See Related: Mathematics Science
  1. Jessica Gregg
  2. http://ceils.ucla.edu
  3. Associate Director for Educational Development
  4. CIRTL INCLUDES - Toward an Alliance to Prepare a National Faculty for Broadening Success of Underrepresented 2-Year and 4-Year STEM Students
  5. https://ceils.ucla.edu/ucla-cirtl-includes/
  6. CIRTL, UCLA
  1. Marc Levis-Fitzgerald
  2. Director
  3. CIRTL INCLUDES - Toward an Alliance to Prepare a National Faculty for Broadening Success of Underrepresented 2-Year and 4-Year STEM Students
  4. https://ceils.ucla.edu/ucla-cirtl-includes/
  5. UCLA, UCLA
  1. Erin Sanders
  2. http://www.ceils.ucla.edu
  3. Director
  4. CIRTL INCLUDES - Toward an Alliance to Prepare a National Faculty for Broadening Success of Underrepresented 2-Year and 4-Year STEM Students
  5. https://ceils.ucla.edu/ucla-cirtl-includes/
  6. UCLA Center for Education Innovation & Learning in the...
Public Discussion

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  • Icon for: Jessica Gregg

    Jessica Gregg

    Lead Presenter
    Associate Director for Educational Development
    May 15, 2017 | 03:26 p.m.

    Welcome, and thank you for viewing our video. As part of the NSF INCLUDES initiative, we have started to build a regional collaborative made up of 4-year and 2-year institutions in order to support improved outcomes for STEM students in our Southern California region by providing training, networks, and pathways for those interested in a career at a community college. With this foundation we also hope to work as a network to identify the types of data-sharing, resources, events, and relationships that can help us to truly address outcomes as a collective group rather than as individual institutions. Similar work is also happening in Texas and Iowa so that we can distinguish between unique regional needs while also leveraging national resources that could benefit everyone. Please share your thoughts, comments, and questions!

  • Icon for: Albert Byers

    Albert Byers

    Facilitator
    Sr. Director, Research and Innovation
    May 15, 2017 | 10:14 p.m.

    Wow, what an important undertaking and unique “niche” to improve the potential for future faculty working in STEM fields at community colleges for under-served and underrepresented groups. Not only are you tackling southern CA, but you are also looking for regional variations and needs with partnerships in Iowa and Texas.  Kudos!

    As I read your abstract and watched the video a couple questions came to mind that I think would greatly inform our viewership over this week, and the year beyond:

     

    --One of your projects goals is to explore how best to collaborate between 4 and 2 year colleges for this “pipeline” focus of future faculty. You reference the term “Collective Impact Framework.” Might you expand on what the framework is and how it is guiding your efforts?

     

    --I appreciate the surveys, and potential large volume of data collection you are undertaking across so many varied institutions (as a collective group). Are there methods for examining the data exhaust from all this “big data” analytics, and might you share if you’ve already discerned what approaches you are finding that most benefit community college faculty? Are you finding any early results of differences between southern CA, Iowa and Texas?

     

    --You state in your video that you are learning about the community college culture, and uncovering some existing models and resources to aid in your overall goals for this effort. Might you share a little about any nuances you are finding about the community college culture (e.g., how is it different than you thought or anticipated), and talk about maybe one model you found out there that is showing promise?

  • Icon for: Jessica Gregg

    Jessica Gregg

    Lead Presenter
    Associate Director for Educational Development
    May 16, 2017 | 12:54 p.m.

    Thank you for your comments and questions, Albert, I will do my best to address them for you and future viewers. 

    --The Collective Impact Framework is a model that is composed of 5 elements: common agenda, shared measurements, mutually reinforcing activities, continuos communication, and a backbone organization. Since we are still in the very beginning of our process we are currently focused on developing a shared agenda and starting to figure out how we will communicate as a collaborative. The backbone organization is a component that we are also discussing in detail, as we have national organizations contributing to the project as well. If you are interested in learning more about this framework, this article is a good place to start. 

    --The survey administration is also at the beginning stages, so we do not yet have a large enough sample across all of the regions to respond to your question too specifically. A few things we have learned in our region is that many of the community colleges in California do provide high quality professional development opportunities for faculty, and usually this is a credit system where faculty are required to obtain a certain number of credit hours each year - something we believe differs across states and regions. Since so many instructors at community colleges are adjuncts (but still working the equivalent of full time across different positions), we also recognize the need to support flexible strategies for engaging in any programming we would develop down the road. 

    --In addition to some of the structural differences above, we know that compared to a school like UCLA the community colleges will have much smaller class sizes for the core/intro/gateway STEM courses but generally have less access to research labs and facilities. We see this as an opportunity to think about how we can leverage the advantages of different institutions to implement pedagogical approaches that best prepare students for completing a degree in STEM. In meeting with community college faculty, we found that generally they love their careers and would be excited to support programs (such as mentorship) for graduate students interested in learning more. Also highlighted during conversations was the need to address stigmas around careers in teaching that some faculty may hold at research institutions such as UCLA - and to develop strategies to support graduate students who decide research is not their career goal. An example of an approach may be to have programs where students would have a mentor at the community college in addition to their advisor, and collaboration between the group to support various program goals.   

    -- A couple of existing models include UC Irvine's California Community College Internship Program, Project Match in the LA Community College District, and the College of the Canyons program Future Instructors In Training (FIT). These examples differ in how they are funded, which institution is the "lead", and other logistical differences. 

    I hope I've addressed your questions. Please feel free to post additional thoughts and comments here during the week.  

     
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    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Albert Byers
  • Icon for: Chris Thorn

    Chris Thorn

    Researcher
    May 19, 2017 | 09:36 p.m.

    Great elaboration of the work. This is really critical work and builds on a long history of CIRTL learning. 

  • Icon for: Albert Byers

    Albert Byers

    Facilitator
    Sr. Director, Research and Innovation
    May 16, 2017 | 08:31 p.m.

    Jessica

    Wow, what an awesome and thorough response...and so prompt! Thank you for providing the additional URLs for those that desire to dig deeper! I think the notion of CC mentors in addition to an advisor and combating those false "stigmas" about teaching compared to research are right on target and may go a long way to help reach your goals. Personal beliefs are deeply seated, resistant to change, while attitudes vary over time, context and may not be reflective of long-held beliefs! You are hitting on all cylinders in my book--keep up the good work--early on I understand in your effort!

  • Icon for: Donna Charlevoix

    Donna Charlevoix

    Program Director
    May 17, 2017 | 11:10 a.m.

    Hi Jessica - interesting project! I think we might have some potential points of collaboration with you. Our project: EarthConnections: Community Pathways to Geoscience Careers also has a video here and one of our regional pilots is based in San Bernardino. This pilot in particular is looking to link high school, 2Y and 4Y colleges to expose students to geoscience career pathways *and* also has a professional development component for faculty. I'd love to hear your thoughts on potential for sharing ideas and information.  

  • Icon for: Jessica Gregg

    Jessica Gregg

    Lead Presenter
    Associate Director for Educational Development
    May 18, 2017 | 01:32 p.m.

    Hi Donna- 

    Please see my response below to you and Barbara.

    Jess

  • Barbara Nagle

    May 17, 2017 | 11:46 a.m.

    I'm also with the Earth Connections project, and wonder if you could tell us a little more about the faculty survey you have developed. As Donna commented, there might be potential opportunities for collaboration with our San Bernardino Regional Pilot.

  • Icon for: Jessica Gregg

    Jessica Gregg

    Lead Presenter
    Associate Director for Educational Development
    May 18, 2017 | 01:32 p.m.

    Hi Barbara and Donna-

    I would definitely love to learn more about Earth Connections and see if there might be opportunity to collaborate! I will send you an email so we can find a time to chat over the phone or web. 

    As for the survey - it asks faculty (both adjunct and fulltime) to share about their career pathway including educational background and additional work experience, as well as explores the types of professional development opportunities that would be available and/or beneficial for individuals pursuing or currently employed at a community college. As I shared we are still at the beginning of data collection so nothing to report yet in terms of findings, however in informal conversations we are learning about some existing programs and experiences that I shared above. 

    Thanks for your interest and I will be in touch!

    Jess

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Donna Charlevoix
  • Icon for: Lynn Goldsmith

    Lynn Goldsmith

    Facilitator
    Distinguished scholar
    May 17, 2017 | 03:11 p.m.

    It's so great to see people making connections and learning from each other! Here's another possible one (wrapped in a question): I'm curious about how the model for collective impact is "impacting" your early work in terms of building partnerships and a shared vision. I'd be quite interested in whether you're developing tools and/or structures to help you with your work; the Research + Practice Collaboratory  is a project that isn't using a collective impact model, but is developing and studying research/practitioner partnerships. As part of their work, they have developed, and are now sharing, a number of tools that are available on their website. They also have a video here.

    Could you also tell us more about the role that the backbone organization will play in your project?

    Thanks!

  • Icon for: Jessica Gregg

    Jessica Gregg

    Lead Presenter
    Associate Director for Educational Development
    May 18, 2017 | 01:42 p.m.

    I just joined the listserv for the Research and Practice Collaboratory - it looks like you are doing really wonderful work as pairing practice with research (in an integrated way) is so important!

    A key component of the backbone organization is recognizing the resources required for the coordination, organization, and communication across all of the collaborators and stepping into (and staffing) that role. For example, a structure may be developed where a few times a year data/information/updates on specific targets are shared with the backbone organization who can compile the information to look for trends across the collaborators and report back on the efforts as a whole. Additionally, a backbone organization may access expertise in specific areas to support specialized needs (e.g. best practices for teaching a specific discipline from that discipline's national organization). 

    I hope this answers your question!

     

  • Icon for: Anne Gold

    Anne Gold

    Facilitator
    Research Faculty
    May 17, 2017 | 09:00 p.m.

    Thank you for sharing your initial work in this video. Looks like you have built important partnerships in the southern CA area. I am co-directing a REU program that focuses on community college students and we bring them to CU Boulder an R-1 four year university to work with mentors over the summer to immerse the CC students in authentic research experiences. We have very mixed applicant pools and feel that we would like to support students in growing into stronger applicants. Do you have suggestions from your initial work of how to support students and faculty at CC to prepare for a summer research experience? 

  • Icon for: Jessica Gregg

    Jessica Gregg

    Lead Presenter
    Associate Director for Educational Development
    May 18, 2017 | 01:54 p.m.

    Hi Anne-

    Thanks for your question. I do not believe UCLA currently has a similar program for CC students so I am not sure that I can give you the best answer, however my suggestion would be to see how you can best work with the CU Boulder faculty to identify the prerequisite skills/knowledge they are expecting the students to have when they apply. If possible, perhaps those faculty could assist in the development of learning materials such as videos and activities that could be shared with the CC faculty to use in their courses (or even better to collaborate with the CC faculty to develop the materials jointly). Of course this is time consuming, so perhaps it could be part of a grant or project for a DBER fellow or instructor interested in assessing the effectiveness of such an approach?If not part of a course, perhaps the activities could be done in a multi-day workshop or conference for students who then go on to apply for the summer experience. Would these suggestions be possible/helpful for your needs?

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