Los AngelesSouthwestCollege; Curriculum Committee, Minutes of February 19, 2008 Page 1 of 5
Minutes of February 19, 2008
President’s Conference Room, 12:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Name / Area / Attendance / Name / Area / Attendance
Pat Lewis / The ARTS
HONORS DIR. / present / Linda Larson-Singer / ART. OFF. CC Chair / present
Al Reed Jr. / BEHAV & SOC SCI’s ACAD. SEN. PRES. / absent / Rose Calderon / MATRIC. Coord. / absent
Carolyn Magee / BUSINESS / absent / Marian Ruane / NON-CREDIT COORD. / present
Roxanne Williams / CH DEV &F
& CS / present / Leige Henderson* / VP, Acad. Aff’s / present
Reggie Morris / COUNS. / present / Dan Walden* / Dean, Acad. Aff’s (Research) / present
Dr. Sharon Maselli / ENGLISH & FOR. LANG’s / present / Guest Administrators:
Phyllis Norwood** / LEARNING ASSISTANCE / absent / Elmer Bugg* / College Dean / present
Linda Brady / LIBRARY / absent / Jose Robledo* / College VP / absent
Dr. Lernik Saakian / MATH & ENGIN / present / Phyllis Norwood* / College Dean / absent
Elmer Bugg** / NURSING / present / Dr. Earnestine Thomas-Robertson* / College Dean / present
Glenn Yoshida / SCI’s, HLTH & PE / present
* = non-voting member; ** = acting chair
Guests:Dr. Jack E. Daniels, President
Dr. Kenneth R. Rodriguez, Adjunct
- Call to Order:
The meeting was called to order at 1:15 by Curriculum Chair, Linda Larson-Singer.
2.Welcome and Introductions:
Glenn Yoshida introduced new Chemistry adjunct, Dr. Kenneth Rodriguez who had graduated from the University of Texas, Austin. This is his second semester teaching Chemistry 51 in the evenings.
3.Approval of Agenda:
The agenda was approved as submitted. Linda noted that Child Development had submitted a partial online addendum for CH DEV 1; it was not complete so could not be added to the agenda.
4. Approval of Minutes (1/15/08):
M/S/P to approve the Minutes of January 15, 2008 with corrections. (line42, from $2,000 to$3,000 from Staff Development ;” line 43, “from $2,000 from VATEA” to “$3,000 from TTIP. Dean Bugg statedthat…”
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Special Report: Dr. Daniels
Dr. Daniels stated that last week Dr. John Roueche had visited the District. He is from the University of Texas, Austin, and is an expert in community college leadership. He represented the Institute of Organizational and Staff Development and shared some issues affecting community colleges. Later the college received information reporting what the college is actually achieving in terms of success, persistence and retention. It is hard to argue with cold facts and, although statistics throughout the state and district are poor, LA Southwest is among the poorest. Various questions need to be asked: are our students ready to go into English and Math and other courses like Psychology?; are they able to read and comprehend the text?; are they able to understand the professor and process and give back information to him/her? Ninety-nine percent of our students assess at the level of developmental math and 94% at the level of developmental English. Since we know that students are coming to us with skills below college level, it is incumbent upon the Curriculum Committee and our departments to look at our course offerings and ask if they are adequately serving the needs of the college community.
At some point, the college dropped requiring prerequisites. Since so many of our students are not making the necessary progress to succeed, the Curriculum Committee must look at the courses, prerequisites and textbooks. The Psychology text is at the 13th level but many students read at the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade levels. This committee also needs to look at the course outlines and the level of rigor required. We must add the preparatory courses necessary to move up. We must also look at mandating assessment in an effort to improve student success. If we just teach but don’t focus on student success, what are we doing? If students are mired in developmental courses, what are we doing to help them get out? Our students are probably more in need of reading courses than students at our surrounding colleges but we do not offer reading.
Dean Bugg stated that interdisciplinary prerequisite courses have an impact on the Nursing program; we can look at prerequisite courses of surrounding CSUs and UCs to see if they exist and use them to validate the necessity for prerequisites at this level. We can also validate prerequisites based on research. He also asked what kinds of programs we are offering to draw students. Sharon Maselli suggested looking at learning communities for academic support. Pat Lewis stated that some students choose to enroll in courses without prerequisites, i.e., Speech 101, and fail it rather than take some lower level preparatory courses. Linda Brady stated that frequently students in the Library ask for help in reading and understanding the text. Dan Walden reported that CerritosCollege has a full department of reading.
Dr. Daniels stated that we must go back to our departments and look at the course outlines to consider level, prerequisites and reading ability. It is a good thing we are in 2008 and can deliver course content, taking into account different learning styles and strategies.
This college also needs to address the needs of the students who are prepared to progress and study independently, taking online courses. While he had asked departments to develop additional online courses, only Child Development 1 and Humanities had informed him that they would submit addenda to the Curriculum Committee for approval. At West LA College, their enrollment has increased due to online enrollments. We haven’t taken a strong look at online course offerings but need more participation from departments. We must step up to the plate or risk being left behind. West, Pierce and East are part of a Title 5 consortium to help develop online classes. Valley and Harbor are also getting funding for working toward an online degree. Mission is also aligned with another college. The only college that is not is Southwest. The online University of Phoenix has a curriculum from which they do not deviate; they use assessment to measure benchmarks and have been given full accreditation by the North Central accrediting association. It is within the purview of the Curriculum Committee to make recommendations so we are in the ballgame for our students.
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5. Reports:
A. Academic Affairs—Vice President, Leige Henderson:
Leige stated that we appreciate the discussion but need to look outside of the Curriculum Committee for people to work on the task of studying the course offerings. We need one person from each department to work on a distance education taskforce. Perhaps there could be a workshop with a stipend based on outcomes. We need to look at prerequisites for existing courses and at other curricular models, reading levels, and course outlines. There are issues involving Basic Skills, in which Phyllis Norwood needs to be involved. Perhaps we could offer a block of classes planned to help students be successful. She stated that “How to Teach an Online Course” will begin on March 10 and that each chair needs to ask someone in the department to be trained and work on the curriculum and online project. Southwest needs to answer the needs of the student consumer as does Sylvan that offers courses in the middle of the night. She stated that there is a new Workforce Development tool to show what is within our community and what we could draw from. She said that we also need to address other issues that include consideration of mandatory orientation and the performance of high school students in college classes. Leige also stated that she had been working with new faculty Kim McBride (LearningCenter), Darren Cifarelli (English), and Paula Johnson and Indiana Gabbidon(Nursing). Leige has made it clear to them that committee work is part of their responsibilities.
Dean Bugg stated that there are some academic courses already packaged that can be bought; most texts have online components. Sharon Maselli stated that we need a webmaster whocould help teachers in putting course information online. Dean Robertson stated that Information Technology has agreed to work with us in launching online programs. Pat Lewis stated that there are ten content-driven (as opposed to skill- or performance-driven) courses within her areas that could be taught online.
B. Academic Senate President—Al Reed, President: None
C. Academic Senate, SLO Committee—Glenn Yoshida:
Glenn also stated that an addendum to the course outline is being proposed in order to record and track course level SLOs, assessment, and resultant changes to better instruction and student success. He also stated that the funding reported in the January minutes for the SLO Institutional OutcomesSeminars should have been that he has received $3,000 from Staff Development funds and that he had requested and received another $3,000 from TTIP funds. Dean Bugg stated VATEA funds will match what has been donated, providing that the workshops are mandatory for vocational faculty. A series of three workshops is scheduled for March 4, April 1 and May 6. The SLO Committee is making an attempt to involve more faculty in the assessment of institutional SLOs; 17 faculty members have volunteered to date. Glenn stated that the Accreditation Progress Reportis focused on the first four recommendations and has been presented to the Academic Senate and the College Council. It will be posted and submitted to the District Office and then to the Board of Trustees, to whom Glenn will make some comments. We will be visited by the accrediting commission at the end of March or early April. He also reported that he had attended the Accreditation Institute 2008 and had shared the experiences of the SLO Progressive Lunch. (Report distributed.)
D. Articulation—Articulation Officer, Linda Larson-Singer:
Linda reported that the results of the LDTP submissions had once again been reported to the college and are attached; the project is still controversial. She updated ASSIST for the Summer 08 session. (Report distributed)
E. District Curriculum Committee—Curriculum Chair, Linda Larson-Singer:
Linda reported that a second District Discipline Day will be held on February 22 to discuss minimum qualifications and QTOPS for various disciplines including Speech, Humanities, English, ESL, Math, Learning Skills, Social Sciences, History, Political Science, Economics, Foreign Language, Architecture, Life Sciences, Chemistry and Psychology. Leige stated that Phyllis Norwood had requested that Developmental Communications also be included and various representatives of that discipline will attend. Units/hours for a few classes need to be adjusted according to Title 5 regulations and college feedback is asked regarding the proposed Non-Credit Taskforce Recommendations. (Report distributed.)
G. Matriculation—Matriculation Coordinator, Rose Calderon: None
6.Old Business:
A. Best Practices for LA Southwest College Online Courses, Draft 6 (Distance Education
Committee: Brady, Hector, Larson, Lewis, Maselli, Perret, Reed, Saakian, AFT; Hamilton,
Henderson, Robertson, Robledo, Walden):
The draft was discussed. Sharon Maselli stated that all chairs should have access to the various online courses within their department and that students should have access to viewing the online course syllabi on otherwise password-protected websites. Dean Robertson stated that syllabi are available to all students as a matter of public record and that they have the right to request to view them for any class in the Office of Academic Affairs; she agreed that syllabi should also be available online to prospective online students. M/S/P to approve Draft 6 of the Best Practices for LA Southwest College Online Courses with the following changes/additions: under Student Support, add “Prospective students shall have the ability to preview an online class syllabus;” to item 2 Student Support, “Students shall have access to training via CAOT 133, “How to Succeed in an Online Course” add “or the equivalent;” under Faculty Support, item 1 to “LA Southwest College shall provide faculty support services specifically related to teaching via an electronic system” add “Chairs and administrators shall have access at all times to online course websites.”
B. Course Archivals:
--NURSING 503C, Geriatric Nursing C (JT Williams/Azubuike): Tabled
--NURSING 532, Advanced Cardiac Life Support (JT Williams/Azubuike): Tabled
C. Course Outline Update:
--CO SCI 601(Hicks/Magee): Previous approval of outline update accepted by Hicks and Magee
7.New Business:
A. Conversion of Non-Compliant Liberal Arts Degree, Liberal Studies (Haynes, Larson, Morris):
There was discussion. M/S/P to approve the Conversion of the Non-Compliant Liberal Arts Degree with the following addition “Up to 6 units may be double-counted for completion of both the General Education (Plan A) requirements and completion of the required Core Courses.”
B. Creation of IGETC and CSU-GE Certificates of Achievement (Haynes, Larson, Morris):
There was discussion. M/S/P to approve the Creation of IGETC and CSU-GE Certificates of Achievement as proposed.
C. Non-Credit Taskforce Recommendations (Henderson, Ruane, Larson):
There was discussion. The consensus of the committee was to support the Non-Credit Taskforce Recommendations with the following suggestions as college feedback to the District Curriculum Committee: 1) list the courses passed on the certificate, 2) do not duplicate language used for credit courses, i.e., “Pass/No Pass.”
D. SLO Addendum to Course Outline (Yoshida):
There was discussion. Glenn stated that the addendum was a tool to be used to improve teaching and learning and that he had met with most departments to review assessment strategies. Once accepted, the SLO addendum will be housed as part of the course outline and will be listed with the online outlines and/or on the SLO website. M/S/P to approve the SLO Addendum to the Course Outline as proposed.
E. Conversion of Non-Compliant Liberal Arts Degree, Child Development and Natural Sciences(Cliff/Yoshida):
There was discussion. The Child Development courses listed are required for the beginning permits and are built upon for the complete AA degree in Child Development (as opposed to the AA in Liberal Arts, Emphasis in Child Development). The courses listed for the Natural Sciences degree are those required as Nursing prerequisites and transfer preparation in the Natural Sciences. M/S/P to approve the conversion of the Non-Compliant Liberal Arts Degrees, Emphases in Child Development and Natural Sciences with the following correction/additions: correct Local Title from “Biology and the Natural Sciences” to “Natural Sciences,” add to both degrees: “Up to 6 units may be double-counted for completion of both the General Education (Plan A) requirements and completion of the required Core Courses,” add to Liberal Arts, Child Development: “Note: Be aware that additional courses are required for the Associate of Arts degree in Child Development. In addition, consult with each specific university regarding complete transfer requirements,” and add to Liberal Arts, Natural Sciences: “Note: Consult with each specific university regarding complete transfer requirements.”
8. Announcements:
Pat Lewis announced that the Manchild Conference would take place on Saturday, February 23on this campus. She also announced that the Dillard University Choir would be performing in the Little Theater on March 3 at 7:00 p.m. The program is being sponsored by the Dillard University Alumni Association and this college. On March 7, 8, and 9 LASC and Cal State Dominguez Hills will host the African Diaspora of Sacred Music in the Little Theater.
9. Public Speakers: None
10. Adjournment:
The meeting was adjourned at 3:32 by Curriculum Chair, Linda Larson-Singer.
Minutes prepared by Linda Larson Singer
NEXT MEETING DATE: Tuesday, March 18 at 1:00, President’s Conference Room
Documents for Technical Review due Wednesday, March 5
(Lunch will begin at 12:30 to allow meeting to begin at 1:00.)
History:
Distributed, email,3/13/08
Approved pending corrections (none noted), Curriculum Committee Meeting, 3/18/08
CurrComm,2.19.08.min