Occupational Education

I will utilize Adobe Connect to build an online presence, increase engagement, and utilize expert guest speakers in the online environment. I will provide the option of reviewing the session archive and writing a one page summary to students who are unable to attend the live session. I propose to track which students consistently attend and participate in the live session and which students utilize the archives. I would like to see if there is a correlational connection betweeen success in the course and students who particiapte in live sessions.

Culinary students are required to create a marketable portfolio for a catering business while enrolled in CUL213 Buffet Catering.  Students use buffet items from private and public luncheons in Regions Restaurant to build content for the portfolio.  Students are challenged by the provision of details, professional appearance, and organization of a portfolio that can be potentially used for sales and marketing in a catering operation due to lack of overall experience in industry.  In past semesters, students submitted their portfolios at the end of the course, with many misund

 SBU200 – Society and Business is being taught online for the first time this Spring.  Case study assignment submissions rarely connect the ‘’solution” for the case problem, with the content (concepts, examples, vocabulary) in the chapter in the textbook or other resources provided at the end of the chapter.  Student responses are heavily weighted with opinion, even though a rubric is provided and used to provide consistent feedback.                       

The SLPA program requires observations of therapy in three of our courses.  We have struggled for years with students having difficulty getting observations completed in the field due to many issues (observation site schedules, lack of fingerprint card, work schedules, etc).  I also struggled professionally with not knowing the quality of the observations seen and whether they were showing them the skills they need to learn as a future SLPA.  During this semester, we implemented the use of the "Master Clinician Network" used by many University Speech and Hearing Programs.

The first step to building professional relationships of respect with students is to know and use their name. I have problems remembering the names of some of my students that are in my hybrid classes, since we only meet once per week. The Great Southwest Teaching Conference in October is an annual conferenced for sharing out of good teaching ideas. A colleague I met there confessed to the same dilemma, and shared their solution - a picture of each student at the beginning of the semester!

The accounting faculty has adopted a new text book for the accounting sequence ACC111-ACC230-ACC240.  All content is contained in one text, thus reducing the overall cost to the student.  A good deal of the basic content in ACC111 will be repeated in a condensed version in ACC230.  In order to determine the retention from ACC111 to ACC230 I am developing a pretest on Canvas to see what basic accounting knowledge will need to be highlighted during the first few lesson modules.

This is an online course with an emphasis on learning the principles of supervisory management in an organizational setting. The method of instruction and level of learning will be measured by the quality of the student’s responses on the Discussion Boards and their application of the principles of management. 

I piloted EDU221 Online for fall 2012. All EDU courses mandate a Field Experience (FE) where students spend the required number of hours (for this class it is 30) in a K-12 classroom. This is a tedious process with multiple steps, including the acquisition of a Fingerprint Clearance Card, which is an additional cost. As a result, it is not uncommon for a student to drop a class, receive an incomplete (until they finish their FE the subsequent semester), or, worse yet, fail the class due to incompletion of the FE.

The main accounting curriculum involves a sequence of ACC111, ACC230, & ACC240, which is part of the ABUS AAS, Accounting AAS, and Accounting CCL.  I'd like to see the ACC111 faculty develop a common/standardized exam to make sure the students have the basic foundation (accounting cycle) before moving on to the last two accounting courses.  Since we're moving to a new textbook, we'll have to wait until it is adopted next fall.

The purpose of this CATS is to determine if the integration of  two new technology applications into online Early Childhood courses will positively affect student achievement in online EED courses.  Beginning in the Fall of 2014, EMCC will offer an approved AA in Early Childhood so a number of new classes will be rolled out progressively over the next few years.    We currently offer EED215 in the Early Childhood pathway, and as of Fall 2015 EED212 will be added.

Discussions are a prime way to enrich online and hybrid classes as well as engage students. In my spring 2014 classes, many of my students waited until the last 24 hours to post their initial answer to the Discussion prompt. This procrastination averaged 75% of the students. Since I require of my students a three response minimum to other students’ posts, there was often not enough time for meaningful exchanges. Despite my urgings, this procrastination continued.

Students should be working, thinking, analyzing, creating, etc. throughout the day and guiding a large part of their own learning. Having students create their own assessments ensures that they are held accountable to actively listen during class and that they are thinking at a higher level about what they've learned.

In my EDU222 class, we are analyzing Special Education models.   Last term I presented on three models, set up in-class discussions, and had students write a research-based essay analyzing the 3.  This semester, I modified the cycle to include a  variety of formative assessments and ended with an in-class debate and essay. Students were much more analytical in their approach and were much better able to form their own conclusions as to what Special Education Model is most effective and why.

The XML Application Development Course attracts students seeking the Web Development CCL. Beyond learning XML fundamentals, students will be challenged to participate in the development of a real-world XML client server application. To accomplish this, students will be required to login to a virtual environment provided by NetLab+. Upon doing so they will be presented with labs that not only require them to showcase their understanding of XML, but also provide an exploration into Client Server TCP/IP Socket interaction and the Linux operating system.

In my hybrid course, more time  is needed to ensure that students have time to practive oral presentations, to receive peer feedback, and to get peer reviews on written asssignments.  Initially, I would explain the assignment in-class and students would submit it online.  If we had time, we would share briefly (2-3 minutes per student).  The results were rushed work with only average results.