Fitchburg State University and Mount Wachusett Community College in Massachusetts

Transcription

1 COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION Quality Collaborative Grant Proposal Cover Page Project Title: Mount Wachusett Community College and Fitchburg State University Quality Collaborative Dyad Applicants: Fitchburg State University Mount Wachusett Community College Project Contacts: Christopher Cratsley, Ph.D. Fitchburg State University 160 Pearl Street Fitchburg, MA (978) Ruth C. Slotnick, Ph.D. Mount Wachusett Community College 444 Green Street Gardner, MA (978) Request Amount: $80,000 Submitted to: Dr. Patricia Crosson Senior Advisor for Academic Policy Massachusetts Department of Higher Education (617) February 7, 2012

2 SECTION I BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FSU AND MWCC DYAD Fitchburg State University and Mount Wachusett Community College have a strong history of partnerships to support teaching and learning in north central Massachusetts. These partnerships include efforts to serve K-12 teachers and students in the region through the Central Massachusetts Readiness Center along with Teaching American History and STEM pipeline grants, to provide access to higher education through the Institute Program and transfer from Mount Wachusett C.C. to Fitchburg State, and most recently a partnership to assess student writing through the Advancing Massachusetts Culture of Assessment (AMCOA) Assessment Experiment The Central Massachusetts Partnership to Assess Written Communication. Through these partnerships these two higher education institutions have established working relationships between administrators and faculty that allow them to form a strong leadership team. Policy, assessment, and faculty leaders from each campus are committed to forming this dyad and welcome the opportunity to represent their campuses and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as part of the AAC&U Quality Collaboratives project. Campus Teams Campus Team and Policy Leaders: Dr. Stanley Bucholc, Dean of Student and Academic Life, Fitchburg State University Dr. Melissa Fama, VP of Academic Affairs, Mount Wachusett Community College Campus Assessment Leaders: Dr. Christopher Cratsley, Director of Assessment, Fitchburg State University Dr. Ruth Slotnick, Director of Assessment, Mount Wachusett Community College Campus Faculty Leaders Dr. Joseph Moser, Assistant Professor of English, Chair LA&S Council, Fitchburg State University Susan Taylor, Professor of Computer Information Systems and Chair Outcomes Committee, Mount Wachusett Community College SECTION II SIGNIFICANCE FOR THE CAMPUS AND THE QUALITY COLLABORATIVES PROJECT Fitchburg State University and Mount Wachusett Community College, as regional partners in higher education for north central Massachusetts, have established a series of Mass Transfer Partnerships in fields including some of the largest programs at Fitchburg State such as Business, Communications, and Exercise Science. However, in spite of a strong history of working together, barriers to seamless transfer persist for some of the larger programs including Early Childhood Education and Elementary Education. A critical step to removing these barriers is to work with faculty to identify common courses, course outcomes, and assessments across the two institutions, educate additional faculty and advisors about these shared outcomes and assessments, and put in place policies that use these shared course outcomes and assessments as a rationale for accepting transfer credit. The AAC&U s Quality Collaboratives project, with its focus on utilizing the Lumina Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP), provides a vehicle to effect changes in course outcomes assessment, faculty professional development and transfer policies through its three strands: Page 2 of 6

3 Assessment, Faculty Leadership, and Policy. Faculty leaders in assessment at Fitchburg State University and Mount Wachusett Community College have already engaged with the AAC&U s LEAP Essential Learning Outcomes and developed assessment in 4 shared areas related to communication, quantitative reasoning, research and analysis, and civic engagement. These outcomes all have parallels within 3 of the 5 areas of learning outlined in the Degree Qualifications Profile: Intellectual Skills (including communication and quantitative fluency), and Civic Engagement (Table 1). Future directions of this work would extend to opening the dialogue on using assessment data to support competency-based transfer between our two institutions for such programs as Early Childhood and Elementary Education. Table 1: Alignment Comparison: General Education Competencies, LEAP, and Lumina DQP Mount Wachusett C.C. Fitchburg State LEAP LUMINA DQP Written and Oral Communication Written and Oral Communication Written and Oral Communication Quantitative Reasoning and Scientific Modes of Inquiry Problem Solving through Quantitative Literacy Quantitative Analysis Information Literacy Problem Solving through Inquiry and Data Analysis Inquiry and Analysis Applied learning Understanding Self Citizenship through Critical Analysis of Events and Civic Knowledge and Engagement Civic Engagement Mount Wachusett C.C. and Fitchburg State propose to use existing Mass Transfer Partnerships to identify general education courses in which the shared outcomes of Mount Wachusett C.C., Fitchburg State, LEAP, and the DQP can be effectively assessed. These assessments will be conducted by faculty and will inform faculty discussions and workshops on outcomes for successful transfer students, as well as policies for structuring programs of study at both the community colleges and state university level to insure appropriate credit transfer. Shared course expectations in General Education curricula, completed within the Mass Transfer partnership programs, including requirements for two semesters of coursework focused on English Composition, required courses in Mathematics and Lab Science, and courses in Health and Fitness, History and will provide an opportunity to analyze similar artifacts of student work (Table 2). All of these types of courses, with the exception of the Health and Fitness requirement, are also required components of the Mass Transfer Block. Therefore, this work will not only insure smooth transition for students within the designated Mass Transfer programs at Mount Wachusett C.C. and Fitchburg State but also supports all students seeking to fulfill the core General Education requirements for transfer to any state university. Furthermore, through this process, Mount Wachusett C.C. and Fitchburg State will create a model for assessing DQP areas, promoting faculty leadership, and implementing policies for course development and transfer that alongside the other Quality Collaboratives will demonstrate potential uses of the DQP for 2-year and 4-year curriculum articulation. Page 3 of 6

4 Table 2: The Mass Transfer Partnership common courses of study between Mount Wachusett and Fitchburg State general education core that assess Lumina DQP areas PROGRAM AREA Business Administration (BA) Communications (LAC) Fitness Leadership and Exercise Science (LAX) History and Political Science (LAHP) Liberal Arts (LA) Liberal Studies (LAS) DEGREE A.S. to B.S. A.S. to B.S. A.A. to B.A. A.A. to B.A. A.A. to B.A. GENERAL EDUCATION COURSES I Lab science elective and I Lab science elective and I Lab sciences specified History course I Lab Science Elective History classes are specified I or Statistics Lab Science Elective LUMINA DQP Civic Engagement Civic Engagement SECTION III ANTICIPATED APPROACH This partnerships effort will touch on each of the three strands of the AAC&U Quality Collaboratives Project. 1. Assessment Strand Mount Wachusett C.C. and Fitchburg State will refine existing assessment tools and strategies to track and demonstrate student competence on DQP outcomes in their two semester Writing/English Composition courses,, Lab Science courses, Health and Fitness courses, History courses and. 2. Faculty Leadership Strand Mount Wachusett C.C. and Fitchburg State will foster DQP faculty leadership by engaging these professionals with the effort to foster, align and assess learning outcomes related to Communication Fluency,,, and Civic Engagement and develop faculty seminars on promoting and assessing these learning outcomes as part of their professional development days, summer institutes, and new faculty orientations. Page 4 of 6

5 3. Policy Strand Mount Wachusett C.C. and Fitchburg State will develop a model policy for incorporating evidence of students' demonstrated learning outcomes in the process of curriculum development and for setting transfer policy and priorities. This policy will include a shared framework for presenting and sharing data about DQP learning outcomes, incorporating these outcomes in course development and approval, and identifying courses for transfer from two year to four year institutions. SECTION IV PROJECT DESIGN The Mount Wachusett C.C. and Fitchburg State Quality Collaborative dyad will build on the work of The Central Massachusetts Partnership to Assess Written Communication AMCOA Assessment Experiment being carried out by Fitchburg State and Mount Wachusett C.C. in collaboration with Worcester State University and Quinsigamond Community College. Fitchburg State and Mount Wachusett C.C. will each assemble teams of 3 faculty leaders in Communication Literacy and the three other areas: Quantitative Literacy,, and Civic Engagement. As in the AMCOA Assessment Experiment, these faculty members will meet to analyze and align the different rubrics used by each institution with LEAP and DQP learning outcomes. In addition to monthly meetings of these DQP area working groups under the supervision of the campus faculty leaders, all 24 (12 from each institution) faculty members involved in the project will meet at the beginning and end of each semester with the campus leadership teams to report out to the group as a whole. Over the 2 years of the grant, faculty with the support of the campus assessment leaders at each institution will collect student artifacts from one of the specified classes each semester, for each DQP area. Student work will be loaded into the Tk20 assessment system at Fitchburg State, and each piece of student work will be independently assessed by two faculty members from each institution with each of the institutional rubrics. Assessment data will be analyzed for inter-rater reliability and consistency in ratings across the sets of institutional rubrics. Finally, a regression analysis of student communication fluency, quantitative fluency, applied learning, and civic engagement ratings will be conducted to explore the relative contribution of enrollment in 2 year or 4-year institution, prior academic preparation, and demographic variables in determining student success. Based on the findings, individual working groups will make recommendations about refining the assessment process including the rubrics and selection of courses. Additionally, the group as a whole will make recommendations to the leadership teams about developing a model policy for incorporating assessment processes and data into curriculum development and transfer policies. From year one to year two, membership on the working groups will be rotated through the faculty. New faculty will be recruited through workshops or presentations on faculty development days and trained as part of a summer institute using a train-the-trainers model. The final products, developed under the supervision of the campus team and policy leaders, will be a common, web-based framework for reporting the assessment data; online resources and requirements for General Education course development and approval with a focus on DQP learning outcomes; and ongoing workshops and seminars to support faculty and staff in fostering and assessing these learning outcomes. Page 5 of 6

6 PROPOSED TIMELINE March June 2012 July August 2012 September October 2012 November December 2012 January February 2013 March May 2013 May June 2013 July August 2013 September 2013 June 2014 Attend AAC&U Quality Collaboratives meeting, convene campus leadership team, and recruit faculty working groups. Plan initial summer institute to recruit and train faculty on assessment and the Degree Qualifications Profile. Faculty working groups analyze rubrics and align them with the Degree Qualifications Profile areas. Faculty working groups collect artifacts of student work for each DQP area. Faculty working groups assess student work from the preceding semester and report their findings. Faculty working groups collect artifacts of student work for each DQP area. Faculty working groups assess and report on student work for each DQP area. Plan and run summer institute to recruit and train faculty on DQP assessment. Repeat process of collecting and assessing student work in each semester and develop final assessment reports, online resources, and transfer policies. Page 6 of 6