Learning Communities Team: “Faculty Mini-Grants”
Proposal Cover Sheet
2008-2009
OBJECTIVE: To increase awareness and use of pedagogical techniques focusing on active learning, diverse
learning styles, interdisciplinary approaches and to design cross curriculum learning communities (LCs). Minigrant funding will be leveraged to encourage the development of LC offerings serving more and larger segments
of the student population based upon student-body characteristics, co-enrollment data and institutional and
programmatic priorities.
ELIGIBILITY: Open to all college teaching faculty.
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS:
April 10, 2009 – Final reports due end-May
STEPS TO COMPLETE PROCESS:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Complete the electronic cover sheet and proposal.
Send electronic cover sheet and proposal to Charlie Peterson at cpeterson@reynolds.edu
Print off the completed coversheet and ask your supervising administrator to sign.
Forward a hard copy of the cover sheet to Charlie Peterson.
LC PROJECT TITLE: “ENG 111 and SDV 100: Getting a Clue”
Spring 2009 Planning Semester
Fall 2009 Proposed Implementation Semester
INSTRUCTOR
DEPARTMENT
COURSE
Steve Brandon
AHSS
ENG 111
Jena D. Morrison
Student Affairs
SDV 100
Miles McCrimmon
AHSS
ENG 111
Upon acceptance of this award, I/we agree to provide a report summarizing the project and to share course
materials and course design components (e.g., syllabi, LC course proposal form, etc.) with the Learning
Community Team, the Faculty Learning Community and faculty who may be assigned to teach other sections of
the course. Further, I agree to spend the awarded funds before June 30, 2008.
4/20/2009
Signature of applicant(s)
Date
Name and Signature of Supervising Dean/Director (1)
Date
Signature of applicant(s)
Date
Name and Signature of Supervising Dean/Director (2)
Date
Signature of applicant(s)
Date
Name and Signature of Supervising Dean/Director (2)
Date
Learning Community Type: Select one category in column A or in column B. *
Column A (institutionally identified LC for Column B (faculty choice for LC) Spring ‘09 planning –
Fall ’09 delivery)
_____ Developmental LC- ENG 01 &SDV100 _____ Faculty choice LC (involved courses/
X ENG 111 & SDV 100 disciplines/theme identified by faculty _____ SDV 100 & BUS 100 (please list in blank spaces below)
_____ SOC 230 & PSY 201 _____________________________
_____ NAS 161 & ENG 111 _____ _____________________________
_____ New faculty member in repeat LC
_____ Other ________________________
_____________________________
* Financial value of mini-grants will be determined by three variables: 1. the faculty member’s overload rate (or
adjunct rate for adjunct faculty members), 2. the number of hours spent in the project, and 3. the type of project,
i.e., projects in column A will generally be limited to a maximum of 35 hours and projects in column B will
generally be limited to a maximum of 25 hours.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Complete the sections below to describe your project. A review of
each criterion can be found on page 3. Please use Times New Roman 12 pt. font, double-spaced.
Please do not exceed 5 pages in responding to the below criteria.
LC PROJECT TITLE: Provide a title that denotes the curricular theme or focus for your
community. This descriptive title should be no longer than 5-7 words and should appear on the
syllabus and in advertising materials.
“Getting A Clue”
1. Audience(s) to be served by LC (include rationale as to why the LC will have appeal for audience):
Entering freshmen will take these two courses as a unit thus becoming involved in a learning
community almost at the onset of their college careers. We have designed our Learning Community to
serve students early in their academic careers. It should: 1) appeal to students who are interested in the
course theme of choosing a major and setting a career path, and 2) offer the advantages of an
interdisciplinary package to students who might otherwise take one or more of the courses individually.
2. Central Question, Theme or Focus of LC:
Students often enter Reynolds with little idea of why they are here. This LC focuses on helping
students make critical life choices like picking a major, a career, transfer college or setting goals,
improving productivity, and developing the habits needed to insure success in school and in
life. Though the use of: 1) reflective writing; 2) learning style and career success surveys and tests;
and, 3) written assignments focused on setting and achieving goals students will learn how to make
useful life decisions and get the most from college, their careers, and their lives.
3. How will LC experience build community between & among students & teachers; between
disciplines; and integrate students into the college:
Faculty will coordinate assignments. Readings in English 111 will be documents focused on identifying
student interests, majors, and fields of study. While SDV 100 will emphasize basic college survival and
transfer skills as well as help the students to determine and plan their individual college and career
goals, ENG 111 will create a space for students to research, discuss, and write about life decisions and
getting the most out of college. Both courses will focus on teaching students to locate the resources
they need to succeed and will include note taking, studying, information literacy, and written reflection
in the context of the overall course theme. In addition, the common enrollment and shared course
themes of our Learning Community will foster a sense of community among the students during the
course and hopefully help form student friendships and teacher/student mentoring/advising
relationships that will outlast the courses themselves. The two courses will meet in a hybrid format and
each course will share readings, activities and evaluations centering on the theme of self-exploration
and career planning. The combination of the LC/hybrid course design, course theme, and shared course
content should help students connect their college experience with the rest of their lives. After all,
students and teachers alike will often be thinking, writing, and sharing information from physical
locations far removed from the college.
4. Marketing Plan (internal and external):
We will design and provide flyers for placement in the Student Success Centers and to be distributed
during the summer SOAR program. In addition, we will put up posters throughout the college. Finally,
notations will be made in the Schedule of Classes for each semester that this LC is offered letting the
students know that the two courses are linked and should be taken together. We suspect the "Getting a
Clue" title will promote interest and make marketing the course to full enrollment fairly easy.
5. Impact to JSRCC & Student Success Goals (include information about each faculty member’s
experience and planned use of LC related pedagogies and teaching strategies):
All learning communities are designed to better integrate students in an effort to enhance college
success, collaborative learning, and encourage student retention. By integrating ENG 111 with SDV
100, students will have a greater understanding of how to set and achieve their college and career goals-hence, creating an understanding of college and life with will make the student more likely to succeed
in both. This learning community will also help to further enhance student success through the process
of improving their study skills, teaching them various learning styles and strategies, enhancing their
research skills with practical applications and assisting them in the college transfer and graduation
process. By linking these two courses (which students are most likely to take in their first semester),
students will engaged during their first semester at college, be able to create lasting friendships and
relationships with other students taking similar college paths, and be able to apply what they learn in
this LC specifically to what they are learning in other courses, the overall learning environment of a
college, and then to their overall success in college and beyond. Sharing online class discussion and an
online phase two portfolio as a means of determining class success in both courses will provide a test
bed for cross course, interdisciplinary assessment--like the learning outcomes shared by both English
and SDV or the VCCS general education requirements. Finally, the hybrid format of the course will
provide improved digital literacy and a place to provide additional training in mastering online
communication tools--like google sites for portfolio development and google documents for online
collaboration.
Faculty:
 Stephen Brandon has been teaching for over fifteen years and has taught on both the Parham Road and
Downtown Campuses. He has taught face-to-face, hybrid, and online courses. He encourages written
interaction between students through a shared class online discussion, student peer and group review of
papers, and using a group, collaborative project (both online and in class).
 Jennifer Morrison has taught at JSRCC and various other 2-year and 4-year institutions during the past 4
years as an Adjunct Professor in the fields of Student Development and Sociology & Anthropology.
During this time, she has taught in a variety of formats including brick-and-mortar classrooms, hybrid
classes, and online classes. Finally, she is experienced in the use of website construction, Blackboard,
Peoplesoft, Horizon Wimba, WebCT, and eCollege as tools for engaging students both in group
discussions, individual work, and in adding to the overall success of a course.
 Miles McCrimmon has taught at JSRCC for 17 years. He has previously participated in two LCs (with
SOC 200 and PSY 201). He has taught ENG 111 and ENG 112 in the hybrid and on-class formats and
ENG 241 as a distance-learning course. He serves as the facilitator for the Reynolds Faculty Learning
Community.
6. How will you determine the success (or lack thereof) of the LC:
The two courses will utilize a shared, cumulative phase two portfolio construction to determine the
success of students in the course. In addition, intermittent check-ins with students will be conducted to
re-evaluate the success of the LC in an ongoing process. Finally, we will administer a CCSE-like
survey to get an idea of how engaged students feel with each other, the college, and their professors.
7. How do you plan to let our colleagues know of the LC’s successes and challenges:
Faculty members will report any challenges and weaknesses to the LCT as the semester progresses and
will work towards adjusting and correcting these as necessary for future semester offerings. In addition,
at the end of the semester they will present an overall report to the LCT updating them on the overall
outcome of the LC. Finally, the faculty members will look into presenting this information to the VCCS
during one of the New Horizons Conferences.
SELECTION CRITERIA
& WEIGHT
The Reynolds Learning Community Team will use the following criteria to award
grants:
1)
Audience/Rationale 1.5
Clearly defined rationale/purpose
2)
Central Question,
Theme or Focus of
LC – 1.0
If LC addresses a central question and/or has a central focus or theme, how well are
the interdisciplinary connections described? Are these connections “tight”? Does
the proposal make a convincing argument that this focus will appeal to an
audience?
3)
Building Community
and Connections
between & among
students & faculty –
1.5
Students who perceive themselves as members of a community tethered to their
college experience are more likely to be successful in their courses and programs.
How will the LC’s intentional restructuring of students’ time, credit, and learning
experiences be used to build community and to foster more explicit connections
among students and their teachers, and among disciplines?
4)
Marketing Plan – 1.0
Has the faculty team thought through how to inform the various internal
constituencies (students, faculty, advisors/counselors, and administrators) about
their LC?. Have questions been addressed such as: Who is our LCs designed for?
Are there enough students for us to offer the LC? What are students’ needs in terms
of courses, scheduling, and setting of the LC? Print-based/web-based marketing
materials? External (to the college) marketing efforts must be coordinated through
Marketing & Public Relations.
5)
Impact to JSRCC &
Student Success
Goals, Pedagogical
Techniques and the
Learning
Environment – 2.0
Strength of relationship of the project to the college’s strategic priorities particularly those relating to use of pedagogical techniques focused on active and
collaborative learning, diverse learning styles, and interdisciplinary approaches;
improved student performance in high risk/gatekeeper courses, persistence and
retention, graduation rates and enrollment; and improvement in the learning
environment.
6)
Evaluation Measures
- 1.0
How will the effectiveness of the LC be measured? How will you validate the
effectiveness of your LC? Are both qualitative and quantitative measures
described?
7)
Plans for
Dissemination – 1.0
How will you communicate the successes, strengths, and needs for revision of your
LC to the Learning Community Team, your School, the College and beyond (i.e.,
VCCS, external colleagues, professional associations, etc.)?
8)
Quality of Proposal –
1.0
Professional work is expected.