Technology Engagement Across the Curriculum

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Gadsden State

Community College

Quality Enhancement Plan

Technology Engagement across the Curriculum

2007-2012

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction...... 1

Overview of the Quality Enhancement Plan...... 3

Chapter 1: Focus of the Plan...... 6

Goals...... 6

Student Learning Outcomes...... 7

Background...... 8

Review of Literature...... 11

Survey Results...... 14

Building the Framework...... 16

Rationale...... 18

Platform for Success...... 20

Expected Benefits to Students...... 27

Challenges...... 29

Chapter 2: Institutional Capability for Initiation & Continuation of the Plan....31

Infrastructure...... 32

Implementation Team...... 36

Institutional Effectiveness Cycle...... 38

Timeline of Activities for Implementation...... 38

Budget...... 42

Chapter 3: Assessment of the Plan...... 44

Internal Measures...... 44

External Measures...... 45

Chapter 4: Broad Based Involvement of the College Community...... 51

References...... 57

Committees...... Appendix A

Surveys...... Appendix B

Focus Groups...... Appendix C

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INTRODUCTION TO GADSDEN STATE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Gadsden State Community College is a two-year, SACS-accredited institution formed by a merger in 1985 and a consolidation in 2003. Each of the schools that ultimately became part of this community college has contributed to its own strengths, educational perspective, and uniquely historic significance to the institution as it presently exists. Gadsden State serves Etowah, Calhoun, Cherokee, St. Clair, and Cleburne counties in northeast Alabama, providing quality instruction for more than 2,900 full-time students and 2,200 part-time students (data from fall semester 2007) through thirty-one academic transfer programs (twenty-three majors leading to Associate in Science degree programs and seven Associate in Arts degree programs) and training for forty-two terminal award programs. The college seeks to ensure that every student enrolled receives the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in his/her chosen field of study. Towards that end, programs such as Student Support Services, Tech Prep, Workbased learning (CO-OP), Developmental Education, Service Learning, and Honors Programs encourage and support students in their various educational and vocational pursuits.

The College has nurtured its reputation as the community’s college. The number and variety of programs, workshops, and special events it sponsors or hosts on each of its campuses are evidence of this fact. At the request of area businesses and industrial firms throughout the state, both the Training for Business and Industry and the Workforce Development Programs identify needs of existing industry and deliver technical assistance, technology solutions, and customized courses as necessary. GSCC provides, among other things, training onsite for management and leadership; OSHA and other safety guidelines; and computer and CISCO technology. With the activities and instruction provided at the Alabama Technology Network’s Bevill Center and the Cheaha Career Skills Center, the communities served by Gadsden State have access to quality instructional, enrichment, and motivational programs. Additionally, adult education classes provide a significant step for those whose education has been interrupted and who now wish to achieve their secondary education goals. The series of offerings through the Arledge Center/Continuing Education provides unique learning experiences for either those seeking continuing education credit or others wishing to master a new skill in the arts or to gain useful knowledge in a new discipline.

OVERVIEW OF THE QUALITY ENHANCEMENT PROGRAM

Focus:

The Quality Enhancement Plan for Gadsden State Community College utilizes technology across the curriculum to engage students in learning. The four-fold foundation of the plan encompasses (1) students connecting with other students; (2) students connecting with faculty; (3) students connecting with their curriculum, courses, and content areas; and (4) students connecting to the institution. Technology Engagement across the Curriculum (TEC) serves as GSCC’s commitment to enable its students to harness available technology, utilizing it in a variety of electronic sources applicable both inside and outside the classroom. The TEC Initiative will encourage students not only to gather information and evaluate its authenticity and usefulness but also to communicate and share their findings with fellow students, as well as their instructors, both orally and in written form using multiple formats.

The QEP is designed to prepare students for success whether they transfer to other two- or four-year institutions or complete their training for degree or certificate programs at GSCC. By providing students with opportunities to engage in the learning process through technology, students can develop a proficiency that enables them to function completely in a technology-based academic and work environment. Computer competencies, information gathering, and communication are essential skills for success. Dedication to student success drives the College’s QEP.

Institutional Capability for the Initiation and Continuation of the Plan:

Gadsden State has maintained multiple grants and managed special programs throughout its history. The experienced faculty and staff are well-equipped to handle the day-to-day oversight of the QEP. The budget provides sufficient funds for the personnel, assessment tools, and technology to maintain and continue the TEC Initiative. Administrative support will enable the appointed members of the Implementation Team to function and adequately fulfill their duties throughout the five-year plan and beyond.

Assessment of the Plan:

Faculty in all disciplines will work towards implementing technology-based activities and/or projects that will prompt students to become engaged learners. Within disciplines, divisions, and programs, instructors will develop rubrics or other means to assess students’ ability to (1) use specific technology to gain computer competency; (2) gather and synthesize information from a variety of electronic sources; and (3) learn to communicate their findings with others. Additionally, standardized assessment tools including iSkillsTM by Educational Testing Services, the Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy skills (SAILS), and the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) will be administered throughout the five-year period. A combination of these tests will provide formative and summative evaluations that are both quantative and qualitative. These assessment measures will allow the college to determine students’ abilities as they actively engage in acquiring the basic skills (i.e. computer competency, information literacy, and communication aptitude) necessary for success at four-year institutions and in the work place.

Broad Based Involvement of the College Community:

From the initial call for ideas and possible topics, the QEP Committee has made a concerted effort to canvas all campuses, including every department, division, and program. Members have welcomed ideas from staff, faculty, and administration. The committee has attempted to build a consensus among its members who, in turn, have solicited input from their respective areas. Gadsden State’s website and internal home page have been utilized to disseminate information to the college community, to seek ideas and suggestions as the plan was being developed, and to promote interest and participation. The final product incorporates a significant aspect of the College’s mission, that of enriching the educational experiences of all Gadsden State students.

CHAPTER 1: FOCUS OF THE PLAN

From the outset of the reaffirmation process, the College in general and the Quality Enhancement Plan Committee in particular have sought to formulate a workable plan with specific goals and measurable student learning outcomes. Over a period of several months, the QEP committee members have considered a variety of critical issues submitted by faculty, staff, and administration as potential topics. Their overriding desire has been to enhance student learning by strengthening each student’s ability to tackle the necessary tasks associated with required coursework, competencies, and the tangential skills associated with practical applications of classroom knowledge and technical mystery. They ultimately discarded a number of suggestions during the process in an attempt to focus on one particular area that would most effectively impact student learning at Gadsden State Community College.

Technology Engagement across the Curriculum (TEC) is the result of a concerted effort on the part of the faculty, staff, and administration of this college to implement a workable plan that increases students’ learning potential. Statistical information gathered from various surveys and reviews of pertinent literature certainly helped direct the Committee’s decisions, as did informal discussions and focus groups. Ultimately, the students themselves and the faculty’s desire to utilize the latest technology in teaching them provided the impetus in formulating the plan itself, its goals, and subsequent measureable expected student learning outcomes. These goals consist of the following:

Goal 1: To promote computer competency and information literacy

Goal 2: To apply technology-based information gathering in all subject areas

Goal 3: To enable students to evaluate the validity/credibility of information sources

Goal 4: To ensure that students effectively communicate information using technology

The QEP Committee envisions a campus-wide atmosphere that promotes student utilization of the technology at hand to access multiple sources of information as it relates to specific projects/activities. Instructors will provide thoughtful, challenging assignments that allow students to work together to share results with others. At the heart of the plan lies the belief that technology actively engages students in the learning process by connecting them in four crucial ways: (1) students to students; (2) students to faculty; (3) students to their curriculum, courses, and content areas; and (4) students to the institution.

Adoption of this plan means students will now be encouraged to access information worldwide via the Internet, use specialized tools and informational databases when necessary, and have options in terms of time and place to connect to course and program content with additional online resources. Expected student learning outcomes directly relating to the goals are as follows:

SLO #1: Students will be able to connect to other students and their instructors via email (Goal 1)

SLO #2: Students will learn to submit assignments electronically (Goal 1)

SLO # 3: Students will develop/demonstrate the ability to initiate searches when in need of specific information for special projects/assignments in all courses (Goal 2)

SLO # 4: Students will be able to recognize reliable sources and determine the usefulness of information gathered using technology resources (Goal 3)

SLO # 5: Students will develop skills that allow them to incorporate a variety of formats to share information with each other and instructors (Goal 4)

By leveraging technology as the “connector” of the four components of engagement, students, regardless of program or course, will experience a more interactive, pragmatic approach to education that centers on problem solving and teamwork.

Background

During the spring of 2005, the Dean of Instructional Services formed a committee charged with the mission to formulate appropriate measurable education goals for the core courses or General Educational Requirementsthat every student must complete to meet criteria for both transfer and terminal programs. College personnel believed that many students were “slipping through the cracks” and completing programs with specialized technical knowledge and skills but lacking the basic general education competencies in oral and written communication, computation, use of computer technology, and research or information retrieval skills.

The work of this general education committee served as the foundation for what eventually developed into a draft of the QEP topic: Strengthening Fundamental Skills through Research and Technology. As faculty and staff suggested possible topics and how those topics could influence student learning, several key factors prompted the decisions that resulted in the initial topic’s evolution. Many felt that some students were failing to acquire the career and life skills that often result in the difference between a job and a successful, rewarding career. Employer survey forms, for instance, regularly indicate that GSCC graduates perform well at their assigned tasks and possess the technical skills required for specific jobs. However, they frequently lack the ability to think critically or to communicate effectively with others. The Office of Institutional Research annually gathers this survey information, which serves as one of the most specific indicators of the need to prepare graduates to perform not only job-related tasks but also to acquire more social, intrapersonal, and interpersonal skills that increase their ability to be effective members of the workforce. Even though employers have rated graduates’ levels of oral/written communication skills, math, and computer skills as “good,” the number of employers surveyed is small compared to the number of students who graduate or transfer to other institutions of higher learning. These students also need to be ready to meet the academic challenges of four-year institutions and/or be prepared to receive further technical training.

Surveys alone, however, have not been the driving force behind the development of the QEP. A number of other major influences emerged. The research literature, for one, helped direct the committee to seek possible ways to harness one of education’s most powerful tools, technology, to enhance student learning. Ultimately, what drives the college’s QEP is the belief that the ability to use technology efficiently, gather information from a variety of formats, and communicate effectively will increase students’ productivity in schools and in the workforce. The more faculty and staff began to research these areas, the more convinced they became that students must be armed with the tools of the twenty-first century: technology and the ability to utilize it efficiently in order to succeed in a competitive, global economy. While this goal may seem lofty to some, instructors are convinced it is imperative that the College prepare students academically, socially, and ethically to become productive citizens in their communities. The Mission, Purpose, and Philosophyof Gadsden State Community College and its institutional goals clearly delineate this concept.

From welders and wellness experts, to cosmetologists and computer programmers, to elementary teachers and electronics technicians - in all fields practitioners need to connect with their co-workers, customers, and clients. To function in their chosen careers, graduates must be able to communicate what they know and recognize how and when to seek information about that which they do not know. A generation comfortable with video games, computers, iPods, and cell phones clearly expects technology to be a part of their daily diet of information flow. Traditional methods of classroom instruction, particularly lecture and note taking, often seem as bland as cold oatmeal. In other words, according to Dr.MarkMilliron in his Catalytic Conversations 2007/03,students often view traditional learning as “passive, linear, formal, and impersonal.” While students now haphazardly use technology in their daily lives, they often fail to master the tools whose potential can help them become successful, first in academia and then in the workplace.

The central premise of the QEP, then, is based on Gadsden State’s desire to guarantee that all its students are exposed to a variety of information-gathering techniques and that they are consistently expected to use technology in all courses they complete while at Gadsden State. With technology as the leverage, students can become more engaged in the learning process by connectingin four distinct ways: (1) student to student; (2) student to faculty; (3) student to curriculum, course, and content; and (4) student to institution. By incorporating technology applications across the curriculum in all disciplines, students will become more proficient in computer applications, in information searches, and in analysis while learning to communicate what they know more effectively. Such skills are essential for academic and career success whether students complete terminal degrees or transfer to four-year colleges or universities.

Initially, in developing the goals of the QEP, the Committee emphasized three distinct areas that are, nonetheless, interconnected: computer competency, information technology, and communication. Implementation would enable students to:

• Demonstrate proficiency in basic computer skills that include creating documents using word processing software, sending and receiving assignments via e-mail, and accessing course materials online;
• Utilize information gathering techniques to obtain reliable, accurate sources; and
• Communicate either verbally or in writing information they have gathered through research.

Immediately following the SACS Annual Meeting in December, 2006, the three faculty members in attendance, together with several administrators including the president, quickly concluded that the Committee’s initial overall topic was too broad and attempted to accomplish too much. Therefore, in a series of meetings in January 2007, the QEP committee explored ways to narrow the focus yet still incorporate the technology and information-gathering instructors originally deemed necessary to improve student learning. Informal discussions eventually produced a newly worded topic which seemed to satisfy both ends of the spectrum, from those colleagues intent on harnessing available technology and infusing it into all aspects of the curriculum to those who emphasized more traditional research techniques while placing less emphasis on technological skills. The result of these dialogues evolved into a newly-worded topic, Technology-based Research across the Curriculum (TRAC).

Review of Literature

Meanwhile, members of the committee continued to examine a variety of books and journals in search of information underscoring the importance of twenty-first century teaching tools in the classroom. After reviewing articles and seeking input from experts in the use of technology to foster a teaching and learning environment, the group contacted Dr. Mark Milliron, Director of the National Institute of Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) at the University of Texas at Austin, and a recognized leader of engaging students in learning through technology. At his suggestion, the QEP committee looked at further refining the topic. Dr. Milliron’s recommendations included replacing the word “research” with “engagement.” Because research is a semantically-loaded word, many would view research, he maintained, as a formal exercise in information gathering. The intent of the QEP, however, is to train students to connect with each other, with their instructors, with their course content, and with the institution itself as they engage in the learning process. Furthermore, by using sources other than the text book and information obtained in the classroom, students should be equipped to gather usable information in any subject area. By establishing this matrix of engagement proposed by Dr. Milliron, GSCC can create an educational environment that maintains open communication and continuous learning throughout a student’s career at the college and beyond. The final wording of the topic emerged as Technology Engagement across the Curriculum (TEC).