Pathways to SUCCESS . . . Rockland Community College Title III Grant Newsletter Fall 2011

Goal of Pathways to SUCCESS: Through the three pathways, RCC’s Title III project is committed to increasing retention, student achievement, and strengthening student engagement. The overall goal is to increase graduation rates and student success.

New Student Orientation 2011The first year of college starts a new chapter in the lives of students. New Student Orientation is the first opportunity to welcome students into the RCC family. This past August, with the leadership of the orientation committee, RCC piloted a new and more comprehensive orientation. Nearly 400 new students attended the New Student Orientation on August 24, 2011.The students were welcomed by faculty, staff, and peer leaders and experienced an informative and exciting program of activities and events. They began the day with an inspirational speech from Jerome Love who has served as a motivational speaker for the past 12 years. He left the students with three keys to success: Attitude, Action, Achievement. Throughout the day, the students participated in academic success workshops, a campus scavenger hunt, and attended a hands-on E-Resources workshop to learn how to use Angel, Web Advisor, and set up their RCC e-mail account.They were also introduced to other web services such as Sigi-3, and Tutor Trac, the new online scheduling system for tutoring appointments.The day ended with a barbecue and an array of activities, including tie dye t-shirts, henna tattoos, bean bag toss, volleyball, and ladder ball. During the festivities, a club fair was held which showcased the 44 clubs and organizations on campus. Current students had the opportunity to talk with new students about the importance of getting involved on campus and how involvement contributes to a more satisfying college experience.

As the New Student Orientation contin-ues to build and expand, the College’s goal is for students to leave orientation with a sense of belonging and important tips on how to be a successful college student. The program was a success according to one student, “Very glad I came today.

I learned a lot and feel much more pre-pared to start on the first day.”To view the Orientation 2011 survey results, please refer to the orientation article on the Title III website under Title III Happenings. There you will find a link to the survey results.

Thank you to all Orientation Staff – Diana Carey, Diane Swick, Kathy Carroll , Christie Cruse, Erik Ellingson, Gary Peskin, Hannah Lowney,

Jeanette Geller, Amie Gardner, Josephine Coleman, Kristie Morris, Maria Dell’Arciprete, Michael Albin , Nancy Fontana , Sarah Levy, Susan Twomey, Wendy Greenspan,

Yonaira Sanchez, Rixi Thomas, Kevin Barrett, Olena Zalogin, Samantha Goldberg

CAPS: CENTER FOR ACADEMIC PROGRESS AND SUCCESSTom Della Torre - Interim Dean of Academic Services

Eileen Fitzgerald - CAPS Acting Director

Library Tim Domick - Director

Reading and Writing Center (Technology Center, Rooms 8349, 8345) Katie Lynch, PhD - Director

Science Learning Center (Academic I, Room 1214) LaQuanda Cooke - Supervisor

Testing Center (Technology Center, Room 8346) Sheila Paris - Supervisor

Tutoring Center (Technology Center, Rooms 8343, 8344) Pam Gerstheimer - Coordinator

TheNew Face of Academic Support Services

Tutor Trac Already Making a Difference

During September and October — since the implementation of the new online tutoring scheduling software Tutor Trac, the Reading and Writing Center, Science Learning Center, and the Tutoring Center under the Centers for Academic Progress and Success have assisted over 750 students. To date almost 1,700 visits have been created in the system with a total of over 2,000 hours of tutoring services already completed. Currently, the centers combined have a total of almost 1,800 future appointments scheduled in November and December.

In class demonstrations are being offered. If a faculty member is interested in having an in-class demonstration on Tutor Trac, please feel free to contact Eileen Fitzgerald, Acting Director of Academic Services at 574-4503 or e-mail efitzge2@sunyrockland.edu.

WEBSITE LAUNCHED

The new Title III website has been launched.

Please go to:http://www.sunyrockland.edu/

academics/academic-affairs/title-iii

Pathways to SUCCESS is charged with making positive changes to academic support services at Rockland Community College. The goals are to expand access, increase awareness, and grow participation. The Center for Academic Progress & Success (CAPS) is the entity that combines all of RCC’s academic support services. CAPS encompasses the: Information Center; Library; Reading and Writing Center; Science Learning Center; Testing Center; Tutoring Center on the main campus; and Tutoring Center at the Haverstraw Extension Center campus. A central feature of CAPS is the new on-line scheduling system called TutorTrac which is an easy to use, online program that allows students to view and schedule appointments. Tutor Trac allows CAPS to track the number of contacts they have with students and run reports.CAPS is also focused on building synergies among the centers and their staffs through cross training and sharing of space and resources. One example of this is the new tutor training sessions run jointly by the Tutoring and Reading and Writing Centers. Another example of the new synergies include Reading and Writing tutoring occurring in the Tutoring Center and some Anatomy and Physiology tutoring taking place in the Science Learning Center.The Information Center (Room 8340, ext. 4503) is a central place where students and faculty can get answers to their questions about all of the academic support services at Rockland Community College.

CAPS

FIRST YEAR SEMINARDevelopment is UnderwayAs part of Pathways to SUCCESS, a first-year seminar course is being created. The goal of the first-year seminar is to help students become connected and engaged at the college and to ease their adjustment to the rigors of a new academic environment.

Through participation in the seminar, students will strengthen their academic skills, engage in critical thinking, learn about campus support services, and develop a sense of community and belonging. The blend of the academic focus and student life components creates variety in both purpose and content. Other topics such as time management, study skills, financial literacy, information literacy, goal setting, academic advising, and majors and careers will be discussed.The first-year seminar course will be piloted in Fall 2012 with 160 students and will be housed in the Humanities, Social, and Behavioral Sciences Division. The next step is for the course proposal to be presented to the Divisional Curriculum Committee. We are very excited about this initiative and look forward to providing our students with a strong foundation to be successful in college.

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN INSTITUTE is making its markIN THE NEXT ISSUE

•TitleIIIExternalReview

•SageEarlyWarningSystem

•ResultsofYear1Courses

•SummaryofYear2Courses

•OnlineVideoComponent forOrientation

•First-YearSeminarI&II

•TutorTracTraining

Year 1 Courses CompletedENG 095 – Effective WritingEileen Fitzgerald, Cheryl Ferguson, Sheila Goldstein, Roberta Panish ENG 080 – Communication Skills ICynthia Williams, Leslie Schoenberg NUR 103 – Calculations of PharmacologySr. Marie Buckley, Tanya Drake MAT 065 – Math SkillsEric Magaram, William McGregor, James Salvadon, Jeffrey Zeller Year 2 Courses In- progressACT 101 - Principles of AccountingJosephine Coleman, Mariellen Murphy-Holahan, Parbati Bhattacharya ENG 096 – Effective ReadingCatherine Davis, Gina Dietrich, Dierdre Rock ENG 101 – English Composition IStephen Burke, Martha Rottman MAT 101/048E - Elementary AlgebraJanna Liberant, Jean Phanor, Beth Berrios, Pietro Mangiaracina

Pathways to SUCCESS has made a commitment to students’ academic success. The redesign of 22 gateway courses that have the lowest success rate establish a firm academic foundation for the project. As part of the institute, design teams work with the instructional design consultant and RCC’s eLearning specialist to redesign these gateway courses by creating innovative, web-enhanced, comprehensive course resources. These resources support teaching and learning in these multi-section, high stakes courses. The emphasis is on infusing gateway courses with active learning strategies such as action research, project-based learning, service learning, problem-centered instruction, multi-mediated instruction, and web-based tools. The goal is to promote high levels of student engagement and achievement.

ANGEL, RCC’s course management system, is used as a central communication vehicle for the Institute and ongoing course design work.After the design phase, the design team faculty will structure and provide professional development to additional faculty within their discipline and introduce them to the goals, student outcomes, best practices, instructional strategies and assessments included in the course-specific toolkits they created. The revised courses being piloted will exploit pedagogical practices that actively engage students and promote achievement. Each will embed assessment protocols that measure the extent to which course goals have been achieved and student achievement has been realized.

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN INSTITUTE

145 College Road, Suffern, NY 10901845 574-4000

1-800-RCC-SOON

www.sunyrockland.edu

Pathways to SUCCESS Staff

Cliff L. Wood, EdD President

Susan Deer, PhD Title III Coordinator/Project Director

Christie Cruse Director of Title III Activity/

First Year Experience

Eileen Fitzgerald Acting Director of

Academic Support Services

Amie Gardner e-Learning Specialist

Pathways to SUCCESSis a collaborative effort. Critical to its success is the Title III Steering Committee. This committee is composed of faculty and administrators who monitor the progress and measure the success of Title III Grant activities.

Team members include:Susan Deer, PhD – Vice President of Academic Affairs/Title III Coordinator/ Project DirectorChristie Cruse – Director of Title III Activity/First Year Experience

Kristopher Baker, PhD – Division Chair, Math, Natural and Health ScienceThomas DellaTorre – Interim Dean of Academic ServicesEileen Fitzgerald – Acting Director of Academic Support ServicesKaren Gualtieri – Vice President of Student DevelopmentPatty Kobes – Assistant to the Vice PresidentMichael Lipkin – Director of Institutional ResearchCatherine Roche - Division Chair, Business and Information TechnologyMartha Rottman – Division Chair, Humanities, Social and Behavioral SciencesJames Siegel, PhD – Dean of Student DevelopmentDana Stilley – Dean of Enrollment ManagementDaniel Tauken – Assistant Director of Finance

ANGEL as an integral part of Pathways to SUCCESSare better equipped to create a web-enhanced experience for the students.ANGEL has proven to be a robust system that provides instructors with an impressive number of tools to increase student motivation. Year one’s Title III faculty, a diverse group with a variety of comfort levels with technology, learned to navigate the ANGEL interface, and did so with enthusiasm.A key focus of the Title III Grant is the development of instructor toolkits, as well as the development of web-enhanced courses. These toolkits are intended to serve as an ongoing resource for all instructors who teach the various gateway courses. Completely web-enhanced, they contain validated course outcomes, embedded assessments of learning, shared lesson plans, and provide an organizing framework for professional development. This goal was realized in ANGEL through its learning object repository feature, which allows faculty to store a variety of materials,

U.S. Department of Education, Title III, Part A of the Higher Education Act of 1965 Strengthening Institutions Program (SIP),

PR/Award # P031A100163

Education technology moves at a rapid pace, to address the diverse needs of a generation of digital natives. RCC, through its Title III Grant initiatives strives to make fundamental changes in teaching and learning in gateway courses and strengthen student engagement.ANGEL is a vital component of RCC’s implementation of the grant objectives. ANGEL is SUNY’s Learning Content Management System. Essentially it is an online learning environment where courses are housed and administered. One of the main tasks and objectives of the eLearning specialist is to acquaint Title III faculty with ANGEL so they

including documents, web and video links, lesson plans, quizzes, surveys, and discussion boards. Through ANGEL’s interface, students can more easily interact with their instructors, take tests, write papers, complete assignments, and participate in discussions. Implementation has proven to be effective, with faculty reporting positive student feedback. According to one student, Thank you so very much for your thoughtful efforts in setting up this site, and dedicating your expertise and knowledge base for us to have this wealth of information whenever we need it. This is like having a private instructor on 24 hour call. Thanks a million.