Innovations
August
2017
A fascinating part of working in an academic setting at San Jacinto College is that I am surrounded by incredibly intelligent, driven people. Faculty and administrators devoted years of their lives to formal study in their discipline; and students are motivated to emulate these intellectuals and chart their own course. In any given day, I may hear faculty, as subject matter experts seriously debating the current political climate, discussing the upcoming baseball season, explaining the chemical combinations of fast food, or considering the modern need for ancient philosophical treatises. All...
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August
2017
Initiatives are a way of life in education. In institutions run by thinkers and creative types, we jump at the chance to experiment and try new things. We’re the ones who liked playing school so much we stayed in as long as they would let us and then came back to spend our professional lives on a campus. It’s in our blood, and the constant movement of new faces, eager minds, and fascinating disciplines keep us charged up. At San Jacinto College, we realize that these are exciting times to be in education. We’re also careful not to over-extend our people. The possibility of initiative overload...
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Since the launch of the American Graduation Initiative in 2009, the call to increase college graduation rates and to create a better educated workforce for the jobs of the future has become nearly universal. According to Former President Obama, speaking at the University of Texas on August 9, 2010, “in a single generation, [the U.S. has] fallen from first place to 12th place in college graduation rates for young adults" (as cited in de Nies, 2010, para. 3). He advocated for America to “once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world” by 2020 (as cited in Fry, 2017,...
August
2017
Does unintentional plagiarism exist? In a college setting, this question is rather significant. Some purists would claim that it does not exist. Plagiarism is plagiarism. Period. It’s wrong. Everyone knows it’s wrong. As with horseshoes and grenades, there is no almost. As such, so claims this totalitarian approach, all instances of plagiarism must be punished severely.
I wholeheartedly agree with the wrong part. Intentionally taking the intellectual work of another and passing it off as your own is a crime akin to forgery, counterfeiting, and theft. And it is egregious. I do not accept...
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Community College of Allegheny County’s Fire Volunteer Education, Service, and Training Scholarship (FireVEST) program is now in its eighth year. More than 330 Allegheny County volunteer firefighters have participated in this recruitment and retention program. These scholarship recipients serve in 136 of the county’s 187 volunteer fire departments. The only program of its kind in the state, FireVEST is a unique partnership between CCAC, the Allegheny County Executive, and the Allegheny County Fire Academy. Individuals enrolled in the program receive a full scholarship to any associate degree...
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August
2017
Performance funding certainly works in industry. Commission is a proven formula for motivating sales professionals to go out and establish new territories and secure and maintain customers. The bonus system works well in a manufacturing environment, too. Paying work crews additional money for a certain number of accident-free days or incentivizing early project completion can be a sound investment that motivates workers to increase productivity safely and share in the rewards of that efficiency.
The general concept of performance funding has been introduced into the higher education world by...
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July
2017
Remember the story about the little girl who was tossing stranded starfish back into the ocean? She was frantically running and tossing when the allegedly wise adult tells her: “Look at this beach. You can’t begin to make a difference.” Undeterred, she picked up another, tossed it in, and said, “Made a difference to that one.”
We’re a bit like that little girl at San Jacinto College. We don’t heed the criticism of others who tell us we’re trying to save too many students or do too much, or trying too many new ways to help students succeed. In fact, we’d rather them get out of our way instead...
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July
2017
Flexibility is the new black, or so it seems. We want products and services when we want them—no matter when that is. Online shopping is a 24/7 endeavor. Instructions, forms, explanations, and often the ability to pay electronically are the norm for everything from federal taxes to hotel reservations. Higher education institutions are joining this limber game to make going to college as barrier free as possible.
One concept that is gaining much national attention is competency-based or personalized learning. Anyone who engaged in what used to be called an independent study course knows the...
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As part of the reaffirmation process of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, Wake Technical Community College launched a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) initiative based on best practices in eLearning. The goal of the eLearning Preparedness Initiative across the College (EPIC) is to remove learning barriers and better support online student learning, persistence, and success. A broad cross-functional and multidisciplinary team of faculty and staff developed and implemented eLearning Quality Standards, an online student orientation, and a faculty...
Today’s employers know that skilled workers don’t grow on trees. Sometimes, you have to grow your own talent.
With rapid advances in technology, job titles like Smartphone Application Developer and Patient Care Technician simply didn’t exist a decade ago, so qualified candidates are few.
Employers scrambling to find workers with the right stuff often turn to Norwalk Community College (NCC) in Norwalk, Connecticut. That’s because NCC tracks industry trends and readily deploys associate degree and certificate programs to produce workers who can hit the ground running.
Employers serve on the...
Communication faculty often have a unique opportunity to hear students’ own stories. These stories permeate the work of learning public speaking. Faculty members at Pellissippi State Community College recently launched In Our Words, a public forum in which students share their stories with audiences beyond the public speaking classroom. Public speaking generally benefits both speaker and audience, and In Our Words certainly does that. Benefits also extend to the Communication Studies department and other areas of the college.
Process
Pellissippi State has, for years, had a robust faculty...
June
2017
Clutter is a topic that divides people much as mustard on hot dogs or catsup on eggs. We have camps of believers who rarely even attempt to cross over to the other side to look for mutual ground. Some claim a cluttered office calms them and helps them think. And other see clutter as a mess that wastes both time and energy. I fall into the latter group—I’m sentimental about homemade gifts my grown children created as youths and a few old photographs, but even those are rather well organized.
I don’t do clutter, but I know a lot of faculty who do, and I’ve theorized as to why academics often...
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We live in a digital age, so we may assume that digital is always better. But that isn’t necessarily the case when it comes to audio recording. The new recording studio at Volunteer State Community College is state-of-the-art analog. Another room has home studio equipment. That may seem strange at a college with yet another studio that is fully digital and fully automated. The reason is simple: learning.
“The vision for our process is to have three different recording environments,” said Entertainment Media Production Director, Steve Bishir.
The original studio has a fully-digital, fully-...
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In 2012, the League established the John & Suanne Roueche Excellence Awards to celebrate outstanding contributions and leadership by community college faculty and staff. These awards are open to League Board and Alliance member institutions, and each year’s recipients are recognized in a series of activities and promotions, and honored at special events at the League's Innovations Conference each spring.
The 2016 Excellence Award recipients were recognized at the Innovations Conference in San Francisco, CA, March 12-15, 2017. Special events included an exclusive Excellence Awards...
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May
2017
Free is good. We all like getting a free deal. And free college education is all the rage right now. In fact, it is one of the most exciting, interesting, and confounding topics in higher education at the moment. Now everyone knows that free in this conversation doesn’t really mean free free, but the thought of shifting the cost associated with all or part of college to someone/something else riles people up nonetheless. Students and parents may see this proposal as a way to receive crucial educational credits without the burden of lifelong debt; while educators and legislators are attempting...
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Marlie Burt was 75 miles away from fellow classmates when she worked on a group project last semester. Burt, who lives in La Harpe, Illinois, and attends classes at Carl Sandburg College’s branch campus in Carthage, collaborated with her classmates via a telepresence robot located on the Main Campus in Galesburg, where the other students in her police administration and management course met.
Burt attended the class by controlling the robot—affectionately named Sheldon, after The Big Bang Theory character—while sitting at a computer station at the branch campus. With Sheldon, distance was no...
May
2017
Technology is not exactly a necessary evil. We all use it, and we all need it. Regardless, it isn’t going away—that train left the station quite some time ago. Admit that up front and life is easier. As Hamlet reminds us, “There is no thing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Milton probably gets closer to the mark regarding our love/hate relationship with technology in saying, “The mind is its own place and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.”
We all can make our own use of technology heavenly or hellish. And nowhere is this juxtaposition clearer that in higher...
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May
2017
Some ideas just seem so solid—an effective use of our time and resources. Who can argue with plans such as cooking all your healthy lunches for the week in one enjoyable and efficient cooking session on a Sunday? Or ironing all your shirts as they come out of the laundry? That these best laid schemes don’t always materialize is the challenge. Great ideas are often fraught with possible detractors.
Higher education has some of these great ideas—plans that are truly sound and effective—if everything works out. The concept of stackable credentials is one such idea. Having students work toward...
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May
2017
Students must display personal responsibility and autonomy in their pursuit of a college education. We do students no favor by pretending otherwise. These character traits are critical to a successful, fulfilling life. And yet many students come to college needing guidance, encouragement, advice, and direct instruction in how to transform their vague notions of career and life goals into concrete, demonstrable skills, knowledge, and credentials. Fortunately, they’ve come to the right place. At San Jacinto College, every decision we make revolves around student success. In formal meetings and...
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May
2017
Can you teach creativity? That question opens up many debates that resound throughout all levels of education. Some claim that individuals either are or are not creative and that no amount of exposure, practice, or direct instruction will make those nons more creative. In fact, it may frustrate them to the point of quitting all together.
Perhaps you’ve heard the possibly apocryphal stories that Einstein wasn’t brilliant in grammar school, Disney’s first drawings were rejected, and that McCartney wasn’t allowed to take music in school for an apparent lack of talent. So if these titans were...
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