Browsing by Subject "Community college faculty"
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Item A Study of the Attitudes and Opinions of Full-Time Faculty at Three Texas Community Colleges on the Addition of the Baccalaureate Degree to Their Traditional Mission.(2010-12) Gibbs, Ryan C.; Rodriguez, Roy C.; Shonrock, Michael D.; Cohlmia, KristaThe purpose of this study is to find out what are the attitudes and opinions of full-time faculty, at traditional community colleges in Texas who have recently added baccalaureate degree programs, on the effect of adding new degree programs, especially baccalaureate degrees, to the overall, intended mission of the institution. The data will be collected through an online Likert-scaled survey that will be distributed via e-mail to all full-time faculty members at the three Texas community colleges that currently offer Baccalaureate degrees. The study will utilize exploratory factor analysis in order to determine any underlying factors influencing attitudes and opinions. These data will be looked at through the lenses of Globalization Theory (Levin, 2001) and the concept of mission creep (Levin, 2004). After the data was collected, factor analysis was used to reduce the information into five factor variables which were called: 1) Perceived baccalaureate program need, 2) Baccalaureate Program duplication within commuting distance, 3) Traditional community college mission change, 4) Community / student Baccalaureate need, and 5) Baccalaureate Program duplication within the community. These five new factor variables were the dependent variables and MANOVA was used to test the correlation with the aforementioned independent variables. The study concluded that only the independent variable “Types of classes currently taught” had a significant relationship for the factor variables 1) Perceived baccalaureate program need, and 2) Baccalaureate Program duplication within commuting distance.Item Economy, academy, and community college faculty : a mission survey(2009-05) Richardson, Mary Melissa; Roueche, John E.In the face of 21st century economic challenges, community colleges must contend with complex pressures on their mission. The dueling missions of academic transfer and workforce preparation must sustain and grow the American economy in a global market and simultaneously meet the promise to community college students— open access to quality higher education for all. In the midst of this challenging environment, community college faculty attitudes and awareness to mission challenges are often ignored. This study examined the macro-level effects of external pressures of the 21st century economy at the micro-level of full-time faculty at Texas community colleges. The study design followed a post-positivist paradigm and sought generalizeable data about full-time faculty from Texas community colleges. Quantitative data from an online survey were analyzed to determine faculty awareness of and attitudes toward the community college mission. The findings of the study show that faculty blur the boundaries of what traditionally have been considered workforce and academic roles. They are not well- informed about the range of pressures on the community college, but they are willing to integrate the academic and workforce mission and change in other ways to respond to challenges. They are generally supportive of the community college mission. Faculty teach with their students’ long-term interests in mind, including career preparation and lifelong learning, more than they teach to prepare their students for immediate work in the community.Item Faculty perspectives on online learning : a comparative study of Palo Alto College and San Antonio College of the Alamo Community college District(2008-05) Garza, Robert Lee; Kameen, Marilyn C.; Northcutt, NorvellEnrollments in distance education courses continue to rise and faculty members continue to teach them. In some cases, student demand for distance education courses exceeds the number of courses offered by the institution. Additional faculty members are needed to teach distance education courses to meet the increasing student demand. As institutions begin relying on adjunct faculty to teach distance education courses and move toward more progressive distance education programs, the involvement of the stakeholders in decision making becomes increasingly important to student success. The Purpose of this study is to identify factors that online faculty members from a small and large community college perceive as important to the success of online programs. The study also identifies characteristics of successful online course design, faculty responsibilities, student responsibilities and the responsibilities of the administration. The dissertation contains five chapters. Chapter I provides an introduction, statement of the problem, collegiate study: Palo Alto College and San Antonio College, the purpose of the study, research questions, selection of methodology, significance of the problem, definitions of distance education and terms and limitations of the study. Chapter II provides a review of the literature on distance education. Chapter III provides an overview of the methodology (Interactive Qualitative Analysis) utilized in the study. Chapter IV provides an overview of the results of the study to include data collection and analysis process, college selection process, faculty selection for the study, the focus group, individual interviews, and Interactive Qualitative Analysis (IQA). Chapter V includes an overview of the Interpretations and Recommendations for the study. The study identifies several considerations for implementing a distance education program to include 1) Planning and organizing 2) Determining the organizational structure of the distance education program (sole-responsibility, dual-mode or consortium) and 3) Determining the institution’s ability to provide financial support for a distance education program. An institution should also implement policies that will help students succeed in online learning. A few of the recommended policies include 1) Limiting class size to 24 students in online courses 2) Providing proper technical support and training and 3) Providing a reliable student survey for online courses.