Program/Department Development
Linn-Benton Community College
Goals for change at the program/department level
- Increase the number of LBCC geoscience majors transferring and persisting at Oregon State University
- Increase the number of STEM faculty using evidence-based practices in their regular instruction.
Strategies/Activities
For goal 1: Evidence-based practices to support the efficacy of transfer students include 2YC-4YCU faculty interaction, cohort building activities, and placed-based research. The LBOS Geobridge program supports LBCC students transferring to OSU. The program provides cohort building opportunities, placed-based research, and geoscience skills that scaffold to upper-division courses and the professional world. This program's goal is to increase the number of and persistence in the geoscience major at OSU. Additionally, I work closely with the head geoscience adviser at OSU to maintain articulation agreements, create up-to-date transfer guides, and connect interested geoscience students with OSU advisers.
For goal 2: Sharing of active learning and metacognition strategies is now part of the on-boarding process for new geoscience part-time faculty. Our spring 2018 workshop highlights numerous peer-reviewed studies that illustrate the positive impact of active learning on student success, and provides information and training on how to implement evidence-based practices. Our target is that all geoscience instructors at LBCC use one or more new active learning techniques in their practice.
Outcomes
For goal 1: Seven out of nine Geobridge participants are persisting in the major as evidenced by successfully completing upper-division geoscience course work in fall 2018 and enrolling in more upper-division courses winter 2019. These students grades are average to above average in all upper division courses when compared with the courses as a whole. Student participants report an increase in their confidence and efficacy in terms of succeeding in upper-division courses and navigating the social and institutional networks of OSU. Five of the nine students continue to conduct paid undergraduate research in volcanology, geochemistry, or science communication. One recent graduate works for a local geotechnical engineering firm.
For goal 2: Our target is that all geoscience instructors employ at least one active learning technique on a regular basis in their courses. Currently, about half of part-time faculty report that they use one or more active learning techniques on a regular basis in their instruction.
Chemeketa Community College
Goals for change at the program/department level
- Align curriculum between faulty and part-time faculty across all campuses and centers to allow for better assessment.
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Increase students' success across all geology courses particularly for English language learners, rural, and first generation students by using active learning and metacognition strategies and activities.
Strategies/Activities
For Goal 1: We have begun scheduling departmental meetings to allow both part-time and full-time faculty to come together to discuss shared curriculum, such as recently created lab books, and make updates to accommodate the needs of both full-time and part-time faculty. The department also has a shared Google Drive folder where faculty can access lab materials, instructions to lead lab activities, answer keys, and other active learning classroom resources. We are continuing to create more mandatory lab books for all classes taught through the geoscience department and using the labs as assessment tools for monitoring student success.
For Goal 2: Materials have been shared with all full-time and part-time faculty that include active learning and metacognition activities, including mandatory lab activities and other classroom resources. Many of the shared activities and resources focus on collaborative assignments and regionally significant examples.
Outcomes
For Goal 1: As of the beginning of 2017, all current full-time and part-time faculty are required to use the newly created geology lab books. As a department, we are also beginning to collect assessment data using labs from the new lab books to measure student success. In this way we are able to have a common thread, the shared lab curriculum, that connects all introductory geology classes. We are in the process of gathering labs for more introductory geoscience lab books that will continue the process of aligning more courses across the college system.
For Goal 2: The shared curriculum has only been disseminated over the past year; therefore, our department only has a year of institutional data for related geoscience classes. We will be able to compare gathered institutional data from the 2017-2018 school year to the 2018-2019 school year data by this summer.