Curriculum and Instruction
Evaluate curriculum and assess outcomes to provide optimal and diverse educational opportunities for Harper students.
Supporting Paragraph:
Faculty-directed curriculum development and evaluation provide Harper College with enriching courses and programs of study. Continual evaluation at course and program levels maintains curriculum currency and relevance. Curriculum will continue to be evaluated with deliberation, care, and collaboration to ensure that it meets intended outcomes and evolving student, community, transfer, workforce, and global needs. Various forms of discipline-specific assessment at Harper College encourage reflection, responsiveness, and adjustment, toward helping all students master the knowledge and skills needed to achieve their educational goals.
Goal Targets 2016–19
- Implement a process for quality assurance in online/blended courses.
- Provide a program to support faculty intervention in student course retention.
- Identify 2–3 high-impact teaching practices effective across disciplines.
- Implement course-level changes in select 0-15 courses.
- Implement Action Research professional development opportunities for faculty by June 2019.
- Implement Open Educational Resources (OER) pilot with at least ten faculty members by June 2019.
In FY2018 the team accomplished the following:
- Led implementation of a variety of initiatives that focus on faculty classroom practice, pedagogical innovation, and reflective practices. More than 50 faculty members were involved, ultimately introducing these new concepts to more than one hundred course sections and connecting with thousands of students.
- Completed institutionalization of quality assurance in online/blended courses, in collaboration with the Academy for Teaching Excellence.
- Increased faculty involvement in initiatives to help retain students in individual courses, including recruitment of ten additional faculty members to work on student course retention in fall 2018. Planned information sessions for fall 2018 Orientation Week.
- Introduced three additional initiatives (0-15 Course Improvements, Action Research, and Open Educational Resources) to improve outcomes in 0-15 and other high-enrollment courses.