Online Educational Committee

The Online Education Task Force (OEC) provides advice to the Dean, Business Sciences, Online and Extended Education and the Director of Technology Services related to student success in online education, which includes online, hybrid courses, and web-enhanced courses. The committee reviews and recommends approval of all policies and procedures affecting online education.

As a member of the OETF I have the opportunity to share my voice and experience with online learning as well as technology integration. While the OETF focuses heavily on Online Education (OE), many of the ideas apply to hybrid courses and technology-enhanced courses as well.

Through my experience as a student in a synchronous/asynchronous online course, my work as a technical producer for online trainings, and my extensive work in educational technology, I am able to provide a unique perspective to the task force that might not otherwise be heard.

The OETF meets on the 3rd Monday of the month, and I send out a summary of the minutes along with my thoughts and recommendations as well as a call for comments and suggestions from my LLR colleagues.

Technology Advisory Task Force

The Online Education Task Force (TATF) advises the Director of Technology Services about priorities in deployment and assignment of technology.  The committee reviews new requests, current open requests, support issues, and the latest education technologies with a focus on faculty and student success.  The TATF will monitor the progress of the Technology Master Plan and make appropriate recommendations concerning strategic planning for technology.

I joined the TATF in the Fall 2019 semester when I saw the impact that it can have on hardware choices, computer needs, and classroom design. These matters are integral to student success across our program.

The TATF meets on the 1st Monday of the month.

ESL 80 Coordination

Each of the higher level academic writing classes has a designated coordinator to make sure that teachers are on track and that basic grading and writing levels are normed across the board.

I am the designated ESL 80 coordinator. Responsibilities include setting up and organizing meetings for a team of 4 teachers across 5 different classes, making sure materials are available for those who wish to coordinate classes, keeping open lines of communication for teachers regarding issues with the class, and bringing these issues up with the ESL department for full transparency and the opportunity to shift gears if needed.

With the ESL 80 teachers, I have also opened up online collaboration using Ryver as a central hub. The teachers have found this to be a great way to reach out and help each other, and we are able to keep track of communications and ongoing conversations rather than letting them get lost in an email thread. Feedback has been positive overall, and the teachers have indicated that they would like to continue with this system in upcoming semesters.

ESL 370 Coordination

I previously served in the role of ESL 370 coordinator, which has similar responsibilities to those described above for ESL 80, but at one level below. When we were able to hire new full-time faculty, we shifted roles and I took over for the 80 cohorts.

Director of Technology Services Hiring Committee – Fall 19 / Spring 20

An opening for the Director of Technology position gave me the rare opportunity to collaborate across disciplines to find the best person for this key position at IVC. I was able to learn from the committee to see what a diverse array of needs the Director of Technology needs to be able to respond to, not only from my own perspective as a faculty member.

The committee dedicated time and effort to review, evaluate, interview, and discuss a number of excellent candidates. Ultimately, we were able to push forward our top consensus picks, resulting in the hiring of Nick Wilkening.

ESL Full-Time Hiring Committee – Spring 19

The continual growth of the ESL and AESL programs created the need to find three new full-time faculty member to join our department. While the Spring 18 hiring committee showed me the inner workings of the hiring process, this committee gave me a deeper appreciation for how certain strengths can fit into different places in our department.

This committee worked to recognize the particular needs that face our college in the near and far future. Across three full days of interviews, we were happy to find our three outstanding new hires, Amanda Jerome, Alice Lin, and Kelicia Phelps.

ESL Full-Time Hiring Committee – Spring 18

Due to the size of the ESL and AESL programs, we were granted the opportunity to search for a full-time faculty member to work in AESL. The thorough vetting process for full-time hiring was an eye-opening experience, and working on this committee with other experienced faculty and administration gave me a deeper understanding of the scope and depth of the work that goes into bringing quality faculty members to our campus.

This committee worked to filter through nearly 200 applications to narrow our interview process to 2 full days of interviews, and ultimately to the hiring of our highly qualified, well respected colleague, Susan Akhavan.

ESL Program Review

The ESL Program Review consists of systematic meetings with all full-time faculty discussing and assessing the needs and goals of the ESL program as a department. This includes, but is not limited to development and alignment of the ESL and the AESL programs, technology integration across the curriculum, assurance of quality education, and consideration of future curriculum needs.

The ESL program review began in the summer of 2017 with a goal of completion before the deadline of December 2017. Meetings consisted of careful consideration and debate over PSLOs and SLOs in an effort to align with the school’s goals and the students’ needs.

Multiple Measures Assessment Program

In the Spring of 2017 I filled in for Jeff Wilson on the Multiple Measures committee in coordination with Rebecca Beck and the ESL Department at Saddleback College. We worked on developing custom questionnaires for ESL students in order to discover potential aspects of daily life that may lead to higher placement and increased success rates amongst the ESL population. This survey went out to 14 California Community Colleges to gather data and look for correlations. Ultimately, the results showed less promise than desired, but they have led to next steps in discovering better ways to create multiple measures to place our students.