Academic Program Review and Action Planning – YEAR ONE

Division / Social Science
Program / Psychology
Contact Person / Andrew Pierson, Rani Nijjar, & Aldrian Estepa
Date / March 10, 2011

Section A – Data Review and Analysis

I. Basic Success and Equity (Data from 3 previous years)

·  What trends are you seeing over time? How does the basic success data compare to the college as a whole and to statewide average success rates, if available? What might explain the differences?

·  What courses in your discipline show the greatest/least amount of success? What accounts for success in these courses? How could you improve success in the less successful areas?

·  What do you see in the comparisons between men and women and between different ethnicities? What accounts for differences? What concerns you? How could you strategically address the concerns?

·  What inferences can you draw from the data correlating the highest level of Math/English completed and success in your discipline's courses?

·  If you have online/hybrid/telecourse/CD-ROM courses, do the success rates differ from the same courses offered on-campus? If so, should the success rates be the same, why are they different, and is this a cause for concern? What areas of inquiry does this raise about online/hybrid/telecourse/CD-ROM courses?

Review of Success and Equity Data
We have a high success rate in all of our Psychology courses and All of our Psychology courses have average success rates above the Chabot College average: PSY 1 (65%), PSY 2 (91%), PSY 3 (79%), PSY 6 (76%), PSY 8 (88%), PSY 12 (82%), PSY 33 (80%), PSY 45 (84%).
In comparison to the overall Chabot College Course Success Rate (65%), the overall Psychology Success Rate is higher (69%). As a result of our previous Program Review research project, we have integrated BASIC SKILLS/COLLEGE SUCCESS SKILLS into many of our PSY 1 courses. The data we collected during our previous Program Review suggest that by integrating BASIC SKILLS/COLLEGE SUCCESS SKILLS into out PSY 1 courses, students are more likely to report that the PSY 1 courses include content and assignments that relevant to college success.
Gender: With regard to gender, a review of student success rates for psychology courses offered during the previous 6 semesters shows an average (unweighted) success rate of 70% for women and 68% for men. These findings compare favorably with the Chabot College Overall Success rates of 66% for women and 65% for men. Both men and women have higher success rates in their psychology courses compared to college-wide success rates.
Ethnicity: Students from groups that have been historically underrepresented in college succeed at higher rates in their psychology courses compared to the average success rates of their other courses. Specifically, African-American and Latino students showed the largest differences in success rates, both at 4% above the college average. A review of student success rates by race/ethnicity for psychology courses shows higher than college average success rates for ALL groups except Whites students; average psychology course success rates for White students is the same as college-wide success rates.
Face to Face vs. Online Success rates: an examination of our data for online and F2F courses shows considerable variation in success rates by semester. Some semesters our online success rates are higher and some semesters our F2F success rates are higher. Examined together, the average (unweighted) success rates for the previous 3 years show a 6% higher success rate for our F2F courses. The difference seems to be greater for recent semesters. We plan to continue to monitor these data to see if a meaningful pattern emerges.

II. Course Sequence (Data from 2 previous years)

Note: Answer this question if you have been provided data about course sequences in your discipline.

·  Is success in the first course a good indicator of success in the second course? What are the curricular, pedagogical, and/or methodological implications of what you see?

·  Do your successful students in the first course enroll at a high rate in the second course within two years? What are the implications of what you see?

Explain:
Psychology does not offer true sequence courses.

III. Course Review (Data from 5 previous years)

·  Ed. Code requires that all courses are updated every five years. Are all of your courses updated? If not, do you want to maintain or continue these courses? Please indicate your plans in terms of curriculum. Have all of your courses been offered recently? If not, why? Are students counting on courses to complete a program or major when these courses are not being offered?

Explain: The Psychology discipline serves an essential role in serving transfer students to CSU, UC and other colleges and universities. Our psychology course offerings are included in the G.E. and other core transfer requirements. The Psychology faculty plans to develop a specific psychology transfer major that will comply with the recently legislated SB 1440 Psychology Associate Transfer Degree. We have reviewed the psychology transfer model curriculum developed by the CCC and CSU. The model Psychology transfer curriculum recommends that we offer Psychological Statistics, Introduction to Biopsychology and a Research Methods course with Lab. Recently we have not been offering the Psychological Statistics course due to budget cuts. Our current research methods course does not include a lab, and we do not have a Biopsychology course. We are requesting additional allocation to add the recommended courses in the Psychology Transfer Curriculum. (As of 2010, all of our course outlines have been updated. Some courses have not been offered recently, due to budget related course reductions.)

IV. Budget Summary (Data from 3 previous years)

·  What budget trends do you see in your discipline? What are the implications of these trends?

·  Where is your budget adequate and where is it lacking? What are the consequences on your program, your students, and/or your instruction?

·  What projected long-term (5-10 years) budget needs do you see? You will detail your short-term needs in the action plan that follows. You do not need to cite them here.

Explain:
In the past Psychology budget requests have been very limited; we expect that to change as a result of SB 1440. We plan to research and develop a budget plan for the lab requirements during this Program Review cycle. The Psychology faculty are very interested in adopting the recently legislated SB 1440 Psychology Associate Transfer Degree. We have reviewed the psychology transfer model curriculum developed by the CCC and CSU. The model Psychology transfer curriculum recommends that we offer Psychological Statistics, Introduction to Bio-Psychology and a Research Methods course with Lab.
Our projected long term budget needs include the start up cost for a lab to go with our Psychology Research Methods, Biopsychology and Psychological Statistics courses, as recommended by SB1440 Psychology Transfer model curriculum.

V. Enrollment Data (Data from 2 previous years)

·  Please provide a brief description of: overall enrollment trends; enrollment trends by course; and enrollment trends by time of day and Saturday.

·  Describe what your discipline has done in terms of curriculum or scheduling in the last two years that has effected enrollments.

·  Describe plans or strategies that you have for the near future in terms of curriculum or scheduling that could impact your enrollments.

·  Lastly, look closely at whether the schedule you currently offer provides access to the broader community that your discipline serves at Chabot College—day time, night time, Saturday, distance education, special or targeted communities that would or do enroll in your courses.

Explain:
The Psychology Unit’s courses consistently average fill rates of over 100%. At the start of each semester we routinely turn away huge numbers of students wishing to add psychology courses. In fact, one recent online psychology instructor reports having received email requests from over 100 students asking to be added to a section of PSY 1 online.
Psychology continues to increase the number of online courses we offer from zero to fin Fall 2006, to four in Spring 09 and six online courses in Fall 10. Psychology offers a balance of early morning, morning, afternoon and evening courses and occasionally Saturday sections.

VI. Student Learning Outcomes Inventory

Acronym Key:

SLO = Student Learning Outcome is a general term, for the following three levels of outcomes:

CLO = Course-level Outcome, i.e. what a student can do after completing a course

PLO= Program-level Outcome, i.e. what a student can do after completing a sequence of courses

CWLG = College-wide Learning Goal

·  Percentage of courses in your discipline that have CLOs and rubrics developed:___100%__

For this information, please see the list of which courses do and do not have CLOs on the SLOAC’s main webpage:

http://www.chabotcollege.edu/sloac/default.asp

·  Percentage of courses in your discipline that have the minimum number of CLOs developed:

(1 unit = 1 or more CLO, 2 units = 2 or more CLOs, 3 or more units = 3 or more CLOs)__100%__

For this information, please see the CLO spreadsheet on the SLOAC’s main webpage:

http://www.chabotcollege.edu/sloac/default.asp

·  Date the CLO Assessment schedule was submitted:_Fall 2010

For this information, please see the Course-level Outcomes assessment schedules list from the Assessment Progress and Plans webpage:

http://www.chabotcollege.edu/sloac/progress.asp

·  Percentage of courses in your discipline that have had all the CLOs assessed within the past three years, as per Chabot’s Assessment policy: __43%_____

For this information, please see Chabot’s Assessment Policy from the SLO/Assessment Guidelines webpage:

http://www.chabotcollege.edu/sloac/guidelines.asp

·  Percentage of courses in your discipline that have had all the CLO assessments reflected upon, or discussed with colleagues, within the past three years__43%_

·  What questions or investigations arose as a result of these reflections or discussions?

Explain:
Reflecting on our CLO data, while most students demonstrate an understanding of our established outcomes, many students still leave class without mastering some important course content.

·  What actions has your discipline determined that might be taken as a result of these reflections, discussions, and insights?

Actions planned:
As a result of these reflections, we plan to continue to focus on depth of understanding related to learning outcomes. As detailed elsewhere in this document, we plan to follow the recommendations of SB1440 Psychology Transfer model curriculum, which includes adding a lab to our Research Methods course, re-introducing our Psychology Statistics course, and developing a Biopyschology course. We expect these courses will provide students with additional opportunities to master our Program Level Outcomes, as well as CWLG’s.

·  What course-level and programmatic strengths have the assessment reflections revealed?

Strengths revealed:
Many students leave having demonstrated significant understanding of the core concepts of psychology.

·  Percentage of programs within your discipline that have established at least two PLOs, and mapped appropriate CLOs to them:__100%___

For this information, please see the Program-level Outcomes progress page from the Assessment Progress and Plans webpage:

http://www.chabotcollege.edu/sloac/progress.asp

·  Which of the CWLGs do your discipline’s CLOs address? (*Development of the Whole person , Communication and Critical Thinking)______

·  In which if any of the College-wide Learning Goals Faculty Inquiry Groups have discipline member(s) participated? Critical Thinking FIG (Critical Thinking), Online Tutoring FIG (Student Success, Awareness & Access), Reading Apprenticeship FIG (Student Success, Awareness & Access)____

______

Insights gained: During the Critical Thinking FIG, Aldrian was able to become familiar with the usage of critical thinking grading rubrics as well as example of assignments used for assessment purposes. It was with the Critical Thinking grading rubric that the Psychology unit was able to develop rubrics for CLOs. Critical Thinking.
During the Online Tutoring FIG, Aldrian was able to become familiar with the logistics of setting up tutorial services for the online sections for General Psychology. The work involved investigated real-time programs to facilitate the tutoring process and schedule software in order to set up appointments. Development of the whole person.
Regarding the Reading Apprenticeship work, Aldrian was able to learn about different methods of emphasizing reading and metacognition within the discipline itself. Work is currently being conducted to implement Reading Apprenticeship in one of the General Psychology sections. Critical Thinking.

VII. Academic Learning Support

What kinds of academic learning support does your discipline use or require to help students succeed (e.g., tutoring, learning assistants, student assistants, peer advisors, lab support, supplemental instruction, peer-led team learning, peer advisors)? How many hours per semester do you use and/or how many hours per semester do you need?

The Psychology discipline at Chabot College serves an essential role in serving transfer students to CSU, UC and other colleges and universities. Psychology course offerings are included in the G.E. and other core transfer requirements, and on average, enrollment in Psychology courses is around 1,300 students per semester, with all course sections filled to 100% capacity.
Further, the Psychology faculty plans to develop a specific psychology transfer major that will comply with the recently legislated SB 1440 Psychology Associate Transfer Degree. The model Psychology Transfer Curriculum recommends that we offer courses in Psychological Statistics, Introduction to Biopsychology and a Research Methods course with Lab. Therefore, in an effort to support student success in Psychology courses, we anticipate the increased need for Academic Learning Support, in the form of Learning Assistants (LA’s) and the faculty led General Studies GNST 115.
Learning Assistants Request:
4 LA’s, 5 hrs/week, to assist student’s within the classroom and work with Psychology faculty in the GNST 115 discipline-specific academic student support.
GNST PSY 115 Request:
Funded through the Basic Skills and Title III Grant Initiatives, the Psychology discipline (Fall 09 semester) partnered with the college WRAC (Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum) Center, to create a faculty led, psychology discipline specific learning support model for students needing additional academic assistance in course work and development of basic skills important in college success. (.5 – 3 units…What is the WRAC center)
The goals of GNST PSY 115 learning support model, meets Chabot College’s Master Strategy Goals for Student Success: To continue to research, develop, and assess educational materials to increase basic skills of Chabot students. To increase success and persistence in college courses (Psychology) supported by learning support services. To maintain and increase enrollment in college courses (Psychology) by increasing persistence.
Preliminary results of GNST PSY 115, (Fall 09 and Fall 10 semesters) show that when student’s concurrently enrolled in GNST PSY 115 supplemental academic support and Psychology courses, those students successfully completed course work with a passing grade. Based on qualitative data, students indicated greater academic confidence through classroom participation, motivation and the development of new college level basic skills in reading their textbook, lecture note-taking, writing research papers and taking exams in their psychology courses.
Results also show, that the presence of a Social Science GNST 115 (Psychology and History) within the WRAC center, positively transformed how students utilized the center for academic support.
Spring 2009 before Grant Initiative numbers:
Drop-in Tutoring for courses (16 student visits;11%)
ENGL 115 Tutoring (135 student visits; 89%)
GNST 115 Tutoring for courses (0 visits; 0%)
Fall 2009 Semester 1 w/Grant numbers:
Drop-in Tutoring (54 student visits; 9%)
GNST 115 Discipline specific faculty led tutoring for Psychology and History (484 student
Visits; 84%)
Fall 2010 Semester 2 w/Grant numbers:
Drop-in Tutoring (12 student visits; 1%)
GNST 115 Discipline specific faculty led tutoring for Psychology and History (739 student
visits/81)
The discipline specific Basic Skills GNST115 and Learning Assistance, may provide the needed supplemental academic support for students, especially underprepared students who need assistance with college level Basic Skills development. The GNST PSY 115 was funded through BSI and Title III grant initiatives which provided reassigned time of 3CAH for one faculty. We are requesting continued general college enrollment allocation from the college to support GNST PSY 115.

VIII. External Data