TAFTCOLLEGE

April 4, 2016 AS Minutes

July 20, 2016 In 2016, Minutes

April 4, 2016 AS Minutes

Taft College Academic Senate Minutes

Monday, April 4, 2016

Cougar Conference Room

Members Present: President Geoffrey Dyer, Vice President Vicki Jacobi, Jennifer Altenhofel, Megan Andrews, Eric Berube, Adam Bledsoe, Jill Brown, Kamala Carlson, Joe’ll Chaidez, Chris Chung-Wee, Bill Devine, Candace Duron, John Eigenauer, Juana Escobedo, Sharyn Eveland, Tori Furman, Shelly Getty, Lourdes Gonzalez, Gary Graupman, Dan Hall, April Hanawalt, Abbas Jarrahian, Mike Jiles, Kelly Kulzer-Reyes, Julian Martinez, Mariza Martinez, Janis Mendenhall, Tina Mendoza, Michelle Oja, Ruby Payne, Stacie Rancano, Joy Reynolds, Lori Sundgren, Tony Thompson, Don Thornsberry, and Victoria Waugh.

The meeting was called to order at 12:09 PM.

Public Commentary

  • No public commentary was offered.

Review of March 7, 2016 Senate Minutes

  • Ruby Payne was present at the March 7 meeting, but was not included with the list of members present.
  • Don Thornsberry motioned to approve the minutes with the one correction. Mike Jiles seconded the motion and the motion passed.

Commentary on Electronic Committee Updates

  • There were no questions or comments about the committee updates that were sent via email.

ASCCC Draft Resolutions for Spring Plenary – Dyer

  • Geoffrey attended an Area meeting of the Academic Senate at Butte College on Friday, April 1st.
  • Geoffrey updated us on changes made to the draft resolutions that he sent out to us earlier. These resolutions will be brought up for a vote at the Spring Plenary on April 23rd.
  • The OER resolution asks that local senates, in collegial consultation with their administration, decide on who the Textbook Affordability Coordinator is for their college.
  • Brian Jean asked if our college was going to apply for the OER grant. Geoffrey, Terri Smith, and Dan Hall have been investigating this grant and weighing the feasibility of implementing this grant given the restraints of time and personnel.
    • In order to receive the grant, the college would have to commit to achieving at least a 30% cost savings (on textbooks) by implementing OER resources in at least 10 sections of courses offered this fall. We also have to make paper copies available for students who do not have access to the Internet.
    • There is a new Academic Senate taskforce that is looking for other alternatives for implementing OER other than through AB 798 (California College Textbook Affordability Act of 2015).

Common Assessment Initiative Update – Chaidez

  • Joe’ll Chaidez shared the implementation guidelines suggested by the Chancellor’s Office for the Common Assessment Initiative (CAI). (org)
  • The Academic Senate has always supported Test Preparation and wants to make sure that this process is in place with the new CAI.
  • The CAI will be modifying the policies of re-taking certain assessments.
  • Each CCC still will have local control of establishing cut-scores.
  • Using Multiple Measures will receive a greater emphasis. Since one of the best predictors of college success is the high school GPA, the Multiple Measures effort will use students’ high school transcripts in addition to their assessment scores to determine course placement.
  • With the CAI, community college students can take the assessment at their local CC and their score will go to a common database that is accessible by all CC’s.
  • We will need to develop our CAI implementation team and transition to the CAI by Fall 2017. There is funding to provide compensation to the team for their work.

Practical Tips for Assessing Critical Thinking – Eigenauer

  • Our Education Master Plan says that every year, we will target one Institutional Student Learning Outcome (ISLO). This year it is Global and Community Conscientiousness, and next year it will be Critical Thinking. Geoffrey would like the senate to think about how we can start improving that outcome before we assess it. Since we have an expert in Critical Thinking in our midst, Geoffrey invited John Eigenauer to give us some practical tips for assessing critical thinking.
  • The Cal State system is working towards a unified assessment in critical thinking that involves argumentation. Common Core is working on doing the same thing in the K12 system.
  • The idea is to take the content facts of the discipline you teach, and to get students to think about those facts rather than memorizing those facts.
  • John conducted an activity with the senate where we were given groups of facts related to the topic of Video Games. Our task was to synthesize the facts in each category and come up with conclusions for each of the groups of facts.
  • John included a rubric to evaluate the critical thinking demonstrated by the student.
  • Another way John envisions using something like this activity is to give the students a list of facts from his lecture and then have the students place the facts into groups that make sense. Then the students draw sub-conclusions from the groups of facts, and then an overall conclusion.

IEPI Innovation and Effectiveness Plan – Berube

  • Eric Berube reported that they submitted a draft of the IEPI Innovation & Effectiveness Plan to the some of the IEPI team members for their feedback. Eric made changes to the plan based on their feedback, which dealt with minor clarification issues.
  • Some of the action steps in the plan call for professional development.
  • The plan asks for $150,000 for assistance on how to expand the use eLumen and to make it more versatile. The plan also seeks to develop and enrich our assessment methodologies, and to continue the work on using data, interpreting data, and in incorporating that data into our annual program review process.
  • The plan is simple and straightforward, and it addresses each of the ACCJC recommendations.
  • The Governance Council has already approved this plan.
  • Bill Devine moved to approve this plan. Sharyn seconded the motion and the motion passed.

Canvas Adoption – Hall

  • Geoffrey reminded the senate that our new bylaws require that all resolutions must come before the senate for two readings and receive two (2), two-thirds approvals of the senate before they can be passed by the senate.
  • Dan gave a brief overview of why we are considering the adoption of the Canvas Course Management System (CMS).
    • The Online Educational Initiative (OEI) selected Canvas to be the common CMS.
    • Dan believes that it will be in our best interest, financially and instructionally, to adopt Canvas as our sole CMS. It has the backing and support from the Chancellor’s Office and will integrate with other common resources provided by the Chancellor’s Office, like the Online Readiness Tool, tutoring and proctoring services, and others.
  • We are fortunate to have twelve faculty (Adrian Agundez, Michelle Beasley, Adam Bledsoe, Bill Devine, Dan Hall, Kelly Kulzer-Reyes, Brian Jean, Mike Jiles, David Layne, Michelle Oja, Becky Roth, and Linda West) who were willing to pilot Canvas in some of their spring courses. Dan sent out a survey to the twelve faculty for their opinions about adopting Canvas. Eleven of the pilot faculty responded.
    • 8 of the 11 enthusiastically endorsed the adoption of Canvas.
    • 2 of the 11 cautiously, maybe even reluctantly, endorsed the adoption of Canvas.
    • 1 of the 11 did not endorse the adoption of Canvas.
    • The eleven pilot faculty also provided details of some of the pros and cons of Canvas.
  • Don Thornsberry asked how the students are responding to the use of Canvas.
    • Kelly shared that her students love using Canvas.
  • Sharyn Eveland made a motion to adopt the resolution as written. Mike Jiles seconded the motion. More discussion followed.
  • Mariza Martinez asked if everyone who teaches online would have to use Canvas. Geoffrey then reviewed the resolution, which calls for Canvas to be the sole CMS to be used by our college by fall 2017.
  • Chris Chung-Wee asked about how going to Canvas might be financially beneficial. The OEI will pay for the use of Canvas over the next three years. Currently we pay $35,000 to $40,000 per year for the use of Etudes. There is no guarantee that OEI will pay for a common CMS after three years. Even if the state stops paying for a common CMS after three years, it is hoped that the OEI will be able to negotiate a better deal with the CMS than what we would be able to achieve negotiating on our own.
  • Chris stated that he likes Etudes and would like to stay with Etudes. Chris’ experience with Canvas has been negative.
  • Brian pointed out that in three years, the OEI could choose a different CMS as the common CMS.
  • Brian also mentioned that he likes Moodle much better than Canvas. But, he believes that Canvas would be a better CMS for the college as a whole than Etudes.
  • Bill believes that Canvas interferes with the way he teaches. Bill likes how with Etudes, students can put their work directly into the Etudes text box where he can comment on it directly. This process in Etudes is easy to use and is simple. Other reasons that Bill does not want to adopt Canvas are as follows:
    • The OEI selection of Canvas was a state-level decision and not one that developed organically from our college.
    • The future monetary benefits are not guaranteed.
    • There may be unforeseen consequences for going with Canvas once a monopoly is established by the state.
    • There is nothing wrong with our current Etudes system.
  • The motion to adopt the first reading of the Canvas resolution carried. Bill Devine, Chris Chung-Wee, Kamala Carlson, and Tony Thompson voting against the resolution. John Eigenauer abstained from voting.

Meeting adjourned at 1:02 PM. Respectfully submitted by Dan Hall

4.04.16 Academic Senate Minutes