Educational Programs and Policies Committee

Minutes, November 24, 2008

Present:  Robert Aiken (Senate), Suman Batish (CST), Bruce Conrad (CST) Chris Dennis (OSVPUS), Marge Devinney (CLA), Michele O'Connor (OSVPUS), Mary Ann Gaffney (Fox), Phil Harris (CLA), Tamara Johns (student), Wendy Kutchner (Registrar), Dan Liebermann (Medicine), Lori Salem (Writing Center), Catherine Schifter (Education), Concetta Stewart (SCT).

Writing intensive (WI) courses: Marge Devinney reported that the standards for qualifying instructors of WI courses were discussed by the Steering Committee, and distributed a memorandum from the Steering Committee with suggestions and concerns.

Lori Salem noted that the WI Committee had put a proposal to relax the standards before EPPC on October 13, and that we declined to approve it. The WI Committee is preparing a new proposal, has met with COI in CLA, and intends to meet with other college curriculum committees.

A suggestion was presented that faculty might be qualified by assessment of student outcomes. Lori Salem expressed concern that a bad class might disqualify an instructor needlessly.

Marge Devinney said that mandatory qualification standards will be hard to manage. Who will be the judge to decide on qualifications? What incentives would  faculty members have to prove their qualifications?

Chris Dennis was concerned that a central “certification bureaucracy” would be onerous. Perhaps each college could have a master teacher to organize WT training.

Mary Ann Gaffney asked if the certification would still be mandatory. Chris Dennis suggested that the dean could “weed out” those who didn't participate in the training. Concetta Stewart objected to that.

Lori Salem said enticement was to be preferred over enforcement.

It was noted that quality control was especially difficult when adjuncts taught WI courses.

Lori Salem noted that the WI program has never had a full time director—the program has never had adequate resources. Involving the program in required faculty development would be breaking new ground.

Mary Ann Gaffney was concerned that master teachers would need a considerable incentive.

Lori Salem hoped for a robust, voluntary program with multiple points of entry, and pointed to the voluntary training in the use of smart classrooms, which was apparently successful.

Robert Aiken said that mandatory training would be a mistake, that the WI program must be a positive experience for the faculty members that it involves. The Steering Committee hopes that the WI program will be a visible part of General Education. He asked for a workable solution, to be presented with a price tag attached. A scenario that makes sense and is affordable is needed.

Lori Salem asked EPPC to specify what it wants the WI Committee to do. Mary Ann Gaffney asked if the Board had to approve the deletion of the adjective mandatory. Concetta Stewart and Chris Dennis both gave opinions that Board approval would not be needed.

Lori Salem suggested that the training could be presented as a 15 minute online session.

Chris Dennis said that the purpose was to protect students from bad instruction.

The Minutes of October 27 were approved with minor changes.

Chair's Report (Mary Ann Gaffney) GEEC has been attempting to clear up confusion and distress among the student body about who is subject to CORE, and who is subject to General Education.

Michele O'Connor said that the Student Government would be addressed on this subject by Terry Halbert and Peter Jones. There is information about the CORE on the General Education web site. Questions about who falls under CORE requirements, and who must satisfy General Education requirements are also answered in the Guide to Registration, but unfortunately upperclassmen are not in the habit of reading it. Advisors can also answer these questions. Tamara Johns said that the rules are not clear to students, and they do not visit advisors.

Community based learning (CBL): The question of identifying CBL courses with special numbers was revisited. Chris Dennis said that there were numbers available, but was unclear about who could approve them. Michele O'Connor pointed out that in some cases, some sections of the same course were CBL, and others were not. There was no resolution of this issue yet.

SFF: Chris Dennis distributed new course evaluation forms, which are in use this semester. A statistical analysis had revealed that some of the questions on the old CATE forms were not useful. Those questions were eliminated. Also a greater variety of forms was created, to fit the needs of different modes of instruction in use. Chris Dennis noted that the definitive nature of the student assessment survey was still a problem, and that it must be complemented by other modes of assessment. All courses, even those with fewer than eight students enrolled, should be assessed. The new forms have a new name, Student Feedback Forms, and a new web site, http://www.temple.edu/vpus/sff.

There is an SFF Committee, with 4 subcommittees, viz.: Alternatives for assessing instruction in small classes; Distribution of SFF/CATE information to compete more effectively with ratemyprofessor.com; Designing a central template for use in the promotion, tenure, merit, and rehire process; and Research based on data that were gathered.

Chris Dennis said that the SFF reports will not use ranking. Mean scores will be kept, but percentile scoring is false specificity, because a 38th percentile score might actually be good. Instead, instruction will be classified as Upper, Middle, or Lower. A guide for instructors will be distributed in the spring to help them interpret their SFF reports.

There was some discussion of paperless SFFs. Chris Dennis said that a paperless CATE had been used for online courses, but there was a poor response rate. Dan Liebermann suggested that students might be required to complete their course evaluations before their  grades would be released. Bruce Conrad suggested that tuition could be increased by a certain amount, with refunds due to those who completed all of their course evaluations.

Middle States: Chris Dennis said that preparation for the Middle States review in 2009-10 was ongoing, and a self study was in preparation, under the direction of Jody Levine Laufgraben.

Respectfully submitted by Bruce Conrad