Introduction

Minutes

Members

Those Present:

Kristin Anderson – Dental Programs, Sharon Halford – Associate Dean of Instruction, Debra Dorr, Industrial Technology, Linda Garcia – Dental Hygiene, Diane Geddis – Therapeutic Massage,  Gail Korkames – Real Estate, Alverta McKenzie – Child & Family Studies, Bonnie Petterson -  Heath Information Technology, Sylvia Phillips – Fashion Design, Janet Wilburn – Dental Assisting  

Sign In  - Committee members were asked to sign in and verify that their programs are accurately listed on the committee roster

Welcome and Introductions - Kristin Anderson, Occupational Assessment Chair, opened the meeting.  Each participant introduced themselves.

A slide presentation provided a review of the history and progress of the Occupational Programs’ Assessment Committee.   All of the department chairs of the occupational programs are part of this committee, with a steering committee of four members, Kristin Anderson, Kay Hilder, Diane Stark and Helen Houser.  The goal of the committee is to provide the means for each program to be self-assessed so that needed improvements can be made to them on a regular basis.  The two outcome statements adopted by the committee are:

Outcome Statement #1 - Occupational Programs at Phoenix College will prepare students for the workforce.

The first Outcome Statement was accepted by the majority of program directors in October of 2000, and is now being utilized by each department.

Outcome Statement #2  -  Students in occupational programs at Phoenix College will exhibit professional behaviors.

The second Outcome Statement was adopted by the steering committee in the spring of 2003. 

The committee intends to use only these two statements and modify or add to them if needed in the future.  Kristin demonstrated the features of the Phoenix College Assessment Committee website which offers a valuable source of information to committee members:

http://www.pc.maricopa.edu/assessment/occupational/index.htm

The site can also be accessed from the Phoenix College website by clicking on information for faculty/staff, college wide committees, assessment committees, and occupational programs.

The site now contains many completed examples of matrices and tools being used to measure outcomes, as well as downloadable forms for those who are just getting started.  The blank matrix is used for both of the outcome statements. It was emphasized that the use of the matrices provides valuable self-assessment information for making important improvements in the programs.  It is also required by the Community College Board and the HLC – Higher Learning Commission (previously NCA) for accreditation.

The timeline for the upcoming HLC Self-Study is:

April, 2005 – a draft is due

October, 2005 - the self-study will be submitted

April, 2006 – Site visit

It is a goal to have 100% compliance from all of the departments in meeting the assessment outcomes.  All departments should submit new matrices for both of the outcome statements each summer or fall for data obtained from the previous year.  You can download your matrix from the website, update it and then e-mail to Adriana Loera and Kristin Anderson for posting.  Kristin emphasized the importance of posting any changes made to your programs as a result of any assessment information collected.  This completes the feedback loop.  Members are also encouraged to share their tools and methods of obtaining data.

Kristin showed members the website for the Occupational Assessment Committee at Glendale Community College.  GCC developed and is using a 5-Point System for assessing all of their programs.

The committee discussed ways that the rubric on Professional Behaviors was being used.  Some members feel that the second outcome statement is hard to work with because it is so subjective, and that many of the behaviors on the rubric did not apply to their students.  Kristin stated that the rubric can be customized so that it fits each program, and that not all of the behaviors need to be evaluated.  For example, not all programs have professional appearance requirements, but all programs can utilize behaviors such as class attendance.

Some department chairs have been using the rubric as a hand-out to students and faculty as a guide for expected behaviors, but have not yet started evaluating students with it.  Others are giving it to employers on extern sites for evaluating students working with them, and others have begun utilizing it for student self-assessment and team evaluations.

The use and value of Graduate Surveys were discussed.  These surveys are considered to be one of the most important methods for collecting useful data.  Members discussed ways to get a good response from graduate students.  It was suggested that the surveys could be given to the students before they graduate with the understanding that they would give them to their employers when they begin working.  It is also desirable to establish e-mail distribution lists for graduate students and to encourage them to stay in touch and notify the department of address changes.  Graduates can be enticed to stay on the mailing list, if the department uses the distribution list for giving the students breaking news from the department, and notification of any job openings.

Linda Garcia said that the Dental Hygiene program created a distribution list for students and put the graduate survey on the Internet.  They also mailed a survey to each graduate and followed up with a reminder letter.  The mail-in response was greater than the response from the online survey.

Bonnie Petterson said that the Health Information Technology program has an accreditation requirement to collect graduate surveys three years after their students graduate.

Adjournment – With no further questions or discussion, the meeting was adjourned at 4:00 PM.