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Work Groups

Canyons Completes Project Updates: October 2019

As of the end of the Spring 2019 semester, Canyons Completes has made many strides in helping students clarify their education and career path and stay on it through graduation. Here are the 2018/19 Activity Updates.

(IE)2 Workgroups Status (as of April 25, 2019)

  • Implement Peer check-ins

    • (Phone calls to students)--Examples include phone calls to applicants who apply but don’t register, “At Risk” students, students registered in the Fall and didn’t come back in the Spring. We have made phone calls to over 2000 students regarding their academic standing, finishing their matriculation steps, and returning to college in the spring 2019 term.
  • Re-Engineer Early Alert and Intervention Program

    • Combined outreach program to student for behavioral/emotional/academic needs.
    • Work group continues build out of Starfish platform with Hobsons. Road shows to Schools, student services, Academic Senate, and ASG have been occurring during the spring 2019 semester by the faculty liaisons, Julianne Johnson and Collette Gibson.
    • Canyons Connects using the Starfish platform will soft launch in Fall 2019. This retention and support program will help support students to stay on the path and provide them with the resources they need to be successful.
    • Also a LEAP Team: This solution team will work with the Early Alert and Retention workgroup to implement Starfish on our campus. Starfish is our new Early Alert and Retention technology package. Our contract starts November 1 and we want to have this product implemented and in beta testing for spring 2019. We are also developing a full retention program that wraps around the use of the Starfish program. Mentor: Jim Temple
  • Increase Career Exploration

    • Including presenting students with career clusters to help them make more informed major choices, workshops, outreach to students with educational goal of Lberal Arts and Sciences, etc.
    • The Hub opened in September 2018 as a rebranding of the career center. We are expanding service to our students that are Undecided and New to our college. The Hub is the start of our Student Success Teams- dedicated to the undecided population as a way to help students get on the path and clarify their goals. They opened their new building in February 2019 and are now located in Career Central with the Career Center and Job Development.
  • Curricular Mapping and Metamajors (formerly Develop and Expand Guided Pathways)

    • Helping students get on a path, stay on a path and reach their educational goals.
    • Meta Majors

      • Over 100 faculty, staff and administrators participated in the Mapping and Meta Majors retreat on August 24. This retreat marked a very important step in advancing the Guided Pathways efforts under the Canyons Completes umbrella at College of the Canyons.
      • September 11, the Institutional Effectiveness and Inclusive Excellence (IE)2 committee unveiled the recommended Meta-Majors that resulted from the August 24 retreat and subsequent workgroup meeting.
      • Beginning in October 2018, the team presented meta-major information at each school meeting. Throughout October, November, and December, team members engaged both faculty and students in discussions about meta majors.
      • Understanding Student Perspectives on Meta-Majors was critical. After members of the Canyons Completes meta majors workgroup concluded discussions about meta-majors with faculty, Institutional Research, Planning and Institutional Effectiveness Office engaged student voices through eight focus groups. Approximately 200 students had an opportunity to inform the work the college is doing to improve the student experience and support through meta-majors.
      • The final meta majors and recommendations for where academic programs were decided as the current School structure with a tag line informing students what the majors in that school may do in a career. Currently GMD students are working on the tag lines, images, colors, etc. to represent each school.
    • Mapping

      • In spring 2019, on April 26, May 3, and May 17, faculty and counselors will begin developing program maps for full-time and part-time students. Maps will include program sequencing for both major preparation and general education requirements. Maps will be developed for both daytime, evening, and weekend students on Valencia, Canyon Country, and Online campuses.
  • Develop Equity Minded Practitioners

    • Professional development for faculty and staff, including addressing implicit bias and helping faculty and staff develop a college mindset that supports Canyons Completes.
    • Also a LEAP team: This solution team will be focused on developing a training program to help campus faculty, staff, and administrators be Equity Minded Practitioners. The vision for Equity Minded Practitioners is to help others across campus to review their practices, policies, and procedures, to ensure they are equitable for our students. Practitioners will be trained and will assist in creating a training for others to take in the future. Mentor: Diane Fiero.
    • This solution team has focused on proposing and developing an Equity and Inclusion Center on campus to serve as a resource for the entire campus community while placing the experiences of diverse and historically marginalized groups at the center. The center will also serve to de-silo various efforts toward the endeavor of highlighting diversity and inclusion across the college. The team has completed site visits of other centers, interviewed leads at 5 other campuses.
    • Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning spring "Culturally Relevant Teaching Practices" is full. Course will help faculty learn strategies to engage and support students and address achievement gaps.
    • The group is also focusing on creating a program to mento African American/Black students to create a program on campus to support and promote out students of color.
    • Exploring the options of creating courses in African American studies.
    • Continuing the trainings on Equity Minded Practices and Unconscious Bias.
  • Enhance Noncredit/Continuing Education Program

    • Aligned with the Innovation and Effectiveness Plan developed through the College's Partnership Resource Team process.
      • Have 26 courses now available in multiple areas
      • Since Partnership Resource Team Grant, 10 additional courses totaling 46 additional sections in Fall 2018 and Winter 2019
      • 2 additional courses approved for Spring 2016 (counseling non-credit)
      • Estimated Fall 2019 - 39 additional courses
      • Estimated Spring 2020 - 30 additional courses
      • Estimated Fall 2020 - 10 additional courses. Please note: just before the PRT, we only had two additional courses (NC.CONST) approved since Fall 2017. Between then and now, there have only been 10 additional courses approved, and 8 of those courses are only 8 hours each. The most substantial growth as a function of new curriculum is slated for Fall 2019, with roughly 39 additional courses expected.
  • Improve Communication to Students

    • Electronic, in-person, and print notification of important dates, deadlines and other important information to help students throughout their time at College of the Canyons (e.g., drop dates, petition to graduate, etc.)
    • This group has merged with the Early-Alert group.
  • Experiential Learning

    • This work group will work to expand our experiential learning offerings. This will include community based learning, experiential based learning, project based learning, internships, job shadowing, and more.
    • Also a LEAP team: This solution team will work to expand our experiential learning offerings. This will include community based learning, experiential based learning, project based learning, internships, job shadowing, and more. Mentor: Jerry Buckley
  • Adult Learners

    • Explore the needs of our adult learners. The team will reach out to our adult learners to hear from them what services we can provide to help them reach their educational goal. This team will also reach out to other colleges to see what they do for their adult learners. This group will also explore effective instructional practices for our adult learners.
    • Also a LEAP Team: This solution team will explore the needs of our adult learners. The team will reach out to our adult learners to hear from them what services we can provide to help them reach their educational goal. This team will also reach out to other colleges to see what they do for their adult learners. This group will also explore effective instructional practices for our adult learners. Mentors: Jeffrey Forest and Andy McCutcheon.

Other LEAP (2018-2019) Solutions Teams in Place

  • Student Success Teams

    • This solution team will join others to create what student success teams are at College of the Canyons. This is a workgroup under the Institutional Effectiveness and Inclusive Excellence plan to implement Canyons Completes. This group will discuss the components of a student success team and make recommendations for implementation. Mentor: Michael Wilding
  • Data Coaches

    • Six faculty hired as data coaches
    • Training kick off on PI day (3/14) in session held by Daylene and Institutional Research; there were 26 attendees.
    • Train faculty on using student outcomes data to inform their planning and improvement efforts
    • Train data coaches and pilot data coaching model connected to Student Success Teams and Meta majors.
    • In addition to training data coaches, Canyons Completes launched Data Labs to increase data literacy on campus. Data Labs scheduled in Spring 2019:
      • The first Data Lab, held on March 14 (PI-sitively Delectable Data Discussion), focused on where data can be accessed (local, state and national) as well as some tips for interpreting and using the data.
      • The second Data Lab, held on April 18 (Un-earth Your Data), focused on diving into the data that's available through the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office DataMart.
      • The third Data Lab, held on May 16 and 17 (May the Data Force Be with You), focused on accessing internal data through reports, briefs, and Tableau.
  • Communication and Promotion

    • This solution team will work to create a messaging to the students regarding meta majors and Canyons Completes. This team will work on innovative solutions to spread the word to our students.
    • The team conferenced with Sierra College and other leads, and coordinated with Outreach and other offices locally. The team is developing an outline of communication support ideas including: developing new digital and/or printed versions of a campus maps and brochures specifically for students with Guided Pathways in mind, design and use of temporary student-oriented signage for the first few weeks of classes each semester, closer partnership with Outreach to help disseminate their student-supporting efforts, and review of permanent on-campus signage. Student graphic design students are also assisting with several mockups of the above ideas.The team Mentor: Ryan Theule & John Green
  • In-Reach

    • This solution team will work to create messaging to our campus community, including faculty, classified staff, short term employees, college assistants, and administrators. We would like to put Instagram TV, podcasts, YouTube videos, newsletters, and blogs as ways to keep people up to date on the information. Mentor: Eric Harnish
  • Welcome Day

    • Scheduled: Friday, August 9
    • This solution team will work to develop and implement a Welcome Day for all new students in the Fall 2019 term. The team would outline what a Welcome Day looks like, what is included, and how we can invite all new students to this day. Mentor: Michael Joslin

Other Accomplishments of Note

  • Mark Perna and Career Trees

    • We have been working with consultant, Mark Perna, on addressing the “why” of our programs to our students. We are working on building career trees and program points for our students. This work is under way with the faculty under Regina Blasberg’s lead. So far, there are two programs complete and more underway. Programs are also working on their program points to inform students about the program – beyond what is currently in the catalog. Mark will be joining us for the morning of Opening Day to present to all faculty. We have also invited the local school districts to participate that day as well. We will have our first event based on our work with Mark on October 26, 2019 for the community.
  • The Committee for Assessing Student Learning (CASL)

    • CASL is reviewing e-Portfolio vendors to adopt and implement a system by Fall 2019. This will allow students to showcase their learning.
    • Academic departments have mapped all of course-level SLOs to program-level SLOs and the college's ILOs.
  • Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL)

    • CETL is developing an ePortfolio curriculum for CETL as well as creating an e-Portfolio resource page.
    • Other CTEL statistics:
      • 137 faculty have taken a CETL course since Summer 2018
      • 24,000 total hours of CETL-delivered instruction since 2015
      • 5,000 total hours of CETL-delivered instruction in 2018-19
  • Lunch and Learn Workshops

    • Lunch and Learn workshops were offered during the Spring 2019 Faculty Professional Development week. Many opportunities were provided to all campus to hear what's happening with Guided Pathways efforts so all can get involved and help shape what we're doing to better serve our students.

  • Open Faculty Forums

    • Three Guided Pathways open forums for all faculty were held by Erika Torgeson, Tara Williams, and Rebecca Eikey to gather input from all faculty.

  • Guided Pathways Classified Council

    • Student Services started a Guided Pathways Classified Council to update offices on what is happening with guided pathways and to bring back to their offices. This has been expanded to include offices outside of Student Services. We also held open forums for classified.
  • AB 288 Agreement -- Dual Enrollment

    • We completed the AB 288 contract with Hart, increased articulated courses, and are building our pathways from the high school.
    • Goal is to offer roughly 10 sections in Fall 2019.
  • Leading from the Middle

    • A team of five faculty, staff and administrators was selected to participate in the Leading from the Middle program through the Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges.
      • Paul Wickline, Interim Associate Vice President, Educational Pathways
      • Erika Torgeson, Counselor and Guided Pathways Liaison
      • Tara Williams, Chemistry Faculty and Guided Pathways Liaison
      • Preeta Saxena, Senior Research Analyst, Institutional Research
      • Debbie Sall, Administrative Assistant; Lead, Classified Professional Development Committee
    • This is a yearlong, statewide academy that focuses on leadership and developing a culture of inquiry within the framework of Guided Pathways. The academy will consist of three in-person meetings and year-round coaching and peer support for each college team. Outcomes are clustered in three major categories:
      • Leadership Development
      • Team Collaboration and Leadership
      • Leadership in the Context of a College Initiative
    • The first event this group is planning is for the May 14th (IE)2 Day of Celebration now named Canyons-Palooza. This day will focus on the great work from all of our teams in efforts to support our students. We will be hosting this in the honor grove with big banners, food, and celebration for the hard work that has been accomplished.