MnSCU ACADEMIC & STUDENT AFFAIRS NEWSLETTER

A Monthly Electronic

Communication

JANUARY 2003

http://www.academicaffairs.mnscu.edu/

MnSCU CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING RECOGNIZES SHINING STARS

Each year, campus Center for Teaching and Learning leaders are recognized for their outstanding work in guiding and developing the Teaching and Learning programming for faculty on their campus. Leaders are considered in four categories: a state university campus, a technical college, a community college, and a consolidated campus.

The Center is proud to announce this year’s Star Campus Leaders for Outstanding Work During 2001-2002 in four categories:

Carla Weigal and Carol Steimer Bailey, Hennepin Technical College

Judy Nelson, Itasca Community College

Margret Lydell and Diane Pearson, Minneapolis Community and Technical College

Gary Eddy, Winona State University

Campus programming varies, drawing on local and national resources. Examples of these leaders’ noteworthy campus programming include:

Global Diversity Week—a week-long event that brought faculty, staff, and students together to learn from each other to discuss issues surrounding our post 9/11 world. Themes included: “On Creating a Nonviolent Peace Force,” “Dialogue and Its Results: Islam, Christianity, Judaism,” “Multiversity: African Indigenous Knowledge and Spirituality,” and “Restoring Human Spirit and Human Community.”

Programs focusing on Cooperative Learning, Assessment, Effective Use of Questioning in the Classroom, Listening to Accented Speakers, and Personal Safety.

Building collaborations and co-sponsoring events with Women’s Studies and a campus sexual violence advisory board, Cultural Diversity Office, Fine Arts, and sponsoring faculty to attend the fall Collaboration conference.

Brown bag sessions on learning styles and multiple intelligences including “Reggae Music, the Brain, and Active Learning.”

Star leaders awards are presented in the fall of the following academic year at the semi-annual campus Center for Teaching and Learning CTL Campus Leaders’ Workshop, where more than 65 campus leaders gather to work on issues relating to faculty development and teaching and learning on their campuses.

GRANT FUNDS AVAILABLE FOR MNSCU ROUND 3 E-CURRICULUM PROJECTS—Completed applications for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Round 3 e-Curriculum RFP will be due February 3, 2003. For more information, go to: http://www.eresources.mnscu.edu/

ACTE-MCDONALD’S OUTSTANDING CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATOR AWARD FOR 2002

It was announced at the Opening General Session of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) conference in Las Vegas that Mary Jacquart won the ACTE-McDonald's Outstanding Career and Technical Educator Award for 2002. Earlier this summer, Mary won the State and Region III Title for this award.

Region III consists of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin and Minnesota. There are a total of five regions within ACTE. Each of the five regions were represented this morning, with Region III claiming the National Winner.

The ACTE-McDonald's Outstanding Career and Technical Educator Award is given in recognition of a career and technical educator who has made significant contributions toward innovative and unique career and technical programs. A sample of the comments which were made about Mary were: "Positive... committed...passionate about career and technical education. She truly believes that career and technical education provides individuals with avenues to raise their skill levels and bring great rewards for themselves, their families, and their communities."

CONGRATULATIONS, Mary!

The ITS Division of MnSCU publishes a monthly newsletter, The SOURCE. To read the latest issue, go to: www.its.mnscu.edu/newsletter/index.html

IVETA AWARD PRESENTED

TO MNSCU

On December 13, the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities received the “Robert D. Cain Business/Organizations Award” from the International Vocational Education and Training Association (IVETA). The award recognizes the system’s contributions to IVETA throughout Jeanette Daines’ presidency of the organization during the past two years.

IVETA is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to the advancement and improvement of vocational technical education and training “wherever it exists and wherever it is needed.” One of the ways that IVETA encourages the development of international vocational technical education and training is to recognize significant contributions to the field. Special awards are presented annually to individuals and organizations that have shown outstanding leadership in international vocational technical education and/or provided continuing service and support to IVETA.

The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system was identified for the Robert D. Cain Business/Organization Award through a nomination process. Other companies, government agencies, or educational institutions which have been recipients in past years include such organizations as CORD (Waco, Texas), Vocational Training Council of Hong Kong, University of Tennessee, the German Agency for Technical Co-operation (GTZ), Jamaica Ministry of Education and Culture, Lab-Volt, and Oregon State University.

CONGRATUATIONS Jeanette!

MnSCU CTL FALL 2002 CONFERENCE HUGE SUCCESS

Instruction, Inquiry & Information, the theme of the Fall Center for Teaching and Learning Conference, was a huge success for more than 200 faculty from 29 of 34 MnSCU institutions. The conference was held on November 7-8, 2002 at Bemidji State University.

In 28 concurrent sessions featuring over 50 MnSCU faculty presenters, faculty explored teaching and learning issues focusing on research skills, information-based critical thinking, as well as written and oral communication. Nancy Donoval, a professional storyteller and educator from Metropolitan State University, began the conference with A Story from the Information Highway and encouraged conferees to learn and teach skills necessary to avoid sinking under the weight of information overload.

Dr. Patricia Senn Breivik, Thursday morning keynote speaker and Dean of the University Library at San Jose University remarked wisely, “It’s not a technology issue. It’s a much broader literacy issue. It’s a learning issue. We assume students come in with basic research skills and they don’t have them.” Breivik added, “There’s just so much information that doesn’t make it up on the Web...and we have to make sure our students know where to go.”

The conference also explored new territory, using ITV to share programming with the LiNK Conference. The CTL transmitted three sessions to Rochester on Thursday. Dr. Linda Baer’s Friday morning keynote address and three other LiNK concurrent sessions were transmitted to the Bemidji campus on Friday.

UPCOMING MEETINGS/CONFERENCES

MnSCU's Office of Instructional Technology and Center for Teaching and Learning are pleased to announce their fourth annual joint conference. ITeach: Best Practices in Teaching with Technology will take place April 24-26, 2003, on the campus of Minneapolis Community and Technical College. This conference provides a collegial showcase and discussion forum for MnSCU faculty and technology specialists to share how they are using technology to enhance their teaching and improve students' learning. For more information, go to: http://www.oit.mnscu.edu/iteach/

Careers that Work! will take place on April 10-11, 2003 at Arrowwood Conference Center, Alexandria. This two-day conference is for students enrolled in (or considering) career and technical training programs, as well for practitioners who serve as student service coordinators, counselors and even instructors. Registration materials will be available online mid-February at www.grantsplus.mnscu.edu

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY COLLEGES COMMISSION ON ACADEMIC, STUDENT, AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FALL MEETING HIGHLIGHTS, November 6-7, 2002

Proposed Policy Statement on Library and Learning Resources – Support to information literacy and life-long learning will be included in the Lumina Project.

Lumina Project: Access to the Baccalaureate - Looks at transfer initiatives policy and practice. The Transfer Puzzle Conference July 28-29, 2003 in Tampa, Florida.

New Americans Video Project – A series on the experience of immigrants to be aired on public television in the fall of 2003. ITVS is looking for two community colleges to pilot curriculum for the April 2003 AACC meeting.

NASA Undergraduate Student Research Program – Opportunities for research experience at NASA Center. For more information, go to: http://education.nasa.gov. Click on Research and Development Opportunities.

Financial Literacy - The American Bankers Association is looking for community technical college partners to provide curriculum on financial literacy in student support, community education, advanced placement for high school students, support to immigrant populations, etc. Curriculum is available for associate degree program in business with a focus on finance at www.aba.com

Leadership and Community College Faculty - Members provided input to the design of a leadership program to “grow” your own leaders to meet the projected shortage in community college leaders.

Student Support Services in Distance Education - The National Council for Learning Resources is interested in standards for student support services in distance education. The Council for the Advancement of Standards has a guidebook on implementing standards that will be released in the spring of 2003. The Association of College and Research Libraries has available guidelines for Distance Learning Library Services at www.ala.org/acrl/guides/distlrng.html

Teacher Preparation – A recent wingspread conference on teacher education identified was the need for a national data system models for alternative certification for teachers, information/clarification on teacher shortages, and faculty development. AACC needs to know the issues community colleges are facing in teacher preparation and models of best practice in teacher preparation.

George Boggs, AACC, gave a presentation on Values and Issues Facing Community Colleges.

Associate Degree in Nursing – The new AACC liaison is Roxanne Fulcher and she will work with AD nursing advocacy.

Resolution on Workforce Credentialing and Skills Certification - Addresses funding, data collection, performance indicators, financial assistance, transfer and electronic portfolios.

Peace Corps need to double the number of participants. They are now accepting community college graduates in addition to those with baccalaureate degrees.

WORK ON SEAMLESS EDUCATION SERVICES PROJECTS GETS UNDERWAY

The Seamless Education Services (SES) Project recently moved from a visioning phase to a working phase. The SES Project seeks to address the matriculation needs of students who attend more than one MnSCU institution as they pursue their educational goals. In response to the rising numbers of students completing credits at two or more institutions simultaneously, the increase in collaborative programs, and the advent of Minnesota Online, the SES Project will result in campuses functioning more as a system as they provide support services to these students. Specifically, it is the ultimate vision of the SES Project that our students will:

· Complete a one-time application process for admission, resulting in student data access by any MnSCU institution the students seek to attend.

· Have their entrance assessment results accessible by any MnSCU institution the students seek to attend.

· Benefit from the establishment of "automatic" financial aid consortiums, supported by a system-wide blanket consortium agreement.

· Receive one billing statement each term, with one point of payment.

· Experience greater ease of course transfer between MnSCU institutions, with courses completed at both home and host campuses appearing on a common transcript at the end of each term.

The Project Task Force will meet monthly, with departmental work groups in the areas of admissions, assessment, finance, financial aid and registrars beginning to examine the necessary policy and practice changes in January of 2003. After soliciting departmental and student feedback in March, the project hopes to deliver practice designs and priorities by May of 2003 to the ISRS SES Project Team for the development of changes and enhancements to existing web and ISRS screens.

For more information, please visit the SES Project pages at: http://project2.govoffice.com/

Or contact Project Manager, Peter Wielinski at 218-365-7277 or p.wielinski@vcc.edu

NURSING “ASSESSES” E-LEARNING COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

“Singin’ in the Rain” was the theme for the December 5-6, 2002 E-learning Community Development workshop, sponsored by MN Online and hosted by Jeralyn Jargo, Paul Wasko, and Allen Jaisle of Ecologos. Attendees included faculty and administration from MnSCU nursing programs, along with Office of the Chancellor staff.

The purpose of this workshop was to begin a pilot project for nursing programs to further the development of electronically enabled learning communities within MnSCU. The goal was to develop and apply the concept of “learning community” to achieve a substantial system-wide improvement in learning and retention utilizing “e-Portfolio” technology (www.efoliomn.com). The initiative is guided by the recognition that the formula for success involves three mutually supporting factors:

Learning Community Success = Learning Strategy + Technology System + Human System.

The workshop was enriched by the talents of Judeen Schulte and Zita Allen of Alverno College Institute. Through their combined style of “Disruptus/Interruptus” these two women skillfully led an exploration through their learning community model developed at Alverno College Institute. This model uses a Diagnostic Digital Portfolio as a focal point for learning assessment and development discussions to assist learners in taking responsibility for their learning progress. This outcome-oriented, ability-based curriculum provided insight to the development competencies for nursing students that integrates the efforts of mutual critiquing and evaluation necessary to the successful functioning of health care providers and institutions.

Sarah, a student at Alverno College Institute, was a highlight of the workshop as she shared with the group her experiences as a student of Alverno. She described the integrated self-assessment improvement process as she progresses in self-assessment development skills. The “Oreo cookie” approach is how she describes her assessment process. She first focuses on what she has accomplished; then works on what needs improvement; and appreciates the good outcome she has attained. She feels the assessment approach enables more creative thinking than with traditional evaluation processes. Alverno strives to make assessments as close to real-life as possible. They create theory from experiences.

Allen Jaisle of Ecologos also presented his work on learning community development, “Imagining and Creating the Future of Higher Education”. Three important points he stressed in why a learning community is important are:

1 e-learning enables and requires e-community,

2 integrative thinking: higher education crisis and opportunity, and

3 learning community as the future of higher education, intellectual capital economy and democratic society.

The charge to higher education is to explicitly teach the habits and competencies of learning in community as preparation for life in community. The integrative and collaborative efforts of higher education will transform the learning experience for campuses and for learners.

Through the e-Portfolio tool, students and faculty can contribute to the building process of community development in endlessly creative ways. Workshop participants were able to go online and walk through their e-Portfolio development with the knowledgeable and creative guidance of Paul Wasko.

As e-learning continues to evolve, the growing pains emerge, but the transformative change will greatly impact possibilities for learners now and in the future.

REQUEST FOR CHANGE IN INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION STATUS

The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, Executive Director, Dr. Steven Crow, gives Minnesota Online Council a “green light” to move forward in the process to submit a statewide “Request for Change in Institutional Affiliation Status”.

· Expectation that there will be a joint connection between the Minnesota Online Council and the Office of the Chancellor with two parts. Minnesota Online Council would be:

(1) Established for defining college readiness to offer programs via distance education, and

(2) To promote, encourage, and support program collaborations and the Office of the Chancellor’s continuing work at program approval.

· Through this process, The Higher Learning Commission/NCA trusts that the Minnesota Online Council will have the authority to recommend new policies that will embrace quality standards and principles to ensure success for the distant learner.

· A formal letter of “Change of Status of Affiliation” intent, with signatures from the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Presidents and Office of the Chancellor, Sr. Vice Chancellor granting the authority for Minnesota Online to initiate a statewide Institutional Change Request.

· Review of outlined process and timeline:

“Institutional Change Request Report - Fall, 2003

Focus Visit Scheduled - Winter, 2003”

For more information, please contact:

Lynette Olson, E-Learning Accreditation Project Director

Office of the Chancellor, Minnesota State Colleges & Universities

Energy Technology Center, 1450 Energy Park Drive

St. Paul, MN 55108

Phone: 651-649-5957

E-Mail Address: Lynette.Olson@so.mnscu.edu

WHAT’S NEW WITH MNTRANSFER.ORG

http://www.mntransfer.org

What’s New with MnTransfer.org (http://www.mntransfer.org)

GUIDE TO COLLEGE TRANSFER – MINNESOTA STATE COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES - The new brochure, Guide to College Transfer, can be ordered online. Go to www.goplaces.org/counselors to place your order. These brochures are free of charge!

MnTRANSFER USE MORE THAN DOUBLES - The number of hits for MnTransfer.org has increased from 70,387 in November, 2001 to 171,993 in October, 2002! Thanks for using the site and recommending it to others.

COURSE EQUIVALENCY TABLES have been added for the following institutions:

Anoka Ramsey Community College (credits from Metropolitan SU and Winona SU)

http://www.mntransfer.org/Tables/AnokaRamsey/AnokaRamseyIndex.html

Pine Technical College (credits from Alexandria TC; Anoka-Hennepin TC; Anoka-Ramsey CC; Century College; Fergus Falls CC; Hennepin TC; Inver Hills CC; Lake Superior College; MSU, Mankato; MSU Moorhead; Northland CTC; St. Cloud SU; St. Cloud TC; St. Paul College; and Winona SU)

http://www.mntransfer.org/Tables/pinetech/pinetcindex.html

Minnesota State University Moorhead (credits from White Earth Tribal College)

http://www.mnstate.edu/admissions/transfer/equivalents/index.htm

TRANSFER GUIDES have been added for the following institutions:

Normandale College - guides for Argosy University; Bemidji SU; Concordia University; University of Minnesota (Carlson School of Management; College of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences; College of Education & Human Development; College of Veterinary Medicine; Medical Technology; Pre-medicine U of M TC); MSU, Mankato; St. Cloud State University; and University of St. Thomas http://www.mntransfer.org/Tables/Normandale/guides/guideindex.html

Bethel College – guides for Anoka-Ramsey CC; Central Lakes College; Century College; Fergus Falls CC; Inver Hills CC; Itasca CC; Lake Superior College; Minneapolis CTC; Normandale CC; North Hennepin CC; Ridgewater College; Riverland CC; and Rochester CTC.

http://www.mntransfer.org/Tables/bethel/guides/guideindex.html

ARTICULATION AGREEMENTS have been added for the following institutions:

Lake Superior College

http://www.mntransfer.org/Agreements/Institution/LSC.html

Bismarck State College (Power and Process Plant Programs AAS)

Bemidji State University (various)

Capella University (Associate Degrees)

College of St. Scholastica (Physical Therapy Assistant AAS; Pre-professional Elementary/Middle Education AA; Computer Programming; Microcomputer Support Specialist; Network Specialist AAS; Business Administration AS; Occupational Therapy Assistant AAS; and Sales and Marketing AAS)

Franklin University (Paralegal AS)

University of Minnesota—Duluth (Dental Hygiene AAS; Theatre AA)

University of Wisconsin—La Crosse (Radiography AAS)

Normandale College:

http://www.mntransfer.org/Agreements/Institution/NCC.html

St. Cloud State University (Engineering Foundations AS)

St. Cloud Technical College: http://www.mntransfer.org/Agreements/Institution/StCTC.html

Arizona State University East (all AAS degrees and Paramedicine)

College of St. Scholastica (Computer Programmer, Microcomputer Support and Network Administration Diplomas/AAS and Web Page Programmer)

Metropolitan State University (Sales & Management Careers; Supervisory Management)

MSU, Mankato (Automotive Service Technology Diploma & AAS)

MSU Moorhead (Computer Programmer)