Quality Leadership Team Meeting

October 26, 2012, 12:00 p.m. 

CBC-Beeville Financial Aid Conference Room

Members present were:

Dr. Twila Johnson, Chair

Donna Atkins

Dr. Patty Candia

Dean Velma Elizalde

Dr. Beatriz Espinoza

Lupe Ganceres

Kayla Jones

Randy Lindeman

Amador Ramirez

   The Minutes of the previous meeting were approved with two corrections. 

    Dr. Johnson presented a summary review of the last meeting. She stated that the committee is still trying to decide the course structure for the student success course. Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Atkins worked diligently in collecting new information for the committee from multiple sources. 

    A subcommittee of this QEP Committee met on IE Day. This group consisted of:  Twila Johnson, Kayla Jones, Nora Morales, Santos Jones and Lupe Ganceres.  One of the primary purposes was to find out from Financial Aid Director Nora Morales the status of financial aid for students for a student success course not currently on a degree plan. Dr. Johnson stated that the subcommittee did not really get the information it needed. Nor did the committee accomplish its goals to determine the structure of the course, who would teach, what prefix should be used, etc. The subcommittee felt it did not know any more than it did before the meeting.

    Mrs. Atkins reported her conversation with Dr. Catherine Parsenault at The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Dr. Parsenault said the contents of the proposed student success course as described to her (study skills, time management, stress management, career tracks, testing strategies, financial aid literacy, etc.) did not meet the state qualifications for an academic course. Dr. Parsenault stated that EDUC 1300/PSYC 1300 was designed as an academic class focusing on cognitive learning strategies. The description provided to Dr. Parsenault fit THECB’s description of a developmental course.

    Discussion about EDUC 1300 and PSYC1300 content followed with regard to its use or the possible use of  a developmental course for the QEP. Dr. Johnson spoke with Dr. Cunis from Amarillo College. Dr. Cunis reported on their student success course which was their QEP. Amarillo did a first-year seminar with EDUC 1300/PSCY 1300. This QEP was approved by SACS even though the content contained elements Dr. Parsenault said could not be used. Students at Amarillo College were reluctant to take one- and twohour courses so Amarillo opted for a three-hour course. Statistics Dr. Johnson found stated that a threehour course produced better student outcomes.  All faculty with a Master’s Degree can teach if the course uses the AVID approach and individuals have the 40-hour training program using the AVID strategies to prepare them for the course. This broadens the pool of qualified faculty to teach. Dr. Johnson has been invited to come to Amarillo to sit in on their AVID training in December. She will also interview their staff and get further information on their QEP and student success course. The course began in Amarillo as hybrid and then went to online. It is beginning its second year but Amarillo reports good results.  Dr. Candia expressed concern that certain individuals may expect the instructor to have 18 graduate education hours to teach the course rather than the training. Teaching this way may require an exception. 

    After further discussion, the committee agreed that the course should be a three hour academic course focused on student success delivered as a hybrid module with an orientation to the online portion of the course.

    After additional discussion, the committee agreed to use EDUC1300 as the course number and adopt a model similar to Amarillo College with a three credit-hour course required for all degree seeking students. Certificate students and students arriving at the college with more than 12 credit hours will be exempted. The committee further discussed delivery of the course and agreed that a hybrid approach using modules developed in Blackboard would be adopted. The class would meet once weekly with additional work done in standardized modules with the exception of career track modules to be developed by departments. Discussion on procedures for development of all modules and payment for the development was postponed until a future meeting. All students would complete a pretest on all modules at the start of the course. Exempting students from modules for which they have existing  skills is important and this will be further studied. Perhaps students as a result of the pretest for the course will be exempted from some of the modules.

    Ms. Jones briefly discussed the LEAD 1200 course that is offered at Houston Community College for workforce courses with focus on specific majors. This is a program that Dr. Parsenault also recommended. 

    Dean Elizalde reminded the group that the QEP could be changed as it progresses and Dr. Espinoza stated that continuous monitoring certainly would dictate updating.

    Ms. Jones mentioned that HCC uses Smarter Measure to assess student readiness for online work and agreed to investigate this and report at a later meeting.

    Amador Ramirez suggested Camtasia videos for additional lecture support.

    The QEP was then summarized as:

*A three-hour course

*Mandatory for students with no proven history of success

*For all first-time students who have achieved less than twelve college-level hours upon their arrival at Coastal Bend College

*Academic using EDUC1300

*Instructor Credentials to be researched by Dr. Johnson

*First term for all students

*Pilot in Fall 2013 on all campuses

*Dr. Espinoza – award a scholarship or some sort of other prize for all students participating in this class to encourage participation in the pilot

*Face to face on each site

    The implementation of the new Core Curriculum in Fall 2014 was discussed with regard to this course becoming part of the core. Discussion on implementing in the spring occurred but the committee decided it would rather have a quality product than rush something out. Mrs. Atkins presented information on changes to the Core Curriculum beginning Fall 2014.

Assignments for the next meeting:  

Kayla Jones: Check out SmartMeasure

Dr. Johnson: Seek out faculty qualifications for participating in AVID training and subsequent instruction of the success course. She reported that AVID has no grants left and Dr. Espinoza suggested looking at new Title V as a possible source of funding for annual support fees and faculty training.

Dr. Espinoza and Dean Elizalde: Find out what true budget is for QEP needs for alignment. What is the cost of aligning QEP for FY14? Velma will assist.  This includes the trip to Amarillo, training, stipend for module creation. Dr. Candia, Dean Elizalde, Dr. Johnson, and Mrs. Atkins will help as needed. 

Everyone else: Become AVID expert.

The meeting was then adjourned.