A learning objective for Com 230HC is for students “identify, read, synthesize, and discuss information from a current scholarly, peer reviewed journal article.” Three topics being in Communication, and one topic of choice, in their area of interest.
EMCC's Honors Department designed the first Exposition Fair to allow all students to showcase their work in different formats including roundtables for students to discuss their work in progress, poster displays, oral presentations and interactive displays. David Weaver was our keynote speaker and responses from participant surveys evaluating the Exposition Fair were overwhelmingly positive! Almost two-thirds of survey participants (N=90) reported that they did not know about the Makerspace and strongly agreed that they liked the interactive nature of the fair as well as the var
Participants registered and attended the face-to-face workshop that was presented using Canvas. Individuals registered for the course using a provided link. Participants completed a pre-assessment to measure their understanding of utilizing Canvas outside of the classroom according to the learning objectives. After the pre-assessment the workshop included topics on the purposes of using a LMS (according to eLearning Industry), connecting benefits of a LMS to out-of-class activities, and discussing how EMCC can move forward with these ideas in mind.
We specifically investigated how we can integrate creativity more effectively in the classroom for the benefit of both students and faculty. Our investigation included: reading Creative Confidence, learning more about Design Thinking challenges, locating and sharing creativity resources, using creativity to personally address one teaching challenge, and implementing at least one actitivty/lesson/strategy that we deveop using creativity to at least one class this semester.
Students kept an Excavation Journal through the five weeks of ENH251: Mythology. They were advised to use their journal to record: observations, notes, questions, ideas, images, sketches, maps and artifacts in addition to the answers to the various Dig Sheets. Each Dig Sheet focuses on a particular area of world mythology, engaging the student in reflective thinking about assigned readings while also encouraging their use of creativity.
In my Ethics course I assigned students a criminal justice current events assignment. This was a written report in which students were given the choice of choosing an incident of unethical conduct. I found that about half of the students did not have a clear comprehension of what was involved and why it was a problem. Many students were not able to answer basic questions. Three semesters ago I changed the assignment to include an oral presentation in class.
The Feminist Club engaged students in a workshop for Women's History Month. The workshop focused on understanding intersectionality and its importance to feminism. Students engaged in active learning with the student leader who presented. A pre survey and post survey was given to the students to measure their learning. Please see attachment.
In Fall 2016 SAAC conducted its assessment in Communication, one of 7 general education abilities at EMCC. Data was collected from 57 sections with 1303 students in 2016, compared to 32 sections and 512 students in 2013. The areas assessed in Comm were Physical Delivery (Eye Contact, Facial Expressions, Gestures, Posture, Movement, Audio/Visuals and Preparation) and Vocal Delivery (Language, Pace, Pitch, Articulation, and Pronounciation). See attached Ppt. Results showed the strongest area to be Vocal Delivery, with an average score of 3.16 out of 4.
During the week of Oct. 17-21, 2016 The I Will Graduate Committee hosted a “College Success Week” offering a multitude of activities for students to attend. These activities focused on providing students opportunities to learn about programs, strategies, and information from instructors as well as current and former EMCC students to assist them in developing strategies to be successful college students.
The Communication Abilities Rubric assesses areas of physical and vocal delivery. Instructors and students have not fully understood the categories in the rubric. As an innovative approach, my Com230H section did a media project breaking down each element of the rubric into video. I allowed for flexibility with strict guidelines to ensure all disciplines and communication research was covered. Next, 18 students assessed themselves 3x for 3 group presentations.
To combat students being overly concerned with page length and the number of quotes/paraphrases when writing research papers, I decided to take the paper out of the equation. For this research project, students use the research process to determine how realistic the science/technology is in a selected Marvel film. By removing the paper, the students are able to focus on and practice the various steps in the research process, such as crafting a research proposal, annotated bibliography and outline.
I have used the textbook for reviewing physics content. In the fall spring of 2015, I allowed students an option of doing small at home labs/demos, video themselves doing the activity and explaining the physics behind it. I found that the students who did these activities liked them and demonstated a deeper understanding of the material. In the fall of 2016, I decided to expand this idea and make the assignment a larger requirement of the overal grade. I also provided more opportunities to do these type of small projects.
Using National Library Week as a vehicle for outreach to students has been a continual goal for the Information Resources Department. The purpose of the promotion of this week is to engage students to connect and celebrate their library, in this case, Estrella’s library. Previous endeavors included free food and promotional giveaways, however, these activities did not really engage in a connection between the Library, research assistance, and services.
In 2015/16 EMCC hired a staff member and faculty member to create and manage the Service Learning program. Beginning in 2015/16 there were new initiatives to promote SL on campus: workshops, multiple presentations (i.e.Day-of-Learning), in-class presentations and one-on-one faculty meetings in order to increase faculty and student participation.