Learning Communities for Faculty: Connecting Faculty Development to Student Outcomes

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Learning Communities for Faculty Connecting
Faculty Development to Student Outcomes

• Tara Ebersole
• The Community College
• of Baltimore County

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The Community College Of Baltimore County (CCBC)

• Multi campus suburban college in Maryland
• Selected as one of 12 Vanguard Learning Colleges
  in the U.S. and Canada.
• Enrolls approximately 70,000 students each year.
  
• Enrolled 28,295 credit students and 41,475
  non-credit students during FY 2005, which
  represented 68 of all county residents attending
  an undergraduate institution.
• Offers more than 50 different Associate degrees
  and more than 100 certificate programs
• Enrolls a student population that closely mirrors
  Baltimore Countys rich diversity

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Principles of Assessment

• Learner centered
• Teacher directed
• Mutually beneficial
• Formative
• Context Specific
• On-going
• Rooted in good teaching practice
• Angelo Cross (1993)

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Basic Assumptions of Assessment

• Quality of learning related to quality of
  teaching
• Teachers need feedback on extent to which their
  explicit goals and objectives are being met
• Students need feedback often and early
• Assessment should be faculty driven,
  collaborative, and systematic
• Allow teachers to become the researchers
• Angelo Cross (1993)

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Levels of Assessment

• Classroom Level
• Course Level
• Program Level
• Institutional Level

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Institution Level Assessment

• Surveys such as
• CCSSE
• Satisfaction surveys
• SIR II
• Information Literacy
• Student Services
• Faculty Learning Communities
• NFLC
• Connections

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Definition of a Learning Community

• a Learning Community is a place of shared
  knowledge, shared knowing, and shared
  responsibility
• (Tinto, Learning Communities Building Gateways
  to Student Success, p.3).

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Faculty Learning Community

• A cross-disciplinary group of faculty engaging in
  an active, collaborative, yearlong program with a
  curriculum about enhancing teaching and learning
  with frequent seminars and activities that
  provide learning, development, interdisciplinary,
  the scholarship of teaching and learning, and
  community building
• Definition taken from the International Alliance
  of Teacher Scholars website

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Characteristics of the CCBC New Faculty Learning
Community

• Yearlong program of meetings, workshops, and
  presentations matching college strategic
  directions
• Special sessions and social events
• Mentoring component
• Mandatory- replaced college service/professional
  development requirement (some reassigned time)
• Guest speakers and New Faculty as presenters

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Topics Covered

• Learning Styles
• Students with Disabilities
• Information Literacy
• Service Learning
• Brain-based Learning
• Assessment
• Developmental Education
• And more

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Assessment Tools Included

• A checklist of faculty outcomes
• A pre/post test of the learning college
  principles
• A comparison of SIR II means to determine impact
  on students
• A comparison of actual student outcomes of
  adjunct, veteran and NFLC graduates
• An open ended survey to evaluate the program

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Findings

• Over 80 of outcomes were met by the new faculty
• Significant improvement in learning college
  principles
• Identified program strengths networking,
  communication
• Identified program weaknesses flexibility, time

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Perceived Outcomes

• Three NFLC cohorts compared to national data,
  control, CCBC veterans
• Use of student evaluations (SIR II) based on
• Course organization
• Communications
• Faculty/student interactions
• Assignments, exams, and grading
• Course outcomes
• Student effort

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Results for Perceived Outcomes

• NFLC participant scores improved from fall to
  spring during their participating year.
• NFLC graduates had year after scores that were
  comparatively higher than the control group.
• NFLC graduates after one year scored higher
  than their veteran faculty counter parts and
  national averages.

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Actual Outcomes

• ENGL 101 College Composition I Learning
  Outcomes Assessment high impact project
• Pre/Post writing samples, graded blindly by
  trained scorers using a normed rubric
• 15 courses taught by NFLC graduates

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Results of Actual Outcomes

• Students improved from pre to post in ENGL 101
  writing sample but was significant for students
  of NFLC graduates.
• Improvement was of statistical and practical
  significance in rubric characteristic Source,
  a focus of NFLC workshops

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Qualitative Feedback

• I loved the exposure to other disciplines and
  their ideas and I learned about educationI have
  decided to try and go back this summer to start
  my doctorate, not in my discipline, but in
  curriculum and instruction.
• it opens doors to a lot of valuable resources.
  It also gives the new faculty the opportunity to
  learn from one another new ways of dealing with
  student issues.
• I feel so empowered. The NFLC has given me so
  much information that I can only be successful. I
  feel so ahead of the game.

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Learning Community for Veteran Faculty

• Connections A Community of Teaching and Learning
  Scholars
• Specifically designed for veteran faculty
• A year-long series of meetings, workshops, and
  retreats
• Coordinated by trained faculty facilitators
• Topics include teaching and technology,
  fostering thinking skills and collaborative
  learning, increasing the relevance of course
  content for todays student, and addressing the
  social and emotional needs of students

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Connections

• Participants must submit an application
  explaining why they want to participate and what
  they will bring to the group
• Participants must complete a project that will
  have a positive impact on learners both inside
  and outside of their classes/divisions
• Participants will share their projects and
  outcomes during a college-wide professional
  development workshop
• Participants will receive a stipend when the
  project is completed

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Connections

• Evaluation measures will be similar to those used
  for the New Faculty Learning Community
• Participants will be asked to become members of
  VCISL
• Participants will be asked to serve as mentors
  for the NFLC
• The connections continue and grow

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• Questions?

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Thank you for your attention!

• Contact Information
• Tara Ebersole tebersol_at_ccbcmd.edu