Learning Assessment Committee Minutes
Harford Community College
November 2, 2012
Present: Ken Jones, Judy Grimm, Gene Popiolek, Marion Huddleston, Bill Ekey, Avery
Ward, Sheila Allen, Valerie Swain, Madelyn Danner, Rob Frank, Chris Jones
Guest: Stephanie Hallock
I.
Approval of October minutes--clarifications and cleanup needed. Approval vote in Dec.
II. International Education – discussion of outcomes and goals-- Stephanie Hallock
explained Int'l Ed self study rationale and process; SS now underway using Community
Colleges for International Development (CCID) process and survey. IE has operated under
same structure for seven years. It is now time to analyze and recommend for future. Nov. 20
is follow up meeting to discuss results of survey completed in early Oct. Goals and resource
needs to go to BOT in Dec. Stephanie is requesting LAC assistance with assuring goals are
measurable. Discussed types of goals that are appropriate for Int'l Ed program--if they are
solely administrative goals, then LAC is not the appropriate resource. IRPE office could aid in
administrative assessment of program.
Regarding student learning goals, gen Ed goal number 8 (and AO) would be supported by
Int'l Ed program. Courses taught abroad assess the same course-level SLOs as those taught at
HCC, but not necessarily the study abroad component. Discussed the need to modify courses
to be tailored to study abroad/international experience: How to assess from global
citizenship perspective outcomes related to int'l travel? How does venue enhance experience
and learning? How do we measure that? Other colleges use very different model. There is
also a need to tell students, parents, other stakeholders value of travel abroad for coursework.
Starting place may be to query study abroad faculty to come to some common understanding
of value of travel. Discussion continued with ideas about adapting SLOs for locally taught vs
study abroad. One option is to adjust to 4 cr experience. This increases course cost but no
additional value for students in transfer. There is also the possibility of these courses fitting
into ID category and meet those goals. Also, Int'l Ed committee can assist in assessing GE
global citizenship goal as currently, the global citizenship goal is not measurable. Global
education is not necessarily ONLY travel abroad.
Gen Ed committee is working on assessment of Gen Ed goals--coordination between these
two groups is needed. There will likely be elements of the assessment that doesn't fully meet
Int'l Ed goals.
There is a burden administratively to decide to support the program with adequate resources.
III.
Discussion and recommendation for Prerequisite Pilot--reviewed background of
project as a grassroots initiative by faculty who noted lack of success in students who don't
have basic skills. (Jan Brewer, Elizabeth Holmes, Ellen Avitts, etc.). There is also history
beginning 22 yrs ago regarding prerequisites--faculty at that time voted to not attach reading
prereqs to courses. However, pressure from student learning outcomes expectations,
completion agenda, and financial aid rule changes are now converging to force revisiting this
issue. IR began to examine data to predict likelihood of success, looking at Accuplacer scores-OK for new students, but not continuing. IR then examined continuing and newly enrolled
and prereq courses.
Discussed what percentage of students would be affected vs total enrollment in a course for a
given term.
Considerations for Prerequisites: Summary document in IR study is significant doc for
purpose of making recommendations. What will pilot study tell us that we don't already
know? We really won't learn new information, but we may confirm. There is value in
confirming through pilot study. Need to be aware of increased costs to students in
implementing pilot. Committee discussed possible courses to pilot, based on numbers of
students affected and relative likelihood of success as demonstrated by data.
Avery noted that there are approximately 900 students (approximately 36 sections) per term
enrolled in PSYC 101. A concern of adding a prerequisite was raised due to the number of
students that a prerequisite would likely impact. Adding prerequisites will likely have a
significant impact on the BSS and BCAT division due to the heavy enrollment in PSYC 101,
CIS 102, and BA 101. Discussed which courses would be included in a pilot. The following
courses were omitted due to either insufficient sample size, the number of students that
would be affected would not be significant, or they already have other course prerequisites:
o ASTR 151
o BIO 203
o BIO 204
o CHEM 111
o CMST 101
o HIST 101
o MATH 102
o MATH 216
o SOC 101
The following courses were suggested that a prerequisite be added:
o ACCT 101
o BA 101
o BIO 100
o CIS 102
o ECON 101
o ECON 102
o HIST 104
o HIST 103
o PHIL 101
o PSY 101
Sheila and Chris will bring this proposal to the 3AT meeting to discuss potential implications
and timeline of implementation.
IV. Collection of Student Learning Objectives
Sheila updated the committee about the status of the collection of SLO’s. There is concern
among divisions concerning the consistency of SLO’s among courses with multiple sections.
Additionally, there may be other concerns with the HCC webpage changing. Sheila and Chris
met with representatives from Dr. Haggray’s office as well as CTS. A collection of SLO’s in a
word format is sufficient for putting them onto the new website. Avery noted that putting the
SLO’s in Banner may be more beneficial than collecting them in a word document. Banner is
more adaptable to the new HCC website and other college software.
Meeting was adjourned at 1:15pm
Committee Members
Sheila Allen
Rob Frank
Chris Jones
Valerie Swain
Gina Calia-Lotz
Judy Grimm
Kenneth Jones
Avery Ward
Madelyn Danner
Nicole Hoke-Wilson
Supawan King
Bill Ekey
Miriam Huddleston
Gene Popiolek