Standard Four - The Academic Program

 

DESCRIPTION

Programs
Cape Cod Community College (CCCC) offers 2 degrees, Associate in Arts (AA) and Associate in Science (AS). In addition, CCCC offers 36 certificates, requiring from 7 to 29 credits. These degrees and certificates are consistent with the College's mission to meet the diverse educational needs of the residents within its service area.

AA degrees are designed to meet the General Education requirements of the first two years of most baccalaureate programs and to fulfill the Commonwealth Transfer Compact requirements. Students may refer to the College Catalog, where they will find faculty-prepared lists of suggested courses, called Concentrations, in a wide variety of subject areas to guide their programs of study. The catalog suggests the sequence of Associate in Arts courses by semester for each concentration. AS degrees are awarded in career and technical programs in many fields of study that meet the workforce needs of the Cape Cod community. All AS Degree Programs include at least 21 credits of General Education requirements. For the AA Degree 38 General Education credits are required. To graduate students must maintain at least a 2.0 Grade Point Average over at least 60 non-developmental credits of study. Selected programs leading to the Associate in Science require more than 60 credits. Courses specified for each degree and certificate are published in the College Catalog.

Cape Cod Community College follows the practice of numerical sequencing and prerequisite courses to ensure coherence in its degree and certificate programs. This task is performed by the faculty, the division deans, and the Curriculum and Programs Committee to ensure proper depth, continuity, and sequential progression.

Coherence in the nature, quality, and extent of student learning and achievement is ensured by ongoing review and revision of the course syllabi. Syllabi must follow the 10-point department syllabus template and are regularly reviewed to ensure appropriateness of course material, teaching methods, and evaluation strategies. Any substantive changes in courses are subject to the process of department review, Curriculum and Programs Committee approval, and College Meeting approval, before they can be approved by the President and the Board of Trustees and implemented.

All courses and instructional programs are proposed and developed by faculty, approved by program and department faculty, and then reviewed by the Curriculum and Programs Committee. Courses and programs approved by this standing committee are then recommended to College Meeting. All courses and programs approved by College Meeting progress to the President for final approval. New programs must be approved by the Cape Cod Community College Board of Trustees. New programs and certificates with credit requirements of greater than 30 credits must be approved by the Board of Higher Education.

The removal of instructional offerings at CCCC has followed the procedures outlined in the Academic Policy and Procedures Manual with approval of the Board of Trustees. Removal occurs when there has been a serious decline in enrollments or employment opportunities for graduates. When removal occurs, students are notified and given a reasonable time-frame to complete their studies. Usually this includes the expected time for degree or certificate completion as published in the College Catalog. The Registrar evaluates students for graduation using the catalog in place when students first matriculated.

Cape Cod Community College offers courses at several sites both for the convenience of students and to fulfill program requirements. These courses are offered at Wareham H.S., Upper Cape Regional Tech, Cape Cod Tech, Provincetown Art Association and Museum School (PAAM), and other locations. Courses that require clinical learning experiences use contracts that specify obligations from each party involved, and are reviewed on a predetermined regular cycle. Allied health programs such as Dental Hygiene and Nursing have contracts with hospitals and professional offices so that students may complete clinical requirements.

Academic Credit
The Massachusetts Community Colleges have traditionally used an Academic Program Review process to ensure program quality and relevancy. This process also affords the opportunity to provide the best possible educational offerings to the communities that the College serves, and to ensure that the highest standards of teaching and learning are met.

Educational programs at Cape Cod Community College undergo an internal program review as well as external accreditation in selected cases. Internal Academic Review proceeds on a 5-year program review cycle required by the Board of Higher Education. Internal Review is developed for the purpose of evaluation of a discipline or program's procedures for managing, maintaining, and enhancing the quality of teaching and learning. It involves a self-evaluation by the discipline or instructional program concerned, followed by review of the self-evaluation by a panel comprising members of the College and external subject specialists from other higher education institutions or from relevant professions. Internal Review is a reflective process in which faculty, staff, and students identify and validate good practice and provide specific recommendations to improve academic quality and assess program outcomes. Information Technology and Environmental Technology completed Internal Reviews during the 2006-2007 academic year.

Program advisory committees composed of area professionals and faculty meet with program coordinators and faculty at least annually to discuss graduate performance in the workplace as well as trends in the workplace and community needs. The recommendations of advisory committees are discussed at program and department meetings.

In addition to Internal Review, CCCC uses external national and state accreditation reports, which are conducted on established review cycles for degree programs which have such external accreditation (e.g. Nursing, Criminal Justice, Early Childhood Education). In 2006, Early Childhood Education received initial accreditation by the National Association for Education of Young Children. The Dental Hygiene program received continuing accreditation from the American Dental Association. The following list indicates recently completed reviews, along with those proposed for completion within the next three years:

2004 – 2005:
Business Administration, AS and Certificates
2005 – 2006:
Dental Hygiene, AS; Early Childhood Education, AS and Certificates; Fire Science, AS and Certificates
2006 – 2007:
Information Technology, AS and Certificates; Environmental Technology, AS and Certificates
2007 – 2008:
Behavioral Sciences, Transfer; Allied Health, Certificates
2008 – 2009:
Nursing, AS; Criminal Justice, AS
2009 – 2010:
Early Childhood Education, AS and Certificates; Business Administration, AS and Certificates.

During the reviews completed for Fire Science, Business, Early Childhood Education, and Dental Hygiene, outside consultants reviewed each program or department, including the Academic Program Review document, and met with faculty, students, and employers. The consultants' final reports are living documents that the departments and the College are using to implement improvements in curricula and to better allocate resources.

Admission to Cape Cod Community College is based on the "open door" philosophy required by the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education. In order to be eligible for matriculation, applicants must have graduated or will graduate prior to enrollment from an approved secondary school or possess a GED. Students who lack approved secondary school diplomas or GEDs, such as those who are home-schooled, may meet Ability-to-Benefit criteria. Acceptances are issued on a space-available basis. Programs that require additional admission requirements publish these requirements in the College Catalog and the Admissions Bulletin. In order to assure that incoming students are placed into appropriate courses, a computerbased assessment with cut scores for Reading, Sentence Skills, and Mathematics is required by state mandate for all matriculated students. Students are offered counseling from the Advising Center, and given review materials prior to testing in order to assure accuracy of placement test results. As a result of this testing, students are placed in the appropriate College English and mathematics courses or assigned to developmental courses in those subjects. Developmental and pre-collegiate course work at Cape Cod Community College is awarded institutional credit but not graduation credit. Institutional credit can also be used to calculate course load for financial aid purposes. Assessment scores are maintained in the Jenzabar database, which is accessible to advisors, who help students plan their courses of study. Academic advisors help students choose the correct sequence of courses for Associate degrees and for the certificates.

Student retention is always important at Cape Cod Community College. The College Institutional Research and Planning Committee (IRPC) review of data shows that the College's enrollment has remained stable at approximately 4,200 for the last 6 years. Data from the BHE Key Performance Indicators of 2005 show that for the Fall 2005 cohort, the Fall to Spring persistence rate was 90.4 %.

Student Learning/General Education
Over the last 5 years a significant effort to develop and publish institutional, program, and course student learning outcomes has taken place. Currently, the AS Programs have published student learning outcomes in the College Catalog, while some AA Concentrations and Certificate programs are still developing student learning outcomes. Course descriptions and syllabi increasingly indicate the student learning outcomes to be achieved by participation in CCCC courses. On March 19, 2007 the College Meeting accepted Institutional Learning Outcomes that we hope accurately describe the Cape Cod Community College graduate. The institutional outcomes are as follows:

Communication skills:
The community college graduate will demonstrate the ability to express ideas clearly and cogently, and to read, write, speak, and listen using Standard American English.

Critical and creative thinking skills:
The community college graduate will demonstrate the ability to locate and use information for the purpose of examining underlying assumptions and interpreting and evaluating arguments, will create deliberately and independently using skills and knowledge acquired in our classrooms.

Ethical and Civic Engagement Practices:
The community college graduate will demonstrate a broad-based knowledge and understanding of ethical concepts and principles, decisionmaking, and behaviors and will understand the meaning and responsibilities associated with citizenship in the USA and world community.

Multicultural and Global Awareness:
The community college graduate will demonstrate the ability to appreciate, analyze and deal constructively with historical or contemporary experiences of diversity in the USA and the world, enabling the student to participate effectively in an increasingly complex and diverse world.

Quantitative and Computational Skills:
The community college graduate will demonstrate the ability to apply computational methods, generate problem-solving strategies, interpret equations and numerical data from tables, charts, and graphs, and organize, analyze, and present quantitative information.

Technological literacy:
The community college graduate will demonstrate the ability to use current technology to improve his/her creativity, productivity, communication skills, research skills, and information management skills.

As of October 2007, of 538 active courses, 224 include student learning outcomes in their departmental syllabi, and approximately another 100 courses that include new student learning outcomes are awaiting approval from the Curriculum and Programs Committee. Outcomes are published for all AS degrees and for an increasing number of courses in AA disciplines. Vigorous work is moving ahead to write student learning outcomes for all courses. The College has supported this work through professional development workshops and reassigned time. Assessments of program and course outcomes are identified in instructor syllabi and selected program assessment documents.

Cape Cod Community College adopts the General Education standards identified by the BHE. Program advisory committees provide industry validation for course selection. The College conducts student surveys of student engagement and satisfaction each year, alternating CESSE and Noel Levitz. This practice affords students the opportunity to provide feedback on their experiences at Cape Cod Community College. The most recent (2005) CESSE results indicate that the students' view of their college experience is on average, across the 5 benchmark scores, very similar to the perception of students from other colleges. The greatest score achieved of 51.2 occurred in the Student-Faculty Interaction benchmark, while the lowest score of 48.2 occurred in the Active and Collaborative Learning benchmark (both measures are standardized so that the weighted mean across all students is 50). This latter measure, which is of concern, prompted the recent strong support from the College for active and collaborative learning initiatives. The College has begun further review of this data in order to use the information most effectively.

The College also uses yearly Student Evaluations to assess the efficacy of specific courses. These evaluations are subjected to Decanal review and, when necessary, appropriate suggestions aimed at improving teaching and learning are provided to the instructor. Interactions with CONNECT, a consortium of southeastern Massachusetts public higher education institutions, including CCCC, Bristol CC, Massasoit CC, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Bridgewater State College, and University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, allow for ongoing and creative review of outcomes at member institutions, and provide a forum for teaching and learning discussions.

Transfer
Graduates of Cape Cod Community College have successfully transferred to a large number of four-year institutions, as can be seen in the Graduate Report. Cape Cod Community College participates in the Commonwealth Transfer Compact and the Commonwealth's Joint Admissions program. The College has formal articulation programs and educational partnerships with both public and private institutions to facilitate transfer. Each semester the Advising and Counseling Office holds several campus events that encourage students to meet and discuss transfer to institutions offering baccalaureate degrees.

The College Registrar oversees all credit evaluations for transfer into Cape Cod Community College. Developmental courses and precollegiate course work are not eligible for transfer credit into Cape Cod Community College or into another institution. The transfer policy is outlined in the Academic Policy Manual and explained in the College Catalog, on the College website, the Student Handbook and in the Admissions Bulletin in both printed and electronic form, and is specified in articulation agreements and transfer compacts. Transfer credit policies are recommended by the Academic Policies and Standards committee, approved by College Meeting, and recommended to the President for approval. Faculty are often contacted by the Registrar to review professional course work from other colleges, military course work and specialized training, or course work completed in another country to determine equivalency to course work at Cape Cod Community College. International students are required to have prior collegiate course work evaluated by a recognized agency which also identifies the US-equivalent course. The military provides guides approximately every year with their specific course titles and descriptions. The number of incoming transfer students has increased over the last several years.

The following table, taken from the annual Admission Report, represents the number of students during the last 4 years that applied for, and received transfer credits:

	F06	F05	F04	F03
Applied	353	334	330	329
Accepted	310	264	229	260
Registered	217	207	186	203

Further details about transfer can be found in the college website at Extended Study.

Information Technology
Beginning with orientation, new students are encouraged to use state-of-the-art information technology at CCCC. All students receive the Student Information Technology Handbook at orientation. Copies are also available throughout the campus, especially in the open computer labs. Included are instructions on the use of technology and access to offices and individuals who are available to provide assistance. All students at Cape Cod Community College are provided with email accounts as well as access to a network drive folder for storage of their data.

Cape Cod Community College has been offering online courses since 2002, first using the Top Class learning management system, and then moving to Blackboard in 2004. Courses are in online and hybrid formats with hybrid referring to substantially online content along with scheduled class meetings on campus. The number of on-campus meetings for hybrid courses ranges from a minimum of one three-hour session a month to approximately 50% online and 50% on-campus meetings. The course development process begins with the VP of Academic and Student Affairs requesting individual online course development plans from the academic departments. These plans include priorities for online course development for a given year. Course development funds are available according to a compensation schedule and are administered by the Director of the Wilkens Library and Distance Learning & Technologies. In May 2007 the College approved a new online course development application form and a revised set of procedures for the delivery of online courses. It also approved a new Distance Education Agreement which complements the system-wide MCCC Distance Education Memorandum Agreement. All online or hybrid courses are subject to the same course approval policies and procedures required of all new courses and are scheduled by the Academic Division Dean. During the Spring 2007 semester, the College offered 27 fully online courses and 3 hybrid courses: Human Anatomy and Physiology with a weekly lab on campus, Elementary Algebra, and Drawing. There are many more courses at various stages of development; however, at this time there are no degrees offered totally in the online format, although 16 online courses (48 credits) satisfy the General Education distribution requirements for the AS and AA degrees.

Special Initiatives
In addition to offering degrees and certificates, Cape Cod Community College serves the diverse needs of its community through special initiatives, including the following:

• The Academy for Life Long Learning, serving the substantial senior-citizen population on Cape Cod.
• ACCCESS, the Adult Collaborative of Cape Cod for Education and Support Services, which offers ESOL, GED preparation, family literacy, and college transition programs for adults over the age of 16.
• The MCAS Academy at Cape Cod Community College, addressing the growing need for academic options for at-risk youth who have yet to meet the competency requirements for their high school diplomas.
• The Cape Cod College Bound Project, geared to help eligible students prepare for college at an early age. College Bound serves 30 educationally and economically disadvantaged middle school students each year.
• The Dual Enrollment option, allowing qualified high school juniors and seniors students to enroll at CCCC to enrich their high school experience.
• Tech Prep, a US. Department of Education program that allows qualified high school students to begin their post-secondary education while still in high school. Students take academic courses that prepare them for college, as well as elective college courses.
• Project Forward, a vocational training program for students with significant learning difficulties.
• Diploma Plus, a program designed to assist high school students prepare for education at the College level by allowing high school students to take courses at the College during their senior year.
• The Workforce Education Resource Center (WERC). Working with the businesses and industries on the Cape, WERC assesses needs and then designs and delivers custom training for employees of companies and organizations within its service area.
• The Cotton Center for Real Estate Studies, dedicated to the education and continued professional development of real estate professionals.
• The Zammer Hospitality Institute, providing a pathway for students into culinary and hospitality careers as well as economic development in the hospitality sector.
• College membership in the College Consortium for International Studies, and the Massachusetts Council for International Studies, offering many opportunities for students to study abroad.
• College membership in Massachusetts Colleges Online, a consortium of 15 community colleges and 9 state colleges that allow students to take online courses from schools around the country.
• The Cape Cod Community College Honors Program.
• The Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society.
• CONNECT, which addresses curricular issues common to all three levels of public higher education: community college, state college, and university.

 

APPRAISAL

Programs
Cape Cod Community College offers Associate in Science Degrees (AS) in eight professional areas, several of which offer specialty concentrations appropriate to individual professions. Clearly stated Student Learning Outcomes are based upon professional and industry standards and feedback from program advisory committees and employers of our graduates. All courses within AS programs include measurable student learning outcomes that map back to the Program outcomes and to the College's Mission Statement.

An Associate in Arts degree affords a liberal arts program of study based on a General Education requirement of 38 credits with a distribution that includes courses in English Composition, Mathematics, Communications, Language Arts, Social and Behavioral Science, Natural Science, and Fine and Performing Arts. This degree adheres to the Commonwealth Transfer Compact among the public colleges and universities in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The disciplines have identified a variety of Associate in Arts Concentrations. These Concentrations are used as a tool to advise students who are interested in a particular discipline and further study at the baccalaureate level. These aspects of the CCCC academic program demonstrate that the College provides appropriate high quality educational offerings to meet the needs of our students and our community.

The current General Education requirements can be met through a number of courses selected across departments and disciplines. However, it is currently unclear as to why some courses meet the criteria for general education while others do not. There has also been some concern about the rigor of each degree and in particular about the fact that there is no quantitative skills requirement for Associate in Science degree programs. Another area of concern is the fact that credits for courses in which students received a final grade of D- are counted towards graduation. It is also of concern that a student pursuing an AA degree can complete a degree by finishing 60 credit hours of 100 level courses. While appropriate advising makes this a rare occurrence, it does challenge us to determine methods to guarantee the depth and breadth of student learning prior to graduation.

The Academic Program at Cape Cod Community College is regularly reviewed and revised in order to meet the educational needs of its service area. One especially successful component of Cape Cod Community College's Associate in Science degree over the last several years has been the Nursing Program. This program graduated 69 students during the 2004-2005 academic year, and of the 50 students responding to a Graduate Report survey, 48 were able to land jobs in fields related to their academic preparation. Helping students build their careers in Nursing not only allows them to take advantage of many employment opportunities, but also provides our community, which has one of the largest proportions of senior citizens in the country, with greatly needed skilled healthcare workers. In the Spring 2007, the Nursing campus lab area was moved to a larger space and was modernized. Dental Hygiene has been another successful program within the AS degree. Data from the last Graduate Report available indicate that of 20 students who graduated, 19 responded to a survey that indicated 18 were hired as Dental Hygienists. New educational offerings are continuously being developed to accommodate the needs of our students and our community. In the fall of 2006 the College graduated the first students from the Massage Therapy Certificate Program.

The BHE Key Performance Indicators report of 2005 indicates that the number of Associate Degrees completed rose from 305 in FY 2003 to 345 in FY 2005, while during the same time period, the number of Certificates awarded rose from 66 to 85. In order to complete an Associate's Degree within the two year time line, a student would need to take 15 credits of college level courses for 4 semesters without any developmental course work. However, this is problematic since the latest data indicate that approximately 81% of the students who enroll at Cape Cod Community College need at least one course in developmental Mathematics.

Low enrollment, defined as enrollment of less than 15 students, may cause some required courses to be cancelled. Factors such as number of sections offered, timing, and proximity to graduation are weighed in course cancellation decisions. This has been particularly problematic in 200-level Information Technology courses. Careful advising has allowed students to meet requirements through Massachusetts Colleges Online (MCO). However, the courses are not always an exact match and the process for syllabus review is not well defined. There is ongoing work in this area, but these concerns limit the use of MCO offered courses to assist students when Cape Cod Community College courses are cancelled. Students are also given the opportunity to challenge a required course, have an alternate course substituted for the required course, or, if the student can demonstrate sufficient knowledge in a subject area, waive the required course. Students are required to complete additional courses to earn enough credits to complete the program if they have a course waived or substituted.

The Physical Therapy Assistant program was put on hold for two years after the last class graduated and finally closed in November 2004. The lack of insurance company reimbursements for Associate degree graduates, a serious job evaporation locally, and a decline in projected enrollments led to the final decision to delete the program. The AS Information Technology Program – Administrative Assistant Concentration – Legal Track, as well as the Information Technology Administration Assistant Certificate – Legal Office Administration, were closed in Fall 2005. The students enrolled were assisted to change their programs to General Office Administration Assistant and Paralegal Certificate. The Gerontology Certificate was also put on hold during the Fall 2006 semester and is in the process of being revised. Cape Cod has a large number of elderly residents compared to the rest of the country; however, the Gerontology Certificate was consistently under-enrolled, possibly because there were no immediately evident benefits for students. In the Fall 2007 semester, the WERC office organized a noncredit Gerontology Intensive Certificate, a set of workshops designed to help professionals assist the elderly.

The Hyannis campus offers mostly noncredit and developmental courses. Even though it provides easy access for residents of Hyannis, it remains quite isolated from the main campus, and interaction between the two campuses is difficult. The courses offered at Wareham H.S., Upper Cape Regional Tech, Cape Cod Tech and PAAM are for the convenience of the students. These classes include English Composition and art courses.

Academic Credit
Cape Cod Community College supports open admission; therefore, testing and placement take place after admission. Placement testing ensures that students have the requisite reading comprehension, sentence skills and math skills to take advantage of the content included in the general education requirements.

Students in academic need are prepared for college level courses through a system of sequential prerequisites designed to build skills necessary for college level work. These aspects of the CCCC academic program ensure that under-prepared students do not waste time and money taking courses in which they have little chance of success. Conversely, placement testing maximizes the probability that students will succeed in their college-level course work once they have completed the appropriate developmental courses. However, the cut scores for the placement tests have not been analyzed or revised in recent years.

The degrees and certificates cover a wide range of disciplines for students to receive their degree/certificate and enter the work force or transfer to a baccalaureate program. The Registrar's Office ensures that applicable courses are transferred into the student's record. Faculty input on credit evaluation of professional course work and course work completed via the military and overseas currently operates smoothly. Transfer credit appeals by students can also utilize this process.

Unfortunately, in recent years Massachusetts has under-funded higher education and at present ranks almost last in the nation with respect to support for public higher education. State funding continues at levels last seen in the late 1990's. In the FY 2005 the college received $9.8M in state appropriation, while in FY 2001 it was 11.5 M. In FY 06 state appropriation accounted only for 45% of the operating budget. This has resulted in a great strain on College resources. Nonetheless, Cape Cod Community College has been able to sustain the high level of academic performance expected by the community. This has been achieved through vigorous fund-raising, intensive grant-writing and generous support from the community. Scholarships awarded by the College in 2007 hit a record high of over $300,000.

Student Learning/General Education
Cape Cod Community College continues to work to fulfill its mission as described in Standard One. A significant number of General Education courses have defined student learning outcomes with designated means of student evaluation delineated in the course syllabi. The academic departments continue to make progress toward this goal. Competence in oral and written communication, reasoning, critical analysis and logical thinking are implied but not always explicitly stated in the written learning outcomes for all general education courses.

Technology challenges around registration and records have made the effort to offer paired courses and learning communities difficult. These challenges have been resolved, and CCCC is actively working to increase the number of paired courses. In addition to many other benefits, these pairings help to promote the understanding of relationships between disciplines. These pairings are expected to frequently include General Education courses. In the Fall 2007 semester, the first set of Learning Communities that consisted of General Education requirements linking different departments and disciplines were established.

The General Education requirements in their current form reflect a balanced regard for the areas of knowledge traditionally referred to as Arts and Humanities, the Sciences, Mathematics, and the Social Sciences. They provide a strong foundation to facilitate higher learning, and accurately reflect the requirements of the Commonwealth Transfer Compact and the General Education requirements of most baccalaureate institutions.

However, the General Education requirements as they currently exist are dated, and do not always achieve stated goals. For example, we strive to promote better citizenship, as indicated in the Institutional Outcomes, yet do not specifically require either history or government across the curriculum. While General Education requirements address the domains of arts and humanities, the sciences, mathematics, and social sciences, it is possible for CCCC students to graduate without taking courses that specifically address all four subject areas. Also, in some disciplines virtually all of our courses are listed as satisfying General Education requirements, yet in other disciplines (e.g. Business) none of the classes meet these requirements. Determinations related to General Education have been on a department by department basis.

The Ad Hoc General Education Committee was established several years ago for the purposes of revising the General Education requirements to reflect our changing society. Some specific examples of concern include information fluency and multiculturalism. It has been a slow and politicized process, which was interrupted by an eighteen-month period of work-to-rule. This committee has developed Institutional Student Outcomes that clearly reflect our Mission Statement. Their acceptance at College Meeting was an important step in providing a framework for continuing the important work of revising our General Education requirements. There are ongoing discussions and open forums regarding the General Education requirements for both the Associate in Arts and Associate in Science degrees. The list of courses entitled "Courses Which Satisfy General Education Requirements" attests to the breadth of courses available and required as part of the degree.

The work of the General Education Committee on the development of Institutional Student Learning Outcomes will allow for a better integration of Student Learning Outcomes from individual courses into a more comprehensive design. The next challenge will be for the faculty to identify ways to assess the stated outcomes. However, early retirement incentive programs offered by the Commonwealth have affected the College dramatically. Since 1997, 48 full time faculty have left or retired, while only 26 positions have been added. This has brought the total number of full time faculty from 85 in 1997 to 65 in 2007. At the same time there has been a greater dependence on adjunct faculty, increasing from 129 in 1997 to 223 in Fall of 2006. Adjunct faculty are not required to participate in course development or improvement.

Courses offered at CCCC require collegiate level skills in the English language, demonstrated by written reports or final papers relating to the content of the course. These require knowledge of the rules of grammar and expression, as well as an ability to summarize information. Syllabus review of student learning outcomes indicates that all students who successfully complete ENL 101 demonstrate competence in writing a formal academic essay and academic documents. They further demonstrate the use accepted rules of logic and ethical interpretation of data. The final essay examination is department wide, and the statement of evaluation is detailed enough to assure consistency in course grades. Students in ENL 101 and ENL 102 use information technology and demonstrate information literacy through exercises done at the Wilkens Library as well as using research and proper citations in the assigned writing experiences in the required language courses as well as in other disciplines and learning opportunities. These courses effectively prepare students to succeed in composing the required writing in all the courses they take, regardless of subject matter.

In order to better serve its students Cape Cod Community College is participating in the six campus CONNECT First-Year Writing Group. Since the Summer of 2004, this group of English faculty from UMASS Dartmouth, Bridgewater State College, and Bristol, Cape Cod and Massasoit Community Colleges has met monthly to establish lines of communication among collaborating institutions and to act as an advocacy group around issues relating to the teaching of writing. Accomplishments include a comparison of the schools' first and second semester English Composition courses and the development of a rubric of learning outcomes for First-Year Composition. This rubric now is used as a basis of instruction at all five CONNECT schools. The CONNECT First Year Writing Group has greatly improved communication about writing instruction among regional higher education institutions. The College is committed to continuing the work with the CONNECT partnership. One project being developed through this partnership is the holistic scoring of student writing to ensure that students demonstrate appropriate collegiate level skills in the English language across the five institutions of CONNECT.

The College employs a number of academic support services, including the Advising and Counseling Center, the Tutoring Center, the Math Lab, the Writing Center, and supplemental instruction for nursing and dental hygiene students. The TRIO/SSS/Advantage Program, the O'Neill Center for Disability Services, Coaches and Mentors, and Career Planning and Placement also are successful in helping students to meet their educational goals.

In general, the results of the CCSSE and Noel- Levitz questionnaires from 2005 indicate that Cape Cod Community College students' perceptions of how the College affects their ability to acquire a broad general education, including writing and speaking clearly and effectively, are at or above the national average.

Despite our successes, over the last 10 years CCCC has to deal with a number of adversities: unpredictable budget cuts, faculty retiring and not being replaced, and challenges emerging from the fact that approximately 81% of our students are not academically prepared for college-level work, and require at least one developmental course upon admission. Course completion rates for FY2006 were 74%, one percent lower than the community college benchmark.

Transfer
For those students who wish to transfer to a baccalaureate degree granting institution, the Associate in Arts degree offers many concentrations for students to pursue their interests. The A.S. degrees can also lead to transfer opportunities. Transfer is encouraged and facilitated effectively through Joint Admission, CONNECT, the Commonwealth Transfer Compact, a number of articulation agreements with other Colleges and Universities and the efforts of the Transfer Office.

Joint Admissions, a transfer partnership involving Massachusetts Community Colleges, the University of Massachusetts, and Massachusetts State Colleges, has been very successful. Further information concerning this program can be found on the College website at Joint Admission.

Currently, we do not have detailed transfer data for all programs, but the office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness is beginning to develop a plan to effectively use transfer information, including that from the National Student Clearinghouse. These data will help the College in assessing trends regarding student transfer and should provide a better measure of the College's success, since many of our students transfer to baccalaureate institutions before receiving their degrees locally. According to the limited data available in the 2005 Graduate Report, 97% of AA graduates and 81% of AS graduates transferred successfully to baccalaureate institutions or were employed.

Information Technology
In 2006 the College opened the new Lyndon P. Lorusso Applied Technology Building. The College has added smart technology to many classrooms and improved facilities as evidenced in the Nursing Learning Resource Center. Information Literacy instruction and support are two highly effective services of the Wilkens Library. Instruction through scheduled workshops is provided for English Composition, ESOL, Oral Communications, Business, Sociology, History, Psychology and Health Science. An instructional CD was created for Nursing, Dental Hygiene and CNA students. The Library staff have created a useful matrix of first-year literacy skills. Instructional information is also available in the Library and through the library website regarding how to use the Blackboard platform, how to use software, how to do research and use research databases, and how to properly cite sources in academic essays. Additional training materials are located on the College website within the Distance Learning page under Student Help and Frequently Asked Questions. All of these achievements by the Library staff have greatly enhanced the effectiveness of Cape Cod Community College.

Every course offered at Cape Cod Community College has a Blackboard site available for it. This site may be used as determined by instructors for course information, announcements and email, or for the presentation of course content. The IT Help Desk staff and Distance Learning staff provide training to students on Blackboard through direct assistance. These recent changes have enhanced the effectiveness of the College. Additional training materials are located on the College website at T&LT Student Help.

All students enrolled in ENL 101 (English Composition I), a graduation requirement for both the AA and the AS degrees, are required to use information technology for course requirements. Furthermore, nearly every course at the College requires students to use information technology in one way or another. The use and demand for electronic information sources, such as online indexes and specialized databases continues to grow.

More than 350 flat screened Dell computers are available for student use throughout campus. They can be found in the cafeteria, in the library, and in the open computer labs. Wireless network access is provided throughout the main campus. Additional information about information technology available for students can be found on the website at Academic Computing at 4C's. All of these developments ensure that graduates of CCCC are functionally literate in terms of information technology.

The Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory of 2006 indicates that Cape Cod Community College students rate their satisfaction with the Academic Services provided by the College at a statistically significant higher level than the national average. The Academic Services scale of the Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory includes the ratings of library resources as well as the adequacy and accessibility of computer labs.

Workshops for faculty are frequently presented to introduce new electronic resources, to clarify the use of Blackboard, to aid in the development of online courses, and to demonstrate particular research techniques. Nursing and Dental Hygiene accreditation now requires that faculty and students be familiar with Evidence Based Practice. New techniques in this emerging literature have been taught to both students and faculty members, increasing the level of IT literacy at the College.

Development of online courses is a labor-intensive process and the management of these courses is also time-intensive, particularly when faculty engage students in active discussions and virtual group activities and projects. Nevertheless, many instructors have added online supplements to their courses and are using online management systems as a significant part of their instructional technique, bringing the College more in line with state-of-the- art instructional delivery modalities.

The College has been working with the Distance Learning Committee, a joint union and administration committee, to develop agreement on a course-development process and criteria for assessing when a course is technically ready for online use. All issues relative to evaluation of course materials, decanal classroom observation, and student evaluation are subject to the MCCC collective bargaining agreement. This work will allow the College to move forward with efforts to increase the availability of online educational offerings.

The College participates in Massachusetts Colleges Online, a multi-public-college consortium, to post online courses on a common portal. Participating colleges may also "broker" seats in MCO-sponsored courses by reserving a number of seats in the sending college's course. These courses are labeled with the receiving college's course numbers and titles and the students register through their home campus. This arrangement allows revenue-sharing between the sending and receiving schools, but more important, the instructor communicates grades directly with the Registrar of the receiving school, so that there is no need for students to transfer credits back to Cape Cod Community College.

There is support on campus to build an online course catalog to the point that both within the college and through brokering with colleagues in the MCO partnership, students will have the opportunity to complete entire certificates and degrees using the online format. This will be especially beneficial students living on the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, who would no longer have to commute to the main campus.

The developments presented above all attest to the fact that CCCC has put forward a significant effort to make information technology an integral part of its activities as it effectively and successfully pursues the realization of its mission.

 

INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

Cape Cod Community College is committed to a schedule of rigorous self study aimed at improving the outcomes of its academic program. By 2010 all professional, academic, and student service departments, will be engaging in continuing self- study and review.

The General Education Committee will build upon the Institutional Learning Outcomes that were approved by College Meeting during the Spring of 2007, and many of our course syllabi now include the Student Learning Outcomes. The College is continuing its work on the development and approval of a revised General Education Core, as well as a clearer definition of the requirements that would make a course part of the General Education requirements. This work is expected to improve not only our overall academic program, but also the level and quality of our graduates' education.

Projections - Standard Four - The Academic Program
Projections Review and continue to develop the new General Education requirements	Responsible Staff Gen. Ed. Committee	Completion Date Spring 2008
Implement the Institutional Student Learning Outcomes	The College	Spring 2008
Measure institutional outcomes and define discipline-specific knowledge that has the breadth and depth appropriate for the Associate Degree	VP Ac. & Student Affairs Deans, Dept. Chairs Faculty	Spring 2009
Make themselves available for developing a new General Education core for the AA and AS degrees	General Education Committee	Spring 2008
Promote a process for reviewing the way in which Institutional Student Outcomes inform general education requirements	Standing Committees of College Meeting	Spring 2008
Engage in a discussion about catalogue listing of concentration suggestion in order to maximize clarity	Standing Committees of College Meeting	Spring 2008
Promote the creation of a new standing committee of College Meeting that will focus on the development of valid assessments of the Institutional Student Outcomes and General Education	VP Ac. & Student Affairs	Fall 2008
Develop course syllabi containing statements of evaluation that reflect student learning outcomes	Faculty	Spring 2008
Review the grading system to maximize transferability of credits, especially reviewing the appropriateness of counting a grade of D- towards graduation	Academic Policy and Standards Committee	Spring 2008
Assess and plan for improvement of student learning at the course, certificate ,and degree levels	The process of Academic reviews	Ongoing
Publish institutional policies that define academic dishonesty and plagiarism, as well as student obligations regarding honesty in academic assignments	The College	Ongoing
Evaluate possible differences in the achievement of students in courses taught by full-time as compared to adjunct faculty	Dir. of Inst. Research	Spring 2009
The new version of the College web page will be updated and improved on a regular basis	Executive Director of Information Technology	Ongoing
Discuss the implementation of new and improved advising and retention measures	Academic Policies and Standards Committee, and the Advising Committee	Spring 2009
Review the MCO process and assess the effectiveness of this method of course delivery	Dir. of Distance Learning, Deans and Faculty	Ongoing
Organize a Student Success Task Force	VP Ac. & Student Affairs	Spring 2008
Develop a 2 credits Student Success Course and a 1 credit Career Exploration Course. Monitor course completion rates	Student Success Task Force	Fall 2008
Distribute course completion rates to the appropriate Deans, for discussion in department meetings and throughout The College's governance system	Dir. of Inst. Research	Spring 2008
Locate grants to establish a Center for Teaching and Learning	President	Spring 2008
Increase the number of Learning Communities and Paired Courses	Faculty and Deans	Ongoing
Define and measure student success; Evaluate Programs and Initiatives that advance student success as well as analyze and use the results of the Spring 2007 CCSSE and CCFSE surveys; Evaluate the Cape Cod Community College Strategic Plan; Develop and use Key Performance Indicators for Strategic Planning	IRPC	Ongoing
Discuss the relationship between course and institutional outcomes and our core courses in relation to the Mission	Generalized academic fora, Department, Standing Committees, and College Meetings	Ongoing
Constitute a new Strategic Plan Steering Committee to create the next 5-year plan	President	Spring 2008
Promote the Mission by ensuring it has a direct influence on the development of new courses and programs	President VP Ac. & Student Affairs Curriculum and Programs Com.	Ongoing