Annual Program Review Update
*Be sure to include information from all three campuses.
Program/Discipline: __Journalism
Date:
__October 23, 2007________
Trends and Relevant Data
1. Has there been any change in the status of your program or area? (Have you
shifted departments? Have new degrees or certificates been created by your
program? Have you added or deleted courses? Have activities in other programs
impacted your area or program? For example, a new nursing program could
cause greater demand for life-science courses.) If not, skip to #2.
Note: curricular changes should be addressed under 12-14.
During the last regular program review of Journalism, the opening
lines of the review read, “The Journalism Program was once extensive
at College of the Redwoods, employing both full-time and associate
faculty. Full-time journalism faculty retirements have not been restaffed, and most of the courses are currently being taught by associate
faculty.” Now, a little over a decade later, we can more clearly see the
ramifications of full-time faculty retirements that remain unfilled. In
the Journalism area, the cost of this benign neglect has been paid in
dwindling course offerings (from four courses offered in Fall of ’96 to
one during the current Fall semester), in reduced opportunities for
students (e.g. discontinuance of a student-generated news
publication), and in reduced resources available to students (In 1996,
Journalism students had a dedicated classroom that housed six
computers, one printer, and two scanners available for student use.).
In effect, this “once extensive” program has been allowed to atrophy
to the point where we are offering one section per semester of one key
course (JOURN 5) which is taught by one associate faculty member.
Recommendations borne out of the last program review cycle are as
follows:
1.
The Dean of Arts and Humanities and the Dean of Business
and Technology should establish a process for reviewing the
proper relationship between the Journalism Program and
CR’s programs in graphics communications, art, and CIS.
2.
The Journalism Program should focus on scheduling only
JOURN 4 and JOURN 5. The College should discontinue
publication of the current student newspaper pending the
outcome of the study referenced in Recommendation #1 above
and until the appropriate nature of student publications at CR
can be determined.
3.
The Journalism Program should continue to coordinate the
laboratory work in JOURN 4 with the Multimedia Program
and the Art Department.
No new degrees or certificates have been created in Journalism. As a
result of the program review process, we have inactivated two courses
(JOURN 2, Newspaper Practice and JOURN 3, Newspaper Practice
Lab). These inactivations were justified by the fact that there is
currently no full-time faculty member in Journalism to supervise the
production of a student-generated, CR-sanctioned student newspaper.
Additionally, the area coordinator for Journalism has rewritten and
has secured curriculum committee approval for an updated JOURN 5
course outline. Additionally, the area coordinator is currently
working with the associate faculty member in Journalism to update
the remaining curriculum in the discipline with JOURN 1 and
JOURN 4 due to be updated by the end of the Fall ’07 semester.
2. Have there been any significant changes in enrollment, retention, success rates, or
student demographics that impact your discipline? If so, please include data
sheets (Excel or Word format) showing these changes.
Active sections for Journalism have grown from one section in ’05-’06
to four sections in ’06-’07. During that same time, the section fill rate
dropped from 91.9% in ’05-’06 to 53.1% in ’06-’07. This may indicate
the need to balance section offerings with anticipated fill rates –
perhaps offering one section of a Journalism course each Fall and
each Spring would help meet student demand and would also allow
those classes to achieve reasonable fill rates.
Data provided by the Institutional Research Office and summarized
in the Program Review, Annual Review, Fall 2007 Data Sheet
indicates that student retention rates have averaged 89.6% from ’05 –
’07. During this same time period, student success rates (as measured
by students completing the course with a grade of A, B, C, or CR)
average 86.1%.
3. Occupational programs must review the update of their labor-market data, some
of it provided by Institutional Research, to illustrate that their program:
a. Meets a documented labor market demand,
b. Does not represent duplication of other training programs (in the region), and
c. Is of demonstrated effectiveness as measured by the employment and
completion success of its students.
Not applicable.
Other Resources
4. Do you have needs (professional development, library resources, and so forth) not
previously required by the discipline or not previously addressed in budget or
equipment considerations? Please describe.
Not applicable.
5. Does your discipline need additional support from Student Services beyond that
previously provided?
In light of the demographic of our student population in terms of the
numbers of students who come to CR under-prepared to engage in
college-level coursework, we must rely on Student Services personnel
to provide adequate counseling of these students. It is our belief that
students who are unable to read and write at the collegiate level
should be counseled against enrolling in Journalism courses until they
have achieved college-level skills.
Like other college departments that serve large numbers of transfer
students, the Journalism discipline would benefit from the hiring of
an articulation officer to serve the District’s articulation needs.
Human Resource Needs
6. Complete the Faculty Employment Grids below (please list full- and part-time
faculty numbers in separate rows):
Faculty Load Distribution in the Program
Discipline
Name
(e.g., Math,
English,
Accounting)
Total
Teaching
Load for fall
2006 term
Journalism 4
% of Total
Teaching
Load by
Full-Time
Faculty
% of Total
Teaching Load
Taught by PartTime Faculty
Changes from
fall 2005
0%
100%
There was
no change
from Fall
‘05
Explanations and
Additional
Information (e.g.,
retirement,
reassignment, etc.)
Faculty Load Distribution in the Program
Discipline
Name
(e.g., Math,
English,
Accounting)
Total
Teaching
Load for
spring 2007
term
% of Total
Teaching
Load by
Full-Time
Faculty
% of Total
Teaching Load
Taught by PartTime Faculty
Changes from
spring 2006
Explanations and
Additional
Information (e.g.,
retirement,
reassignment, etc.)
Journalism 4
0%
100%
Total TLUs
in program
increased
by 4 TLUs
over
Spring ’06.
Do you need more full-time faculty? Associate faculty? If yes, explain why and
be sure to include data sheets justifying the need.
Over the last few years, the journalism department has relied on one
associate faculty member to teach all of the journalism courses we
offer. Those classes are currently being offered only at the Eureka
campus. In the past, a full-time faculty member in the English
Department at Del Norte has offered Journalism courses at that
campus. Since she resigned her position several years ago, however,
we have not offered Journalism courses at Del Norte. We have
recently cross-listed our Journalism 5 course with both Speech
Communication and Sociology. This gives the district some flexibility
in terms of being able to offer that course in the absence of qualified
associate faculty provided there are full- or part-time faculty
members in either Speech Communication or Sociology who possess
an appropriate background in Mass Communication. It would,
however, be in the district’s best interest to recruit additional
associate faculty members in Journalism throughout the district.
7. Complete the Staff Employment Grid below (please list full- and part-time staff
numbers in separate rows:
Staff Employed in the Program
Assignment Full-time
(e.g., Math, (classified) staff
English)
(give number)
Part-time staff (give
number)
Gains
over
Prior
Year
Journalism 0
1
NA
-
Losses over Prior
Year (give
reason:
retirement,
reassignment,
health, etc.)
D. Silverbrand
(Eka)
Do you need more full-time staff? Part-time staff? If yes, explain why and be sure
to include data sheets justifying the need.
Please see the answer to question #6 above for a detailed response to
our need for additional associate faculty members in journalism.
8. If necessary, to clarify your needs, please comment on current available staff and
distribution of FTE's for contract and part-time faculty. Describe strengths and
weaknesses of faculty/staff as appropriate to program's current status or future
development.
NA
Facilities
9. Comment on facilities the program uses, their current adequacy, and any
immediate needs. Have your discipline’s facilities needs changed? If so, how?
Please provide a data-based justification for any request that requires new or
additional facilities construction, renovation, remodeling or repairs.
While the Journalism courses have been scheduled in various rooms
on the Eureka Campus, the room best suited to the increasingly
technological nature of the discipline content is FM100. The theaterstyle seating and large-screen projection capabilities make this
classroom ideally suited to the critical viewing of mass media content.
In light of the impending construction of a new academic building on
the Eureka campus, journalism faculty are eager to consult with the
appropriate facilities planning group to provide input regarding the
unique classroom needs of the discipline and about how those needs
might best be accounted for in the new building. Since renovations
have recently been made to classrooms at both the Mendocino Coast
and Del Norte campus locations, any Journalism classes we may offer
at those locations would benefit from those modernized classrooms.
Equipment
10. Have your discipline’s equipment needs changed? If so, how? Is equipment in
need of repair outside of your current budget? Please provide a data-based
justification for any request that requires a new or additional budget allotment.
Not applicable.
Learning Outcomes Assessment Update
11. How has your area or program been engaged in student learning outcomes
assessment?
a.
Summarize your results.
As a result of recent course outline updating efforts, Student Learning
Outcomes have been written at the course level for Journalism
courses. This was a collaborative effort among both full- and parttime faculty members in journalism, speech, and, where appropriate,
sociology.
b.
What did your program learn from these results that enabled you to
improve teaching and learning in the discipline?
Since the curricular changes that include SLOs have just been
approved by the curriculum committee, the discipline has not had an
opportunity to formally assess the impact that “official” SLOs will
have on teaching and learning. Additionally, the area coordinator will
meet with the part-time instructor in the discipline to discuss how best
to assess the impact that formalizing SLOs at the course level has had
on teaching and on student learning.
c.
How have part-time faculty been made aware of the need to assess SLOs?
The associate faculty member in journalism has been included in
discussions regarding curricular changes to incorporate SLOs.
Recently revised course outlines will be presented to all faculty
members scheduled to teach those courses for the upcoming semester
as soon as the course revisions are approved by the Board of Trustees.
Additionally, at the start of the Spring semester, the area coordinator
will meet with the associate faculty member in the discipline to discuss
teaching methods, goals, and desired outcomes for students. We will
continue to meet periodically and will emphasize the need to assess
SLOs as defined in our updated course outlines.
Curriculum Update
(Reminder: Send updated course outlines to the Curriculum Committee.)
12. Identify curricular revisions, program innovations, and new initiatives undertaken
in the last year.
Working in conjunction with the part-time faculty member in the
discipline, the area coordinator for journalism will have written
updated course outlines and submitted them for curricular approval
by the end of November ’07.
In the Journalism 5, Introduction to Mass Media course, the associate
faculty member has worked with students to produce a CR News
Magazine which is aired on MyNetworkTV monthly and on a regular
schedule on Access Humboldt (public access channel). A sample of
CR-related projects highlighted in this news magazine include:
Economic Fuel, seasonal coverage of Corsairs football, CR’s theater
production of “The Odd Couple,” and the CR Art Department.
Additionally, students in these classes have written and produced a
variety of public service announcements highlighting children’s health
issues, concerns about drug abuse, domestic violence prevention, and
global warming. Some of these ads have been produced in Spanish
and have been aired locally on Univision.
13. Identify curricular revisions, program innovations, and new initiatives planned for
the next year.
The student-produced pieces referenced in #12 above have been
shared with CR’s public information officer, Paul DeMark, for
possible wider use in the local media. Dave Silverbrand, the JOURN 5
instructor, will work with DeMark to identify potential story ideas for
students in the JOURN 5 classes to pursue as PSA or news magazine
stories and he will continue to share them with the Marketing and
Communications/Public Information Department.
14. Complete the grid below
Course
Year Course Outline Year Next Update
Last Updated
Expected
JOURN 1,
Beginning
Reporting
9/89
JOURN 2,
Newspaper
Practice
JOURN 3,
Newspaper
Practice
JOURN 4, Writing
for Publication
Inactivated, 10/07
Update currently
in progress.
Expected
completion by
11/30/07.
Not applicable
Inactivated, 10/07
Not applicable
2/91
JOURN 5, Intro to
Mass
Communication
October, 2007
Update currently
in progress.
Expected
completion by
11/30/07.
10/12
Goals and Plans
15. If you have recently undergone a comprehensive review, attach your Quality
Improvement Plan if applicable.
Not applicable.
16. If you do not have a QIP, what goals and plans does your area have for the
coming year?
Goals for the discipline over the next year include:
•
•
•
Determine process for assessing the impact of incorporating
formalized SLOs on teaching and student learning
Provide orientation to associate faculty on course-level SLOs
Continue work with Public Information Officer regarding
wider distribution/airing of student-produced public service
announcements and news magazine stories.