Curriculum and Instruction Governance Committee

Transcription

1 Tidewater Community College C & I Meeting 1 Date: Time: 2:00 Curriculum and Instruction Governance Committee Place: Norfolk Campus, Martin Building, Room 2502 Attendance: In Attendance: Maryann Bohr (Business), Jennifer Ferguson (Health Professions), James Holden (Biology), Diann Holt (ex officio, AVP District), Lynnell Hopkins (Classified Staff), Brittany Horn (Secretary, LRC), Helena Krohn (History), Constance Lawson (Counseling), Carolyn McLellan (Transfer Dean), Jane Mosher (Technology), Jim Perkinson (Career & Technology Dean, presenter), Diane Ryan (Languages & Speech), Lonnie Schaffer (AVP District, ex officio, presenter), Dania Sinibaldi (Chair, Mathematics), Michael Summers (ex officio), Phil Thompke (History) Guests: Brenda Sedlacek (presenter), Thomas Stout (presenter) Absent: April Campbell (English), Tom Hilton (Humanities), Clifton Marsh (Social Sciences), Sandra Dunn (Counselor), Calvin R. Scheidt (ex officio), Mike Williams (ex officio) I. Call to order: The meeting was called to order by Chair Dania Sinibaldi at 2:05 once quorum was reached. II. Minutes: The minutes of the December 4 th meeting were approved with changes. The September 18 th minutes will be distributed and discussed at the next meeting. III. Reports from Committees/Subcommittees A. Textbook Committee: Carolyn McLellan stated that the members reported back information gathered from their constituent groups, and the focus of concern is on students getting access to affordable textbooks than helping the bookstore profits. B. PAPC: The PAPC Bylaws were unanimously approved by the PAPC with plans to review them at the end of the year and again every two years thereafter. IV. Unfinished Business Motion to table unfinished business until after presentations of proposals was approved unanimously. A. Dr. Summers response to resolutions on online instruction: The following points were made during the discussion on each resolution:

2 Tidewater Community College C & I Meeting 2 1. The faculty member who is to teach an online or hybrid class for the first time will receive adequate training in the use of basic features of Bb before teaching the class. The current policy is for faculty who are approved to teach an online course or to teach a course that has been approved to be taught online to undergo a peer review process to demonstrate competence. TCC should develop a method for instructors to demonstrate competence to teach online. 2. The College will provide a mentor to advise the faculty member who is teaching an online or hybrid class for the first time. No action has been taken because of feasibility issues. Faculty currently get support in the use of Bb from Bill Harlow. The committee recommends the Online Instruction sub-committee develop a volunteer mentor program. 3. The College will afford the faculty member ample time before the beginning of a semester to ready an existing online or hybrid class for delivery. Issue has been adequately addressed. 4. The College will offer monetary and/or release time incentives to the faculty member to learn how to use the advanced features of Bb and undertake innovative teaching strategies. TCC already has programs (PPDF, CPDP) and grant opportunities laid out in the faculty section of the website. 5. The College will provide a mentor and/or instructional specialist to assist the faculty member on an individual basis on request in efforts to use the advanced features of Bb and undertake innovative teaching strategies. Ideally, each campus would employ an instructional technologist, but in the absence of such, in-house training will be provided. 6. The College will provide and maintain a secure, anonymous, and easily accessible digital evaluative instrument for the student to use in the evaluation of the content and quality of an online or hybrid class. An online evaluation program for all courses, online, hybrid, and traditional, will be institutionalized Spring The question of whether this committee should have had approval of the forms was discussed. 7. The faculty member will be readily available to assist students who are enrolled in an online or hybrid class. The faculty member will respond to and telephone inquiries within 48 hours except for weekends, holidays, college closings, and situations of professional and personal exigency. Guidelines will be forthcoming.

3 Tidewater Community College C & I Meeting 3 8. The faculty member will encourage the student to use the digital evaluative instrument provided and maintained by the College to evaluate the quality of the content and instruction of an online or hybrid class in accordance with College policy. Administration is aware of the issues related to evaluation, and the online evaluation tool has had support from faculty. 9. The faculty member will conduct an appropriate evaluation of student progress in final examination week and submit grades in a timely fashion in accordance with College and VCCS policy. Deans need to monitor faculty and address in a consistent manner actions that are not in line with policy. 10. The College must move aggressively and immediately to comply with VCCS policy requiring peer review of online classes. Procedures have already been established. 11. At least two proctored activities that assess the mastery of course content with firm student identification be required in all synchronistic online classes as College policy. In accordance with federal law, the College is documenting the verification practices for online courses. Although proctored activities are currently the most common at the national level, TCC is looking at other ways to verify student identity. 12. A broadly representative ad hoc committee for the academic year be formed by October 2008 to review and revise if deemed necessary any policies and procedures in regard to online classes established for that academic year. Any suggested revisions should be submitted for the consideration of the appropriate committees of the College Governance System and the President and Executive Staff. This resolution has been addressed. B. Dr. Summers will bring to the next meeting a formal proposal to split Curriculum and Instruction into two separate committees. If C&I approves the measure, it will go to the PAPC with the potential of being in effect in the next academic year. C. Bylaws: The committee discussed the working draft that merges the Governance Structure Document with the outline developed by the PAPC. No consensus was reached, but members expressed the following concerns: 1. Section I (Name) and II (Purpose): no change needed. 2. Section III (Membership): Diann and Lonnie will revise the list of academic core areas to ensure more representation of the outlying programs. Suggestions to allow

4 Tidewater Community College C & I Meeting 4 the non-teaching faculty to sit as Chair and to include more counselors (one from each campus) were made. 3. Section IV (Voting): Adopt the wording from the PAPC Bylaws. 4. Section V (Election of Officers): The committee will further discuss the issues of who is to vote for officers. 5. Section VII (Meetings): The reasons for maintaining a set meeting date and time are for the convenience of administrative personnel who attend multiple meetings and to ensure multiple governance committees do not meet at the same time. V. New Business A. Curriculum Proposals 1. New Career Studies Certificate and Course Revision Proposal: Construction Project Management Presenter: Brenda Sedlacek This program will help students with project management, blueprint reading, and other skills using courses already in the TCC catalog and some that are in the VCCS catalog. The department is also proposing the change to BLD117 Contract Documents and Construction Law from a 2 credit course to a variable 2-3 credits. Motion to accept the new program and course revision was unanimously approved. 2. New Course Proposal: Engineering Analysis Presenter: Brenda Sedlacek This new course is equivalent to a new course developed at ODU and will facilitate the transfer of AAS students into ODU s Computer Engineering Program. The committee liked the notes in the catalog recommending specific classes to students who plan to transfer into other programs. The presenters were advised to change the course description in the Official Course Outline from Covers topics... to Applies topics.... Diann will change the Justification section of the course revision request form to include more general, less personal, wording. Motion to approve the proposal with revisions was unanimously approved. 3. New Course Proposal: Cross Cultural Health & Wellness Practices This proposal was tabled until the next meeting when a presenter will be available. 4. New Career Studies Certificate: Mechatronics Presenters: Jim Perkinson and Thomas Stout This program will replace the Electromechanical Controls Program and will add the following courses: INS230 Instrumentation I, INS233 Process Control Integration, and ELE234 Programmable Logic Controller Systems I. All courses exist in the VCCS catalog, and faculty are already on staff.

5 Tidewater Community College C & I Meeting 5 Motion to accept proposed Mechatronics Career Studies Certificate and the discontinuation of the Electromechanical Controls Program unanimously approved. 5. Curriculum Change Proposal: AAS in Electromechanical Controls Technology Presenters: Jim Perkinson and Thomas Stout a. Replace Social Science Elective with INS230. b. Change Approved Technical Elective to be variable 3-4 credits. c. Change total number of credits to 65/66. The committee discussed the Health/Physical Education 2 credit requirement and whether it should be split on the curriculum chart. This is an issue that needs to be addressed in many other programs as well. Motion to address Health/PE issue as it relates to this program and any others at a future meeting did not carry with 4 votes for and 6 against. Motion to approve the proposal with no changes did not carry with 4 votes against and all others for. There is concern about the lowering standards for general education although the removal of a Social Science Elective has been approved for other programs. The committee takes each request to remove a general education requirement on a program-by-program basis and is setting no precedent. Further discussion ensued about the feasibility of the curriculum schedule and the prerequisites for electives. Motion to table the proposal until the next meeting did not carry with 1 vote against, 4 abstentions, and all others for. Jim withdrew the proposal to make changes and resubmit at the next meeting. B. Replacement for Social Sciences: Dania has put out a request to the Social Sciences Deans for a faculty member to replace Clifton Marsh on the committee. VI. Meeting adjourned at 5:00 PM. Next meeting: February 19, in Martin Bldg Submitted by Brittany Horn