VANGUARD
OBJECTIVES |
RICHLAND
INITIATIVES |
Richland College Objectives |
Organizational Culture:
Each of the 12 colleges will cultivate an organizational culture in which policies, programs, and personnel support learning as the major priority. |
·Values and Practices
·College Strategic Planning Priorities
·Baldrige in Education
·Key Performance Indicators
·SACS Pilot
·Employee Satisfaction
·Student Satisfaction
·Links between advising and Instruction
|
Values and practices emphasize teaching and learning at Richland College. |
| College Strategic Priorities for Student Leaning reflect learning college principles. |
| Baldrige in Education Criteria guide the assessment, development and deployment of learning-centered programs and services at Richland College. |
| Richland College has established key indicators to monitor its progress toward meeting the college priorities. |
| Richland College is one of 8 colleges and universities selected to participate in a SACS pilot of new accreditation standards and processes designed to involve all appropriate stakeholders in facilitating learning. |
| Richland College has an established cycle for assessing employee satisfaction and quality of work life issues through surveys, focus groups, and interviews. |
| Richland College has an established cycle for assessing student satisfaction with college culture and the learning environment. |
| Richland College will strengthen the collaboration between advising and instruction to facilitate student attainment of educational goals. |
Staff Recruitment & Development:
Each of the 12 colleges will create or expand (a) recruitment and hiring programs to ensure that new staff and faculty are learning centered and (b) professional development programs that prepare all staff and faculty to become more effective facilitators of learning. |
·Core Competencies
·Getting your Feet Wet
·New Faculty Development
·Teacher Formation
·Thunderwater Professional Development Plan
·Differentiated Staffing
|
Richland College is updating its core competencies for employees to assure learning centered practices. |
| All new employees participate in a two hour Getting Your Feet Wet introduction to the learning-centered philosophy of Richland College. |
| New faculty receive release time for professional development that focuses on learning-centered practices. |
| Richland College sponsors a series of teacher formation retreats for all employees based on Parker Palmer's Courage to Teach. "The Heart of Teaching" for faculty and "Let Your Life Speak" for other staff members. |
| Through its Thunderwater Organizational Learning Institute, Richland College has implemented a plan for professional development of all employees based on learning centered values and practices. |
| Richland College is utilizing staff recruiting, selection, and evaluation procedures to systematically reflect priorities for learning-centered education. |
| The College is utilizing and evaluating differentiated staffing patterns where appropriate to support teaching and learning. |
Technology:
Each of the 12 colleges will use information technology primarily to improve and expand student learning.
|
·Technology Plan
·Teaching, Learning & Technology Roundtable
·Distance Learning Courses/E-Campus
·Student Services
·Technology Pilot Programs
·Technology based Learning Labs
|
The college uses the results of assessments completed during the development of the new technology plan to improve the extent to which technology is used to support learning-centered activities. |
| The Vice President for Student Learning has established a Teaching, Learning & Technology Roundtable to promote the effective use of technology for teaching and learning. |
| Richland College will strengthen its partnership with the LeCroy Center to support and deliver distance learning courses responsive to student needs and technology infused courses. |
| The College is using information technology to improve and expand services to students in such areas as admissions, advising, financial aid, orientation, registration, assessment, placement, and student success. |
| Richland College is one of the pilot sites for on-line admissions applications and registration for the Dallas County Community College District. |
| The College will expand its Emeritus Seniors Program to include a 12 credit hour certificate in computer literacy. |
| Students at Richland College have access to over fifty technology-based learning labs. |
Learning Outcomes:
Each of the 12 colleges will agree on learning outcomes for a core program of the college's choice, on strategies to improve learning outcomes, on assessment processes to measure the acquisition of learning outcomes, and on means for documenting achievement of outcomes. |
·Core Curriculum & SCANS
·Academic Enrichment
·Workforce Development
·Emeritus
·Greater Expectations Leadership Institution
·Supplemental Instruction |
The college will implement the evaluation plan for the Core Curriculum. |
| The Academic Enrichment Office is expanding and promoting projects and professional development opportunities to strengthen learning-centered practices. |
| The College is enhancing efforts to ensure that its workforce development courses and programs are outcomes based and responsive to rapidly changing technology-driven business environments. |
| The Emeritus Program is expanding professional development opportunities to strengthen faculty awareness of the needs of senior learners. |
| Richland College has been selected as a Greater Expectations Leadership Institution, and a member of the Consortium on Quality Education by the Association of American Colleges and Universities. |
| As part of the College's student success and retention efforts, Richland's Center For Independent Study will implement Supplemental Instruction opportunities for students in core curriculum disciplines. |
Underprepared Students:
Each of the 12 colleges will create or expand learning-centered programs and strategies to ensure the success of underprepared students. |
·Developmental Education
·Center for Independent Study
·Multicultural Center
·American English & Culture Institute/and English for Speakers of Other Languages Classes
·TRIO Student Support Services
·Student Success Task Force
|
The college conducts thorough assessments of its programs for underprepared students to determine student success rates, program strengths, and weaknesses. Through its developmental education class offerings the college provides many learning options to address the needs of underprepared students. |
| The Center for Independent Study offers tutoring and study skills help to all Richland Students. |
| The Richland College Multicultural Center meets the counseling, advising and registration needs for students whose native language is not English or who are not native born. The American English and Culture Institute offers an intensive English language program for international students preparing to study in American colleges or universities or individuals planning to work where English is the primary language. Other academic opportunities for studying English for Speakers of Other Languages includes on-campus ESOL classes and the ESOL learning communities offered during the academic semesters. |
| The Trio/Student Support Services at Richland offers a program to retain and graduate low income/first generation college students. |
| The Student Success Task Force will help the college expand and/or create programs that improve retention and remediation, and that increase diversity. |
