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Committee Members
Present: Chair: Joni Jordan
Faculty Representatives: Sondra Bergen, Liana Craven, Brad Goodbar, Gina Haycock, Kathie Lewis, Belen Kersten, Renee Marinelli, Milli Owens, Irv Pankey, Kim Pitigliano, Amy Pritchett, Allyson Sullivan
Academic Deans and Directors: Brent Calvin, Kris Costa, Jennifer Vega La Serna,
Articulation Officer: Greg Keen
Absent: Academic Deans and Directors: Brian DeCuir, Chris Knox, Robert Urtecho
Ad Hoc Member: Deborah Nolan, Distance Education
Vice President, Academic Services: Duncan Graham
Faculty Representatives: Mike Chicconi
Guests: Milena Seyed
Curriculum Committee Summary
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
3:10-5:00 pm, Hospital Rock, Room 133
1. Call to Order
Meeting was called to order at approximately 3:10 p.m.
2. Approval of Minutes
M/S/C to approve April 6, 2011 minutes
3. Announcements (Joni)
Joni thanked everyone for getting through all the curriculum matters this year.
She then reported that Velia Rodriguez is leaving her current position and returning to Student Services. The search for her replacement is underway; Duncan hopes to have the position filled by mid-June.
Joni cautioned curriculum members not to launch any curriculum to CurricUNET this summer – as Joni will be working with programmers in Idaho and whatever is input during the summer might be lost.
4. Curiculum – Action Items
A. New Courses – No new courses introduced
B. Modified Courses – No modified courses presented
C. Programs
Kris Costa presented a number of AG certificates and programs for approval
· Vet Tech Certificate will become a 60-unit AS-Vet Tech degree. CCC501 form is completed; the Ag Advisory Committee has approved. M/S/C
· Vet Assistant Achievement Certificate – Achievement certificate. It will replace the Vet Tech Certificate. M/S/C
· Equine Science Certificate: Kim submitted a stop gap program to Velia for the catalog; this program will continue when the Advisory Group signs off. Kris said she’D submitted the CCC501form. M/S/C
· Ag Business Management Achievement Certificate: changed from 18 to 18.5 units. Kris completed CCC510 form. M/S/C
· Animal Science Achievement Certificate --units changed as reflection of new Board policy M/S/C
· Associate of Science in Animal Science: Division is incorporating ag core into this degree to develop well-rounded ag students employable in fields outside of animal science. Changed heading to meet current format. Non-substantial changes M/S/C
· Associate of Science in Agriculture Management: Non-substantial changes M/S/C
· Associate of Science Agriculture Science: Substantial changes to core courses. Noted that this is a not-for-transfer degree. M/S/C
· Associate of Science in Agriculture Business for Transfer (AS-T): Discussion about the completion of C-IDs for Ag courses for this degree. M/S/C
5. Curriculum – Information Items
Joni attended a regional curriculum committee meeting in Southern California; there were three main topics of discussion:
A. TMCs
More of these coming soon. COS has completed three – COMM Studies, SOC, and PSY. There will be others ready in Fall 2011. The District isn’t under any big gun now – the Chancellor’s Office is fine with the number of TMCs we’ve submitted; although it would be of service to our students to complete more. Joni encouraged members to include out-of-discipline course options as part of these degrees, since these are ultimately AA or AS (local COS degree) offerings.
B. Prerequisites
New changes in Title 5 allow for cross discipline prereqs. That requires a district-wide plan and a change in our board policy to accommodate. That project is on the Fall 2011 list of things to do. Content review should include matching all of the significant parts of the course outlines. For instance, texts should match in scope and difficulty, evaluations should align, objectives should sync, etc.
C. Repeatability
Title 5 allows repeats for substandard grades – up to a total of seven. This includes Ws and Fails. This policy will be changed by summer: allowing only for a total of 3 takes (including Ws and fails.) Joni reported that studies show that the more times a student takes a course – the less successful s/he is in that particular course. COS’s policy is currently fewer than seven repeats. Exemptions to the new policy: military and DRC students with an ED Plan. Other possibilities on the horizon: the Board of Governors may make this revision retroactive, so there’s a lifetime cap. This is going to BOG early July and is on the fast track to get done. Students here would have to go somewhere else to retake courses they’ve failed and not report courses they’ve already taken – but with no transcript, there’s no financial aid.
D. Repeatable Courses
The state senate is removing the word “activity” from the language for types of courses, as it has served the effect of creating great scrutiny and suspicion. A group is meeting with PE and Fine Arts faculty statewide to determine how and why courses should be repeatable. Buzzword of the day: curriculum solutions, such as creating new courses; non-credit courses – we get apportionment and students don’t pay. We’re not submitting non-credit courses now, since we’re over-enrolled, per Jennifer La Serna.
6. Standing Reports
A. CurricUNET (Joni)
The CurricUNET conference was a bust. CurricUNET personnel rolled out a new product that allows us to create our own reports. Presently Joni has to request them. At this time, it’s deemed not worth the extra cost.
B. Outcomes and Assessments (Joni)
The committee is aligning outcomes course through institutional level. This will be a big project next year (mapping): what constitutes meaningful and useful data? How to support adjunct faculty teaching single section courses?
C. Articulation News – No report (Greg)
D. GE Committee (Joni)
Continue cleaning up GE course list. Work will continue into the fall. The group is close and will create a procedure about how courses will be proposed.
E. Catalog Committee (Robert)
Deans were sent course descriptions downloaded from catalog; there were some discrepancies. Some information in Banner is incorrect. Velia is cleaning up the certificates and will have that completed before she returns to Student Services. Kevin will meet with the committee to discuss details of the catalog; one hundred copies only are being printed.
7. Old Business
A. Content Review Process for Pre-Reqs – proposed format
We can create our own policy, as per the English and Social Science connection. Joni has created a streamlined policy: looking at success rates, etc. Once a prerequisite is recognized as being needed, create interest fields. With advisories, students might still succeed even if they don’t have the skills needed. Joni had a handout that delineated the process. How will this relate to district policy? This will be the Administrative Procedure for the Board Policy. Reps should take this information to their divisions for input.
B. Determining course units – postponed until fall
C. Proposal to delete information competency from GE framework
Joni and librarians met to create information competency plan. They want to try it for a year. LIBR 101, 102 or 103 will satisfy requirements now or passing info comp test. The test will be conducted in the Tutorial Center beginning Fall 2012 (also in Hanford and Tulare). A student can attempt the test twice (once per semester); after two fails, s/he must take the course. Approve and adopt the Information Competency plan as presented. M/S/C
D. Discussion and feedback from divisions: SLO Assessment/Revision proposal (Joni Jordan)
The proposal adds this piece: Take SLOs and move them into the assessment module as you’re putting courses through, after talking with your divisons. That’s how we keep track of our courses (as does Senate). SLOs would be moved out of course outlines and moved into curriculum. As courses come up for review, take off SLO and move it to SLO assessment piece. Eventually, they’ll all be housed there. But then, what is a course outline legally? What does it require of the instructor? A lengthy discussion ensued regarding the value of a course outline if SLOs are not to be included: what are instructors teaching towards? A response was to beef up objectives and topics. This discussion will be continued in the fall.
8. New and Pending Business
A. Proposed change to Catalog Rights
Greg distributed a copy of the current policy and noted that “it’s confusing to say the least.” There’s a real impetus to make it clear and simple so it can be remembered and to make it more liberal for students. The issue revolves around the definition of continuous enrollment. The new definition: Continuous enrollment is defined as enrollment in at least one semester per calendar year or one semester per academic year excluding summer session and ends with a break of more than two consecutive semesters (continuous enrollment cannot be maintained with a break of more than two consecutive semesters excluding summer session). Any academic record symbol (A-F, CRN, NC, I, IP, W) shall constitute enrollment. Additionally, a new point was added: degree requirements “for any academic year while continuous enrollment is maintained at College of the Sequoias”
M/S/C to approve the new wording
9. Adjournment – The meeting adjourned at 5:00 pm.
Information Competency Plan
Definition of Information Competency: (as adopted by the COS Academic Senate, 2001)
Information competency is the ability to recognize when information is needed, and to access, locate, evaluate, synthesize, use and communicate in various formats.
An information competent student will be able to:
· Recognize when information is necessary
· Access technology appropriate to his/her information needs
· Develop effective research strategies
· Locate, retrieve and use information in a variety of formats
· Critically evaluate and synthesize information
· Competently use computers and other information technology
· Use a variety of information technology tools to facilitate communication
· Understand the legal and ethical issues relating to information and its use
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Currently, the instruction for information competency may be achieved by taking one of the following Library courses: LIBR 101, LIBR 102, LIBR 103 or equivalent course from a regionally accredited college or by passing an information competency test.
These courses address the elements of information competency as follows:
Recognize when information is necessary
Students will be able to identify types of information necessary to fulfill research assignments.
Students will recognize when background evidence is necessary and how it helps to distinguish fact from opinion.
Students will reevaluate the nature and extent of information they obtain for a research purpose.
LIBR 101: Students identify the topics/subject headings related to the research projects and classes they are taking or their personal interests and goals.
LIBR 102: Students state their search query in a complete sentence and identify key words.
LIBR 103: This class covers information sources in print and in electronic format such as books, newspapers, magazines, journals, government documents, statistics, web sites and local sources of information that would generally be required for research papers.
Access technology appropriate to his/her information needs
Students will understand basic operating concepts of research databases.
Students will implement appropriate search strategies for various information retrieval systems, using different user interfaces and search engines.
LIBR 101: Use variety of information sources: printed books, reference books and periodicals; databases; eBooks; online tutorial (IRIS and Research Roadmap); COS Library website; online catalog, etc.
LIBR 102: Students are taught the difference between the public Web and the invisible Web and practice searching with each one.
LIBR 103: Students learn how to find books physically in the library as well as e-books. Students use databases for periodicals and search engines for web pages. They are required to conduct an interview for the local information source.
Develop effective research strategies:
Students will be able to create search queries using Boolean operators, quotes and database limiters.
Students will understand how to broaden and narrow topics effectively.
Students will understand and demonstrate the use of subject classifications.
LIBR 101: Develop topics and link them to LCSH; search online catalog; define keywords; create search queries; learn Boolean operators, nesting, and truncation; use database limiters, etc.
LIBR 102: Students must have search strategies for the Invisible Web and the Public Web. For the searches in the Public Web, they learn directory and search engines strategies with a variety (about 9) of web directories and search engines. They are assigned a worksheet just on ways of making their Google searches more effective. They may have to modify their searches many times for best results.
LIBR 103: The student must decide on a topic and develop research strategies to research the topic in the book catalog, periodical databases, and in web search directories or search engines. This requires knowledge of Boolean operators and key word and controlled vocabulary.
Locate, retrieve and use information in a variety of formats:
Students should be able to use the various features of a source (table of contents, index, “see” references, abstract, bibliography, related subjects, etc.)
Students should be able to use the full potential of a source, understanding how to persist in a search.
LIBR 101: The course introduces students to a variety of information sources available, including books, periodicals, databases, and websites.
LIBR 102: From the Invisible web, the student must retrieve an article from a newspaper, magazine or journal, read the article and summarize it and state their opinion of the topic in the article. They must use databases NOT the public web, and they must use word processing to write their summaries and opinions.
LIBR 103: The students use the electronic book catalog, periodical databases and the web to locate and retrieve information. They are asked to give short evaluative written answers on worksheets according to specific criteria. For the final, they use word processing to create an annotated bibliography.
Critically evaluate and synthesize information
Students will understand and be able to use information cycles and classifications of available resources.
Students will create source-specific criteria for evaluating information.
Students will tailor sources for a particular purpose and an intended audience.
LIBR 101: Students evaluate different types of books and other resources which are needed to research a given subject, including electronically driven reference tools, and justify using a variety of source materials.