Discipline/Program

During the Spring 2021 Celebration of Learning event was hosted by SAC.  EMCC Faculty and staff had an opportunity to facilitate 30 assessment workshops within their areas to share best practices with colleagues and increase student learning.  There were three thirty minute sessions.  Some participants presented for multiple sessions.  We had:

1. Number of workshops:  12 

2. Number of presenters:  *12 (session I), 14 ( session II), 10 (session III)

3. Number of attendees:  *224 attendees 

This year, the Psychology Club and Psi Beta (PCPB) have had to meet all online. While this has presented us with challenges, it has also opened up our club to many possibilities. Our students wanted to have events, but indicated concern that they wouldn't actually be able to engage with the speakers, as in other online events they often aren't able to speak or raise their hand as frequently as they would like. We decided to create a Women In Psych Panel event.

In Fall 20, math courses transitioned to a Live Online format versus traditional online. Faculty spent the summer frantically learning technologies and strategies through workshops, brainstorming sessions, and social media. Math faculty also trained one another on Zoom/Webex, NearPod, and Whiteboard.fi with a common goal -  to learn and implement new tools in the virtual environment to keep students engaged; increasing student success and persistence.

The Life Sciences Division created a divsion level assessment. Though some biology courses were not able to complete the assessment due to the COVID19 response, results show an increase in score from lower level biology courses to higher level courses. 

The LS division instituted the use of embedded tutors in our nursing track courses, BIO 156, 181, and 201. We compared grades between our courses with the embedded tutors to our previous courses without an embedded tutor. The results are mixed. There seems to be little change in successful course completion however there were larger differences in average scores. The timing of this intervention must also be mentioned as it coincides with the great online migration.

Student applicants to the DRS office are not prepared for their eligibility meeting. Students do not actively participate and struggle to provide thoughtful/applicable answers to questions.  Some also express a sense of nervousness as if they are on a job interview, which complicates their ability to fully participate in the process.

The STEM program has grown over the past two years, and has caused an increase in tutoring support for Calculus, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology courses. With the implementation of the STEM journal, students are able sufficiently prepare for their courses. The STEM tutors of the Academic Success Center are able to share helpful information and insight, for they went through the same courses and instructors as our current students.

Update: In Fall 2020 and Spring 2021, I continued to use the scaffolding handout that addressed conceptual understanding of limits at infinity (as described in this CATS). This handout addresses EMCC's ILO of critical thinking along with the CLO of choosing the most appropriate tool/technique to solve a problem. In both Fall and Spring semesters, I had similar results with roughly 75% of students (both semesters) answering the limits at infinity question correctly on the final.

Students struggle with mastering concepts in microbiology. Journaling is a method that is documented to help students learn science courses. We implemented journaling recently and wanted to see if there is any significant impact after 3 semesters of collecting data.

Spoiler alert - nope, at least with the way we are implementing journaling currently. We are regrouping and will restructure the directions to hopefully guide students to be more successful in their journaling. 

Differential Equations is a foundation mathematics class for all Engineering. Many STEM students who major in Engineering will be taking this course at Estrella. Laplace Transforms are part of the MAT276 curriculum and is widely used in the field of electrical engineering. The Academic Success Center provides tutoring support services for STEM courses through in-person tutoring, group study sessions, and content guidance. 

In Spring 2018, administrators came back from HLC informing us that we needed to have learning outcomes written and assessed.  We had a college wide push over the past year to get these written at the course, program, and co-curricular level.  We are struggling with people understanding how everything should be aligned, so the assessment coordinators, champions, and committee members are working to help alleviate confusion.  

The program was held during a five week summer session. Twelve students met Monday through Thursday for Math 151 College Algebra/Functions, followed by one hour of tutoring. Students also met Monday through Wednesday for CPD115, Creating College Success in STEM. Every Thursday, students had the opportunity to partake in hands-on STEM workshops and programs, meet current and/or former STEM students, meet with different community professionals to explore the different careers in STEM, and learn about the different supportive programs, such as undergraduate internships.

We increased the acceptance rate at the Student Conference 2018 while increasing rigor by providing scaffolding and a revise/resubmit process with support structures.  Acceptance rates rose significantly from 28.7% in 2017 to 70% in 2018 with added rigor as expressed by MCCCD faculty who had attended previous conferences.  Additionally, for the first time, 9 out of 10 MCCCD colleges participated in the conferences.