesters.

Action Plan: Email the department with proposal. Complete the “Distance Learning Request Form” Post all possible handouts, grades, and necessary announcements onto the Blackboard course sites

Person(s) Responsible: Associate Dean, Distance Learning staff, department faculty

Anticipated Date for Achieving Objective: March 2011

Assessment Strategy: Emails Distance Learning Request Forms Review the courses on the Blackboard Review the course list issued from Distance Learning Survey faculty to determine the practicality of the supplemented courses.

Budget Needs to Accomplish Objective: Departmental

Assessment Outcomes: Will be completed in March 2011

Use of Results: Will be completed in March 2011

College Goal: Develop and implement instructional programs and services, both traditional and distance learning offerings, that are consistent with the assessed needs of the constituent groups in the College’s service area and with state and national standards, including training and retraining of the workforce.

Division Goal: Provide credit and non-credit programming to enhance economic development of the service area.

Program Goal: Improve RED 090 students’ comprehension and critical thinking skills necessary for ENG 111 by creating a portfolio based on a contemporary novel.

Objectives: Provide students the opportunity to improve their reading and by reading a contemporary novel and preparing a portfolio on that novel.

Action Plan: Plan will be implemented by RED 090 instructors. Choose a novel. Provide portfolio instruction Develop a rubric for assessing the portfolio. Provide students with any necessary supplemental handouts. Reading instructors will compare findings.

Person(s) Responsible: Associate Dean/Program Head of Developmental Studies and Developmental Reading instructors.

Anticipated Date for Achieving Objective: March 2011

Assessment Strategy: Portfolio

Budget Needs to Accomplish Objective: Department

Assessment Outcomes: Will be completed in March 2011

Use of Results: Will be completed in March 2011

College Goal: Provide facilities for student learning that capitalize on state-of-the-art instructional applications.

Division Goal: Provide facilities, staffing, and services that support educational program delivery.

Department/Program Goal: For Spring 2011, Expand course scheduling for ENG, MAT, and RED developmental courses and improve FTE.

Objectives: Present a different schedule format for ENG, MAT, and RED courses that would provide a learning environment that would allow for more FTE to be earned by the developmental courses

Action Plan: Meet with developmental instructors and discuss possible times Confer with other associate deans and discuss the impact of schedule changes on other programs. Make schedule changes for Spring 2011. Meet at mid-term and evaluate the changes.

Person(s) Responsible: Associate Dean/Program Head of Developmental Studies and Developmental Math and Reading instructors.

Anticipated Date for Achieving Objective: March 2011

Assessment Strategy: Notes from meetings, FTE

Budget Needs to Accomplish Objective: Department budget

Assessment Outcomes: Will be completed in May 2011

Use of Results: Will be completed in May 2011