Accelerated Program Review Narrative
College of Alameda Psychology Department, 2011-2012
The Accelerated Instructional Program Review
Narrative Report
1. College: College of Alameda
Discipline, Department or Program: Psychology
Date: 10/20/2012
Members of the Accelerated Instructional Program Review Team:
Sarah Peterson-Guada – Department of Psychology
___________________________________________________________________________
2. Narrative Description of the Discipline, Department or Program:
In studying psychology at College of Alameda, you will learn from caring faculty who recognize
understanding of the body-mind connection as critical to the transformation of self, culture, and our
planet. We encourage students to examine their own psychological issues and develop a keen
understanding of who they are, their place in the world, and what they will bring to their work with
others. We emphasize cognitive and emotional development through self-reflection, academic
rigor and experiential practice.
The Psychology Department at College of Alameda is part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences
Program. Courses in the social and behavioral sciences are those that focus on people as
members of society. To satisfy the general education requirement in social and behavioral
sciences, a course should help one develop an awareness of the method of inquiry the social and
behavioral sciences use. It should stimulate critical thinking about the ways people act and have
acted in response to their societies and should promote appreciation of how societies and social
subgroups operate. This category would include introductory or integrative survey courses in
anthropology, economics, history, political science, psychology, sociology, and related
disciplines
The program provides an AA degree in psychology. Alameda is the only campus in the district
to offer this degree in psychology. It is an excellent preparation for those students who wish to
transfer to a four-year university with a plan to major in psychology or related areas. It also
provides an overview of the general field for individuals interested in applying psychology to
their daily lives, such as human sexuality, psychology of minority groups, and interpersonal
relations. Introduction to General Psychology is also a requirement for other degree and
certificate programs, e.g., Nursing and Business.
Even though overall FTES figures are strong, it is clear that our department was hit hard with the
budget cuts. Over the past five years, our sections have increasingly diminished, even though
our sections continuously fill. For example, this fall, we offer 14 sections and in the spring we
offer 12 sections. Just one year ago, in Spring 2011, we offered 18 sections, and only one year
prior in Spring 2010 we offered 21 sections. In 2007, we were up to 23 sections. This summer,
Page 1 of 14
Accelerated Program Review Narrative
College of Alameda Psychology Department, 2011-2012
we offered 5 sections and two summers ago, we offered 7 sections. We have cut our department
in almost half! The sad fact is that whether we offer 12 classes or 21 classes, our classes fill, and
enrollment can even go much beyond fire code safety, chair availability, or room
accommodations, if instructors accepted all the students that want to add.
Below is the Psychology Department’s enrollment data that shows, our FTES/FTEF remains
around an average of 25 (F11: 25.65; S12: 24.96), which highlights that historically, we try to
and do have more sections offered in the Fall then Spring and while we have lost one full-time
contract faculty Spring 2010 due to retirement, the department is still strong, however, based also
on the aforementioned information about budget cuts and class section reduction, the department
could return to its prior vigor and continue to reach more students!
Subject/Discipline:
PSYCH
BI Download Date:
7/30/2012 8:09 - “X”
attendance classes
excluded
I.
Enrollment
Alameda
Census Enrollment F11
774
Census Enrollment S12
599
Census Enrollment Total
1,373
Sections F11
15
Sections S12
12
Sections Total
27
Total FTES F11
77.00
Total FTES S12
59.90
Total FTES Total
136.84
Total FTEF F11
3.00
Total FTEF S12
2.40
Total FTEF Total
5.40
FTES/FTEF F11
25.65
FTES/FTEF S12
24.96
FTES/FTEF Total
25.34
The psychology department also notes various trends with its student population. First, in terms
of ethnic background, Asian and African-Americans are the two primary groups enrolled. The
data shows that from 2010 to 2012 there is an increase in the “White Non Hispanic” ethnic group
and a decline in the “Black/African American” ethnic group. There may be a multitude of
factors contributing to this, some of which might include, seeking work during difficult
economic times and an increase in students turning to the community college due to the CSU and
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Accelerated Program Review Narrative
College of Alameda Psychology Department, 2011-2012
UCs limiting enrollment and increasing tuition. Here is the chart depicting headcount by
ethnicity for the COA psychology department:
Subject
Ethnic Group Desc
2010
2012
2011
Headcount
Headcount
Headcount
Headcount
S10
S12
F10
F12
F09
F11
2013
S11
PSYCH
American Indian/Alaskan Native
6
7
2
3
3
1
PSYCH
Asian
183
212
122
153
152
189
130
PSYCH
Black/African American
198
259
124
164
152
179
144
PSYCH
Filipino
32
44
29
27
19
43
29
PSYCH
Hispanic
82
97
68
87
66
97
74
PSYCH
Multiple
23
15
59
67
41
36
79
PSYCH
Other Non white
17
15
3
8
11
9
6
PSYCH
Pacific Islander
6
9
4
8
8
6
PSYCH
Unknown/Non Respondent
142
139
74
97
88
104
68
PSYCH
White Non Hispanic
87
92
76
103
98
102
86
776
889
557
710
638
770
623
PSYCH Total
Second, in terms of sex, anywhere from ¼ to almost half more females than males
are enrolled in psychology classes. One explanation could be that due to the content
of the subject, where topics ranging from emotions to child rearing are explored,
might draw females to the class as females are socially and perhaps hard-wired to be
more emotionally inclined and expressive and tend to do much of the child raising.
We also cover a plethora of other topics that including the ones mentioned above can
be of interest to males as well. Below is a the breakdown of males and females
enrolled at COA in the Psychology Department from Spring 2010 to Spring 2011:
Subject
Gender
2010
2012
2011
Headcount
Headcount
Headcount
Headcount
S10
S12
F10
F12
F09
F11
2013
S11
PSYCH
F
460
562
325
430
363
451
372
PSYCH
M
291
310
212
259
250
294
223
PSYCH
X
25
17
20
21
25
25
28
776
889
557
710
638
770
623
PSYCH Total
Third, for age, we notice that 30-34 year old students, there has been a decline over the past year
from 51 enrolled students to 40. This might be due to this age group perhaps starting to support
themselves and growing families, which might cause them to leave school and reenter the work
force, particularly during these tough economic times.
Additionally, the data shows an increase of 16-18 year old students. This can be due to the ASTI
program on campus as well as perhaps more high school students are taking college level courses
to take care of general education courses, with the aim of saving money by taking classes at a
community college where courses are much cheaper while in high school to avoid the four-year
institution costs.
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Accelerated Program Review Narrative
College of Alameda Psychology Department, 2011-2012
Here is the data for the College of Alameda Psychology Department’s headcount by age:
Subject
PSYCH
PSYCH
PSYCH
AGE
16 and
under
2010
2012
2011
2013
Headcount
Headcount
Headcount
Headcount
S10
S12
F10
F12
19-24
25-29
F09
F11
S11
50
2
10
6
50
7
10
1
36
6
1
40
4
38
5
1
50
8
1
360
85
84
82
97
80
PSYCH
30-34
51
54
35
47
35
40
41
PSYCH
35-54
73
90
46
63
62
75
53
PSYCH
65 & Above
1
2
2
67
40
77
5
63
8
7
77
0
11
PSYCH
PSYCH
PSYCH Total
16-18
55-64
4
32
12
7
18
1
10
1
8
77
6
10
88
9
6
55
7
9
71
0
623
The discipline of psychology is complex, and, in order to honor articulation agreements with
state schools that offer baccalaureate degrees in psychology, the textbooks are usually
demanding. We recommend that a psychology 1A preparation course be offered because of our
perception that many of the students we lose to attrition drop out for reasons that are related to
the areas of academic preparedness, personal motivation, and the complications of excessive
social stressors.
Everywhere we look we see the urgent need for more self realized human beings who understand
themselves and others; who know enough about human behavior to be patient and kind with one
another. There is no more practical subject matter than the study of who we are. Psychology is
an applied social, and specifically human, science. Given the value that psychology can bring to
the world, we are convinced that there is a broader market for the department to develop contract
education offerings that focus on improving human interactions in any community arena.
___________________________________________________________________________
3. Curriculum:

Is the curriculum current and effective? Have course outlines been updated within the last
three years? If not, what plans are in place to remedy this?
Our instructors are careful to select updated course material and continually expand their
classroom uses of technology. We are currently offering three online classes (Psychology 12, 1A,
and 1B).

Has your department conducted a curriculum review of course outlines? If not, what are the
plans to remedy this?
Page 4 of 14
Accelerated Program Review Narrative
College of Alameda Psychology Department, 2011-2012
We are aware that almost all of our course outlines need revision. Most of them were last
updated five years ago. While the course outlines have been entered into Curricunet, we need to
update all psychology course outlines. The Psychology Department really needs an additional
contract faculty member. Due to the size of the department, another full-time faculty member
would be able to help with the largeness of the administrative duties, such as updating course
outlines.

What are the department’s plans for curriculum improvement (i.e., courses to be developed,
updated, enhanced, or deactivated)? Have prerequisites, co-requisites, and advisories been
validated? Is the date of validation on the course outline?
The current contract faculty member is working with the Curriculum Committee chair to develop
an AA-T degree in psychology. The majority of this work will occur in Spring 2013.

What steps has the department taken to incorporate student learning outcomes in the
curriculum? Are outcomes set for each course? If not, which courses do not have outcomes?
All psychology courses have student learning outcomes and each SLO in each course is being
assessed. The contract faculty is working with the SLO coordinator to create an SLO assessment
mapping schedule.

Describe the efforts to develop outcomes at the program level. In which ways do these
outcomes align with the institutional outcomes?
The Psychology Department’s program learning outcomes (PLOs) are:
1. Apply multiple schools of psychology (e.g. psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive,
humanistic, biological, and transpersonal) to living situations.
2. Demonstrate effective communication and interpersonal relationship skills rooted in
psychological perspectives and exhibiting an awareness of psychological dynamics in
inter-relationship.
3. Increase awareness of self, others, and the environment in order to have greater agency
and authentic expression.
College of Alameda’s institutional learning outcomes (ILOs) are:



Foundational Knowledge and Learning – college courses that prepare people for transfer
to higher levels of education or simply to understand our place in the world and the world
in and of itself
Critical Thinking and Applied Skills – an overall set of life “survival” skills necessary to
be a productive, employed, and effective citizen including applied learning in the areas of
Career and Technical Education (CTE)
Personal Enrichment and Efficacy – college courses that develop the life skill sets for
pursuing well being and an enhanced quality of life
Page 5 of 14
Accelerated Program Review Narrative
College of Alameda Psychology Department, 2011-2012
The department’s PLOs align with College of Alameda’s ILOs by paralleling each point. For
example, the first PLO deals with teaching the students the multiple schools of psychology to
living situations which parallels with the first ILO of foundational knowledge and learning and
having the students understand their place in the world. The second PLO is to demonstrate
effective communication and interpersonal relationship skills and this corresponds to the second
ILO which is critical thinking and applied skills, providing students with an overall set of life
“survivial” skills. Communication is a cornerstone life skill that is needed in every area of the
students’ lives. The third PLO addresses the need for students to have an increased awareness of
self, others and their environment so that they can make healthier choices in their lives and live
more authentically which parallels with the third ILO of personal enrichment and efficacy where
the students develop the skills to pursue an enhanced quality of life and well-being. This, in fact,
begins with self-awareness, which each of our instructor’s value, stress, teach and have
embedded in the course as an SLO.

Recommendations and priorities.
The psychology department still needs to learn how to access its PLOs.
___________________________________________________________________________
4. Instruction:
 Describe effective and innovative strategies used by faculty to involve students in the
learning process. How has new technology been used by the department to improve student
learning?
The psychology department is now offering three online courses with three different instructors
(one full time and two part-time). Additionally, the full-time contract faculty member partnered
up with an APASS Learning Community instructor to co-teach a class, which centered on the
theme of consciousness (which is a topic covered in psychology) and writing our experiences
and memories with food (which is part of the APASS writing class). It was a enriching
experience for students and instructor, alike.
The smart classrooms are also a wonderful addition. Along with accessibility and convenience,
they allow instructors to use internet videos more easily as well as relevant music with the
speakers. The smart classrooms also allow for creative teaching and that “teaching moment”
where if a class discussion is going a particular direction, the internet and speakers are readily
available to give support to the topics.

How does the department maintain the integrity and consistency of academic standards
within the discipline?
In order to maintain integrity and consistency of academic standards within the discipline, all
instructors are supplied with course outlines and SLOs for courses they teach. The department
has standardized the text books among different instructors and class sections so that the
academic standards are consistent in our discipline and department. The Psychology faculty (one
full-time and five part-time) is a diverse, talented, and well-educated community of teachers who
Page 6 of 14
Accelerated Program Review Narrative
College of Alameda Psychology Department, 2011-2012
demonstrate a strong commitment to College of Alameda students and the psychology program.
They offer students a variety of teaching styles, from traditional lecture courses and webenhanced courses to very participatory courses that use simulations, oral and visual
presentations, group projects, discussions, and debates.
Psychology instructors often share teaching strategies and best practices informally. Because
each instructor uses technology at their own discretion, there has been no department-wide effort
to introduce technology in a uniform way in psychology courses. The new tenure-track
psychology instructor has created a Peralta website for each of her classes allowing students to
view course syllabi, study guides and assignments, and additional resources at any time.

Discuss the enrollment trends of your department. What is the student demand for specific
courses? How do you know? What do you think are the salient trends affecting enrollments?
Psychology 1A continues to be a popular, in-demand class with numerous majors requiring this
course as a general requirement. Additionally, stressful economic times also affect mental and
physical health, which increases the demand of this field and can potentially attract new students.
We recently started to offer Stress Management and Forensic Psychology, which are required
courses for the Violence Prevention Program. Furthermore, the Stress Management course can
also assist students with dealing with these increasingly stressful times as mentioned above.
Each of our courses is relevant to the students’ lives in some meaningful way, be it Minority
Groups as they understand their own cultural/ethnic heritage and interactions with those of
similar or different backgrounds within U.S. society; or Human Sexuality, where topics such as
effective communication, gender identity, STDs, and creating healthy relationships are explored.
The COA psychology department prides itself on making the course content relevant to the
students’ personal as well as professional lives.
Moreover, College of Alameda is the only Peralta campus that offers an AA in Psychology,
hence offering a wide variety of courses to enable the students to reach their academic pursuits is
imperative.

Are courses scheduled in a manner that meets student needs and demand? How do you
know?
Below is the chart with enrollment by course and time of day:
2010
2011
2010 Total
Enrollment
Subject
PSYCH
Catalog
Nbr
24
Time
of Day
Day
F09
PSYCH
12
Day
PSYCH
12
Evening
PSYCH
18
Day
S10
2012
2011 Total
Enrollment
Enrollment
F10
Enrollment
S11
F11
44
57
57
47
73
63
136
55
56
111
54
33
104
137
38
99
137
121
52
173
52
52
44
Page 7 of 14
2012 Total
Enrollment
S12
Enrollment
47
55
109
44
44
Accelerated Program Review Narrative
College of Alameda Psychology Department, 2011-2012
PSYCH
18
Evening
PSYCH
3
Day
PSYCH
48AD
Evening
PSYCH
1A
Day
PSYCH
1A
Evening
PSYCH
1B
Day
PSYCH
1B
Evening
PSYCH
7A
Day
PSYCH
7B
PSYCH
PSYCH
PSYCH
57
57
41
55
96
60
117
52
52
274
120
394
180
33
33
100
280
192
111
303
80
55
135
38
50
120
170
54
60
98
104
61
165
104
158
47
41
88
139
40
179
93
55
57
112
58
43
136
90
40
130
50
108
44
Day
43
57
100
55
55
47
57
104
9A
Day
55
90
145
9B
Day
14
39
53
47
78
125
42
54
96
23
30
53
9
12
48AC
Evening
21
30
30
38
57
60
52
112
39
39
44
38
All times of day appear to be “productive”; with the exceptions to Psych 9B (enrollment ranging
from 21 to 53), which is the second part of 9A and both classes are actually taught combined,
and the Psych 48 classes, which are solely taught in the evening (enrollment in the 30s for all
sections), most other psychology courses have on average 40 to 60 students. Given our students
attendance patterns, this is pretty much what one would predict.
Based on the data above, which distinguishes class enrollment by either evening or day, day
classes are more popular than the evening classes, which appeal more to the traditional college
student. While evening classes also are popular, many of the evening classes have at least 50
students enrolled, the evening classes seem particularly appealing during a semester when the
same course is not offered during the day.

Recommendations and priorities.
Ongoing analysis of enrollment data by time of day and college attended would provide
sufficient data to determine whether or not we should offer fewer sections of Psych 1A and
compensate for that by increasing our offerings in other areas, e.g., Psych on line and self
improvement courses.
___________________________________________________________________________
5. Student Success:

Describe student retention and program completion (degrees, certificates, persistence
rates) trends in the department. What initiatives can the department take to improve
retention and completion rates?
Retention and successful completion rates are a major concern to the psychology department.
While we successfully reached 67% in Fall 2011 and 68% in Spring 2012, we need to focus our
attention on how to help retain and support the students to successful completion. Below is the
Student Success Chart for the 2011-2012 academic year:
Page 8 of 14
Accelerated Program Review Narrative
College of Alameda Psychology Department, 2011-2012
II.
Student Success
Alameda
Total Graded F11
736
Total Graded S12
567
Total Graded Total
1,303
Success F11
493
Success S12
384
Success Total
877
% Success F11
67%
% Success S12
68%
% Success Total
67%
Withdraw F11
139
Withdraw S12
89
Withdraw Total
228
% Withdraw F11
19%
% Withdraw S12
16%
% Withdraw Total
17%
In order to help with the retention and student success rate, instructors meet with students oneon-one during office hours, review helpful study tips, provide review sheets and study guides to
help prepare for exams, make class instruction as engaging and dynamic as possible using a
multitude of varying sources (audio, visual, group work, lecture), provide quiz questions to
students after the exam to review questions with wrong answers, take class time to review
assignments so that students are clear of guidelines, and provide grading rubrics so that students
are aware of the expectations and requirements.
The Psychology Department’s persistence rate (shown below) demonstrates that we offer more
class sections in the Fall then Spring and that increasingly, a higher number of students is taking
classes to fulfill their requirements at multiple institutions within Peralta.
SUBJECT
F09
S10
F09 to S10
Persistence
Rate
F10
S11
F10 to S11
Persistence
Rate
F11
S12
F11 to S12
Persistence
Rate
PSYCH
889
682
77%
638
478
75%
710
526
74%

What are the key needs of students that affect their learning? What services are needed for
these students to improve their learning? Describe the department’s efforts to access these
services. What are your department’s instructional support needs?
Page 9 of 14
Accelerated Program Review Narrative
College of Alameda Psychology Department, 2011-2012
Academic under-preparedness, complex and demanding social circumstances, the need to work
while attending school, raising children, the lack of financial resources to buy text books and
weaknesses in the area of personal motivation appear to be the primary areas of need that affect
student learning throughout the college.
The psychology instructors at COA are understanding and empathic. When students have child
care issues or are unable to make class due to a number of unexpected issues that arise (sibling’s
funeral, boss gave them a shift that conflicted with class schedule), the instructors are willing to
work with the students to ensure they are caught up. Additionally, instructors provide extra
copies of text books in Library under reserve for those that are not financially capable of
purchasing the text book. Instructors are also available via email to answer questions or
concerns about material, assignments or attendance.
Additionally, there is an increase in DSPS students as well, in face-to-face classes as well as
online courses. Below is the data for DSPS students District-wide:
DSPS at Peralta colleges
HEADCOUNT
YEAR
Year 2008-2009
Year 2009-2010
Year 2010-2011
Year 2011-2012
Alameda
Berkeley
486
543
569
576
Laney
444
401
409
417
Merritt
532
475
440
531
490
391
532
478
EOPS at Peralta Colleges
HEADCOUNT
YEAR
Year 2008-2009
Year 2009-2010
Year 2010-2011
Year 2011-2012
Alameda
Berkeley
849
816
589
651
Laney
406
379
420
384
Merritt
1657
984
762
738
841
575
514
482
EOPS CARE at Peralta colleges
HEADCOUNT
YEAR
Year 2008-2009
Year 2009-2010
Year 2010-2011
Year 2011-2012
Alameda
Berkeley
118
67
100
74
Laney
30
20
34
31
Merritt
380
190
217
176
152
112
107
87
I have noticed that in my classes, I am serving a larger diversity of students in terms of ability,
which is evident in the data listed above showing that this phenomena is occurring campus wide.
This year alone, I have two visually impaired students in different classes, and a walking
impaired student as well. We have a tremendous DSPS staff that are able to meet the needs of
these students as there is someone to translate all written material to a means for the visually
impaired students to receive the material.
Page 10 of 14
Accelerated Program Review Narrative
College of Alameda Psychology Department, 2011-2012

Describe the department’s effort to assess student learning at the course level. Describe the
efforts to assess student learning at the program level. In which ways has the department
used student learning assessment results for improvement?
We have observed that students frequently resist reading the textbook and will ask the instructor
to tell or explain to them something that was addressed in the textbook, instead of taking the time
to read and understand it. Because there are no pre-requisites for taking psychology courses, and
based on our realization that every suitable textbook for teaching this class at the college level
requires at least an 11th grade reading level, we hypothesized that the number of students retained
would be positively correlated with reading comprehension levels. Since many of the
psychology courses require a major writing assignment, a related hypothesis was that the number
of students retained would be positively correlated with writing ability. As a result, some
psychology instructors make visiting the writing center an integral part of the writing assignment
to ensure successful completion of the courses.
The student learning assessments allow the instructors to become aware of which SLOs need to
be explored more thoroughly and clearly in class. The psychology department, based on the
assessment from last Spring 2011 semester, are recreating a new assessment, which will be
multiple choice that can more easily be administered by any Psychology 1A instructor at COA.

Recommendations and priorities.
To create more simplified SLO assessments that are multiple choice as well as learn more about
how to assess our program.
___________________________________________________________________________
6. Human and Physical Resources (including equipment and facilities)

Describe your current level of staff, including full-time and part-time faculty, classified staff,
and other categories of employment.
The Psychology Department currently has 1 full-time and 5 to 6 part-time faculty, no classified
staff, and no instructional aides or tutors.

Describe your current utilization of facilities and equipment.
The majority of psychology courses are taught primarily in the assigned classroom, using
DVD/VHS recordings on the classroom AV monitors, overhead projectors and LCD projectors.
Several instructors, both full-time and adjunct, encourage and build in to assignments the
utilization of the Writing Center, Learning Resource Center, and Library presentations.

Are the human and physical resources, including equipment and location, adequate for all
the courses offered by your department (or program)? What are your key staffing and
facilities needs for the next three years? Why?
Page 11 of 14
Accelerated Program Review Narrative
College of Alameda Psychology Department, 2011-2012
The lead full-time psychology instructor retired Spring 2012 and the department needs an
additional full-time instructor to take over his load. In fact, he usually teaches extra-service
courses each semester, and with him no longer teaching, that has left a lot of classes unstaffed,
which also creates substantial work for the remaining full-time instructor to staff. Due to the
popularity of psychology courses, the department would like to keep the FTES up, and in order
to do so, could actually handle three full-time instructors. Historically, the psychology
department has had three full-time instructors. In our 2010 department unit plan, we requested
"to hire two contract faculty to meet the demands of our students, when the budget allows." I
recently spoke with Bishop Scott, the recent retiree, and he mentioned that when they hired
Christina Chin around 2003, they were expecting to hire another full-time faculty member to
bring the psychology department back to three contract faculty members. After Mrs. Chin left, I
was hired, and then Bishop left. He states that this department is "at an all time low."
After budget and class cuts, our department is still sizeable and serves many students. Currently,
with the 12-14 sections, the psychology department has 6 to 7 part-timers. This requires a lot of
oversight by the one remaining full-time instructor and proves that the department can handle
and has historically always had at least one other contract faculty. This would bolster the
department tremendously by providing greater stability so that five of these classes would have
an assured instructor. This would also be a positive impact on the students where they would
have greater dependability on who their instructor would be.
Here is the data charting the psychology department’s FTEF for Fall 2011 and Spring 2012:
Faculty
Alameda
Contract FTEF F11
1.40
Contract FTEF S12
1.40
Contract FTEF Total
2.80
Temp FTEF F11
1.60
Temp FTEF S12
1.00
Temp FTEF Total
2.60
Extra Service FTEF F11
0.00
Extra Service FTEF S12
0.00
Extra Service FTEF Total
0.00
Total FTEF F11
3.00
Total FTEF S12
2.40
Total FTEF Total
5.40
% Contract/Total F11
47%
% Contract/Total S12
58%
% Contract/Total
52%
Page 12 of 14
Accelerated Program Review Narrative
College of Alameda Psychology Department, 2011-2012
All psychology instructors use technology and should be assigned to a smart classroom. New
laptop computers are imperative for grading online courses and performing work related tasks
efficiently and effectively. The full-time instructor’s laptop broke several times resulting in a
permanent replacement, meanwhile valuable data was lost.
Due to the popularity of psychology courses, class enrollment often reaches the maximum
amount of students; however, the classroom does not have that number of seats. This occurs
each semester, and instructors make the requests to have additional seats with desks, however,
the order is often not filled and as the semester progresses, desks often disappear.
The department needs some important instructional aides: neuron and brain models with
removable parts. Because so much of psychology content in textbooks is conceptual, we feel
that students would be better able to grasp some of these intangible concepts if appropriate visual
and participatory aids were available.
A few instructors get instructional support from the College of Alameda library, which provide
extremely valuable orientation sessions, during regularly scheduled class time, on how to locate
and evaluate database and visible web resources required for completing major written
assignments.

Recommendations and priorities.
To hire as soon as possible, one full-time contract faculty; provide modern seating that is
properly sized and flexible enough for different class activities, procure human anatomy models
and over-sized graphic representations for instructional uses, and lastly provide and set up
computer workstations in office spaces for all adjunct faculty that are adequate to meet their
needs for storage, student counseling privacy, and access to online resources.
___________________________________________________________________________
7. Community Outreach and Articulation
For transfer programs:

Describe the department’s efforts in meeting with and collaborating with local 4-year
institutions. Is the program adequately preparing students for upper division course work?
How do you know?
The Psychology of Minority Groups satisfies the American Cultures Requirement. We are in the
process of creating the AA-T degree in psychology.
For all instructional programs:

Describe the department’s effort to ensure that the curriculum responds to the needs of the
constituencies that it serves.
Page 13 of 14
Accelerated Program Review Narrative
College of Alameda Psychology Department, 2011-2012
We offer classes that deal with the students’ real lives such as Psychology of Minority Groups,
Interpersonal Relations and Human Sexuality. Additionally, the Introduction to General
Psychology courses address psychological theories that can have a tangible impact on the
students’ personal as well as professional lives.

Recommendations and priorities.
Our priorities are to hire another full-time tenure track psychology instructor, revising and
updating all course outlines, and creating an AA-T Psychology Degree.
As stated above in the section on curriculum, current course offerings in Psychology provide a
good introduction to the discipline, but a full curriculum review is needed. A central aspect of
that review will include considering how well the College of Alameda Psychology program
meets students needs, including transfer students, vocational students, and general education
degree students. This review of the Psychology curriculum will include examining courses and
collaborations with other District colleges and community entities that have not yet been
considered, and articulation agreements with state colleges and universities. At present, we rely
on anecdotal feedback from students who go on to take upper division and graduate level
psychology courses, and from students who take psychology pre-requisite courses at other
colleges. We need more accurate and reliable information in this area.
Page 14 of 14