1. To provide a means of ongoing support for integrating career-related
and technical/vocational/academic instruction for vocational and technical
students in the Learning Community model for professional development
Strategies for Objective 1:
· Before November, 2003, provide planning
time and material preparation for use by the Learning Community of Faculty
and Staff;
· Develop and maintain an online component through
the Teaching-Learning Center web site for the Learning Community of Faculty
and Staff; and
· Develop materials for instructors to use in
their classes to assist them in including professional work skills in their
classes without altering the objectives for their courses.
2. To develop a method of assessment for evaluating integrated
instruction
Strategies for Objective 2:
· Host a series of conversations between
program instructors and volunteer assessors from local businesses and industries
to ensure that the workplace skills that are taught are transferring to
the workplace; and
· Periodically invite students, faculty, and
staff to roundtable discussions about workplace skills.
3. To facilitate collaborative efforts to share ideas, successes
and failures, strategies and techniques related to integration of career-related
and technical education in classes
Strategies for Objective 3:
· Develop and sustain a mentoring program
for full-time and part-time instructors to assist them in using materials
and techniques to enable students to be better prepared for the workplace;
· [Develop and maintain an online component
through the Teaching-Learning Center web site for the Learning Community
of Faculty and Staff] (see above) and provide a link to the NC Community
College System Office Vocational Education web page; and
· Present at a professional conference focused
on the progress that has been made at the college with regard to workplace
skills integration and bring back information from the conference to the
campus for faculty professional development.
4. To ensure that all programs show evidence of integrating career-related
and technical/vocational/academic education in classes for students
Strategies for Objective 4:
· Gather data to show that workplace
skills integration is taking place in classes across campus; and
· Review institutional effectiveness plan updates
to note the progress of each department in integrating workplace skills and
course content.
Perkins Grant
Objectives and Strategies 2004-2005
Perkins Grant Proposal 2004-05
Professional Skills Assessment
Electronic Career Portfolio
History
During the past three years Durham Technical Community College has undertaken
a study of ways to ensure that our students are ready for the 21st century
workplace. With the assistance of funding provided by the Carl D. Perkins
Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998, we have offered professional
development opportunities for faculty, staff, and students. The opportunities
have helped us better understand how vocational and technical students' education
can be enhanced with important workplace skills which include the following
attributes:
- Punctuality, good attendance, and time management skills;
- Understanding of the "work ethic";
- Strong technology skills;
- Professional presentation and computational skills;
- Creative problem-solving ability; and
- Teamwork, diversity, and global consciousness.
The college has been successful in identifying the skills needed in the workplace
and in sharing techniques and ideas for integrating these skills into some
curriculum classes. We have also explored ways to assess students'
abilities to ensure that our program students leave Durham Tech with the
professional skills they need in the workplace. With the assistance
of Perkins funding in 2001-2002 and 2002-2003, the college has produced a
web site and a DVD for sharing across the North Carolina Community College
System to show the innovations we have developed. These resources are
available to other institutions that would like to teach work skills for
today's high-performance workplace.
The challenge in 2003-04 was to make the innovative ideas and strategies
that several faculty and staff members have explored and used a part of all
departmental institutional effectiveness plans for the next two years.
To ensure that the innovative and successful strategies that have been developed
are sustained, Durham Tech sought to bring these efforts to scale across
the campus.
In 2003-04, Durham Tech faculty members from all departments were members
of a Learning Community for staff and faculty. In September 2003, a
representative from Alverno College visited the campus to discuss ways of
assessing technical/vocational students' professional skills in technical
classrooms and for in academic classes such as ENG 111. After that
kick-off, the Learning Community met on a regular basis for the first part
of the year to plan and design opportunities for the entire campus community
to learn about the need for teaching and assessing the workplace (professional)
skills of students in classes. Workshops and roundtables were held
throughout the year along with three sessions featuring outside presenters
(James Johnson from the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business
School, Darren Hamilton from Duke University, and Sherry Sherrill from Forsyth
Technical Community College).
The Learning Community researched the availability of assessment tools for
workplace skills and invested in material from Learning Resources Incorporated
(LRI). A group of local employers provided feedback on how they viewed
the material contained in the learning assessment tool.
Members of the Learning Community shared their new knowledge and experience
within their departments in order to encourage fellow faculty members to
assess workplace readiness in students. In addition, the Instructional
Services Division's Vision Statement refers to the importance of good workplace
skills for graduates (see below).
An outstanding product of the Learning Community's work in 2003-2004 is the
web presence both on Blackboard for internal faculty use and at http://courses.durhamtech.edu/perkins
which is the public web site. The Learning Community hopes this resource
will be useful to faculty and staff throughout the NC Community College System.
Current Needs and Challenges
In 2004-2005, the college's Instructional Services Division will endeavor
to move forward by incorporating the provisions of its Vision Statement in
the departmental and program planning for the next two years. One of
the provisions of the Vision Statement is that students who graduate from
Durham Tech should have
The ability to contribute positively to the academic and workplace environment
by demonstrating expected behaviors (e.g. integrity, demeanor, attendance,
punctuality) and by working with others to solve problems
Of course, faculty members must devise ways to evaluate and assess whether
students have met Durham Tech's expectations for professional skills.
The previous work completed by the Perkins Learning Community has provided
a good basis for departments and programs to set criteria for use in assessing
professional skills development.
However, new ways of recording progress for students, organizing this information,
making the information accessible to students, and documenting professional
skills assessment for use by employers or other educational institutions
are needed. One way of providing this documentation is through an Electronic
Career Portfolio [ECP].
Current literature on best practices suggests that the ECP can be a viable
tool for students to show evidence of mastering professional skills.
William J. Flynn, managing director of the National Council for Continuing
Education and Training, points out in a Community College Journal article
(April/May 2004, page 32) that "Electronic portfolios can be constructive
instruments for authentic documentation and assessment, providing evidence
of outcomes attainment, competency, and readiness for work. The content
can include papers, presentations, projects or research, much of it in a
multimedia format, enabling users to share their accomplishments with faculty,
peers, family, as well as potential employers and education providers."
According to Flynn, the American Association of Community Colleges recommends
implementing and using "electronic systems to assist learners with the development
of a Career Portfolio at community colleges." (page 28) Vocational and technical
students would benefit from having an electronic record of the professional
skills they have developed at Durham Tech.
Objectives
The Electronic Career Portfolio would provide students with a way to document
their progress in the areas referred to in the Vision Statement (integrity,
demeanor, attendance, punctuality, and working with others to solve problems).
Professional development funds for faculty members would provide the time
and expertise for instructors to design and execute a model of a career development
portfolio that could then be used in other departments and subsequently in
other colleges. Specifically, grant funds would be used to meet the
following objectives:
1. To provide a method for recording and tracking assessment of professional
skills for students in selected (pilot) programs and/or individual classes;
2. To provide faculty members with ways to communicate specific institutional,
program- and course-level performance outcomes in the area of the professional
skills outlined in the Vision Statement;
3. To provide selected students in classes chosen for this pilot project
with a method of documenting the attainment of professional skills required
in the program of study; and
4. To provide a model for other colleges to use in developing their own electronic
career portfolios.
Strategies for Accomplishing Objectives
Objective #1: To provide a method for recording and tracking assessment
of professional skills for students in selected (pilot) programs/classes
- Two nationally recognized experts in career portfolio development from
Alverno College (Jill Moore and Elizabeth Palmer) will come to campus to
present training sessions for selected faculty members from technical/vocational
programs to assist in devising assessment materials and standards;
- An expert in the development of electronic materials will provide training
to selected faculty (above) in how to generate and track assessment data
for students; and
- Students will be asked to participate in the pilot project and participate
in focus groups about their experiences using the ECP
Objective #2: To provide faculty members with ways to communicate specific
institutional, program- and course-level performance outcomes in the area
of the professional skills outlined in the Vision Statement
- Extending the skills developed under Objective #1, faculty members
will plan to present, by January 2005, the ECP to students planning to graduate
in May 2005;
- All department heads will participate in discussions about the ECP
throughout the academic year through the Instructional Services Management
Council; and
- Department heads will provide selected program directors/chairs/coordinators
with Performance, Review & Evaluation objectives to work toward developing
an ECP.
Objective #3: To provide selected students in programs/classes chosen for
this pilot project with a method of documenting the attainment of professional
skills required in the program of study
- Students will participate in focus groups (above), and
- Students will be encouraged to use their ECP to communicate with potential
employers.
Objective #4: To provide a model for other colleges to use in developing
their own electronic career portfolios
- Selected faculty members will assess the ECP for usefulness in the
classroom and as a professional tool for students and document this information;
- The College's Teaching-Learning Center will provide roundtable discussions
throughout the year on the progress of efforts to develop the ECP;
- The Teaching-Learning Center web site and the Perkins web site will
contain all materials gathered through the grant for dissemination throughout
the NC Community College System; and
- NC-NET will receive links from Durham Tech web sites for other faculty
and staff who are interested in replicating this project.
Anticipated Benefits
Selected students in the pilot program will have a useful tool to track their
progress in professional skills development;
The college will have a model for assessing workplace skills for all graduating
students; and
The model design may be useful to other colleges in the NC Community College
System.
Evaluation/Dissemination /Replication
This project will be successful if the following criteria are met:
- Project team members develop a method for evaluating and tracking student
attainment of workplace skills;
- Selected instructors develop a list of professional skills by their
program students need and a way to measure these skills;
- Selected students establish and update their ECP's during 2004-2005
and exemplifying an understanding of the process; and
- An ECP model is designed that can be used by other institutions.
Results will be shared within the college through the Durham Tech Perkins
web site, the Teaching-Learning Center web site (linked to the Perkins site
and linked to NC-NET), and Teaching-Learning Center workshops explaining
the model to faculty members.
Results can be shared throughout the system by disseminating the progress
and results of the project through the North Carolina Network for Excellence
in Teaching. NC-NET will have links from the Durham Tech Perkins web
site and the TLC web site. As always, any faculty and staff from the
NC Community College System are welcome to attend all events of the Durham
Tech Teaching-Learning Center. Material from many Teaching-Learning Center
workshops and projects are also available through the two sites mentioned
above.
