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Professional Development For Community College Teachers: An Online Graduate Certificate Program In Community College Teaching
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Branoff, Theodore |
| Copyright Year | 2005 |
| Abstract | The departments of Adult and Community College Education (ACCE) and Mathematics, Science and Technology Education (MSTE) within the College of Education at North Carolina State University developed a prototype graduate certificate program in Community College Teaching. The program focuses on developing the knowledge and skills necessary to design and deliver course-related content through technology-enhanced learning environments for faculty who teach in Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics (STEM) related areas. The courses developed for the graduate certificate enhance faculty abilities in both online and classroom environments. Current community college faculty from North Carolina and South Carolina have been recruited into the program. The project meets the broader goals of the NSF-Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program by institutionalizing the means by which working professionals can be recruited to fill shortages in community college faculty teaching positions in STEM fields. It also provides a means whereby current community college faculty can upgrade their instructional skills. The paper describes the online program and presents summary data from the first online course. Introduction In order to meet the needs of current and future students and employers, technology must become an integral part of the system and culture of community college education. Community college faculty must be prepared to deliver instruction in flexible ways in order to meet the diverse needs of their students. In turn, students must not only be exposed to technology content within their chosen field of study, but they must also become experienced with instructional technologies used to deliver content at a distance. Unfortunately, the design and delivery of instruction at community colleges through technology-enhanced environments are in need of improvement . One of the greatest needs among community college faculty is to develop proficiency in the knowledge and use of instructional technologies . In addition to the need for further developing knowledge and skills with instructional technologies, community colleges are also trying to keep up with the demand for workers in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Recently, a national survey by the American Association of Community Colleges revealed that ten of the fifteen degree programs ranked as having the highest probability of immediate job placement directly involved the development of specialized technology skills, and these programs are heavily dependent on mathematics and science backgrounds . The remaining five programs (nursing, etc.) still remain heavily dependent on new technological innovations. In the South Central region of the United P ge 10024.1 Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition. Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education States, four of the five programs most highly ranked for immediate job placement included computer technologies, radiology technologies, aviation, and computer-aided design. When combined with the increasing number of persons attending community colleges or universities in general , these employment trends are placing enormous pressure on community colleges to deliver technologically intensive programs that are themselves accessible through technologically-enhanced environments . Since most community college students work full-time and attend school part-time, there is an urgent need to offer programs that are accessible at a distance through online technologies. Nationally, 53.8% of public community college students work full-time [and 47.9% attend parttime] and 44% work part-time . These students are taking advantage of distance education. Moderately and highly nontraditional students are more likely than other students to participate in distance education and to be in programs available entirely through distance education. “Among all students who participated in distance education, 60 percent participated via the Internet ,” and by the end of the 2000-2001 academic year, “about half of all course enrollments in distance education courses were at public 2-year colleges .” The importance for updating science, technology, engineering and mathematics content, the growing desire for distance education courses, and the increased necessity for community college faculty to develop knowledge and skills in instruction 9 and distance delivery 10 reflect a set of compelling needs for significant professional development outreach to community college faculty in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics areas. In North Carolina and other states facing severe budget shortfalls, the pressure for technology programs is mounting at precisely the time that community colleges are seeing their legislative funding sources decline. In addition, a disproportionate number of community college faculty are nearing retirement age. Eighty percent of community college presidents reported that between 1150% of their faculty would be retiring between 2001-2006 . Thirty-six percent report that at least 25% of their faculty would retire during that period. In North Carolina alone, 21% of the full-time faculty employed in 1997 will have completed 30 years of service by 2006 . While many faculty hires come from other community colleges, hiring trends indicate that 38% of new community college faculty will come from four-year collegiate institutions, as well as the business and health sectors . Although these new instructors will bring with them content expertise, including science, technology, engineering, and mathematics content, most will have no coursework in curriculum design or in theoretically-driven strategies that promote the most effective student learning outcomes. The growing use and complexity of technologies in business and industry demand that learning designs for developing the much needed skills in these areas be effective, timely, and constantly updated. In addition, changes in accreditation are institutionalizing the expectation that all curriculum faculty have advanced degrees. National data indicate that 18.3% of full-time faculty and 30.6% of part-time faculty in community colleges have not earned a degree beyond the baccalaureate level . In North Carolina, part-time faculty constitute 73.1% of the total faculty for the colleges. Thus, the need to improve the credentials of a sizeable faculty subset is increasing pressure on already short-staffed community colleges. While there are some opportunities for community college faculty to gain degrees in instructional technology, technology education, or community college administration in the Mid-Atlantic States region, there are none that are systematically designed for community college instructors that emphasize distance delivery of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics content. P ge 10024.2 Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition. Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education Nationally, there are a few institutions now offering either community college teaching masters specialization, such as the University of South Florida, or a certificate, such as California State University at Sacramento. Most four-year institutions offer courses to develop and certify content expertise needed to qualify for community college instructor positions; however, the development of teaching expertise is only peripherally addressed, if at all. Community colleges, as well as the state system offices, support a variety of instructional development activities. These current faculty development efforts are excellent, but are limited because of the inability to offer a systematic set of offerings based in a designated set of instructional development competencies. In North and South Carolina, administrators in the state system offices and many of the community and technical colleges have expressed a need and support for courses and workshops on instruction. Graduate courses delivered through distance education are especially needed, as well as courses that provide opportunities to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics faculty to develop their own skills in the design and instruction of online community college courses. Project Overview The departments of Adult and Community College Education (ACCE) and Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education (MSTE) at North Carolina State University within the College of Education at North Carolina State University are working together to offer a prototype Graduate Certificate Program in Community College Teaching. The program focuses on developing the knowledge and skills necessary to design and deliver course-related content through technologyenhanced learning environments for faculty who teach in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics) related areas. The courses developed for the graduate certificate enhance faculty abilities in both online and classroom environments. Current community college faculty from North Carolina and South Carolina have been recruited into the program. The project meets the broader goals of the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program by institutionalizing the means by which working professionals can be recruited to fill shortages in community college faculty teaching positions in STEM fields. It also provides a way for current community college faculty to upgrade their instructional skills. As interest in STEM related programs grows among the community college student population, the hope is to foster greater faculty development. The Graduate Certificate Program in Community College Teaching strives to reach these current and aspiring faculty members through distance education, strengthening the services the community college provides. Project Goals The key goal for the online Community College Teaching certific |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://peer.asee.org/professional-development-for-community-college-teachers-an-online-graduate-certificate-program-in-community-college-teaching.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
