Section II: Progress Since the Most Recent Review Below are the goals from Section IV part E of your last Program Review Self-Study. Describe progress or changes made toward meeting each goal over the last year. GOALS Status Progress or Rationale for No Longer Applicable A few years ago, a part timer who had a strong background in space weather and meteorology worked with a full time faculty member to develop a Weather and Climate course. Because this part timer left abruptly this effort was never completed. The department is still of the opinion this course would provide a fantastic opportunity for students needing a general education laboratory based science course at the conceptual level. Once this course has completed two to three successful offerings, it would be a perfect candidate for the online delivery format. The department’s rationale is simple. There is a vast amount of online resources for the course as well as the laboratory is the world around us. In progress Completed No longer applicable Since OBR has changed the general education requirements for non-science majors, we no longer have the audience for this course. The department already offers four laboratory-based science courses that fulfill general education requirements and two of them are offered in the online as well as face-to-face formats with a third one being developed for online delivery. The department is of the opinion that focusing our efforts towards increasing enrollment, engagement and success rates of the current courses will be more beneficial to our students.
Below are the Recommendations for Action made by the review team. Describe the progress or changes made toward meeting each recommendation over the last year. RECOMMENDATIONS Status Progress or Rationale for No Longer Applicable It does not appear that the department has fully addressed the recommendations from the last Program Review. Those previous recommendations are listed below. In addition to prioritizing the recommendations from the current Program Review, priority should also be given to taking action on the previous items which are listed below. Clarify for the department the steps needed to expand and formalize an assessment plan. Continue development and implementation of the department’s assessment plan, and report on progress annually. Make more extensive use of data to improve assessment. Consider developing a formal advisory mechanism to provide regular feedback and assistance to the department. Include regular feedback from area universities as well as Sinclair Community College. Continue work to support the development and performance of faculty. Review the department’s curriculum and update as needed. Please note: Many of the existing courses, as In progress Completed No longer applicable Please see the section on assessment were we have reported the progress made during the last academic year. The semester conversion task was huge and we had to reconsider and regroup our course offerings to meet the students’ needs as well as to fulfill the contractual obligations of our faculty. Hence the task of forming an advisory committee was postponed but is underway as we speak. Part time faculty were invited and attended some pedagogical discussions during Faculty Learning Days. In addition to collecting syllabi, we have instituted a new policy of requiring them to submit exams and grade distributions so feedback and support can be provided as needed. Also, strong mentoring was provided to new adjunct faculty, their classrooms were visited and feedback was provided. We are continuing our efforts in this direction and hope to have more to report next year. The curriculum for most of our courses have
and Program Reviews. In conjunction with the development of Department/Program Outcomes, the department should make development of an assessment plan a top priority. A crucial first step in this plan will be development of common measures across all sections of a course. This may take the form of common assignments, common exams, or perhaps some common items on certain exams, but a consistent set of data needs to be collected from all sections of a course that will allow the department to demonstrate student learning in terms of both course outcomes and program/department outcomes. Again, it is recommended that the department work closely with its divisional Learning Liaison and the Director of Curriculum and Assessment in developing this assessment plan. In progress Completed No longer applicable Common assessment questions were administered across all sections of PHY 1106 and PHY 1100, Student names and course numbers were removed from the students’ papers and were graded by FT faculty using a rubric. Sample graded papers were exchanged amongst faculty and re-graded to ensure reasonable consistency in grading. 43% of the students had a perfect score, 60% scored 80% or better and 70% scored 60% or better. In addition assessments were administered in PHY 2201. 62% had a perfect score, 76% had 80% or better and 24% scored 60% or below. It would appear that there is room to engage adjuncts more and provide an increased level of oversight. The department should seriously consider development of common syllabi for courses that adjunct faculty can use to ensure they stay within the bounds of the curriculum. The department might explore use of the new Teaching Syllabus Tool to this end. Additional training of adjuncts appears to be in order, especially in improving their readiness to teach In progress Completed No longer applicable Strong mentoring was provided to the new adjuncts that were hired during the 2012 - 2013 academic year, and during the summer of 2013. Classroom visits were made and constructive feedback provided to ensure success of both adjunct faculty and students. All adjuncts were invited to participate in pedagogical discussions during Faculty Learning Days in 2012.