Title V Projects, Faculty Featured in MCCCD 2011 Student Success Conference

The 23rd Annual MCCCD Student Success Conference, taking place October 7, will include opportunities for faculty, staff, and administrators to engage in meaningful and collaborative conversations about practices and strategies that positively impact student retention, persistence, and success.  Among the 24 select presentations, two have direct ties to the Phoenix College Title V grant; specifically, the development and use of online, supplementary resources for bioscience, information literacy, and mathematics.

In summer 2009, James Sousa created 18 short tutorial videos through a Title V mini-grant and developed some additional Open Educational Resources (OER) through his participation in the spring 2010 grant-funded professional learning community, Beta Boot Camp.  From these initial, grant-funded projects, James has continued, on his own time and at his own expense, to push the limits of this medium.  Two years have passed and James has published over 1,500 instructional videos which he hosts at a dedicated website, in addition to a dedicated YouTube channel with over 1,400 subscribers worldwide.  It is likely that his uploaded videos will reach 1 million views by the end of 2011.  Additionally, James continues to pioneer OER in the form of open platform courses, textbooks, and resources.

Do the math: Phoenix College's own James Sousa brings power to the people with 24/7, just-in-time support for mathematics students at every level, from arithmetic to calculus.  http://www.youtube.com/user/bullcleo1  

Robin Cotter led a team of colleagues in summer 2009 to develop a comprehensive series of online tutorials to promote student success and retention within the biological sciences.  The project, entitled "Biology Boot Camp," focused on helping students develop skills in the following areas: study and time management techniques, scientific writing, information literacy and critical thinking.  Modules were designed to contain clearly stated learning objectives, pre-assessment quizzes or surveys, presentation(s) of key concepts, and post-assessment quizzes or surveys.  The information literacy modules were developed by Kelly Lambert in Year 1 with additional development work in Year 3.  For additional information on this project see the following Title V blog page: http://pctitlev.blogspot.com/2011/06/fyi-literacy.html

Work on the information literacy modules will continue in Year 4, expanding work in bioscience and incorporating English (ENG101).

Select Breakout Sessions for the 2011 Student Success Conference

Form Follows Function: Building Information Literacy Skills One Click at a Time

Salon I: 10:45-11:45 a.m.
Track: Teaching Approaches and Strategies
Kelly Lambert and Robin Cotter, Phoenix College

In an attempt to increase student retention and success in gate- keeper Bioscience courses, a series of interactive ‘Biology Boot Camp’ tutorials were created to help students improve their infor- mation literacy, technical writing, and study skills. This presentation will focus on the information literacy portion of the Boot Camp. This portion of the project includes pre- and post-assessment as well as 8 mini-modules that provide content via audio, video, and interactive activities. Session presenters will share information on the successes and challenges of creating the modules including content covered, technologies utilized, student assessment, and user feedback. This project was funded through a Title V STEM grant at Phoenix College. 

http://mcli.maricopa.edu/success/2011/s15

Teaching Math with Free Textbooks and Online Resources

Salon I: 1:15-2:15 p.m.
Track: Teaching Approaches and Strategies
Paul Golisch, Paradise Valley Community College
James Sousa, Phoenix College

The session will provide the benefits and challenges of using Open Educational Resource (OER) materials. We will share what OER materials are currently being used to teach mathematics as well as where to find OER materials. OER materials are being used in a traditional classroom setting as well as a flipped model. Data will be provided on student perceptions and student progress.

http://mcli.maricopa.edu/success/2011/s07

Hispanic Career Forum: Mathematics

The second Hispanic STEM Career Forum was held on Wednesday September 21, 2011 at the Campus Vista Conference Room with approximately a dozen STEM students in attendance.  Three mathematics professionals addressed the students with messages of encouragement and a call to self-determination.

Crispin Zamudio is the director of e-Institute Charter Schools where he supervises six charter schools.  He traced his personal drive to succeed back to his days as a “campesino” (farm worker) at the age of four until his teenage years, along with his family.  He explained that the harsh conditions and the difficulties associated with this life motivate young Hispanics to aim higher and to be successful professionals.  He described his years in high school when he participated in the Joaquin Bustoz Math and Science Honors Program (MSHP) and how this was pivotal in his going on to study math at Arizona State University.  Mr. Zamudio said that it was through individuals who believed in him like Dr. Bustoz (who became his mentor) and his elementary teachers, who encouraged him to pursue a math career, that he completed his math degree.

The second presenter, Cinday Barragan, MSHP Senior Coordinator and math faculty at South Mountain Community College, shared her experience of navigating to and through college and her beginnings with MSHP also.  She noted that Mr. Zamudio was her counselor and that she, in turn, was the counselor for Laura Torres (who is the organizer of the Forum and also the Title V Interim Math and Science Specialist who oversees the STEM Scholars program) when Laura participated in MSHP.  Ms. Barragan echoed Mr. Zamudio’s sentiments and stressed the importance of support networks.  “Collaborate to graduate” and get connected with programs that will support your professional goals.  Ms. Barragan also recounted earlier experiences in which “well-meaning” instructors tried to dissuade her from pursuing her goals to study astronomy.  Ultimately, through a NASA internship, she determined for herself to shift from astronomy to mathematics.  Ms. Barragan conveyed to attendees that they, themselves, ought to decide their own future and not to allow anyone to dictate to them what they can or cannot do.

The third guest presenter was Cleopatria Martinez, math faculty at Phoenix College.  Ms. Martinez shared a few sections of her life story, which is depicted in the book she wrote along with nine other Ph.D.-level Chicana professionals.   She described how, throughout her schooling, she noticed much of the cultural differences but did not let them become a barrier in her success.  She said that she is very proud of her culture and she encouraged attendees to not let anybody put them down and to strive to do their best work.

Mr. Zamudio advised the attendees (as he does his students) to network “because it is not what you know, but who you know.”  He added, “if by the end of the forum you have not obtained a business card from me, you are at a disadvantage [because you are one person short from reaching your goal].”  Naturally, he distributed his business card to the students attending.  The aim of the Hispanic STEM Career Forum series is to provide students the opportunity to meet and network with inspiring Hispanic professionals.  Two more forums will continue in October 2011.

Hispanic Career Forum: Architecture, Engineering

On Thursday September 15, 2011 the STEM Scholars Program hosted its first in a series of Hispanic STEM Career Forums; this time with a focus on architecture and engineering careers.  The presenters were Monique de los Rios from, an architect originally from Peru, and Hilen Cruz, a civil engineer originally from Mexico.  The event was attended by a dozen STEM students.

De los Rios currently works as an architect for the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) and began by talking about her upbringing in a family of architects, the birth of her passion for the profession.  She explained that “architecture demands a lot from you and your work is always criticized. Therefore you have to have the commitment towards architecture and have a thick skin towards the harsh criticism you might get.”  That said, De los Rios say that she derives her reward from creating something new, that did not exist, and having her work recognized.  She detailed the various academic paths a student might take to achieve a degree and license in architecture and where such a career might lead.  She fielded questions about economic factors, globalization, technology and other aspects of the profession.  She commented on how technology has radically changed the face of the profession but she stressed that the most critical component of success is to be an effective communicator and be able to “sell” your ideas; and also to be open and flexible, to “have a plastic mind.”  She concluded by discussing her interests in solar energy and ecology and explained that her original inspiration for coming to Arizona and her motivation for staying was the work of Paolo Soleri.

Paolo Soleri's Arcosanti was the site of De los Rios's internship as a young architect.  It exemplifies the blend of architecture and ecology which inspires her professionally.  De los Rios encouraged students to pursue their passion.

Hilen Cruz, a Civil Engineer for Salt River Project (SRP) recounted how her initial studies were completed in Mexico and then she came to the United States to complete her MBA.  Inspired by her father, also a Civil Engineer and an instructor; she detailed how she navigated the world of work to advance her career and eventually come to work for SRP.  She discussed the value of being bilingual and stressed the importance of determination and good habits, organizational skills, and good communications skills to advance in this or any profession.  “Education offers you the opportunity to grow,” she summed up, and noted that she has since come to Phoenix College to study real estate for her own benefit.  Cruz is involved in SRP’s Women In Network (WIN), an organization which conduct various community service events to help women.  Cruz is the author of “Ponte las Pilas, Mexico” (Put On the Batteries, Mexico) , which “is an inspirational book that aims to motivate the Mexican community to pursue professional success through higher education.”  For more information, please visit: http://www.pontelaspilasmexico.com

FYI Literacy

Currently, everything I read is grant related. Well, almost everything… I just bought a Barnes & Noble Nook (e-reader) and I've begun re-reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy which is really taking me back to the 1980's. Some things never go out of style, such as this sage advice for intergalactic hitchhikers: don't panic. I'd have to say it has served me well, even in my current work assignment as Title V project director. Not to panic; that would be a "best practice." I also used to read quite a bit of philosophy in my undergraduate days. Epictetus (AD 55-135) has always been one of favorites, for his practicality, his notions on power and control, and also acceptance. This quote from him is particularly compelling: "It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters." In these terms, our colleagues, Kelly Lambert and Robin Cotter, have wrung additional value from their ongoing project developing information literacy modules; specifically in the manner in which they have responded to the challenges of assessing student learning outcomes.

Not to panic; that would be a "best practice."

As part of the interdisciplinary "Biology Bootcamp" series, the information literacy component aims to assist students in developing study skills that will enable them to successfully complete their course. In fact many of the Bioscience courses have substantive information literacy elements: BIO108 (research and presentation), BIO181 (report on infectious diseases), BIO182 (paper on evolution, including website evaluation; research on water quality and citing research), and BIO205 (researching and preparing a brochure on a genetic disorder). As a result, the information literacy tutorials have broad utility among most sections of bioscience classes. Furthermore, they can be adapted for other science and non-science courses. If you know of or are part of another academic department that would like to learn how this Title V-funded resource can be adapted to more specifically meet the needs of your students, please let me know. 

In the first phase of this project, undertaken and completed in fall 2010 with additional and significant contributions from Breanna Prinzhorn (bioscience faculty), content was created for the first three modules, including videos, transcripts and quizzes. Pre- and post-assessments were also created, tested and revised. Options for entering pre- and post-tests into Lesson Builder and Blackboard were also explored, but more about that shortly. Below is an embedded video from the tutorial (one of my favorites) and below that is a web link to the project as it appeared at the end of phase one. On behalf of her team, Kelly presented on phase one of the project to the full Title V Steering Council in November 2010 and received high praise.

http://www.pc.maricopa.edu/ctlt/titleV/Science/InformationLiteracy/index.html

Revised modules (phase two) can be viewed at Robin's BIO205 website, "MicroMania" (select from modules 1-8 in the column to the right).

Now about that assessment data… it turns out that one of the elements of this project -- a minor detail, really -- turned out to be quite a chore and continues to pose a challenge to implementation. One of the project tasks was to explore options for testing students and then harvesting that data to not only assess learning outcomes for the instructors but to also feed that information back to the students themselves. Due to interface issues between Soft Chalk (Lesson Builder) and the now-older version of Blackboard (Phoenix College is not using the latest version), pre- and post-test data cannot be easily uploaded, disambiguated, or otherwise used to take advantage of Blackboard features such as active release. Other options may allow more flexibility but then student authentication, controls on cheating, "time on task" authentication, and autoscoring must be sacrificed. To date, this component of the project has been constructed in Google docs, Survey Monkey, Lesson Builder, and Blackboard. Each solution provides an important piece but none of them offer a perfect solution. Kelly and Robin have navigated this challenge with aplomb. Their response to this challenge, and ongoing work with Jan Binder, has not only revealed a limitation in the assessment of resources such as these but is also moving us closer to potential solutions that will allow us to not only say that our work has made a positive impact on student learning outcomes; it will allow us to demonstrate it. Until then, don't panic.

By the way, for those of you who are looking for a little reading material, the pre- and post- test surveys can be viewed via the following URLs:

• Pre https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/N56TDHZ 
• Post https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/F8KJQ6G

Goals, Objectives, and Tasks! Oh my!

Grant evaluation is nothing like a scary walk in the woods but there is an awful lot of repetition of and return to the overarching goals of the project, it's underlying activity objectives, and the specific tasks that demonstrate incremental progress. It amounts to a cumbersome mantra. Oversight and coordination of the evaluation process rests with the Title V Steering Committee. As designated in the grant, they are: the vice president of academic affairs (Casandra Kakar), the vice president of student services (Yira Brimage), the project director (Seth Goodman), the institutional researcher (Jan Binder), the coordinator of the success center (Diana Mitchell), a faculty member (Mark Rosati), the college grants liaison (Sharon Halford), and the external evaluator. The external evaluator for the grant is William Baker and over the past two years, he and I have become increasingly relaxed during site visits as evidenced by our attire. In the first year, for both of us, suit and tie all the way, the entire day. At this point, Dockers and a dress shirt for me. For William, no tie and the suit jacket gets draped across a chair on arrival.

Yesterday was Mr. Baker's fifth visit to Phoenix College, to check on our progress, to meet with the Steering Committee, and to talk about goals, objectives and tasks. There were no flying monkeys. The day was roughly divided up into three areas of review: the STEM Scholars program, the status and overall progress of implementation activities, and the assessment strategies for demonstrating the impact of grant activities on student outcomes.

During the morning, Mr. Baker met with Laura Torres, the interim Math and Science Specialist, to gain a deeper understanding of the week-to-week activities she is involved in with supporting our cohort of STEM students. She pulled out a 4-inch binder and walked him through the activities of the cohort, her strategies for engaging them in campus life activities, and supporting them in developing their assets for college success and career exploration. We were fortunate enough to have five STEM Scholars visit with us and share their personal experiences at Phoenix College and in the program. They all had profoundly positive remarks to share about Laura's proactive involvement and support and the benefits of the program and the resources it provides to them. The session transformed into a brainstorming session for prospective improvements going forward into the 2011-12 school year. The students take the cohort program very seriously and demonstrated this with their eagerness and willingness to improve it for the next wave of students to join their ranks. "Wow… that's fantastic… I'm really impressed…" Mr. Baker started to sound like a broken record. Kudos certainly go to Laura for this accomplishment. She came in at the start of the semester with no time to prepare. She hit the ground running and won the trust and confidence of our student cohort one member at a time.

Ongoing progress is being made in most, if not all, objectives. Underspending of funds and implementation data for mini-grant projects are areas where improvement and accelerated progress are needed. We explored the status of reporting for mini-grantees, payment procedures for contracts, and other institutional factors and policies with an aim to improve implementation by the end of Year Three, in September. The site visit concluded with a formal meeting of the 8-member Steering Committee, a subset of the more commonly known Title V Steering Council, which also includes a panel of 11 faculty advisors and a select group of 9 resources members. Considerable discussion centered on the reporting and framing of retention and persistence data and correlating differing levels of cohort data. Some additional strategies may be explored to demonstrate progress and validate improvement in the coming year. Additionally, there will be a push to acquire more complete information on the deliverables from faculty mini-grant projects and the associated student learning outcomes.

The "dashboard" that was very helpful in facilitating conversations about implementation status, progress, and assessment yet received mixed reviews and will likely be revised.  Mark Rosati has a particular appreciation for bar graphs over pie charts.  Color key (generally): green = completed, yellow = on track, and red = lagging.

Near the conclusion of the Steering Committee meeting, Mr. Baker excused himself to meet his taxi and make his way to the airport. Apparently the cab driver couldn't "make it" so I packed Mr. Baker into my CR-V to rush him to his plane. He had many compliments for the day's visit and the staff and faculty involved in the grant. We shifted into some light conversation. He commented on how his golf game is declining… and then we somehow ended up talking about the grant's goals, and objectives, and tasks again.

Mr. Baker will return for another site visit in early fall 2011.