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Academic Master Plan 2016-2021

2016-2021 Initiatives

THE ACADEMIC AFFAIRS UNIT has identified six initiatives for implementation over the next five years, roughly 2016 through 2021. During that time, we will focus on supporting and scaling up successful programs, implementing best practices from other institutions, and piloting some entirely new ideas of our own. In all cases, we are committed to increasing enrollment, graduation, and transfer; aligning with transfer institutions and workforce needs; and reducing time and cost to completion.

INITIATIVE 1: EMBED CLASSROOM SUPPORT

One academic support strategy that has yielded consistently positive results in programs at Montgomery College and elsewhere is embedded classroom support. Grant-supported Student Learning Assistants in STEM disciplines, embedded tutors in 101A PACE (Program for Advancement to College English) for developmental writing students, and interdisciplinary English-language and trade-skills instruction in the MI-BEST (Maryland Integrated Education and Skills Training) program are all examples of successful embedded classroom support programs that might be scaled up to include non-STEM disciplines, other developmental and college-level English courses, and other non credit career programs. Additional ideas for classroom support include embedded librarians and push-in tutoring, as well as virtual support embedded via Blackboard. Embedded support is designed not only to benefit students during class hours, but also to empower students to seek assistance beyond the classroom (e.g., in libraries, learning centers, or counseling offices) as a result of relationships built with academic support professionals. In all cases, units must collaborate to identify alternative funding or creative scheduling to make it possible for academic support professionals to spend enough time in classrooms to build these relationships with students. Another potential strategy is to expand the definition of “academic support professional” to include qualified staff members at all levels of the institution, specially-trained peer tutors, selected community volunteers, counselors, and any other relationships that can be leveraged in support of student success.

Strategy 1: Pilot embedded academic support strategies in selected gateway courses. [Benchmark: Decrease by 10% the number of students receiving DFW grades in selected gateway courses by 2021.]
Strategy 2: Pilot embedded academic support in at least one course per program or discipline. [Benchmark: Decrease by 10% the number of students receiving DFW grades in selected program or discipline courses by 2021.]

Based on success of pilots and reduction in DFW rates, academic programs would institutionalize and scale up embedded support as possible in the future.

INITIATIVE 2: OFFER ALTERNATIVE SCHEDULING AND DELIVERY

For many years, proprietary schools have attracted considerable enrollment by offering alternative scheduling and delivery. Students, especially non-traditional students, have been drawn to the convenience of online and hybrid courses, evening and weekend degree programs, lockstep cohort programs, and accelerated degrees. In order to meet the needs of all of our potential students, we must look to these models and make intentional decisions to vary our terms, class times, pathway options, and delivery methods. Traditional students will also benefit, particularly those who can participate in full-time cohorts, block-scheduled learning communities, apprenticeships, or study travel.

Strategy 1: Offer one entire degree program on each campus or in each VPP area by developing an evening/weekend cohort or other scheduling strategy designed to decrease average time to completion. [Benchmarks: Twelve-month reduction from average time to degree for students enrolled in evening/weekend or specially scheduled programs by 2021.]

Strategy 2: Create and market flex-term courses (or degrees) so students can begin at different standardized times of the semester (7 weeks OR 5 weeks, as determined by consensus). [Benchmarks: Increased enrollment in parts of term 2-6 by 20% by 2021.] Implementation of this initiative will require collaboration with Student Affairs to adapt room scheduling practices for alternative classroom use. Successful programs can be replicated in the second five year period.

INITIATIVE 3: IMPLEMENT ALTERNATIVE AND CUSTOMIZED ASSESSMENT AND PLACEMENT

Whether or not a student completes a degree or other credential is sometimes dependent on a student’s starting point. Time and cost to complete often determine which credential a student can attain. Frustration, due to the inability to get credit for prior knowledge and experience, can impact a student’s engagement and persistence.

Options such as Assessment of Prior Learning and alternative placement for developmental courses can remove courses or entire semesters from a student’s pathway, decreasing, sometimes significantly, the time and cost to earn a degree and increasing the likelihood of completion. High-achieving high school students are often able to place directly into or even exempt college-level courses with appropriate scores on CLEP, IB, AP, SAT, or ACT exams, but opportunities for students with military or job related training have been more limited. In addition, a new cadre of students may come to us having completed free online courses in hopes of earning proficiency credits. Any credits that we choose to award through alternative assessment must uphold rigorous standards and align with workforce, associate, and baccalaureate curricula if the credits are to transfer. National organizations, such as National College Credit Recommendation Service (NCCRS) and The American Council on Education’s (ACE) College Credit Recommendation Service (CREDIT®), are helping colleges navigate these challenges. The more options we can offer students to start at the right place and with credit for prior learning, the less likely students are to give up due to cost, frustration, or boredom with courses that are too easy or too difficult.

Strategy 1: Appoint a joint credit/non-credit workgroup to recommend appropriate steps for expanding student access to Assessment of Prior Learning and proficiency credit, incorporating multiple placement and assessment opportunities for students with training, education, and experience outside of traditional credit programs. [Benchmarks: Proficiency credit options exist for top 20 enrolled credit-bearing courses and all courses included in Career and Technical Education (CTE) articulation agreements by 2021; increased number of students earning credit by exam by 300% by 2021.]

Strategy 2: Standardize multiple measures for developmental course placement including assessments currently in place, measures currently in pilot stage, and new placement strategies based on degree pathways, alternative assessments, high school test scores, and/or targeted student need. [Benchmark: Reduction of number of students placed into developmental courses by 40% by 2021.]

INITIATIVE 4: DESIGN ALTERNATIVE AND CUSTOMIZED CREDENTIALS AND GUIDED PATHWAYS

Just as there are multiple starting points based on various methods of assessment and placement, there are multiple academic and career pathways leading to credentials. By offering customized pathways through the use of competency-based education, stackable credentials, badges, Technical Profession Skills (TPS) degrees, and online education resources, more students will be able to complete multiple certificates, degrees, and credentials that advance their education and their career prospects in parallel or in sequence. As we customize pathways, we must incorporate credentials from secondary education, military and work experience, credit by exam, developmental courses, and credit courses to create multiple opportunities for students to succeed, and the flow of these credentials must move smoothly between credit and non-credit courses and programs. In addition, as state laws change in regard to college math requirements, developmental courses can be customized for students to complete material up to the level required to be successful in the college level math course appropriate for their discipline. For those students who have difficulty completing developmental math, instructional and counseling faculty can help students find workforce pathways that do not require college-level math.

Strategy 1: Identify and articulate pathways for stackable credentials and stackable competencies that allow for incremental completion of both non-credit programs and credit-bearing certificates and degrees; these pathways should offer (and recognize) a wide variety of credentialing options and lead students to multiple points of completion and success. [Benchmark: Increase in number of students receiving multiple credentials within a rolling ten-year period by 200% by 2021; availability of stackable credentialing in 50% of programs and disciplines collegewide by 2021.]

Strategy 2: Customize developmental studies pathways by exploring accelerated programs and
interdisciplinary delivery and by creating multiple exit points determined by student strengths, needs,
or program goals. [Benchmarks: Reduction of number of students attempting the same developmental
studies course more than three semesters without exiting (by passing or changing pathways) by 50%
by 2021; increase by 20% the number of students completing college level math or English courses after beginning in developmental studies.]

After Montgomery College has established models, processes, and benchmarks for awarding proficiency credit and implementing alternative developmental placement, we can continue to expand and add options for both.

As we continue to develop and add new pathways, it will be important to market these options and to have software that tracks student progress.

INITIATIVE 5: ENHANCE STUDENT PATHWAYS FROM MCPS AND TO USG

To effectively advance the completion agenda and address the skills gap, the Academic Affairs division is committed to providing opportunities for our students that lead to accelerated credentials, rigorous educational experiences, and academic success. Collaborations with secondary schools and baccalaureate institutions can be leveraged to help students complete valuable certificates and programs in the most efficient and least costly way. Dozens of examples of successful and productive partnership programs exist between and among Montgomery College, Montgomery College Public Schools (MCPS), and the institutions offering degree programs at The Universities at Shady Grove (USG); we want to continue most, expand some, and explore new opportunities.

  • Strategy 1: Deepen and/or expand MCPS partnership programs especially Middle College, Dual Enrollment, Career and Technical Education, and college readiness efforts. [Benchmarks: Increase in the number of students enrolled in Middle College programs by 20% by 2021; increase in the number of students enrolled in Dual Enrollment by 20% by 2021; Increase in the number of students accessing CTE articulated course credit by 200% by 2021.]
  • Strategy 2: Increase MC faculty collaborations with faculty in undergraduate programs offered at USG in order to facilitate student success in targeted programs. [Benchmark: Increase number of discipline-specific, faculty-level collaborations to 75% of all undergraduate programs offered at USG by 2021.]

These strategies taken together will also strengthen the 2+2+2 pathways articulated among MCPS, MC, and USG institutions.

INITIATIVE 6: EXPAND GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS AND INTERNATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

As we prepare students to live and work in an increasingly globalized environment, the
Academic Affairs division must foster new opportunities for students, staff, faculty, and
Academic Affairs units to work with international governments, businesses, and institutions
of higher education in order to provide a twenty-first century education for our students and
much-needed services and expertise to our colleagues abroad. In light of shrinking state
funding, we must be willing and able to export our knowledge and leverage entrepreneurial
efforts to fund programs for our own students.

  • Strategy 1: Expand opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to study abroad through
    exchanges, short and long-term programs, and service learning. [Benchmark: Increase
    number of students and faculty participating in MC-sponsored international opportunity by
    200% by 2021; Increase number of courses globalized through GHI to 60 by 2021.]
  • Strategy 2: Establish new global partnerships for entrepreneurial, educational, and/
    or community outreach purposes. [Benchmark: Increase in the number of global
    partnerships/ contracts/ memoranda of understanding (MOUs) to 20 by 2021
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