Fundamental Elements and Related Questions

Evidence/Methodology

Fundamental Element #1: educational offerings congruent with its mission, which include appropriate areas of academic study of sufficient content, breadth, and length, and conducted at levels of rigor appropriate to the program or degrees offered;

1. How do the credit and noncredit programs, certificates, and courses reflect the College Mission?
2. Congruent with the College’s mission, how does CCAC assure that these programs contain sufficient content and are at appropriate levels of rigor?
3. How does the College assess the quality of this course/program content

   
   

Program Reviews

Surveys of current students and graduates where available

Common Course Syllabi and Faculty syllabi

Surveys conducted for noncredit offerings

Interviews with Faculty and program directors

College liaisons with employers; program advisory board minutes and benchmarking with other CCAC programs

Pass rate on licensing exams

Records of course substitutions to demonstrate program and

degree/certificate coherency and rigor

Bottom Lines

Fundamental Elements and Related Questions

Evidence/Methodology

Fundamental Element #2: formal undergraduate, graduate, and/or professional programs—leading to a degree or other recognized higher education credential—designed to foster a coherent student learning experience and to promote synthesis of learning;

1. How successfully and consistently do College programs meet outside agency requirements?
2. How does the College curriculum articulate with 4-year institutions’ requirement for transfer of credits?
3. Is there ongoing monitoring of the transferability of credits to 4-year institutions? What process is used to systematically review the successful transfer of credits; to establish articulation agreements with 4-year schools; to initiate new ones?
4. Are course learning outcomes in lower level courses related to learning outcomes in upper level courses, i.e., does the college catalog list course sequences where the attainment of learning outcomes in a lower level course is a reliable predictor of success in the next level course in the sequence?
5. How is articulation information provided to students and general population?
6. What evidence does the college use to verify or validate that its programs provide students with a coherent leaning experience?

Program Review

Meeting minutes of Career Advisory Boards

Career Services Records

General Education offerings by program

Required and free electives by programs

System syllabi

Student surveys

Any departmental, divisional, or IR records that provide a

sense of student learning outcomes

Bottom Lines

Fundamental Elements and Related Questions

Evidence/Methodology

Fundamental Element #3: program goals that are stated in terms of student learning outcomes;

1. How and where are College program goals described and are these goals assessed in terms of student learning outcomes?
2. How are individual courses chosen and sequenced to systematically move students toward program goals and specified learning outcomes?
3. How is achievement of student-learning outcomes in lower level Developmental Courses related to success in achieving the outcomes of upper level Developmental Courses?  Or, how are learning outcomes achieved in prerequisite Developmental Courses related to the achievement of learning outcomes in subsequent higher-level Developmental Courses?
4. How are student-learning outcomes in Developmental Courses related to the learning outcomes in the degree level courses for which they are prerequisite, e.g., ENG089, ENG100 and ENG101 or MAT080, MAT090 and MAT108?

Use same data as above Element above.

Fundamental Elements and Related Questions

Evidence/Methodology

Fundamental Element #4: periodic evaluation of the effectiveness of any curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular experiences it provides its students and utilization of evaluation results as a basis for improving its student development program and for enabling students to understand their own educational progress;

1. How is the effectiveness of Student Life offerings assessed? 
2. How are these assessment data incorporated into the planning process to improve Student Life programming?
3. How are student experiences and feedback data used to assess the various student development programs and how are these data used for program improvement and planning?
4. How are student experiences and feedback data used to assess the various student development programs and how are these data used for program improvement and planning?

Student Life records and evaluations

Student Satisfaction Surveys system-wide

Records of Faculty Participation in PD sponsored activities

Student Government records and concerns

Coaches, athletic directors and their records

Records from Career Services

Interviews with the Dean of Students

Relevant elements of College Plan, and records of their  implementation

Fundamental Elements and Related Questions

Evidence/Methodology

Fundamental Element #5: learning resources, facilities, instructional equipment, library services, and professional library staff adequate to support the institution's educational programs;

1. How adequate is the College’s library and Media Services when its resources, facilities, services, staffing and equipment are compared to standards of excellence recommended by professional library associations (ALA & ACRL)?How does our current library staffing compare with ACRL orALAguidelines?How does our book and AV collection compare with ACRL orALAguidelines?Are library facilities adequate in terms of size?
   Are there adequate computer resources in the campus libraries?Are there an adequate number of databases available to students, i.e., how do the number of College databases available compare with the number available at similar community colleges?
2. What processes are used to assure that there is adequate faculty involvement in the selection of materials for the library collection?
3. What data are used to assess the adequacy of the services offered by the library and Media Services? How are these data used in planning?
4. What library services and resources are available to distance learning students? (Also discussed under Characteristic 13, section on Distance/Distributed Learning.)
5. What strategies have been implemented to make adequate library and learning resources available to support distance learning?

Media services records at each campus and center

Library Services records, records of purchases

Library web-site, and records of technological updates

Library faculty and staff

Data gathered in Student Satisfaction Surveys

Inter-library loan records

Records of conference attendance by library professional and support staff

Professional development programs directed towards

increasing faculty use of the library and information

resources at CCAC

Assessment using ACRL or ALA Guidelines as a measure of adequacy for library equipment, facilities, services and staffing

Common Course syllabi

Individual faculty syllabi

Distance Learning website links (also, coordinate research with the Subcommittee for Characteristic 13,

subsection on Distance Learning)

Fundamental Elements and Related Questions

Evidence/Methodology

Fundamental Element 6: collaboration between professional library staff and faculty in teaching and fostering of information literacy skills relevant to the curriculum;

1. What strategies do librarians use to collaborate with faculty in teaching and fostering information literacy skills relevant to the curriculum?
2. What data are used to assess the effectiveness of these instructional strategies?
3. When recommending curricular changes, how is information literacy included in the deliberations of the Curriculum Committee of the College Council and the College’s governance processes? 
4. What elements of information literacy has the library identified as the critical outcomes of its information literacy initiatives?
5. How are these outcomes measured or assessed?
6. How are these assessment data used for planning?
7. For which academic courses are bibliographic instructional sessions being scheduled?
8. Are there other courses in which bibliographic instruction, exercises orassignments should be evidenced in the Common Course syllabi?
9. How many bibliographic instruction sessions are initiated by faculty?

Use same data sources as Element 5 above

Fundamental Elements and Related Questions

Evidence/Methodology

Fundamental Element #7: programs that promote student use of information and learning resources;

1. What information literacy skills are expected of students and how does the College measure these skills in its graduates? 
2. Does the College have and support an information literacy program that includes the library?
3. In what ways do various instructional programs and courses promote student use of reference tools and information and learning resources that are specific to program outcomes and to the achievement of general institutional learning outcomes?
4. What programs specifically promote information literacy and use of learning resources outside of the classroom, and how does the College demonstrate the effectiveness of these programs?

Common Course syllabi

Individual faculty syllabi,

Professional Development records

Department and Divisional meetings  minutes

Interviews with Faculty

Relevant elements of the College plan, and its policies for implementation

College Catalog

Fundamental Elements and Related Questions

Evidence/Methodology

Fundamental Element #8: provision of comparable quality of teaching/instruction, academic rigor, and educational effectiveness of its courses and programs regardless of he location or delivery mode;

1. How are adjunct faculty identified and selected?  
2. How do adjunct faculty qualifications compare with those of full-time faculty?
3. Can a degree be completed online or via distance learning? Which ones?
4. Appropriate to the course/program outcomes and to the location and mode of instructional delivery, are adequate student services and academic support services and learning resources available? 
5. For courses/programs offered off-campus, how do Departments assess and assure that the quality and appropriateness of the instruction provided there is equivalent to that provided on Campus?

Common Course Syllabi

Professional Development records

Department and Divisional meetings  minutes

Interviews with Faculty

Student Satisfaction Surveys

Interviews with Academic Deans

Human Resources Hiring Guidelines

Hiring records and Employment Search Folders

Relevant elements of the College Plan

Interviews with Academic Department Chairs

Interviews with Academic Advisors

Fundamental Elements and Related Questions

Evidence/Methodology

Fundamental Element #9: published and implemented policies and procedures regarding transfer credit. The acceptance or denial of transfer credit will not be determined exclusively on the basis of the accreditation of the sending institution or the mode of delivery but, rather, will consider courseequivalencies, including expected learning outcomes, with those of the receiving institution’s curricula and standards. Such criteria will be fair, consistently applied, and publicly communicated;

(Discussed under Standard 8, Fundamental Element 6)

Interviews with registrars responsible for transfer request processing

Examination of Transfer Forms

Analyses of transfer policies and practices by demographics and by institutions

Student Handbook

College Catalogue

Fundamental Elements and Related Questions

Evidence/Methodology

Fundamental Element #10: policies and procedures to assure that the educational expectations, rigor, and student learning within any accelerated programs are comparable to those that characterize more traditional program formats;

1. How does the College assure that “fast track” courses, as well as those offered in abbreviated sessions of one week, four weeks, or six weeks, match the rigor of those offered in standard sessions? (Do fast track courses match the educational expectations or outcomes achieved in more traditionally scheduled or formatted courses?)
2. What outcomes assessment plan does the College use to assess the effectiveness of courses offered in accelerated formats, and how do the results of these assessments guide course design, scheduling and planning for future accelerated courses?

Records of fast track or accelerated course offerings

Records of success rates for students in these courses

Individual faculty syllabi for these courses

All records of time equivalencies in terms of minutes spent in classroom for accelerated courses

Surveys of students, if available

Faculty members’ experience

Departmental meeting minutes

Fundamental Elements and Related Questions

Evidence/Methodology

Fundamental Element #11: consistent with the institution’s educational programs and student cohorts, practices and policies that reflect the needs of adult learners;

1. How does the College schedule courses to accommodate adult learners’ needs for flexibility? 
2. How do “fast-track” course offerings accommodate adult learners?
3. How do College programs and courses encourage the development of cohort groups among adult learners?
4. How does the College assure that adult learners achieve the same learning outcomes as do traditional student cohorts?
5. How do College policies, practices and procedures assure that adult learners can access all College resources at the same level as more traditional learners, e.g., academic, technical and science labs, libraries, computer labs, courses, programs, registration times and placement testing schedules, etc.?
6. What programs, degrees and certificates have been developed to specifically serve adult learners, e.g., job related training programs, retraining for unemployed workers, special population programming for women returning to the workforce, etc.?

Student Handbook

Published and promoted hours of operations for libraries, computer labs, registration, placement testing, etc.

Records that show adult students are aware and take advantage of these hours of operation

Student Satisfaction surveys

Records of course and program availability on evenings and

weekends

Records and experience of Evening Program Coordinators

Relevant elements of College Plan, and its implementation

Data from the tuition-free programs for seniors

Adult reentry programs/records

Interviews with “fast-Track” instructors to document

strategies they use to compensate for a shortened time frame for a course. 

Fundamental Elements and Related Questions

Evidence/Methodology

Fundamental Element # 12: course syllabi that incorporate expected learning outcomes;

1. What is the relationship between Common Course Syllabi and individual faculty (full-time and adjunct faculty) course syllabi?
2. Do individual faculty syllabi and Common Course Syllabi specify student learning outcomes which are congruent with College and/or program goals?
3. Are the instructional strategies and resources specified in the Common Course Syllabi appropriate to the student learning outcomes listed, i.e., in course syllabi, is there a congruence between the student learning outcomes specified and the instructional strategies and the learning resources designated to achieve them?
4. Are there a sufficient variety of assignments at varying levels of difficulty that require the use of various learning resources and instructional strategies appropriate to support each of the learning outcomes listed in the Common Course Syllabi?
5. Are both formative and summative assessments of learning outcomes for the course described in the Common Course Syllabi and is there evidence of how these assessment data will be used to improve learning and to modify the instructional plan for the course?  

Common Course syllabi and individual faculty syllabi

Improvement of Teaching Portfolios

Case studies comparing Common Course Syllabi, individual faculty syllabi and course outlines for the same course

Fundamental Elements and Related Questions

Evidence/Methodology

Fundamental Element #13: assessment of student learning and program outcomes relative to the goals and objectives of the undergraduate programs and the use of the results to improve student learning and program effectiveness;

1. How are the formative and summative data collected from student assessments used to facilitate student learning outcomes, i.e., how are the results of student assessment used by faculty as feedback for improving student learning outcomes at course and program levels?
2. How does the College assess student learning at the institutional, program and course levels? How are these assessment data used to measure and improving achievement of the learning outcomes specified by the faculty for courses, by the academic departments for programs and by the College through itsMission, Goal and Objective statements?
3. At the Program level, what benchmarks does the College use to compare its students’ learning with that of students at similar institutions or in the workplace?
4. In light of the College Mission, how are academic partnerships with community partners assessed?  How are these assessment data used to strengthen existing partnerships, to plan for building new ones and dissolving or modifying those which are no longer functional for students or area employers.

Grade and graduation rates and records

Student satisfaction surveys

Employer satisfaction surveys

Surveys of CCAC graduates

Records of employment of CCAC graduates available through Career Services

Rates of successful transfer offered by institutions to which CCAC students transfer

College Plan and records of its implementation

Case study for selected programs.

Bottom Lines

Meeting minutes of Career Advisory Committees

Sample Benchmarks: licensing and Certification Testing and standardized testing; Job Placement numbers for career program graduates; QPA achieved by transferring students at the receiving colleges; Articulation Agreements with transfer institutions; Co-op Education; customized programming to retrain displaced workers; degrees and certificates programs resulting from forming community partnerships e.g. IBEW for registered electricians, Automotive Technology, Painters Union (PAT), Electrical Distribution Technology (EDT) and Electro-mechanical Technology (partnership with Curtis-Wright Electro-Mechanical Corp)