From:                              Rodriguez, Gil

Sent:                               Thursday, March 05, 2009 11:23 AM

To:                                   Adkins, Theodora; Alexander, Ken; Arenivar, Olga; Biles, Lori; Cabral, Scott; Casy Cann; Davi, Estelle; DeStefano, Jill; Dorritie, Frank; Fisher, Dorrie; Goff, Christina; Gottlieb, Phil; Henderson, Silvester; Hiltbrand, Joellen; Hsieh, Durwynne; Jorgensen, Diane; Martin, Kirsten; McGill, Chris; McGrath, Cindy; McKnight, Don; Moore, A'kilah; Perfumo, Pam; Price, Len; Ramirez, Daniel; Richards, Virginia; Sample, Alex; Speer, Denise; Whitman, Nancy; Wilson, Debbie; Zimny, David

Cc:                                   Garcia, Peter; Henry, Dan; Livingston, Richard; Kamath, Kiran; Rodriguez, Gil; Norris, Michael; Ybarra, Nancy

Subject:                          Department Chair Meeting Notes

 

Department Chairs,

 

Here are the notes from the March 3, 2009 department chair meeting:

 

 

Guests: Peter Garcia, Dan Henry, Michael Norris, Nancy Ybarra

 

Status of course outlines:

 

          Total Active Courses: 726

          Courses with SLOs : 227

          Courses w/o SLOs : 499

 

Pete’s message:

 

How can we deal with the need to update so many course outlines? Although this is primarily a faculty responsibility, we seem to have failed institutionally. We are offering coaching, assistance and compensation for part-timers. The goal is to be at the proficiency level with SLOs by 2012. A “show cause” rating would be devastating for LMC. Senate supported the faculty FT position but UF disagreed with the use of a faculty position for TLP coordinator. A short-term solution will be to appoint a team, including a manager, to run TLP. By October 2009 we need to show significant progress with the identification of course SLOs and have a plan to complete and assess them.

 

There were about 18 faculty at last Friday’s Camp Course Outline.

 

Here are some ideas brainstormed for increasing the number of COORs with SLOs:

 

  1. Increase the offerings of Camp Course Outline to every two weeks.
  2. Put the number of revised COORs on the website as a “count down”.
  3. Provide departments with a plan, including deadlines.
  4. Professional development – TLP Coordinator role
  5. Use exemplary COORs posted on the assessment website
  6. SLOs and assessment are ongoing, there is a never-ending cycle
  7. We need to “buckle down” and get this done.
  8. CurricUnet will help. Training will be offered this Fall. Link CurricUnet to web advisor.
  9. Clerical support will be available.
  10.  A FT faculty member should be responsible for at least two COORs per year.
  11. COORs are now a conduit for assessment: SLOs – Assessment – Rewrite.
  12. Our COORs are complex but we can’t undo them – we have mounted our own challenge!
  13. Writing the new COOR will help with teaching: “After writing the COOR, it has clarified how I should teach the course”.
  14. Better for students to learn; more depth rather than breadth.
  15. It may take about 8-9 hours to write a COOR, fewer for subsequent outlines.
  16. We will entertain using substitutes for faculty to attend Camp Course Outline.
  17. Offer Camp Course Outline on another day, too.
  18. Choose your CSLOs carefully – you will need to assess them.
  19. Two RAP proposals were submitted to help with writing COORs.

 

“Show cause” is not an option for LMC. We can try reasonable incentives like those above. Two areas of leverage are not offering nonessential courses and not allowing AC for those with too many out-of-date COORs. We will concentrate on providing carrots, not using sticks.

 

  

Gil Rodriguez

Dean, Liberal Arts and Sciences

Los Medanos College