Whatcom Community College

Whatcom Community College

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

Program/discipline name / Biology / environmental science / nutrition
Persons completing this report (minimum of 2) / Tealia Slagle, Hilary Engebretson, Debra Lancaster and John Rousseau

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 / Between the years of 2010-15, the FTE has experience a gradual, but modest decline with the FTE being virtually unchanged between 2013-14 and 2014-15. We believe this to be similar to the overall FTE trends of the college and may be due to an improved economy.
b. Headcount / The headcount has similarly experienced gradual, but modest decline, in line with the decline in FTE.
  1. Number of…

a. courses offered / In 2013-14, an additional course was added (Biology 130: Intertidal Marine Ecology). In 2016-17, this course was converted from a 3 unit course to a 5 unit course with a lab component.
b. sections offered / The number of sections offered has remained fairly steady since the 2012-13 year.
  1. Enrollments by mode of learning
/ Between 2010-11 and 2014-15, the proportion of face-to-face courses has declined slightly, but this decline corresponds to an increase in both hybrid courses and online courses. This is likely reflective of the overall trend in higher education to increase accessibility. We are currently not offering any independent learning courses.
  1. Student demographics
/ The student demographics in biology, environmental science and nutrition has remained fairly consistent since the 2013-14 school year with the majority of our students being under the age of 29 (86%), including 16% running start students. We suspect that this is consistent with the overall trend for the college. Approximately 8% of our student population identifies as having a disability. The ethnicity of students has remained fairly constant in the previous 4 years with white students comprising approximately 80% of the students. There has been slight growth in the number of Hispanic and multiracial students since 2010-11. Hispanic students now account for 9% of our students (previously 5%) and multiracial students now account for 6% (previously 3%). These changes are likely reflective of the overall changing population in Whatcom County. We are aware and troubled by the fact that overall, our non-Asian/Pacific Islander students of color are less successful in our courses (77%) than our white students (83%) and our Asian/Pacific Islander students (82%). Females consistently make up the majority of our students (approximately 64%). This might be attributable to the fact that many of the Biology and nutrition courses are pre-requisites for the nursing program, which has historically been dominated by females.
  1. By course…

a. Enrollments / Enrollments are generally strong in all courses. The enrollment in Biol 104: Finding things out has steadily increased in the number of students. This is likely due to its popularity with international students who comprised 59% of the students enrolled in the 2014-15 school year. In the major’s series, the number of students enrolled in Biol 221, the first in the series, increased from 55 students to 75 students between the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years. This is increase, however, was not seen in the subsequent courses, Biol 222 and Biol 223. It is possible that this increase in enrollment in Biol 221, but not in the other courses in the series, is due to several professional programs (i.e. ultrasound tech) at other institutions requiring one quarter of “majors biology”. The number of nutrition students and, therefore sections, has greatly increased since the 2010-11 academic year (232 students in 9 sections). In the 2014-15 academic year, there were 414 students in 15 total sections. This fairly dramatic increase is likely due to a few factors including the fact that many nursing programs are now requiring, if not strongly encouraging their applicants to complete nutrition prior to applying and that approximately 35% of our sections are offered online, thus increasing accessibility.
b. Number of sections / The total number of sections has remained fairly constant over the last 3 academic years, with some decline noted in the Biol 241, 242 and 260 sequences (roughly a decline of 2 sections per course since the 2010-11 year), all of which are pre-allied health required courses and some considerable growth (6 sections have been added since the 2010-11 year) in the Nutrition courses.
c. Average class size / The average class size has remained fairly constant between the 2010-11 year and 2014-15.
d. Section fill rate / The section fill rate has declined steadily since the 2010-11 academic year (99%) to 90% in 2014-15. We consider a 90% fill rate to be representative of our attempt to maintain a good balance between having seats available for all students who want to enroll in a course and not opening too many sections.
  1. Student performance…

  1. Course completion rates by mode of learning
/ Since the 2013-14 academic year, the student success rate has remained fairly consistent between face-to-face, hybrid and online courses (82%, 82% and 84%, respectively). This data is encouraging in that it indicates that the level of rigor is likely being maintained in the non-traditional courses. This issue has been of great concern for our discipline as we hope to grow our hybrid and online offerings, but are worried about a reduction in overall rigor.
  1. Individual course completion rates
/ Overall, the success rates in each of the major areas (non-majors, general biology, major’s series, pre-allied health series and environmental science and nutrition) have remained fairly consistent since 2010-11. In the non-major’s general biology course, Biol 160, the success rate has consistently bounced between 76-80% since the 2010-11 academic year. Likewise, the majors series courses, (Biol 221, 222, 223), the success rate has been between 85%-95% since the 2010-11 academic year. Interestingly, there has been a slight increase in the success rates of students in the pre-allied health courses. For example, the Biol 242 course has seen an increase in student success rate from 83% in 2012-13 to 90% in 2014-15. Similarly, the success rate in Biol 260 has increased from 90% in 2012-13 to 95% in 2014-15. These increases might be reflective of a greater degree of collaboration between instructors and implementation of student centered learning facilitated by the C-CORE program.
  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
/ We are currently a bit stretched for adequate lab space to accommodate all of the sections of lab science we offer. We are hopeful, however, that this will be eased by the conversion of the Kul 108 lecture space into a shared biology/chemistry lab space which will begin construction in the summer of 2017. In addition, as more and more of our face-to-face courses are incorporating active learning strategies, it would be of great help to have classroom furniture that would be more conducive to this style of teaching and learning. Having individual desks, as opposed to furniture that more easily facilitates student interactions, makes it more difficult to incorporate these activities regularly.
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
quantitative literacy
  1. Program outcomes (for prof-tech programs only)
/ By the end of the year, please formally assess one program outcome and submit your program outcomes report to the director of assessment and institutional research.
  1. Course outcomes: Discuss with your discipline faculty if any course outcomes or other curriculum information (e.g., prerequisites, course descriptions, textbooks, etc.) need to be reviewed and revised through the curriculum committee process and establish a timeline and plan to do so.
/ Please indicate with a check mark when this item is completed (by double-clicking on the box and selecting “checked”).

Conclusion

Summarize discipline/program strengths / Dedicated instructors with a record of collaboration.
Enthusiastic students.
Increasingly diverse students.
Summarize discipline/program challenges / Lab space is currently insufficient.
The achievement gap seen between non-Asian/Pacific Islander students of color and their counterparts.
Concerns over differences in rigor and expectations between different courses, particularly between face-to-face courses and their hybrid or online counterparts
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. Increase STEM identities to close the achievement gap between non-Asian Pacific Islander students of color and their counterparts. It is our hope that this work will also increase achievement for all marginalized students.
/ Fall of 2017-Fall of 2018
  1. Increase the number of hybrid course offerings
/ Fall of 2018-Fall of 2020
  1. “Mine” the Office of Assessment and Institutional Research data to examine trends in the success rates of our students to design targeted interventions by course.
/ Fall of 2017-Spring of 2023
  1. Develop a rubric to assess the quality/rigor of Biology hybrid and online courses.
/ Fall of 2018-Spring 2019
Measurable targets: List 1-5 measureable targets and time-frames that will provide evidence of student and program/discipline success. / Time-frame
  1. Reduce the discrepancy of success rates between non-Asian Pacific Islander students of color and their counterparts.
/ Fall 2019-Fall 2022
  1. Increase the number of pre-allied health hybrid courses offered.
/ Fall 2017-Fall 2020
  1. Meet quarterly with faculty to examine the PIP/DIP and Office of Assessment and Institutional Research data to discuss and collaboratively design interventions targeting underperforming groups to increase student success while preserving rigor.
/ Fall 2017-Fall 2023
  1. Completion of a rubric to assess the quality and rigor of Biology hybrid and online courses.
/ Fall 2019

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