WINTER 2016 NEWSLETTER

FROM THE OFFICE OF KURT HUEG 
Acting Vice President of Instruction & Institutional Research 
 
The Fall and Winter Quarters have been an extremely busy time in the Instruction Office and I want to thank those who have helped me jump into my role as Acting Vice President. A special thanks to Associate Vice President Andrew LaManque, College Researcher Elaine Kuo and our Instruction Office staff members Justin Schultz, Mary Vanatta, Denise Perez, Shawna Aced, Bernie Day and Rachel Solvason. As you will see below, Andrew and our team have kept many projects moving forward during this time and hav e helped us advance on key initiatives such as student equity, the college educational master plan, improving access to data, and basic skills education. 

During the Fall Quarter, much of my time was spent in the tenure review process and I want to thank all the faculty who dedicate their time to this important process, for their dedication to excellence and their hard work in making sure the process moves forward with integrity. I am very proud of the new faculty we are bringing to our campus to inspire and challenge our students and I am also humbled by the quality of the tenure committees we have at Foothill and the quality of the dialogue that goes on around improving learning, better serving students of all abilities and creating quality education for all.

During Winter Quarter, we held a kick off meeting for our Institutional Self Evaluation and Accreditation site visit scheduled for Fall of 2017, and I really encourage the entire campus to become engaged in this important process. An institutional self evaluation is intended to cross all segments of the campus community and create meaningful dialogue about how we are doing and where we want to improve. Without participation from everyone we cannot accomplish this goal. Over the next quarter we will be assembling our teams which will review the accreditation standards and gather data and qualitative information about how we are addressing the standards and I encourage everyone to consider volunteering for a standard team. The time commitment is not as bad as most people think, and the experience is valuable to both your professional growth but also a huge value to our campus.

Lastly, I want to thank everyone for their contributions to program review during Fall and Winter Quarters, and know that the Instruction Office takes its responsibilities in this area very seriously and we take the time to read each program review thoroughly and the Program Review Committee is doing an outstanding job providing feedback to departments who have completed comprehensive reviews this year. I want to thank this committee for its tireless work and recognize the dedication this committee shows in doing such hard work for the campus.

It is truly an honor to serve our college as Acting Vice President and I look forward to serving you all in meeting our students' needs in the months ahead.
FROM THE DESK OF ANDREW LAMANQUE 
Associate Vice President of Instruction
 

Over the last six months, the AVP Office has supported a var iety of institutional effectiveness activities and special projects including Pro gram Review, Accreditation, New Program Submissions, the Bachelor Degree I ni tiative, Student Equity and Basic Skills Categorical Funding Oversight and Planning, New Fa culty Training, SLO Committee, IP&B, Mission Statement Review, Assessment Taskforce, the Stanford Preparing Future Professors program, Load Taskforce, Liaison with the Banner Workgroup, and the contract with IEPI for PRT Training. 
 
There are a number of key milestones achieved this fall and winter, incl uding:
  • Submission of the Sunnyvale Center Substantive Change Proposal to ACCJC for the move from the Middlefield Campus in Fall 2016.
  • Selection of Hilda Fernandez (English Professor) as a Faculty Coordinator to help organize our Program Outcomes and Teaching Academy equity plan initiatives.
  • Development (still in beta) of a new online Program Review data tool.
  • Approval by the state Chancellor's Office of the Personal Trainer Certificate.
Review of C3MS
The Curriculum Management System (CMS) Review Committee met on January 12, 2016 to review progress. The group made the following recommendations:
  • Overall recommendation for the long term is to move towards a vendor (perhaps starting with discussions in fall 2016).
  • We would like to work with De Anza to see if they would want to go in together so this would be a district-wide project.
  • It is recommended that we ask the college / Marketing Office to support efforts to complete items C (external forms - requiring attachments before moving to next step) and maybe A (Live Comparison Window - starting with access for those outlines properly formatted, moving to a new input system to provide consistent formatting of outlines) and B (strip text formatting) this winter and spring. We will hold off on D - single sign-on.
  • We will do another check-in during the spring 2016.
Assessment Taskforce
The Assessment Taskforce, led by Tri-Chairs Casie Wheat, Carolyn Holcroft, and Andrew LaManque, has continued to meet. The group has had discussions around implementing Multiple Measures pilots, starting with English in Spring 2016. Based on research by the RP Group, using multiple measures of placement (in addition to the placement test) such as high school grades and GPA, as well as self-reported information, can provide more accurate placements. The results so far show that more students can be admitted to college level courses with no impact on success rates. The Multiple Measures pilot is included in the Student Equity Plan.
 
Scheduling - Resource Live 25 Software
Based on a review of the software and discussions with De Anza, we will be upgrading to Resource 25 Live this spring going live for fall in September. The new software will make it easier to share information on our room utilization, including events scheduling. http://ets.fhda.edu/projects/_25live/index.html

Institutional Effectiveness Partnership Initiative (IEPI) Grant and Goals
The Office of Instruction has been working with College of the Canyons to provide support for Partnership Resource Team (PRT) training. PRT's are made up of faculty and staff from around that state that are invited to visit colleges to provide support for best practices in a range of areas such as integrated planning and budgeting and enrollment management. Foothill College also participates on the Executive and Advisory Committees. This winter we have also participated on the Policy, Procedures, and Practices Workgroup that is leading the Best Practices Resources Project starting with developing resources for integrated planning and disaggregation of data (including SLOs).
 
Student Equity Workgroup
The Student Equity Workgroup continues to fund projects aimed at achieving the goals included in our equity plan. These goals include research, professional development, and activities meant to increase course success rates for disproportionately impacted students. Searches are under way for a Director of Equity Programs, administrative assistant and instructional services coordinator (focusing on equity research).
 
SLO Upload to C3MS
Individual course-level SLO statements continue to be exported from TracDat and uploaded to the C3MS system at the end of each quarter.
 
Program Review Committee (PRC) 
The Program Review Committee has been meeting with interested departments to discuss their program reviews. To date we have met with nine units. The discussions have been very positive allowing a better understanding of the programs and of the goals for program review. The committee will be meeting in the coming weeks to develop its recommendations for PaRC due in April.
 
Accreditation Self-Study
Ten individuals attended an ACCJC self-study training last fall. There was a self-study kick off meeting on February 4, 2016. The meeting included those that went to the training and the core mission workgroup tri-chairs. Self-study teams will begin work in spring. All are encouraged to participate.
 
Stanford Preparing Future Professors Program
Thanks to Scott Lankford, Sarah Parikh, Gillian Schultz, and Carolyn Holcroft for being mentors for Stanford PhD students. This has been a great opportunity for Foothill College to introduce future professors to what it is like to work at a community college. 
 
CURRICULUM CORNER
By Mary Vanatta 
 
It is hard for me to believe that I have already been Foothill College's Curriculum Coordinator for over six months! We all know that the curricular process never sleeps, and since Day One I have been continually learning the ins-and-outs of Foothill's College Curriculum Committee (CCC), navigating the state Chancellor's Office's procedures, and becoming familiar with Title V. Stepping into a role that was held by one person for over a decade is no easy task, and I appreciate all of the support and patience I have been given by all of you!
 
One major news item this quarter is the hard work that's been put into getting the Dental Hygiene
baccalaureate degree program ready for final submission to the state Chancellor's Office. A small, but not insignificant, part of that work was determining which course numbers to assign to the new upper division courses associated with the B.S. degree. After careful consideration, the CCC determined that 300-level courses will be designated upper division, beginning with the 2016-2017 course catalog. I am currently working with affected faculty to select new numbers for all existing 300-level courses. Please refer to the upcoming catalog, published Summer 2016, for this and a few other updates to our Course Numbering System language.
 
This year, the CCC approved a slightly earlier deadline for curriculum (program) sheet submissions, which was February 1st. I would like to thank the faculty, deans, and curriculum representatives, who all worked tirelessly to meet this new deadline! As a reminder, the deadline for new and updated course outlines (including Title V updates) for the 2017-2018 catalog will be Friday, June 17th, 2016. It may seem like the distant future but, trust me, it will be here before you know it!
Canvas Update 
By Judy Baker 

Many faculty have already embraced our process for transition from Etudes to Canvas as our course management system enthusiastically by getting trained and setting up new Canvas course sites. In the 2016 Winter Quarter, we have 40 faculty members and 71 course sections using Canvas. Over 70 faculty members have completed Canvas training so far. Please note that Etudes will no longer be available after the 2017 Spring Quarter.
 
You are invited to get familiar with Canvas by:
Faculty and students now have direct access from their Canvas course sites to the following resources:
  • Proctorio - FREE remote proctored testing
  • VoiceThread - rich multimedia for student engagement and interaction
  • Turnitin - plagiarism detection software
  • Macmillan - textbook publisher's content
  • Pearson MyLab and Mastering - textbook publisher's content & software
  • Cengage - textbook publisher's content and software
  • EvalKIT - for administering student course evaluation surveys
  • Canvas Support Cloud Services - help desk phone number for evenings and weekends
  • Content Migrations Tool - for copying site content from Etudes to Canvas
HONORS & ARTICULATION UPDATES  
By Bernie Day & Rachel Solvason

Where Are They Now?

For each newsletter, we try to update the Foothill College community on some of our former honors students. In past newsletters, we have focused on honors students from years ago, focusing on the more accomplished professionals. For this edition, we are offering an update on some of our more recent students, including their transfer university, graduation year, and current position.

How many students do you recognize? 

 
Akul Aggarwal
Mechanical Engineer
 Swift Engineering
UCSD 
Sarah Schueler
Product Marketing Manager
Chobolabs
 University of Pennsylvania ('15)
Natalia Li
Bank Executive

Washington D.C.

Mt. Holyoke College ('13) 
 
Anthony Quintero
 Senior Customer Service Support Analyst
 Warner Bros. Entertainment
 UCLA ('12) 
Kiah Breslin-Kessler
 Psychology Research
& Case Management
 Eastern Washington University (M.S. Expected 2017)
 Santa Clara University ('13) 
Graham Dietz
Research Assistant
Sasakawa Peace Foundation
 UC Berkeley ('15) 


Daniel Porat 
Marketing 
Folloze 
UCLA ('13) 
 Inga Manasherob 
Content Manager 
Yowza 
UC Davis ('15)
Dor Carpel 
Director of Finance 
LA Hacks 
UCLA ('14)
 
Edgar Cook 
Researcher 
Benenson Strategy Group 
UC Berkeley
Helen Tang 
Legal Assistant 
Law Offices of Drew Henwood 
UCLA ('14) 
Dana Frostig 
Researcher 
Jesse Rissman Memory Lab 
UCLA ('14) 
 
Ophir Gam 
Account Executive 
The Dolphin Group 
UCLA ('14)
Cleve Wong 
Senior Marketing Analyst 
UCLA Health System 
UCLA ('11) 
Stephanie Parks 
University Recruiter 
Facebook 
UC Davis ('12) 
 
Shervin Nakhjavani 
Actor, Writer, Radio Personality
Concordia University ('15) 
 
 Maritza Arreola 
Education and Employment Specialist 
Los Angeles LGBT Center 
Mills College ('14)
 
Foothill College Honors Students to Present Research 
 
On Saturday, May 7, Foothill College students will present their research at the seventh annual Bay Area Community College Honors Research Symposium, which will be held at University of California, Berkeley. The event attracts more than 350 students and faculty from across California. Honors faculty, or faculty thinking about teaching an honors course, are encouraged to attend this event. The Honors Institute is able to cover the registration fee for those who attend. Contact Bernie Day for more information.

Registration will open soon at:
http://www.losmedanos.edu/honors/research/info.asp
The registration deadline is April 16.

New Honors Transfer Partners

Due to our membership in the Honors Transfer Council of California (HTCC), Foothill Honors students now have
enhanced transfer consideration and/or other benefits at the partner campus. These may include guaranteed or priority acceptance consideration, special scholarships, housing priority, pre-transfer library privileges, recognition of HTCC honors program completion as an indicator of academic rigor, and a range of other academic, cultural, and social benefits.


For more information, check out the HTCC at
  http://htcca.org/ 

Finally! A Transfer Center Director!

Let's extend a warm welcome to Cleve Freeman and Karen Oeh! Effective January 25, Cleve began dividing his responsibilities between serving as a member of the counseling faculty and serving as the Transfer Center Director; Karen Oeh began her new position as the Transfer Center Coordinator in August 2015.

Associate Degree for Transfer (AD-T) Update

Foothill College faculty may now submit program applications for the following Associate Degrees for Transfer:
  • Child and Adolescent Development
  • Global Studies
  • Public Health Science
  • Social Justice Studies
The templates for these degrees are available online at: 
http://extranet.cccco.edu/Divisions/AcademicAffairs/CurriculumandInstructionUnit/TransferModelCurriculum.aspx

New Articulation Deadlines

June 1, 2016                       UC transferability for 2016-2017
December 1, 2016              CSU GE approval for 2017-2018
December 1, 2015              IGETC approval for 2017-2018
Ongoing                              C-ID approval for 2016-2017
 
Please contact  Bernie Day ASAP regarding the submission of new courses or significantly revised courses for these articulation approvals.
 
 
Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) Updates
By Jennifer Sinclair

The Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) Committee decided during its first two meetings to seek out training on SLOs and their assessment. The goal is two-fold:
  • Grow a cadre of informed individuals who can serve as resources for their divisions and service areas and for the College, in general.
  • Support conversations across campus on student learning, teaching, and improvement.
On March 03, five members of the SLO committee attended a full-day workshop on Assessing Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs). This workshop was hosted by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) and led by Dr. Linda Suskie. The members who attended will share their experiences with the rest of the committee at the next committee meeting.

In April 2016, several faculty will attend a 4 workshop series in San Diego, CA:
  • Student Learning Outcomes Fundamentals and New Techniques
  • Integrating Cultural Competence
  • Cultural Competence and Measuring Student Learning
  • Building Your Assessment Process with Improvement in Mind
Participants will report out to their colleagues at department meetings and SLO Coordinators will report out to the SLO Committee and their respective divisions. The SLO Committee is looking forward to developing a practice of reflective improvement across campus, by researching tools and techniques and sharing those with our campus community.

Revised Foothill College Mission Statement
By Justin Schultz

As part of the Educational Master Planning (EMP) process, the Planning and Resource Council (PaRC) elected to revise Foothill College's existing Mission Statement, in an effort to better align with the College's current goals and practices.

The revised Mission Statement, approved by PaRC on November 18, 2015 and the Board of Trustees on February 08, 2016, is as follows:


Believing a well-educated population is essential to sustaining and enhancing a democratic society, Foothill College offers programs and services that empower students to achieve their goals as members of the workforce, as future students and as global citizens. We work to obtain equity in achievement of student outcomes for all California student populations, and are guided by our core values of honesty, integrity, trust, openness, transparency, forgiveness, and sustainability.

Educational Master Plan (EMP) Updates
by Elaine Kuo 

After a year-long process focused on gathering college and community input, the Foothill College Educational Master Plan (EMP) revision is complete. The document was approved by both PaRC and the Board of Trustees in February 2016. The plan identifies the college's vision and priorities over the next eight years (2016-2022) as the institution prepares to write and complete its institutional self-evaluation report (ISER aka Self-Study) by Spring 2017 in advance of its accreditation site visit in October 2017.

For this EMP, three overarching goals were identified and approached in a way that exemplifies Foothill College's culture of innovation and problem solving with emphasis on eliminating disproportionate impact among student groups:
  • Goal 1. Equity: Create a culture of equity that promotes student success, particularly for underserved students.
  • Goal 2. Community: Strengthen a sense of community and commitment to the College's mission; expand participation from all constituents in shared governance. 
  • Goal 3. Improvement and Stewardship of Resources: Recognize and support a campus culture that values ongoing improvement and stewardship of resources.  
These goals will guide the College's planning and resource prioritization process. More specifically, it will influence the focus of the program review template and process, emphasizing and supporting initiatives that advance equity, community, and improvement and stewardship of resources.

The EMP can be found here:
http://foothill.edu/president/parc/esmp/FH_EMP_2016-2022_final.pdf

Questions regarding the EMP and its revision process can be directed to
Elaine Kuo, College Researcher, at kuoelaine@fhda.edu.

 
 
 
The Foothill College Office of Instruction and Institutional Research Newsletter is published each quarter. Have something you would like to share with the  Foothill College community?
 Please email 
Justin Schultz .