Phase III (2000-2003): Mainstream Learning-Centered Initiative

Valencia's new president has committed to mainstreaming the Learning-Centered Initiative into all aspects of the College operations to achieve a vision, which he has referred to as "achieving extraordinary learning outcomes." The Learning-Centered Initiative Leadership Team will be transformed into a new College Council that will serve as the steering committee for the alternate self-study, chaired by the President. The Vice President for Planning and Educational Services will serve as the SACS institutional liaison. A department chair has been given a special assignment to serve as the director of the SACS Compliance Audit. The Director for Curriculum Development, Teaching, and Learning will serve as the director of the Strategic Self-Study.

The evolution of the learning-centered strategic focus of the College is grounded in the work that was done as part of the ACE/Kellogg project, which included roundtables, collegewide forums, action teams, professional development activities, and the Vanguard Learning Colleges Project. Significant research has been conducted through literature reviews, grant-funded projects, consultants, evaluating innovative practices of faculty and staff, and identifyin best practices at other institutions.

Phase III strategies, outcome measures, and priorities will be determined at the November 17-18 strategic planning meeting, and will become the basis of the work of the strategic self-study the next three years.

Objectives of the Strategic Self-Study

The strategic self-study will involve a group of six general objectives and a set of three specific system objectives. The general objectives are as follows:

Revise the Vision, Values, and Mission statements to reflect the College's focus on becoming more learning-centered.

Design and implement plans to become more learning-centered.

Improve planning and systems design by attending national meetings of the Vanguard Colleges Project, visiting other colleges, utilizing learning-centered consultants, and drawing upon the literature.

Conduct professional development programs on learning-centered strategies and systems designed to improve student outcomes.

Ensure involvement of faculty, staff, administration, students, community leaders, and the District Board of Trustees in the Strategic Self-Study.

Document with formative and summative reports the processes and findings of the Strategic Self-Study to evaluate progress annually and to provide a basis for the SACS consultants to conduct their evaluation and make recommendations for Phase IV.

There will be three specific objectives aimed at improving student progression, completion, and transfer or job placement, as follows:

Design and implement a system that integrates the core competencies into the curriculum through faculty development, curriculum design, and student assessment. The student core competencies are based upon the work of David Kolb, Benjamin Bloom, William Perry, and other scholars (Appendix). The design of the core competencies model was developed by Valencia faculty and staff, in response to the needs of Valencia students. The core competencies now need to be fully integrated into all courses by faculty through learning and assessment strategies. The College has created an electronic student portfolio, which will enable students to document their level of proficiency within each core competency. The electronic portfolios also will provide an opportunity for the College to assess learning outcomes of graduates who have documented their proficiency. Professional development will be provided for department chairs and lead faculty, within and across disciplines, to work with other faculty to integrate the core competencies into their course syllabi and curricula. By 2003, all faculty will demonstrate in their course syllabi that the core competencies have been integrated.

Implement the LifeMap (developmental advising) system. LifeMap is a system of shared responsibility between students and the College that results in social and academic integration, education and career plans, and the acquisition of study and life skills. LifeMap, Valencia's "brand name" for developmental advising, is a student-centered approach toward developing a relationship among students, faculty, and other College professionals. This alliance is developed through mutual trust, shared responsibility, and commitment to helping students identify, clarify, and realize their personal, academic, career, and life goals. Developmental advising is an ongoing growth process that assists students in the exploration, clarification, communication, and implementation of realistic choices, based upon self-awareness of their learning tyles, abilities, interests, and values. Typically, interventions are prescribed initially with the goal of helping students to become increasingly self-sufficient. Technology will be designed and implemented in concert with advising relationships. The model was designed as a five-stage process over time, with specific learner-goals and learner-performance outcomes for each of the five stages, as follows: Postsecondary Transition; Introduction to College; Progression to Degree; Graduation Transition; and Lifelong Learning. The model is provided in the Appendix.

The LifeMap system will include advising strategies for both faculty and student services staff, marketing strategies, specific intervention strategies (e.g., development of career goals and educational plans). Technology will play a major role in supporting advising, tracking, and intervention strategies. Faculty and student services teams will work together to design and implement the system. By 2003, all degree-seeking students will have created career and educational plans prior to completing their 30th credit hour.

Design and implement a comprehensive, computer-based learning support system. The foundation for this system will be a commercial student information system, which will be submitted for approval to the District Board of Trustees at its November, 2000, meeting. This commercial system will include all of the basic student services functions, including admissions and records, advising, registration, financial aid, and enrollment management. However, Valencia's computer-based learning support system will go well beyond these basic functions to integrate a number of electronic services that support developmental advising and create a lifelong learning relationship with students that supports the teaching and learning processes and utilizes external resources (e.g., business services, employment opportunities, vendor products and services, and electronic learning resources).

A "cyber suite" of electronic tools will be created, including Cyber Career, Cyber Advisor, Cyber Registration, Cyber Bridge, Cyber Connection, Cyber Portfolio, and Cyber Community. All of these tools will be web-based and designed to enhance advising, teaching, and learning processes. A description of these tools is provided in the Appendix. Faculty learning tools will be developed to support web-enhanced instruction and distance learning courses. A team of student services, information technology, and academic leaders will coordinate the design, implementation, and evaluation of the basic system, as well as the learning-centered electronic enhancements. By 2003, all faculty and students will have electronic access to student information and learning resources that support progression, completion, and placement.

Plans to Carry Out Proposal

The steering committee (College Council) will be chaired by the President. The committee will be composed of Faculty Association leaders from each campus, design committee co-chairs for each of the six goals, selected faculty and staff, vice presidents and prvosts, the compliance audit director, the strategic self-study director, and student representation.

The College Council will serve as the steering committee for both the strategic self-study and the compliance audit, and will oversee planning, implementation, and evaluation of strategies to support the goals of the self-study. The steering committee will coordinate the development of multi-year and annual College budgets, oversee assessment strategies, and evaluate progress. Multi-year plans will be developed dealing with facilities, staffing, learning resources, technologies, distance learning, and finance.

Each design committee will provide oversight and support for specific strategies, identified through collegewide planning meetings and other discussions. Specific responsibilities include coordinating research studies, reviewing the literature, visiting other institutions, attending conferences, and employing consultants, as appropriate. The President has committed to provide funds annually to support these activities. Each design committee will coordinate the design and monitor progress of specific systems to achieve the action strategies. Formative and summative reports will be developed in conjunction with the Director for Curriculum Development, Teaching, and Learning, who will serve as the editor for formal reports generated by each design committee to ensure consistency and quality. There will be at least six strategic reports that will be prepared for review by the SACS consultants. These reports will include learning-centered designs, research findings, and evaluations of specific systems over the three-year period of the strategic self-study. Recommendations for strengthening existing systems and developing new systems will specify resources, timetables, and responsibilities.

Research

The College has the resources to establish a framework and process for assessing the outcomes in the six self-study general objectives, the three specificsystem objectives, and the six institutional strategic goals that will be designed and implemented during the strategic self-study. The Department of Institutional Research, under the direction of the Vice President for Planning and Educational Services, will prepare reports that include:

Survey and focus group results that assist in measuring changes in organizational culture and teaching and learning practices;

Documented student mastery of core competencies in electronic portfolios;

Improvements in student progression, completion, and placement associated with the core competencies and developmental advising systems;

Improvements in progression of students and the developmental course sequence in college-level courses as a result of the design and development of the College's computer-based learning support system.

Commitment of Institutional Resources

The President has committed to providing funds to support the work of the design committees. Financial and personnel resources have also been committed to design and implement the three targeted systems.

Community Input

The President will convene groups of business and community leaders to discuss ways to strengthen the College's Learning-Centered Initiative. These business and community leaders are being selected by the President, who has already started meeting with several leaders.

Linkage with Institutional Effectiveness

Academic and administrative annual unit plans and evaluations will address the College's learning-centered action strategies and goals. The unit evaluations will be reviewed by the design committees and incorporated into annual institutional effectiveness reports.

Collegewide Planning Forums

At least one collegewide planning forum will be conducted by the President annually to review and evaluate progress in achieving the College's learning-centered action strategies and goals. Design committees for each goal area will provide written and oral reports of the committee's work during the previous year.

SACS Consultants

It is expected that three to five SACS consultants will be identified to conduct the review of the College's Strategic Self-Study in 2003. The Colleg will be able to identify consultants from other Vanguard learning colleges or from other contacts made through networking with other colleges and consultants.

The consultants will be asked to review the work of faculty and staff in designing and implementing the College's learning-centered strategies, with specific emphasis on the three targeted systems (i.e. core competencies, LifeMap, learning support systems). The consultants will evaluate progress in implementing these learning-centered systems and improvements in related student outcomes, and will make recommendations to strengthen the systems. The consultants will also be asked to make recommendations on the need to expand existing, or add new, strategies and systems.