Enjoy!
Going along with the example set by WIKILEAKS, the following information is being leaked through district faculty council. You might want to ask your local administration why they have not relayed it to us.
Julius Nadas,
secretary FC4
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
1. December 13-16, 2010: College Success Seminar Training is scheduled to take place at District. The request for College Success to be part of load is under review
2. December 18, 2010: All grades must be entered into PeopleSoft no later than Saturday at 2:00 p.m. Faculty who are experiencing issues should contact the CCC Help Desk by email or by phone 2600. Also, campus Registrars are available to be of assistance.
3. January 3, 2011, additional advisors and tutors will be hired for each college and will be paid for by an ICCB grant.
4. January 6, 2011: The Board of Trustees is scheduled to meet at Harold Washington College.
5. January 10, 2011: Spring 2011 semester starts Monday; spring classes begin Tuesday, January 18, 2011.
6. January 2011: The Upgrade to Blackboard 9.0 will be available.
7. February 15, 2011: Initial deadline date for I.A.I. five-year Course Review process. College administrators, Department Chairs, and District Academic Affairs need faculty assistance to complete program reviews.
8. The 2010 CCC Credential Guidelines are attached. If you feel you are qualified to teach courses on some other basis you will need to present the relevant documentation to your VP and ask that it be presented to the district office of Academic Affairs.
9. The spring 2010 Syllabi Audit conducted by the Office of Academic Affairs is attached.
10. Please remember to update your syllabi and upload them to Blackboard for spring 2011 classes. Syllabi are expected to be available to students no later than the first day of classes.
11. The official CCC Syllabus Template is attached. 2011 CCC Syllabi Template
12. A sample CCC Syllabus is attached. F09-CHLDDV-109-K-Connor
The Harold Lounge 
Just thinking out loud:
Per the Syllabi audit, why were the numbers so low and varied across the district? Does this really represent a substantial sample? Any Math folks out there?
It would be good to know what percentage of syllabi were audited based on the total number of faculty at each campus.
Interesting how Master Faculty did not have perfect syllabi. Either they are not master faculty or there is something wrong with the definition of SLO’s.
I ain’t tryin’ to raise a ruckus, but I would appreciate it if all of us were on the same page regarding the definition of Learning Outcomes and Learning Objectives. I rather District did not define these terms for us. Is this a local FC issue?
OK, so I just took a look at the 2011 CCC Syllabi Template and it does provide a working description of Course Objectives and SLO’s. However my concern lies with the following points:
1. Why is this coming from the Office of the Associate Vice Chancellor, Arts & Sciences. Were any faculty consulted in this matter? If so, good. If not, then I guess we’ve got bigger problems.
2. Why the need to include a description regarding Student Conduct? This is a syllabus, right? Isn’t there a student policy manual available to ALL students that would cover this? My concern is that if we don’t draw a line as to what should and should not be included in a syllabus, then it will simply become a fluff of stuff than will lose meaning when provided to students during that first and impressionable week of class. If the folks at District were thinking this through, wouldn’t they find a way to include a link on Blackboard to the Student Policy Manual?
3. Why do I need to include a statement regarding Classroom Etiquette in my syllabus? BTW, even District is ambivalent about what to say and how to say anything about etiquette. This is a complicated matter, yet I feel District is brushing this big issue under the rug.
I got more questions but I’ll leave it at that for now. Let me take a look at that sample syllabus…
Nothing against the faculty member that submitted the sample syllabus, but…
1. It don’t exactly meet the standards set forth in the District template. Again, nothing against the faculty member or the faculty member’s syllabus. Diversity in syallabi is good and healthy. However, we need a statement explaining the why certain parts of the syllabus are different from the District standard.
2. How ’bout a sample syllabus for non-lecture courses? I’d like to see an Art syllabus and a CIS syllabus.
Ok, I is done. Back to watchin’ some holiday movies.
Hello All –
Wanted to post a clarification to #7 about the IAI Five Year Review. My understanding now is that the five year review may continue for about a year. The actual duration will depend in large part upon the total number of courses,the responses from each institution, and the pace at which each panel conducts their review. However, while the five year review proceeds, panels will continue to operate according to the normal, semi annual IAI panel review. The Fall semester deadline is 9/15, and the Spring semester deadline is 2/15. (Is this where the 2/15 date came from?) Therefore,campuses can continue to seek IAI review and approval for new courses on the normal submission cycle of 9/15 and 2/15. At this time, the Five Year Review covers courses that were approved longer ago than five years.
Call me about this anytime. x3281.
Roz Harris
– Academic Management
Thanks, Roz! Always good to have you in the room (classing up the joint a bit…)
Wow, what a surprise to log on to my favorite blog and see my name listed under a post. Curious about why this would be… I had to read on. First, in a selfish gut reaction to defend myself and CHLD DV faculty across the district, I want to say that the course objectives/outcomes/and many other portions on most CHLD DV syllabi have been agreed to be used by faculty across the district after many hours/YEARS of work. Just like any other program -we are constantly changing and learning from what we have done. We, CHLD DV faculty across the district, agreed to use the master course syllabi and those outcomes, etc are in the syllabi posted in the blog because those were what we agreed to at the time. We have been updating this effort- but anyone that has done master course syllabi knows how hard that can be…
Additionally, the CCC template is new to me too-it appears to have been updated and/or created on Nov. 25th of this year. I am wondering what input District Committee A had in this effort for a new CCC syllabi template. I have questions regarding the template but I will reserve them for a different time.
I am still rather unsure how I feel about one of my course syllabi being shared with all faculty to be scrutinized/discussed/evaluated without as little as a heads up.
We all use our syllabi for various purposes- I am constantly changing mine to try to maximize what I can get “out of it” (and I know many of you do too). But, in the spirit of flexibility, reflection, and feedback- I’m keeping an open mind and will take this unexpected opportunity to learn from what folks have to say-so, please share away. I look forward to dialogue we can have regarding what makes an effective syllabus and the various ways we use our syllabi in class to improve student learning, student experiences, and our experiences!
Well, there goes any anonymity for myself today…
I would have been most unhappy about it, were I you, Surprised, and I’m downright positive that I would not have had the grace and generosity of spirit that you so clearly summoned and modeled for the rest of us as a top-notch example of collegiality and commitment to continuous improvement.
Truly impressive…
I agree with PhiloDave. You are one helluva woman and one helluva teacher. I think this means that District believes this to be a top notch syllabus-those course objectives, course descriptions and slo’s took hours and hours to write by an across-the district representation of faculty. Other than the mandatory bits required by district, syllabi should be individualized, adding what you believe to be important, leaving out what you think is not. Faculty at HWC will never agree on the exact purpose of the syllabus, nor do they need to. There are several definitions in higher ed about syllabi, etc. and we are allowed, encouraged to explore those, individually.
I have found the Master Course Syllabi to be a positive thing for our program. It helped us clarify our course goals and really think about what students should be learning in each course. It helps us inform adjunct faculty and have a common language with which to speak about our programs.
BTW, nothing in the student policy manual addresses the kind of learning culture I am trying to create with my students in our classroom. I believe, very strongly, that faculty should describe, in detail, their expectations for student conduct in their particular classrooms. Transparency helps students become flexible and understanding and will support faculty in the long run, if there is a problem down the road. Just saying.
As you’ve stated Surprised, this is your favorite blog. That means you know my intentions are not to call out faculty, but to question the intentions and purposes of District’s moves.
We all work in the same glass house, so you won’t find me throwin’ stones at any peeps.
To clarify: I ain’t judgin’ your syllabus or any other syllabus that I see. I question why District would use this as an example and not provide commentary as to why it meets the new standards. I also used this post to raise the concern as to why District is tellin’ us about SLOs instead of us defining our own standards and syllabi templates. That’s all I gots to say.
Thanks for giving us “the rest of the story”.
Surprised, when I created this post, I was under the assumption that you knew that they had included your syllabus as a representative sample. Nonetheless, thanks for your openness on this. Your syllabus has some parallels to my own but something that I’ll likely do to tweak mine for the spring is inspired by your section about building a learning community. Nice work.
BTW, Mathissexy I was waitin’ for some folks to open the files and give you some feedback. I was a bit “Surprised” myself when the post sat there for a while and no peep responded. Thus, I went a clickin’ on the links and opened Pandora’s box.
My hope is that other peeps will take notice in the future and be the first to unlock da box.
Signed,
workininaglassbuilding