ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
PROGRAM PLANNING AND ASSESSMENT
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
SPRING 2014
I.
Service Area Name: Social and Behavioral Sciences
II.
Date of Review: May 2014
III.
Service Area Mission Statement (optional):
IV.
Service Area’s key duties, responsibilities, functions, activities, and tasks:
The Social and Behavioral Sciences area provides instruction and resources to insure access to
the basis of knowledge, skill development, and critical thought necessary to enable students
to achieve their educational and professional goals. This area supports student transfer,
degree and certificate acquisition, workforce training, as well as enrichment and professional
growth. The disciplines in this area provide a diverse selection of courses that satisfy general
education requirements in the social and behavioral sciences.
V.
Greatest strengths and most significant accomplishments during the past three years:
The most significant accomplishment for the Social & Behavioral Sciences area is the
development and approval of six degrees for transfer:
• Associate in Science in Administration of Justice for Transfer (AS-T)
• Associate in Science in Early Childhood Education for Transfer (AS-T)
• Associate in Science in Business Administration for Transfer (AS-T)
• Associate in Arts in Political Science for Transfer (AS-T)
• Associate in Arts in Psychology for Transfer (AS-T)
• Associate in Arts in Sociology for Transfer (AS-T)
In particular, the degrees in Political Science and Sociology offer new academic opportunities
for Hartnell College students because the college did not previously offer associate degrees in
these disciplines.
The greatest strength of the Social & Behavioral Sciences area is the dedicated faculty, who
continue to assess course-level outcomes and to develop and apply interventions to improve
student retention and success. The disciplines in this area support students pursuing
associate degrees in all disciplines and/or transfer by offering courses that fulfill general
education requirements. In addition, accomplishments of several disciplines are noted
below.
Administration of Justice — The Administration of Justice program is the only discipline that
offers a fully online degree program, a fully online certificate program and a fully online FastTrack program. One faculty member has completed extensive research on open educational
resources and has presented at the Online Teaching Conference, the American
Association of Community Colleges conference and CAAJE (California Association of
Administration of Justice Educators). The program has produced four valedictorian graduates
over the past five years. The faculty recently developed a new Introduction to Forensics
course, which created an option in the degree electives for students interested in the career
track.
During 2013-2014, the proposed Administration of Justice (ADJ) MOOCSICLE was developed
and will be used to remediate, to assess all ADJ course-level student learning outcomes, and
to assess all ADJ program-level student learning outcomes. MOOCSICLE materials will include
PowerPoint, printable study notes, discussion boards, assessments, interactive exercises,
puzzles, games, and videos designed to support student mastery of course and program-level
student learning outcomes. The goal is to have MOOCSICLE available by fall, 2014.
MOOCSICLE should provide an example to other disciplines and programs at Hartnell College,
and also to other California Community Colleges in the state system.
Alcohol and Drug Counseling — One significant strength of the Alcohol & Drug Counseling
program is the full participation of adjunct faculty in course SLO assessment and broadbased
discussion. Interventions have been identified and implemented. The program was
accredited for 3-year period by the California Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Counselors (CAADAC). This certification is considered to be highly desired by those who
would hire our graduates. CAADAC approval successfully completes one of the activities
identified in the previous Program Review Report.
Anthropology — Some areas of student performance have been addressed to facilitate
student success in the courses in physical and cultural anthropology, such as assessing
students in diverse methods like portfolios, projects that include presentations, individual
and group discussions and multiple choice and essay exams. The anthropology program was
the first to offer distance education classes and has consistently expanded this component to
provide an equally competitive environment for students.
Business Education — The Business Administration program outcomes have been reviewed
and analyzed for several years. The SLOs in the core classes for the Business Administration
degree have been assessed and reviewed for effectiveness and applicability to the Program
Academic Affairs Program Planning and Assessment – Executive Summary
Page 2
Level Outcomes. Business Administration, Business Office Technology and the Business
computer lab completed comprehensive reviews of their programs in Spring 2014. The
computer lab faculty are developing service area outcomes, and plan to increase their
services to students in all courses, including Business.
Early Childhood Education — The ECE program is supported by an active advisory committee
that meets several times per year. Members represent several agencies in Monterey County
that support child care providers, such as First 5 Monterey County.
Economics — A full-time faculty member was hired in 2011 and as a result, obtaining and
maintaining data for SLO assessment will be much easier and standardized. All Economics
courses are now offered online. In order to address student success in online courses, some
classes were offered this year in the hybrid modality.
VI.
Major challenges during the past three years—that is, the aspects that are most in need of
improvement:
The major challenge for the Social & Behavioral Sciences area is the need for full-time faculty.
All classes in some disciplines are taught entirely by part-time faculty—Alcohol & Drug
Counseling, Philosophy and Sociology. Other disciplines, such as History, offer dozens of
sections of general education and required classes that are taught by part-time faculty.
The consistent assessment of course- and program-level outcomes without coordination of
full-time faculty has been difficult in these disciplines. As a result, courses in these disciplines
have not been adequately assessed. Broad-based discussion about assessment data must
include part-time faculty, especially in the disciplines with only one or without any full-time
faculty.
Three disciplines— Anthropology, Philosophy, and Sociology— were not defined as programs,
so no program-level outcomes were developed. The new Associate in Science in Sociology
degree for transfer was approved in 2013 with program learning outcomes, but assessment
will require coordination and leadership beyond the availability of the part-time instructors.
The Anthropology full-time faculty member needs training to better understand course- and
program-level learning outcomes and assessment. Lack of historical course-level assessment
data was reported as a challenge for Economics and Ethnic Studies. It was also identified as a
challenge regarding the assessment of one political science course, POL-5.
Distance Education — Several disciplines noted that enrollment and success rates are lower
in distance education classes than in face-to-face classes: Administration of Justice, Business
Administration, Economics, History, and Political Science. A variety of issues were identified,
such as more students drop online classes and lack of support for online students, and all of
these disciplines noted that further analysis of the trend is necessary. Some disciplines have
added classes in the hybrid modality and note that enrollment and success data for the
current year will support analysis of the effectiveness of the hybrid modality.
Academic Affairs Program Planning and Assessment – Executive Summary
Page 3
Curriculum — Plans to revise courses and to develop new courses in 2014-2015 indicate that
32 courses will be taken to the curriculum committee. The Associate in Arts in History for
Transfer (AA-T) degree has been proposed in May 2014.
Assessment — Plans for assessment in 2014-2015 include the assessment (or re-assessment)
of seven PLOs and 64 courses. The annual review template did not require disciplines to
report how many SLOs for the 64 courses will be assessed.
Other challenges were identified in Annual Plans for the following disciplines:
Alcohol and Drug Counseling — The limited number of facilities available for student
placement in internship/practicums in work-experience facilities, which meet the
requirements of the California Association of alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselors (CAADAC)
or other certifying agencies, creates a bottle-neck for students and sometimes interferes with
degree completion.
Business Education —Connections with local business and industry would improve if there
were an active advisory committee. Faculty included in the Annual Plan a new activity to
recruit membership for an advisory committee.
Early Childhood Education —State requirements have been raised for child care workers to
complete a college degree. English language learners and students with low English language
proficiency need time to complete transfer-level college courses. ESL and ECE faculty are
working to provide the lowest level ECE classes in Spanish and require students to co-enroll in
ESL classes.
History — The majority of History classes are taught by part-time faculty. In the Annual Plan,
an assessment of class size requirements for Social Science courses is requested. The original
determination of class size for History courses was based on the lecture model of teaching
and the use of standardized exams. The History courses and curriculum no longer depend on
standardized exams or lecture based instruction. In addition, History courses have a 20 page
writing requirement which makes large classes difficult for students who need help with
writing.
VII.
Brief summary of continuous quality improvement actions to be taken that will help to build
upon strengths and address challenges.
Resources and training are needed for both part- and full-time faculty to better understand
data and outcomes assessment, as well as goal-setting and other planning techniques. Many
faculty were given data on retention and success in their courses for the first time in spring
2013, but their annual plans demonstrate they lack experience in data analysis.
Faculty in many disciplines have identified and implemented interventions to improve
student success, based on the assessment of course student learning outcomes. These
interventions need to be highlighted in public forums so that faculty in other disciplines may
emulate their behavior.
Academic Affairs Program Planning and Assessment – Executive Summary
Page 4
Most disciplines are working effectively with part-time faculty to complete and analyze
assessments at the course level. In order to fully engage all faculty in the broad-based
discussion of assessment, at both course- and program-level, Hartnell College needs to
provide adequate resources for discussions to take place, including compensation either
within the faculty contract or as stipends.
Academic Affairs Program Planning and Assessment – Executive Summary
Page 5
Social & Behavioral Sciences
Resource Requests 2015-2016
Discipline
Activity
No.
Strategic
Plan
Goal(s)
ADJ
1
21, 2B, 4C,
4D, 5A
ADJ
2
3B, 4C, 51
ADJ
3
1A, 2A, 4C
AOD
1
5A, 6A
BUS
1
2A, 2B, 5A
Yes
BUS
2
1A, 2A, 2B,
3B, 4C, 5A,
6A
Yes
BUS/BOT
1
1A, 5A, 6A
BUS/BOT
BUS/BOT
2
3
1A, 4A
4C, 5A
1.0 F
BUS/LAB
1
2A, 6A
BUS/LAB
2
2A, 2B, 5A
BUS/LAB
3
BUS/LAB
BUS/LAB
4
5
ECE
1
ECE
ECE
ECE
ECE
ECO
2
3
4
5
1
Personnel
(C/F/M)
Supplies/
Equipment
(S/E)
Technology
(H/S)
Contract
Training
Travel
Library
semester
contracts
Projected Costs
Ongoing?
$
7,000.00
Yes
$
7,000.00
2 years
$14000 total
$
5,000.00
$
46,530.00
Yes
Yes
$
2,000.00
Yes
Yes
$
2,000.00
Yes
$
2,500.00
$
$
93,060.00
10,000.00
0.2 F
$
4,300.00
0.3 F
$
1,000.00
$
7,500.00 Yes, training
Yes
.5 F (AOD/PSY)
S
H/S
1A, 3B, 4A,
5A
4C, 2B
S
Yes
E
FWS
1A, 2A, 2B,
3B
1A, 2A, 2B
1A, 2A, 2B
1A, 2A, 2B
1A, 2A, 2B
5A
Science
Labs
Yes
H
1.0 F
F
F
Yes
H
S
E
S
Yes
H/S
Yes
Yes
Yes
faculty
2 years
$5000 total
Yes
Yes
Yes,
$1800/sem
No
$
$
750.00
15,000.00
No
Yes
$
81,000.00
Yes
$
$
$
$
$
93,060.00
6,000.00
8,200.00
15,000.00
150.00
Yes
Yes
Yes
2 yrs
Yes
Page 1 of 2
Social & Behavioral Sciences
Resource Requests 2015-2016
Discipline
Activity
No.
ETH
3
ETH
4
HIS
HIS
HIS
POL
PSY
1
2
2
1
1
SOC
2
Strategic
Plan
Goal(s)
1.A
2.A,B
3.A,B
4.A,B,C,D
5.A
6.A
1.A
2.A,B
3.A,B
4.A,B,C,D
5.A
6.A
2A, 5A
2A, 5A
2A, 5A
2B
5A
1A, 2A, 2B,
3A, 3B
Personnel
(C/F/M)
Supplies/
Equipment
(S/E)
Technology
(H/S)
Contract
Training
Travel
S
1.0 F
2.0 F
E
Yes
guest speaker
.5 F (AOD/PSY)
Yes
Library
Science
Labs
Projected Costs
Ongoing?
$
500.00
Yes
$
93,060.00
Yes
$
$
$
$
$
186,120.00
1,500.00
1,000.00
300.00
46,530.00
Yes
No
2 yrs
Yes
Yes
$
500.00
Yes
Page 2 of 2