Open-Entry/Open-Exit

Members

Faculty Chair: Patti Marsh, PVCC
Faculty Co-Chair: Brenda Nielsen, MCC
Co-Chair: Lupe Gutierrez, DIST

Mary Alcon, MCC
Angela Ambrosia, PC
Sandy Belisle, PVCC
Virginia Cantu, DIST
Kimberly Chambers, SCC
Linda Collins, RSCC
Richard Felnagle, MCC
Kathy Green, PC
Betty Greenwood, DIST
Maria Hesse, CGCC
Roxana Maskell, GWCC
Cathy Meschke, GWCC
Suzanne Murry, GCC
John Nylander, GWCC
Shirley Petras, GCC
Connie Rainey, GWCC
Chris Stein, GWCC
Roger Yohe, EMCCC

Charge

In response to student needs for classes which do not follow traditional timelines, the OE/OE Committee proposes standard District-wide policies, procedures, and recommendations regarding OE/OE programs.

Introduction

The Ocotillo Open-Entry/Open-Exit Committee evolved from a broader-based Ocotillo committee which addressed non-traditional education. Many of the members on this committee have been active members for five years. In response to student needs for classes which do not follow traditional timelines, the Open-Entry/Open-Exit (OE/OE) committee proposes standard District-wide policies, procedures, and recommendations regarding OE/OE programs.

Year in Review

Human Resource Issues

The committee recommended that a task force be established to systematically review and revise employee job descriptions which relate to instructional computing.

Meetings were held with the Director of Human Resources and Vice Chancellor of Quality and Employee Development, Dr. William Waechter. The Presidents Council was also made aware by several OE/OE faculty members of the recommendation.

Dr. Waechter assigned the Manager of Compensation to review the job descriptions and possibly compile a new job description. The Presidents Council decided not to address the situation as a whole but rather approach it on an individual basis.

Computer Lab Fees

Computer-related lab fees seem to reflect each college's assessment of needs and vary widely from college to college. A report to the Vice Chancellor for Educational and Student Development, Dr. de los Santos, prepared by the OE/OE Committee, has been sent describing the diversity of the fees assessment throughout the District. The committee has discussed this as being a campus-based issue at present and not a standardized procedure throughout the district.

Faculty Evaluations

A concern about the evaluation of OE/OE faculty was raised early in the year. The concern was that the standard evaluation form does not address issues unique to the OE environment and, in many areas, just does not apply. For example "Uses class time well" does not apply, whereas, criteria regarding the lab environment and preparation of good learning materials are paramount.

Lupe Gutierrez was able to find out that, for part-time faculty, it is up to each individual college to determine their format for evaluations. Each college, who has since developed its own format (most are adaptations from Glendale Community College's model), has contributed a copy to the Resource Manual to further share among the colleges.

Orientation Project

An interactive computer-based orientation program is being designed by the OE/OE Committee with the help of the Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction (MCLI). The "Orient Express" will help students become familiar with computer lab policies and procedures, as well as open-entry/open-exit procedures and success strategies.

Committee members are working on the content issues, while MCLI is providing instructional design and programming support. It is expected that an Orient Express template, which can be modified and personalized for specific college needs, will be available to interested colleges by early fall 1994.

PVCC Multidisciplinary OE/OE Model

The PVCC Multidisciplinary OE/OE Model was presented to the committee by Sandy Belisle and Patti Marsh. The model was developed to allow PVCC to start an OE/OE program that would encompass all OE/OE courses in all divisions under the same plan. The intent was to provide consistency in all OE/OE courses in terms of policies, procedures and marketing strategies which ultimately would better serve the students. The model was developed using the Ocotillo OE/OE Committee as an on-going resource for strategies and support materials.

INFORM

This committee strongly recommends that the INFORM system is supported and maintained until a new product is in place. INFORM is critical for tracking and communicating with students enrolled in OE/OE courses.

Loading

A recommendation for loading for OE/OE courses and/or faculty was made in the 1991-92 Ocotillo year-end report. When requested to revisit the recommendation, the committee chose to stand by the recommendation and reaffirm the following:

"The committee agreed that it was necessary to convey the message to Deans, Division Chairs and others involved in making decisions for OE/OE classes, that the faculty teaching OE/OE courses don't work any less than their structured class counterparts. They just work differently. Therefore, it was fair to load an OE/OE course with approximately the same number of students as a similar structured course might have. If a structured class with xx students generates y faculty load, then a similar OE/OE course with xx students should generate y faculty load (assuming equal credit hours). On the other hand if a college is in the process of building a new program, some courses may be allowed to "make" with fewer than the normal number of students, to get the program off the ground. This same philosophy might need to be followed at colleges which are trying to get OE/OE courses started."

In other words, the decision-making process for determining load for an OE/OE class should parallel the decision-making process on that campus for traditional structured courses.

OE/OE Resource Manual

Members of the committee contributed support materials for an OE/OE resource manual which will be duplicated, bound and delivered to all committee members and other interested parties. The OE/OE manual will include samples of the following:

  1. PT faculty evaluation forms
  2. New faculty packets
  3. Advisement literature
  4. Orientations
  5. Marketing and schedule information
  6. Follow-up surveys
  7. Enrollment agreement/contracts
  8. Computer lab rules and policies

Conclusion/Future Goals

The year has been one of communicating concerns through appropriate channels, gathering and disseminating information to interested parties, and discussing and coming to consensus on critical issues.

Student success in OE/OE courses will continue to be a priority of the group. There still seem to be some infrastructure issues that remain to be clearly defined and resolved. The interactive orientation program (the "Orient Express") remains an on-going project.

The consensus of the committee was that perhaps we have moved out of the visionary scope of Ocotillo and have become more of a functional group dealing with the "here and now" issues of coordinating OE/OE programs. We will investigate the possibility of transitioning into a district OE/OE coordinator's group so that we can continue our dialogue and exchange of ideas and work to resolve issues of concern that are unique to the OE/OE environment.

Index

Ocotillo Report '94-- Open-Entry/Open-Exit
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c 1994, Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction (MCLI) Maricopa County Community College District, Arizona