Overview
Students take courses at community colleges under the assumption that the courses
will satisfy requirements at a four year college. Unfortunately, this is not always
the case. Because all community colleges in the area are semester campuses and CPP
is a quarter campus, course by course articulation is difficult. The content of
some courses can be taught in various orders, making articulation even more complicated.
For instance, in some calculus text books, vectors are taught before sequences and
series; in other textbooks these topics are offered in the opposite order. As a
result, students become frustrated when they are required, after transferring, to
repeat courses that they thought that they had completed, particularly when they
feel that they have mastered much of the content in the course.
To address these problems, CPP is proposing the development of a seamless transfer
process that will prevent students from getting bogged down in the transfer course
evaluation process. Riverside Community College will be the first to participate
in the program, with plans for eventual expansion to other CCs. The goal is that
students will be able to complete 50% of their degree requirements at RCC and 50%
of their degree requirements at CPP, with little to no additional coursework required
at CPP. The outcome will be a streamlined progression from RCC to CPP to graduation
with a STEM degree.
Gap Analysis and Gap Modules
In the first step, an analysis of RCC courses and CPP courses in each STEM area
to identify topic gaps (representing subject area topics that were not covered by
a RCC course but required at CPP) has been completed by RCC/CPP project teams in
Biological Sciences, Physics and Mathematics & Statistics. The gap analysis in Computer
Science is expected to be competed by the end of Spring 2009. Engineering and Chemistry
faculty will be doing the gap analysis in Summer 2009. On-line instructional modules
will be developed by discipline faculty as appropriate to address the topic gaps
identified. In the longer term, faculty will attempt to eliminate the gaps by incorporating
the missing topics into RCC and CPP courses where possible, recognizing that eliminating
gaps is the best way to make the transfer process seamless.
Tailored Articulation Agreements
Based on the results of the gap analyses, faculty at CPP and RCC will develop tailored
articulation agreements in each disciplinary area. Curriculum sheets will be developed
for each STEM major that show students which courses they should take at RCC and
which at CPP, along with online instructional modules to fill any gaps that might
exist.
The Team
A diverse team of STEM faculty at CPP and RCC are involved in this effort. Here
are the current members of the team. Mandayam Srinivas, Associate Dean of Science
at CPP and Professor of Computer Science, is in charge of the project. Note that
there are no Physics and Chemistry RCC faculty since the RCC grant does not cover
those areas.
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Subject Area
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CPP faculty
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RCC faculty
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Biological Sciences
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Pamela Sperry, Gary Carlton
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Lisa Thompson-Eagle, Heather Smith, Rogelio Ruiz, Antonio Curtis, Amanda Brown,
Preston Galusky
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Computer Science
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Craig Rich
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Chip Herzig, Lewis Hall
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Mathematics & Statistics
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Jennifer Switkes, Randy Swift
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Rogelio Ruiz, Joseph DeGuzman
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Engineering
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Eugene Lipovetsky, Campbell Dinsmore, Kyu-Jung Kim, Amir Rezaei, Mariappan Jawaharlal,
Victor Okhuysen, Tariq Qayyum, Brita Olson, Kevin Anderson, Steve Dobbs, Francelina
Neto , Abdul Sadat, Mohammad Massoudi
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Mark Lehr, Rogelio Ruiz, Chip Herzig, James Cheney, James Cregg, Mary Margarita
Legner
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Chemistry
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Laurie Starkey
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Not Applicable
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Physics
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Mary Mogge
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Not Applicable
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Deliverables
Tangible outputs expected from this grant include:
- Tailored articulation agreements between RCC and CPP in each discipline area
- Gap analysis of topics in each discipline area
- Video course modules to cover each gap area
- Exams and quizzes on-line
Expected Outcomes
Changes and benefits expected from this grant include:
- Transfer students will follow the articulation agreements more closely when they
select courses to take at RCC
- Transfer students will have fewer transferable units that do not count towards their
chosen major
- Transfer students who follow the articulation agreement in their chosen major will
have fewer transferable units that do not count toward their major
- Curriculum development efforts will be influenced by the gap analysis and directed
to shrink the gap as appropriate
- In the longer term, this articulation model will be extended to include two other
community colleges that feed to CPP
Timeline
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June 2009
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Mathematics, Biological Sciences, Physics and Computer Science gap analysis completed
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September 2009
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Engineering and Chemistry gap analysis completed; Math gap modules developed
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2009-10
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Tailored articulation agreements developed in designated STEM disciplines; curriculum
adjusted in selected disciplines to remove gaps
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