DRAFT Report for Criterion 4
Criterion Four: Acquisition, Discovery, and Application of Knowledge. The organization promotes a life of learning for its faculty, administration, staff, and students by fostering and supporting inquiry, creativity, practice, and social responsibility in ways consistent with its mission.
The Mission Statement of Tulsa Community College is isomorphic with Criterion Four. According to TCC’s mission statement:
The Tulsa Community College betters its community through the intellectual achievement, creative energy, and responsible citizenship of its students, faculty, and staff by their engaging in teaching, learning, and service opportunities . . . .
The activity of “inquiry” from Criterion Four is modified by TCC’s Mission as “intellectual achievement” that is obtained through “teaching, learning, and service opportunities.” Inquiry as the acquisition of primary knowledge through research, while conducted in various settings, is not the primary focus of TCC. Rather, inquiry as learning is the primary focus. The emphasis on learning can be found in TCC’s Vision statement, Priorities statement, and statement of Core Values.
A group of twenty-six persons representing administrators, faculty, and classified staff volunteered to assess criterion four. Two initial meetings were held to initiate the discussion (First Meeting of Criterion Four Sub-committee, Session 1, October 25, 2006, Session 2, November 2, 2006). In the first meeting, six participants explored what it means for TCC to acquire, discover, and apply knowledge. Participants voiced that, with this criterion, we should focus on what we learn rather than on how we learn, on learning by administrators that improves our systems, on discovering connections with the world and with each other, on becoming renaissance people, and on life-ling learning. In the second meeting, sixteen participants decided to break into committees to address the four core components. We agreed that each of our groups would (1) decide what it means for TCC to demonstrate that it has adequately attained the core component, (2) collect evidence to test if TCC has adequately attained the core component, (3) evaluate the evidence to determine if TCC has adequately attained the core component and to identify challenges and opportunities to improve attaining the core component, and (4) compose a report providing an account of the above by June 1, 2007. The core component reports were completed by October 2007.
Core component 4a. The organization demonstrates, through the actions of its board, administrators, students, faculty, and staff, that it values a life of learning. (The Higher Learning Commission, Institutional Accreditation: An Overview)
Before addressing this core component, the committee looked for evidence that the college addressed recommendations from the prior self study related to this core component. We found the following:
From Chapter Three (Criterion Two), p. 81, Recommendation 3:
The college should establish faculty development centers on every campus to encourage the continued use of technology in the teaching-learning process.
Finding: Blackburn (Blackburn innovation rooms.doc) reported that innovation rooms containing state of the art computer hardware and software as well as video equipment were built on all four campuses. At least Metro campus and West campus had technical support personal readily available to assist faculty to use the equipment. Because of a lack of use, the rooms at Metro, Southeast, and Northeast campuses were dismantled. Faculty indicated that one room on campus was too inconvenient to use. Over time, the most capabilities in the innovation rooms became incorporated in the computers of faculty members. To learn how to use new equipment and software now, most campuses have technical staff available for demonstrations in the faculty member’s office. The center has been retained at the West campus because resources were available to update the hardware and software. The new building to be built at Metro is to have an innovation center.
From Chapter Four (Criterion Three), p. 92, Recommendation 4:
The college must increase its efforts to better evaluate adjunct faculty and provide them with the opportunity to participate in additional effective teaching/learning seminars.
Finding: The Directors of Academic and Campus Services (George Black PS for HLC-1.doc) report that part-time faculty members are expected to complete two clock hours of professional development each semester that teach. In addition to offerings through Continuing Education (SPOD) and the Eight Floor, Academic and Campus Services offer orientations to TCC’s Technology Tools and maintain a license for on-line instructional modules called 4-Faculty. Finally, part-time faculty may participate in activities outside TCC and have them counted with the appropriate documentation.
From Chapter Four (Criterion Three), p. 132, Recommendation 3:
The college must continue to support staff development efforts that address these alternative course and program delivery methods.
Finding: Brown (Brown distance learning training.doc) reports that TCC certifies full-time and part-time faculty as online instructors and course developers through a training process. The Online Instructor Certification consists of fifteen hours of online training covering a variety of Quality Matters standards. In addition, periodic Blackboard Day mini conferences as well as Blackboard update seminars are held.
From Chapter Five (Criterion Four), p. 173, Recommendation 1:
The Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness Committee should address staff development needs in the area of assessment and make recommendations for education of faculty and administrators in this area.
Finding: Hughes (Hughes goal assessment training.doc) reports that, beginning in the spring of 2000, the faculty on the General Education Committee rewrote the General Education Goals, developed an assessment strategy, and conducted a training workshop for all full-time faculty members in the assessment of the first General Education Goal (Critical Thinking) at the Back-to-School convocation in Fall 2000. This general pattern for all General Education Goals and for discipline goals was repeated for full-time faculty and part-time faculty over the following semesters. Faculty mentors were made available to part-time faculty members. The Office of Institutional Research created forms and, eventually, online templates to record assessment results. Associate Deans and other administrators provided reminders and support for assessment. The results of General Education Goal and discipline goal assessment were included in the annual program and budget process. Over time, faculty involvement in the assessment process declined. By Fall 2006, the assessment of General Education Goals was suspended as the General Education Committee began to assess and revise the system. That process is currently on going.
Core Component 4a assessment: How does one decide if an organization demonstrates that it values a life of learning through the actions of the its various elements? Minimally, the institution needs to reflect that it values a life of learning in its documents, and it needs to provide minimal systematic opportunities for a life of learning.
If one examines the Priorities section of the TCC Vision Statement provides initial evidence that the actions of the organization value a life of learning. Here, the college outlines how it encourages a life of learning by articulating and assessing the general education goals of critical thinking, effective communication, engaged learning, and technological proficiency as well as articulating and assessing discipline and program goals. The document identifies service learning, intercultural-global learning, developmental education, honors program, tutoring services, multiple curriculum delivery systems and scheduling, extra-curricular learning activities, and continuing education as programmatic elements that enhance life of learning. Since most of the elements of a life of learning for students will be addressed under criterion three, the group simply noted that documents and listed programs indicate that the organization values a life of learning for students.
The Priorities section of the TCC Vision Statement encourages a life of learning for administrators, faculty, and staff through professional development. Specifically:
TCC will design and implement a comprehensive professional development program that will provide faculty and staff with opportunities to acquire and/or enhance the various skills needed to excel in a multifaceted learning environment; TCC will nurture a culture of shared vision, collaborative decision-making, and concerted action.
The document identifies the Academy for Teaching Excellence, Sabbatical Leave, Leadership Development Academy, SPOD (Staff, Professional, and Organizational Development), Academic/Professional Conference Participation, and Research as programmatic elements that enhance the life of learning of administrators, faculty, and staff.
Minimally, the organization claims a concern for a life of learning for its students, faculty, administration, and staff.
To explore the systematic opportunities for a life of learning created by the college, a committee composed of four faculty members and one classified staff volunteers was created to assess core component 4a. One of the faculty members had been an administrator for eight years prior to joining the faculty. The committee began by brainstorming areas in which the college could demonstrate positive accomplishments in its commitment to a life of learning and areas where the college might faced challenges in its commitment to a life of learning. Areas identified as positive accomplishments included SPICE classes, reading groups, Faculty Innovation Grants, courses that reinforce community events such as Chautauqua, resources for conference participation, resources in the Learning Resources Center, free tuition for students over the age of 65, and field trips and extra-curricular activities for students. Areas initially identified as challenges for improvement with respect to a life of learning included tuition reimbursement and flex time for faculty and staff to pursue further formal education, a streamlined and expanded sabbatical process, reassigned time for course development and mentoring adjunct faculty, incentives for faculty to participate in community activities as presenters or performers, a policy to address property rights issues for online classes, a reduction of the teaching load to four sections, child care and health services to encourage students to graduate, and course development of on-line courses by faculty.
At the next meeting, the committee reviewed and identified which constituency (board, administration, faculty, staff, and students) was affected to the area. Then, areas were selected for more careful examination to determine their affect on a life of learning. Specifically, the committee decided to examine board policies related to academic freedom, the college’s efforts to use common textbooks, the college’s efforts to adopt master courses for on-line instruction, reading groups, the college’s sabbatical policy, community events, the Faculty Innovation Grant program, the use of resources for conferences, tuition reimbursement, the Learning Resources Center, the SPOD program, and other programs open to classified staff. Additionally, the Academy for Teaching Excellence and the Leadership Development Academy were reviewed.
FINDINGS:
There is clear evidence that the top level of leadership and the Board of Regents of the college value a life of learning. In an interview with the HLC Self-Study Steering Committee Co-chairs, Dr. Tom McKeon, President and CEO of the college, indicated that professional staff development, clearly a part of a life of learning, was one of his top priorities. In his former positions and in his present position, he provided leadership to develop the Academy for Teaching Excellence, the Leadership Development Academy, the 8th Floor, and the SPOD (Staff, Professional, and Organizational Development) program. Moreover, he provided the leadership to equalize funds for conferences and travel across academic divisions and to develop the sabbatical program. The newly adopted Compensation/Variable Pay Policy and Faculty Rank and Promotion Policy (Interview with Pat Fischer; various Practices, Policies, and Procedures Handbooks, 2007-2008) include several incentives for those who continue their educations, attend conferences, attend workshops, conduct research, engage in community service, and publish. This provides recognition and encouragement for a life of learning among the faculty, staff, and administration.
A life of learning is encouraged by academic freedom. At Tulsa Community College, Hardwick (Hardwick CC4a.doc) places the practice of academic freedom in the “balance” between the “academic freedom of the individual instructor” and “the restrictions of maintaining the general catalogue objectives of a given course.” Instructors retain the right to determine the content and method of teaching a course within the basic requirements of the course.
Hardwick demonstrates academic freedom in Tulsa Community College’s process of discipline goal assessment. Collectively, the discipline faculty determines the discipline goals for the discipline. The fact that the faculty members of the discipline are the ones who collectively determine discipline goals would be evidence that demonstrates academic freedom. Individual instructors decide the content, teaching methods, and assessment methods to achieve those goals. By reviewing the content, assignments, and assessments of discipline goals for five different history courses taught by seven full-time faculty members representing all four campuses, Hardwick found differences in content, assignments, and assessment processes of discipline goals that are unique to the individual instructors but that share the common intent of achieving the share discipline goals. The fact that the faculty of the discipline individually chose content, assignments, and assessments in response to the common discipline goals demonstrates academic freedom, thereby demonstrating a condition for a life of learning.
Hardwick contents that a part of the right of the instructor to determine the content of a course within the basic requirements is the right to select his or her own textbook. It should be noted that, from time to time, the college has established “common textbook” committees to adopt a single text for a specific course for college wide use. This could obviously constrain the individual instructor’s ability to determine content and methods within general discipline objectives. Moreover, as a general practice, full-time faculty members determine textbooks for courses. In this situation, part-time faculty members have their ability to determine content and methods constrained.
The right of faculty to academic freedom is acknowledged in the job description of a faculty member in the Tulsa Community College Practices, Policies, and Procedures Handbook for Full-Time Professional Staff, 2007-2008: “Maintain the principle of academic freedom in highest regard and practice.” While the faculty is expected to maintain the principle of academic freedom in highest regard, the college has no statement on academic freedom and no policy guaranteeing such a right in the classroom for the instructor. On its face, this would be an impediment to a life of learning for both faculty members as well as the students in the classroom.
Tulsa Community College’s demonstrates a commitment to a life of learning for faculty and administrators is through shorter-term, local opportunities for learning, such as SPOD (Staff, Professional, and Organizational Development), the Eighth Floor, the Academy for Teaching Excellence, the Leadership Development Academy, and conferences developed in response to specific needs, to longer term programs such as Faculty Innovation Grants, tuition reimbursement for TCC courses, resources to attend conferences, sabbaticals, and other opportunities for continued study or equivalent experiences.
Knapp (Knapp CC4a.doc) used interviews to assess the tuition reimbursement program (outlined in the TCC Full-time Professional and Full-time Staff Practices, Policies, and Procedures Handbooks, 2007-2008), the FIG (Faculty Innovation Grant) program, and resources for faculty to attend conferences. All three of the persons interviewed regarding the tuition reimbursement program expressed gratitude for the program. The staff person indicated that he or she would not have been able to earn the Associates degree if the tuition reimbursement program were not available. The issue of flexible time to take classes appeared in each interview. While there are procedures for faculty to take time during the day to take a limited number of course hours, there is no such time for staff persons. Moreover, supervisors were inconsistent in applying the policies. Tuition reimbursement is only available for TCC courses. It is not available for dependents. Recommendations regarding the tuition reimbursement program from the interviews included uniform enforcement of the time off policy, the possibility of tuition reimbursement for dependents, and the consideration of partial reimbursement for tuition for courses taken outside of Tulsa Community College.
The chair of the FIG committee and another faculty member who recently received a Faculty Innovation Grant were interviewed regarding that program. The chairperson indicated that the major criterion for judging grant requests is the impact that the proposed project will have on the college as a whole. They evaluate how many students, faculty, staff, and administrators will benefit prom the proposed projects. Additionally, they try to allocate the funds equitably across the campuses and among departments. The program was originally funded by a combination of TCC foundation and funds from an outside corporation. It is now internally funded. Recommendations regarding the FIG program from the interviews include the need to find a stable source of funding for the program, the need for better publicizing, and the need to clarify the reassign time policies of the college for project implementation.