2016-17Program/Discipline Improvement Process(PIP/DIP) Reflection Report

Program/discipline name / Sociology
Persons completing this report (minimum of 2) / Anita Harker, Charlie Tompkins, Lucinda Almy-Hamilton

Institutional data

PIP/DIP sections / Reflections: Reflect on the different sections in your PIP/DIP data, which are listed below. In each of the white cells, use bulleted or narrative format to describe what the data tell you about student success. Avoid summarizing the data; rather report the significant themes and trends reflected in the data.
  1. Enrollments…

a. FTE / FTE declined sharply (35%) from the 2010-11 peak. There was an 11% decline between 2013-14 and 2014-15 alone.
b. Headcount / Despite these declines, the ratio between duplicated and unduplicated headcount has remained relatively steady at 92-95% since 2010-11 despite declines in overall enrollment.
  1. Number of…

a. courses offered / The number of courses offered remains steady at 6 (though it was down to 5 this past academic year with the cancellation of SOC 220). We will be offering a new version of SOC 220 this coming academic year (Contemporary Social Issues in the Himalayas) which we plan to market widely, and in addition, we have seen SOC 250 Multicultural Issues increase in enrollment and is offered regularly now.
b. sections offered / The number of sections has declined by 31% since the 2011-12 peak of 32.
  1. Enrollments by mode of learning
/ We have consistently offered5-6 online sections per year for the last few years. This past year we also incorporated an evening hybrid of SOC 101 to attempt to create more flexibility for students. In the past, we primarily offered SOC 101 online, but have incorporated 1-2 online sections of SOC 250 as well.
  1. Student demographics
/ First generation students make up 44% of our population and 18% of our students are Running Start enrollments. RS headcount has remained relatively stable, but has increased by 5% since 2010-11 numbers. As a discipline, we are representative of institutional demographics of gender and race. For example, our most recent statistics from 2014-15 show thatsociology students were75% white and 61% female, compared to 74% white and 60% female for the whole college.
  1. By course…

a. Enrollments / Enrollments are strong in SOC 101 Introduction to Sociology and online courses. These tend to be near full and sometimes waitlisted by the first day of the quarter.
b. Number of sections / In the last year we have offered fewer sections of elective courses in an attempt to increase fill rates.
c. Average class size / SOC 101 courses typicallysee full/waitlisted sections in throughout the year, with some instructors also overloading the courses. SOC 201 Social Problems has had enrollments of 23/24/31 throughout 2016-17 fall/winter/spring. SOC 250 Multicultural Issues has been enrolled to capacity in winter and spring. SOC 120 Sociology of Marriage & the Family has had enrollments between 17-33 over the year. SOC 210 had 21 students during the one quarter it was offered.
d. Section fill rate / Fill rates have dropped recently for some of our elective courses, in particular SOC 210 has declined from its peak in 2010-11 at 106% down to 60% in 2016-17. We also saw a decline in SOC 220, which was at a fill rate of 108% in 2010-11 and in 2014-15 has declined to 47%, and this past year unfortunately had to be cancelled due to low enrollment.
Fill rates for SOC 101 have increased in the past 7 years (82-90%). We believe that SOC 101 has been prioritized by students as our FTE decline has eliminated some courses. Online sections consistently fill, and are often waitlisted (both SOC 101 and SOC 250). The hybrid evening SOC 101 course this past year filled at 43%. Again, SOC 101 (both F2F and online sections combined) filled at 90% (without the hybrid outlier, it would fill at 94%). SOC 120 is filling at 68%, with significantly higher enrollment in the winter. SOC 201 is strong, filling at 79%.
  1. Student performance…

  1. Course completion rates by mode of learning
/ Completion rates have been lower for online courses, 83% in comparison to 88% for face to face classes, in 2014-15 (this gap has narrowed though – the previous year reported a 12% difference in completion rates) .
  1. Individual course completion rates
/ Across all courses, successful completion rates in 2014-15 have increased to 85% versus 76.5% in 2010-11. Withdrawal numbers have also decreased to 5% from 18% in 2010-11, which is promising. Completion rates have been slightly lower in SOC 210, indicating that it may be a more rigorous course.
  1. Retention rates
    (for professional-technical programs only)
/ N/A
  1. Graduation rates
    (for professional-technical programs only)
/ N/A
  1. Graduation numbers
    (for professional-technical programs only)
/ N/A
  1. Staffing
/ N/A for 2016-17
  1. Program budget
/ N/A for 2016-17
  1. Program currency
/ N/A for 2016-17
  1. Physical classroom/lab space strengths/needs
/ None
Indirect indicators – Information from surveys, focus groups, etc.
Student satisfaction (course evaluations) / N/A for 2016-17

Direct indicators – Outcomes assessment

PIP/DIP sections / Reflections
  1. Core learning abilities (for disciplines and programs with courses mapped to the information literacy, critical thinking, or global consciousness CLAs): Email your completed information literacy,critical thinking and/or global consciousness CLA report(s) with this PIP/DIP report.
/ Please indicate which CLA reports are attached to this report. Check all that apply by double-clicking on the appropriate box and selecting “checked”.
critical thinking
global consciousness
information literacy
  1. Program outcomes (for prof-tech programs only)
/ NA
  1. Course outcomes: Discuss with your discipline faculty if any course outcomes need to be reviewed and revised through the curriculum committee process and establish a timeline and plan to do so.

Conclusion

Summarize discipline/program strengths / Ourinstructors teach across multiple subjects/disciplines and bring the benefit of an interdisciplinary perspective into the classroom.
While not all courses have a diversity designation or critical thinking CLA, these aspects are integrated throughout our curriculum.
Despite not having a formal designation of being a writing intensive course, most classes include significant student-centered research and writing assignments.
Summarize discipline/program challenges / Decline in number of sections we’ve been able to offer.
Enrollment rates have declined in some elective courses.
Next steps: List 1-5 planned changes in the program/discipline for the next 5 years based on information from the abovePIP/DIP data, faculty goals, and college initiatives. / Time-frame
  1. Work with the advising and the Running Start office to anticipate high school scheduling needs.
/ 2017-18
  1. Convene discipline faculty to consider alternating years that some elective courses are offered, and whether there is a key course we are not offering here at WCC, that could be submitted to curriculum for approval to replace/supplement our offerings.
/ 2017-18
  1. Evaluate textbooks/course materials to find more accessible/affordable course materials for SOC 210, SOC 201, SOC 120.
/ 2017-18
  1. Reexamine the value of offering evening hybrid courses and other nontraditional time slots/modes of instruction.
/ 2017-18
  1. More aggressively market classes outside of the SOC 101 core, with a focus on SOC 220 and SOC 210.
/ 2017-18
Measurable targets: List 1-5 measureable targets and time-frames that will provide evidence of student and program/discipline success. / Time-frame
  1. Increase fill rates for elective courses to 65% by 2017-18
/ 2017-18
  1. Improve online course completion rates by 5% by 2018-19 (this would close the gap).
/ 2017-18

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