Pierce College Program Review Department or Discipline: COUNSELING Date submitted: OCTOBER 29, 2009 Contact person: RUDY DOMPE Pierce College Program Review is intended to be a reflective process that builds on the extensive information gathered for the Annual Academic Program Plans and lays out the program s major directions for the future. I. Purpose of the Program Describe the need that is met by the program. For CATE programs only, show that the program does not represent an unnecessary duplication of other vocational or occupational training programs in the area. (Place your response in the expandable text box below.) The counseling department provides students with academic, career and personal counseling services. Academic advising is available to all students throughout the calendar year by either appointment or on a drop-in basis. Its purpose is to facilitate realistic self-assessment, and assist students with creating and implementing an action plan to reach educational goals. Career counseling is offered through Personal Development classes, individual counseling appointments and small group workshops. The purpose of career counseling is to assist students with choosing majors and career paths by assessing personality, interests, values and skills. Personal counseling is available on a short-term basis for students whose mental health challenges or personal situations are interfering with their daily functioning II. Progress Made Toward Past Departmental/Discipline Goals Summarize the progress the department/discipline has made toward achieving its goals during the past six years. Discuss briefly the quality, effectiveness, and strengths of the program as reflected in its Annual Academic Program Plans. Show the relationship between the program goals, the mission of the college, the district strategic plan, and the impact on student development. (Place your summary in the expandable text box below.) Pierce College Program Review Template, Approved September 2008
2 The counseling department has made great strides in achieving the counseling goals during the past three years. Many of these goals are inter-related and continue to be addressed on an ongoing basis. Goal #1: Increased student awareness of counseling services (College goal 2.1) The departmental website has been better utilized to help students develop successful strategies and access program information and requirements. A counselor has been appointed to maintain the website which ensures the information is current. Recent updates to the website include posting of advising sheets and the student success workshops. The increased traffic on the Counseling department website has allowed us to offer additional online services including online counseling and online orientation. The Career Center website was also instituted this year, allowing students access to a wealth of career exploration information and tools. Goal #2: Increased collaboration with campus departments (College goal 2.1; 2.7) The counseling department participates in ongoing efforts to increase campus awareness of services. Each academic department has been assigned a counseling liaison, and the department now publishes a bi-monthly newsletter sent to all faculty. In addition, counselors are available to conduct classroom presentations. This year, the Career Center is hosting a Majors Fair in collaboration with various academic departments and has been doing classroom presentations in the PD 40 classes. The department also presented a fall convocation workshop for faculty and continually invite Department chairs to present at our weekly meetings. Goal #3: Collaborate with student success initiatives on campus (College goal 2.2: 2.3) The need for additional Personal Development classes was clear so a new class, PD 20-The Scope of Career Planning- was created and approximately 20 sections of Personal Development classes are now offered. In addition, we have increased the number of Personal Development classes taught online. Counseling has also implemented additional workshops to assist students with the transfer planning process, major exploration, and time and stress management. These workshops have been received successfully by students. In addition, this year the Counseling department is offering probation workshops online which has been very successful. Counselors sit on the student success committee and have participated in convocation and student success events. Goal #4: Use Technology to offer enhanced counseling and advising services (College goal 2.1; 4.3) The counseling department has instituted online counseling and continues to expand online services. We now offer Probation workshops online (through Moodle) and offer Personal Development Classes online. In addition, we have
3 implemented esars which allows students to make appointments online and we continue to explore the use of social networking resources. Goal #5: Provide ongoing training and mentoring to counselors (College goal 1.12; 2.6) The counseling department has streamlined the mentoring and training of counseling interns by successfully creating and implementing a training manual for new interns. The Career Center has also started implementing the use of interns from accredited institutions to increase the level of service available to students. The counseling department meets monthly for in-service sessions on personal counseling and professional development and we continue to meet weekly as a department. In addition, the counselors have recently been given training in procedures such as Pass-Along petitions and prerequisite clearance. Goal #6: Develop and Assess Service Area Outcomes (SAOs) (College goal 1.8) Departmental service area outcomes were successfully developed and will be assessed during the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 academic years III. Trend Analyses/Outlook Using the information already gathered in the AAPPs (e.g., enrollment and outcomes data; student learning outcomes assessment and analysis; input by advisory boards; existing articulation agreements; labor market trends; and insights gained from conferences, journals, and discussions with colleagues), summarize the major trends, challenges, and opportunities that have emerged in the discipline since the last program review. As applicable, please address the breadth, depth, currency, and cohesiveness of the curriculum in relation to evolving employer needs and/or transfer requirements, as well as other important pedagogical or technology-related developments. (Place your summaries in the expandable text box below.) There have been many changes in Academic and Career counseling in recent years that have been and will continue to be addressed by our department. As we move forward, the key to success within our discipline will be our ability to do more with less, leverage our current resources, and utilize technology to enhance our service delivery. We find that the major trends can be grouped into three categories: Populations, Labor Market and Technology. As we examine each of these categories, we find that they each present their own challenges and opportunities. Populations:
4 The Pierce College student population is becoming increasing diverse in a variety of ways and will require counselors and staff to be flexible and knowledgeable when addressing each student s unique needs. Among the trends that we foresee are: 1) an increase in highly prepared students with high numbers of AP tests who have been shut out of the 4 year system, 2) Economic refuges who may be displaced by current economic conditions and includes career changers and those re-entering the workforce after many years, 3) Increased numbers of veterans who are taking advantage of the new GI bill, 4) Foreign-educated professionals who may have complicated foreign records and 5) Ex-convicts who have been given early release due to prison overcrowding. These populations present a variety of challenges to the Counseling faculty including the need to be more knowledgeable in a broader range of areas, and being able to deliver effective academic advice to those with more complicated histories. In addition, counselors will likely be expected to address short-term needs, both career and academic, and deal with more emotional and financial trauma on the part of the student. Labor Market: In regards to overall market conditions, there will be less stability and predictability within certain industries and a hybridizing of many existing job titles. While DOL research information will continue to be useful, increasingly, occupations will be harder to categorize and job descriptions harder to generalize. In addition, students will face increasing globalization, and further emphasis on both STEM careers and Green Technology careers. The biggest challenge for faculty will be the continuous training and professional development needed to keep current with all of the changes in labor market trends, and learning the educational requirements and career paths of emerging careers. Technology Emerging technology is not only relevant in regards to labor market trends, but also in regards to how the department can use technology to deliver services. There is an increasing trend towards more online delivery of services, including counseling, advisement, workshops and classes. In addition, schools and employers are increasing their use of social networking sites to reach students and market services. The college, and our department, will become increasingly dependent on technology, including the use of an electronic appointment system, online advising and the use of degree audit software. These trends in technology present multiple challenges including: 1) The need for continuous training of faculty to stay up to date with technology, 2) Adapting current models of service delivery to include on-line modalities while maintaining the same effectiveness and efficiency of current models, 3) The strain on our internal IT management team and 4) The dangers and pitfalls for students regarding the use of social networking websites.
5 Opportunities: The trends and challenges facing the Counseling may seem daunting but they also offer opportunities for faculty to develop professionally and for the department to enhance the effectiveness and range of services. Opportunities include the following: Ability to service more students effectively through targeted services and resources for specialized populations Counselors can expand their existing knowledge base and skill set through Professional Development opportunities which may include in house crosstraining and/or in-services given by counselors and academic faculty. Opportunity to engage more meaningfully with academic faculty. Department can utilize social networking websites to promote department services and events. Opportunity to formalize a departmental faculty member as our in-house IT guru. IV. Long-Term Department/Discipline Goals and Action Plans (Aligned With the College Educational Master Plan) Describe the long-term plans for changing or developing new courses and programs, other actions being taken to enhance student success, and the need for professional development activities and other resources to implement program goals. The long-term goals for the Counseling department include the continued achievement of ongoing goals including increasing student awareness (2.1), further collaboration with academic departments and campus services(2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.7), use of technology to increase access to counseling services and offer enhanced delivery options (2.1; 4.3), and providing ongoing training and mentoring to counselors and interns (1.12; 2.6). The objectives the Counseling department will undertake to meet this goals are: Create online Student Success workshops and add an additional online probation workshop for students who are on probation for 2 or more consecutive semesters. Enhance existing online services to offer all services online for our 100% distance education students and create and FAQ for utilizing online services Implement the use of e-sars to allow students to make appointments online Conduct classroom visits to inform students and faculty about counseling services and utilize social networking sites to communicate with students. Create a directory of local resource referrals for crisis counseling Ensure monthly contact with academic departments through counseling
liaisons to encourage information sharing and collaboration Continued participation of each counselor in at least one campus or district committee. Provide ongoing and training to new counselors and interns Create additional workshops to assist with student success and retention to be delivered both in-person and on-line Enhance existing career services through the utilization of online services and Career Center interns including career drop-in hours Creation of an Internship Corner in the Career Center and the creation and implementation of a summer Internship Success course Yearly offering of the Meet Your Major fair The creation of a Career Center Speakers Series Begin tracking data on use of Counseling services 6