Annual Report 2015-2016

Committee Membership:

Dawn Tracy-Hanley (Chair)

Helen Wittmann (Secretary)*

Bruce Seger

Caroline Burns

Deborah Wolfson

Faye Lourenso

Jenny Farquhar

Joseph Gansrow

Liz Foley

Nancy Gerli

Christine Crowe

Kristin Cosentino

Melanie Weinstein-Zoella

Jennifer Browne

Michelle Fowler *

Vivek Kumar *

* Governance representatives

Meeting dates:

September 17, 2015

October 15, 2015

December 3, 2015

February 11, 2016

March 10, 2016

April 28, 2016

Mission Statement:

The College-wide College Seminar Advisory Committee represents the administrators and faculty coordinating and teaching college seminar courses. The mission of the committee is to review and assess course curriculum and scheduling, provide guidance to college seminar faculty through training and professional development, and act as an advisory body for new college seminar course proposals.

Goals:

The College Seminar Advisory Committee (CSAC) set the following goals for the 2015-2016 academic year:

  1. To provide opportunities for faculty teaching College Seminarto develop and enhance

their teaching effectiveness.

  1. To design and implement assessment activities for COL 101 and COL 105.
  • Both COL 101 and COL 105 will complete an assessment that requires students to evaluate SAIN reports.
  • An assessment sub-committee will develop the assessment tool for the fall 2016 assessment.
  1. To recognize faculty members who make a commitment to excellence in teaching

College Seminar.

  • Select an Excellence in Teaching College Seminar winner
  • Host A Celebration of College Seminar luncheon in spring
  1. To explore ways to pilot COL initiatives that utilize the talents of our full-time faculty.
  1. To research the different types of First-Year Seminars at other institutions. Explore

possibility of using a common book college-wide for COL.

Goal 1, 2 and 3 were met this academic year. Goals 4 and 5 are still pending.

Assessment:

The College Seminar Advisory Committee chose the following student learning outcomes to assess for the fall 2015 semester:

COL 101: Demonstrate an awareness of relevant academic policies, processes, and procedures related to advising, course planning, and career exploration.

COL 105: Identify resources for career development and academic advisement.

The CSAC assessment sub-committee developed the assessment tool which required students to evaluate their own SAIN reports by answering 10 questions. 5 questions were based on their current SAIN (Part A) and five questions involved a what-if analysis (Part B). The expectation was that 2/3 of all COL 101 and 2/3 of all COL 105 students would meet or exceed the standards set for the assignment. A correct answer was meeting and an incorrect answer was not meeting. A random sample of 25% of all COL 101 and 25 % of COL105 classes was used in this assessment. A total of 52 sections of COL 101 and 18 sections of COL 105 were graded by volunteers from CSAC. The Office of Planning and institutional Effectiveness reported the results for Part A and Part B separately.

Part A of the assessment had more than 70% of students meeting or exceeding the standard. The desired performance was met for both COL 101 and COL 105. Part B of the assessment had more than 30% of COL 105 students and 40% of COL 101 students not meeting the standard. The desired performance was not met for both COL 101 and COL 105.

The assessment provided a few challenges; the main challenge was that they were difficult to grade for the following reasons:

•Many students did not attach SAIN reports

•Students did not circle a program for what-if analysis and did not attach SAIN

•Students circled a what-if analysis but attached an incorrect SAIN

•Students circled Liberal Arts and Science, Biology for what-if but attached SAIN for Liberal Arts: Ad. Ed, Biology

The College Seminar Advisory Committee met in February and March to discuss the results. The following actions and/or recommendations were proposed:

  • Provide clarification to College Seminar instructors with regard to what should be covered when presenting (teaching) the SAIN report.
  • Based on the results of the assessment, CSAC members determined that it was outside the parameters of a 1-credit 10 week course to effectively cover the what-if analysis. Instead instructors should reinforce the resources available for assistance with the SAIN.
  • Development of a college-wide assignment for the SAIN report.
  • Follow-up SAIN assessment for both COL 101 and COL 105 during the fall 2016 semester.

Professional Development:

The committee requested that the OIT office set up a repository of College Seminar documents in Blackboard. Assessment documents, professional development PowerPoints and sample lessons are stored in the repository for faculty use. Information on how to access the repository was shared via e-mail and also at faculty meetings.

CSAC hosted a College Seminar Workshop on January 12, 2016. A COL 101 assessment update was presented and faculty were asked to complete surveys with regard to the recent curriculum revision. Over 80 faculty attended the workshop and the following breakout sessions were also offered:

  • Teaching Time Management
  • Effective Utilization of the SAIN Report During Academic Advisement
  • Implementing Blackboard in College Seminar Courses
  • Mission Not Impossible
  • A Crash Course in Teaching College Seminar for the First Time
  • Diversity – a Generalist Approach

The committee also hosted an Update and Celebration of College SeminarLuncheon on May 13th, 2016. The event was attended by 40 people and the update included information on the following: the SAIN assessment for COL 101 and COL 105, the repository for documents, Blackboard utilization and feedback with regard to the 1-credit, 10 week COL 101. In addition, the Excellence in Teaching College Seminar Awards were presented to Jessica Cox and Danielle DiMauro-Brooks.

New Committee Members:

The following faculty members will be joining the committee for the 2016-2017 academic year:

  • Danielle DiMauro-Brooks
  • Christina Stoss

Future Directions:

  • Based on the findings of the fall 2015 assessment the committee will revisit and/or adjust the SAIN assessment for COL 101 and COL 105.
  • Create a new website that reflects the curriculum changes.
  • Continue offering annual professional development for College Seminar Instructors.
  • Encourage active use of Blackboard by College Seminar faculty and also provide training specific to College Seminar courses.During the spring 2016 semester, approximately 38% of COL 101 sections utilized Blackboard. Approximately 41% of COL 105sections utilized Blackboard.
  • Revise COL 111 so the course can be offered in subsequent semesters.
  • The committee will actively work to address goals 4 and 5.