Student Engagement

Particle Diagrams for picturing chemistry

Submitted by Fiona Lihs on

Chemistry students are required to think about the atomic nature of matter, while only being able to see the macroscopic level.  To help them, we use particle (atomic) level diagrams that rely on different colors, shapes and lines to represent different types of particles, phases, reactions, and temperatures.  These models are used throughout their chemistry courses particularly when systems become too complex to describe concisely in text or formulas.  A firm grasp of understanding and drawing these diagrams is important for success in the future.  However we never dire

Calculus I Workbook Changes

Submitted by Becky Baranowski on

In fall 2010, I wrote a workbook to replace the $250 textbook.  Please note:  I do not receive royalties from this workbook.  The workbook (wb) was used in the calculus/physics learning community as well as traditional calculus classes by me only.  Over the years, I have made modification to the wb.

Multiple Intelligences

Submitted by Roxan Arntson on

Multiple Intelligences is a theory that students have "intelligence" in a variety of fields (artistic, mathmatic, kinestetic, verbal, etc). By allowing students to use their strengths applied in to context of the discipline (in my case Communication), students can hopefully feel more confident in their abilities and engage better with the content. This could be aplied to practically any project in any discipline.

What about my goals? Using an individualized course evaluation to assess meta-goals.

Submitted by Christina Van on

When teaching Abnormal Psychology I have a number of student outcomes beyond course competencies:  Critical thinking about mental health and mental illness, paradigm shifting, and reducing or eliminating mental health stigma.  I use an extremely high contact and time intensive teaching style in this online class to attempt to achieve these outcomes.

Using failure to learn

Submitted by Christina Van on

I planned an intervention to increase retention of online introductory students by making telephone contact with them early in the semester. The intervention did not go as planned as it was far more time-consuming than expected and I was unable to leave voicemail messages for a variety of reasons on a number of student provided cell phones.  Students were aware of this planned intervention and have provided information to me during the first week of class about how to contact them and best times.

College Success Week - Roary's Amazing Race!

Submitted by Catrina Kranich on

College Success Week events aim to connect students with members of the College Community to build connections vital to their success. Roary’s Amazing Race was developed this year as a way to re-envision how information about campus resources is provided to students more effectively for campus resource staff and more engaging for students. As students traveled the pathway to earning their free t-shirt, they were given information by each pit stop on upcoming campus events that may interest them (i.e. upcoming shows at the PAC).

To intrude or not to intrude; Persistence is the question?

Submitted by Juan Medrano on

Intrusive advising services were provided to 33 sections of developmental courses reaching a total of 767 students.  Persistence outcomes were the variable of interest to determine impact of this practice.  Findings suggest that intrusive advising support higher levels of Fall to Spring student persistence, in particular during priority registration.

Effect of adding study session during class time

Submitted by Sonya Zetlan on

Students do poorly on exam 1. Students participated in a study activity during one class period one week before exam 1. The activity emphasized novel presentation of material (puzzle), repetition, additional study time, interaction with other students and the instructor.  The material studied accounted for about 50% of the first exam. Averages of the exam 1 did not differ from averages of 7 previous classes, but grades of A and B almost doubled in the activity group.

Common Final Calculus (Traditional vs. Learning Community)

Submitted by Becky Baranowski on

Not all faculty have the time or nor want to teach in the calculus/physics learning community.  So, how do we help faculty who teach stand alone calculus courses?  Also, stand alone calculus courses do not have another instructor present to help emphasize concepts.  So, Becky is teaching a stand alone calculus course in Fall 18 to see if she can cut down on some competencies, incorporate labs, and she will compare her course to other instructors who teach non-learning community calculus courses.  Did Becky's class perform the same, worse or better on the common final?

The Joys of Double-Secret Extra Credit Opportunities

Submitted by Susan Malmo on

In order to encourage my online students to read the comments I leave for them in Canvas, I developed the "Doube-Secret Extra Credit Opportunity" that rewards them for seeing instructions that I leave in a comment in Canvas. (Sadly, none of my students seemed to get the 'double-secret' reference; they mostly called it Super Secret or Secret -- sigh! I guess I'm officaly old if no one remembers Animal House anymore!) The results were amazing; it really got my students talking to me about what they liked and what they were interested in as it relates to the courses

Infusing Guided Pathways into the Student Success Fair Passport Redesign

Submitted by Jake Ormond on

The “I Will Graduate” team noticed challenges with the Student Success Fair passport because some students were not completing all four zones and earning their prize. Mirroring the principles of guided pathways, the committee decided to create a passport that progressed through a pathway of zones rather than letting the students pick and choose which zone they wanted to visit. Students began in the CTL by watching an orientation video, and then progressed through the zone in this order: (1) Learn, (2) Engage, (3) Connect, (4) Graduate.

Ask Me Redesign to Better Leverage Existing Resources

Submitted by Jake Ormond on

The EMCC “Ask Me” Team was created to help students with aspects of the enrollment cycle during the first week of classes.The first iteration of the Ask Me Model entailed long trainings for employees in order to master the concepts of different student affairs departments. The “Ask Me” Coordinating Team chose to take a different approach to welcoming students in order to quickly and efficiently give them “just in time answers”. First, the long training sessions were eliminated and volunteers were asked to become Ask Me Guides, not subject matter experts.

CPD150 Critical Inquiry in Career Development

Submitted by Jason Martinez on

The Counseling Division wanted to determine the effectiveness of the CPD150 Career Unit which includes a Career Interest Assessment, Career Research, and Career Planning. In effort to measure the Career Units effectiveness on student learning we created a 5 item Pre/Post Assessment that is modeled after the Critical Inquiry Rubric. The Pre Assessment was administered in the beginning of the Fall 2017 semester with 741 responses and the Post Assessment was administered in November of 2017.

Learning Accounting-Online VS F2F

Submitted by Sylvia Ong on

This CATS' purpose was to determine if part of an ACC230 exam resulted in a statistically significant difference between an onine course and a F2F course.  In Fall of 2017, I piloted an ACC230 online class.  I wondered if there would be a major grade/score difference on an Inventory Valuation problem using First-In-First-Out (FIFO) and Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) between the two, different, instructional modalities.  I picked this accounting topic because it was used in two prior CATS (candy example).  My hypothesis was that online students would score lower, because learni