Wednesday, May 13, 2009

New Rosources within/for the BSI Network

The Bay Area Learning Network is one of the inaugural networks created to support professional learning in the 110 California community colleges. In 2009 building on its previous successes, the BSI now plans to integrate what has already been accomplished with a new pilot, growing into a self-sustaining, statewide, professional learning Network intended to promote overall systemic change. This will allow faculty, staff, and administrators to share and build upon existing knowledge while at the same time creating opportunities for transformation. Foundational to this Network are evidence-based knowledge building, inquiry, capacity building, direct training, and resource development. To build the pilot Network, coordinators have been assigned to four specific locations (Bay Area, Los Angeles, Sacramento/Central Valley, and San Diego). These coordinators will facilitate efforts in the local regions, while at the same time providing connections with the greater statewide network.

Along the same lines, the Professional Development Consortium at Solano College is in the process of creating a centralized archive of professional development and focused inquiry resources. A temporary archive of interesting things to read can be found here. Please pass along anything else you come across that you think others will benefit from reading or looking at!

Other sites of interest:
https://www.innovativeeducators.org/
http://oncourseworkshop.com/
http://www.weeklyinnovations.org/

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Proposals for 2009-2010

In an effort to be proactive and ahead of state-wide timelines for Action Plans and Expenditure Planning, the Basic Skills Committee decided to accept proposals for 2009-2010 in Spring 2009 so that when we come back in August, we are prepared to implement immedately. All documents relating to the proposals can be found here.

The Proposal Deliberation Timeline is in that wiki folder, too.

The rubric for deliberating proposals specifies the necessity for analytics, as well as connections to both the Educational Master Plan and the Student Equity Plan.

On-going Activites proposals for 2009-2010:
  • Campus-wide Professional Development
  • Humanities Professional Development
  • Information Competency Online LR10 LC augment
  • Noncredit Success Workshops
  • Pathways to Success Program
  • Student-Athlete Study Skills Center
  • Supplemental Instruction
  • Textbooks
  • Umoja Program Scholars (UPS) and College Success Institute II

New Activities proposals for 2009-2010:
  • Math ALEKS
  • Math Online Evening MAC
  • Math Self-Assessment Videos
  • Speech-to-Text Initiative

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Assessment Data

Fall 2008 Assessment Data for English, Reading, Math -- Elementary Algebra, and Math -- Arithmetic.

Under the leadership of Corrine Kirkbride, the Math department is working on a Math Self-Assessment Website for our students so that they will be able to accurately self-assess themselves into the appropriate math course.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

English Department Discussion Forum

We've had a Boardster.com forum up for a couple of years for the department to conduct asynchronous discussions of various teaching, course, and program issues. Given how high our teaching loads and service commitments are, it's been a good way to keep us in touch with each other.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Student-Athlete Study Skills Center

The Solano College Student-Athlete Study Skills Center opened in the 400 Building in the Spring of 2009. Currently students using the Center are enrolled in Tutoring 500, which is a no-fee, no-credit class. Students will be tracked based on their enrollment in this class. The staffing is made up of a supplemental instructor who is also an assistant coach. The Center is open M-TH 12-3 and 4:30-6 and Fridays 12-2:00.

Students can use the Center for quiet directed study or can use the supplemental instructor to get a referral to specific tutoring at our Tutoring Center, our Math Success Center, or our Math Activities Center. The Center has ten laptop computers which students can use while there. We are hopeful that the S-ASSC will begin offering special sessions in conjunction with the Success Center on selected study skills topics, such as note-taking, test-taking, math anxiety, etc. in the near future.

After the Spring 2009 semester grades are available, the Tutoring 500 grades will be analyzed to see what the success rate was of each student, along with any trends detectable in their GPA or units completed. Other statistics may be used with the assistance of our Institutional Researcher, Rob Simas.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Success Workshops -- Spring 2009

Plans have begun to create a "one-stop" Success Center to support students outside of the classroom. The Success Center would house peer tutoring, supplemental instruction, English activity and drop-in labs, and a space for workshops on a variety of topics, including MLA citations, financial aid, textbook reading strategies, time management, preparation for the Composition Mastery Exam, and Learning Resources 10. The Success Center is seen as one of two really key components in our overall re-design, the other being the Pathways to Success First and Second Semester Experience Program. Here is a link to the overall structure of our re-design.

Here is a link to the Spring 2009 schedule of LR10 workshops, which are open to anyone working on research, not just the students enrolled in the English 1/LR 10 sections.

Here
is a link to a survey about what workshops faculty, staff, and managers would like to see offered, and here is a link to the preliminary analysis from that survey.

A Non Credit Working Group has been created to address a number of issues to help make these workshops a reality and allow for the collection of Non Credit and Non Credit Enhanced funding for them. Here is where information about this group's activities can be found.

Professional Development & Resources

Basic Skills Handbook

Carnegie Foundation resources for professional development

Links to other groups working on student success


Searchable state-wide BSI effective practices database

State-wide BSI resources for professional development

State-wide BSI publications