Building Relationships/Community

Abstract:  Research has demonstrated that a significant proportion of community college students will not persist to degree completion. Online students may be particularly at-risk. Self-efficacy, perceived value of the curriculum, and certain demographic variables have been identified as important in both retention and persistence. We will measure these variables four times during a semester in a series of online college classes.

The Feminist Club's focus for Women's History Month has been Intersectionality and Feminism. Club members tabled outside with posters on intersectionality in order to educate employees and students on its importance.  95% of those who attended the table did not know about intersectionality. After club members discussed the topic with attendees and shared their informational posters, attendees were encouraged to create a poster on intersectionality. The posters were placed on a clothesline for sharing.

In our first run of the PHY131/MAT231 learning community (LC) in Fall 16, we tried a format of seting up a physics problem on an exam, and then use the resulting integral to be solved on the math portion of the exam. We would like to do this for each of the 5 exams in Fall 17. This would allow/require us to focus on intgrals from day one and reorder material in both classes. Some reordering was done in Fall 16, but after our first time around, we realize that more needs to be changed.

Occasionally interpreter assistance is needed at the Library Desk but help isn’t always available. Identifying this opportunity, I designed a solution using Google Translate. I created a set of instructions with step-by-step directions for colleagues. Equipment purchased to support this solution were wireless mice & keyboards. This was necessary in order to facilitate sharing in the typing and browsing process. The outcome of the adoption of this approach to service has been successful.

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Need: Students who make use of class/campus resources perform better academically. However, many rarely use their syllabi. As a result, students frequently ask instructors for things like due dates, class policies, or the # of assignments/points in a class. I've attached two docs: Syllabus Questions & a syllabus.

I piloted service learning into my three CPD 150 classes (“Strategies for College Success”) Fall 2016 with hopes of integrating authentic educational experiences with real life applications by meeting the needs of both students and volunteer agencies in our community. I worked closely with Landis Elliott in establishing an innovative way to bring service learning into the CPD curriculum while fulfilling EMCC’s “Learning College” philosophy. By adding service learning to the CPD learning objectives, students were able to apply in-class learning (communication skill

In my F 2016 BIO181 classes, I noticed several students checking email, texting, sleeping. Those students  usually sat alone in the back of the room. I use “think-pair-share” activities to promote collaborative learning and communication, but this is challenging when disengaged students are spread out all over the classroom. To boost engagement, I established a seating policy mid-semester.  All front seats must be filled first, and no one sits alone at a table. I asked students to get up and move, and late comers could not avoid being directed to open seats.

I utilized Literature Circles as a method for creating stronger community in online classes, deepening the engagement between students, and practicing group work in prep for the course final. Students were in 1 group for duration of the semester, each group given additional readings to read, analyze and report out using the Literature Circles roles. The student in the Connector role would collect the student’s work and post it in Canvas for grading and students would switch roles on their own each week.

For only the second time EMCC offered PHY131/MAT231 LC this fall. While N was small (12 and 15) some interesting results were found. On CSEM post test both classes scored above national average of 47% and no real difference in classes. The LC improved dramatically from first exam to last (pre-final) where the other remained flat. It is encouraging that the LC even though the students started at least 1 MAT class behind performed as well and improved up to traditional class scores as semester progressed.

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.

The problem:  Some students have been misinterpreting my instructions for class assignments with multiple steps.  With two multiple stepped assignments, on average 6 out of 31 students missed a concept. 

The process:  Peer groups consisted of 4 students.  After groups were given instructions for the assignment, peers repeated the instructions to their group. Afterwards, each group (8 tables) had to summarize and rewrite the instructions on a mini white board. 

*Not being one to explicitly tell students to place their electronic devices away, I wanted to see if I could not only do that (that is, have them put them away) but also assess their basal understanding of communication concepts within COM 225, public speaking.  

Two of my hybrid EDU classes this semester were challenging me to actively engage my students, especially when involved in group tasks or assignments. Collaborative groups expert Spencer Kagan recommends, among a variety of strategies, the use of Talking Tokens. Each student is given 3 tokens (I use paper clips from a box in the middle of each table). As they talk, ask a question, give a suggestion, etc., they put a token back in the box. When they are out of tokens, they cannot talk until everyone else in their group is also out. Then, the process begins again.

The fall 2016 Assessment Happens was held August 18 in the CTL. A record number of 61 faculty and administration signed in, with 57 filling out evaluations (also a record high). On a 5 point scale, the ratings were all in the 4 - 5 point range, with a high of 4.72 for the CATS of the Month Share Out and a low of 4.36 for the CATS Differentiated Workshop.

As stated in a previous CATS (Conceputual Understanding in PHY121), the focus of this assessments is on the conceptual understanding of the Learning Community compared with the traditional Phy 121 course.   Current data continue to show that the overall learning of the learning community student is equivalent those of the traditional student.