Academic Master Plan 2016-2021

INTRODUCTION

WITH THIS ACADEMIC MASTER PLAN, Montgomery College embraces the opportunity to examine our academic initiatives through the lens of change. We define the focus and the direction of our programs and practices for the next five to ten years, attempting to anticipate the impact of globalization, demographic changes, economic uncertainty, and workforce alignment; the impact of technology on content delivery and assessment; and the agility needed to respond to the accelerated rate of change. Our mission, vision, and values and our seventy-year history provide a strong foundation.

Since its inception in 1946, Montgomery College has focused on student success through the many extraordinary learning opportunities and support services that have been developed throughout a history of excellence. In academic preparation courses, honors seminars, general education classes, transfer and career programs, workforce and technical instruction, and community education, students pursue an array of goals. The College attracts a wide spectrum of students with diverse backgrounds and with vastly different levels of preparation. Over 100 academic degree and certificate programs supported by superb faculty and staff provide an array of opportunities. For nine of the past twelve years, a Montgomery College faculty member has been named the State of Maryland Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). Faculty and students enjoy unique internship and fellowship opportunities at the Smithsonian Institution, The Library of Congress, the National Institute for Standards and Technology, and the National Institute for Health. The College has been awarded several prestigious grants from The National Science Foundation, The National Endowment for the Humanities, the US Department of State, the US Department of Education, and the US Department of Labor. Our Workforce Development and Continuing Education unit is regularly awarded grants such as the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training ((TAACCCT) grant to align programs with industry needs, and successful credit and noncredit programs serve our growing population of adult English learners, critical in our diverse ecosystem that welcomes students from over 160 countries. Articulation agreements with universities across the nation; partnerships with biotech, cyber security, and, IT firms; and relationships with community organizations all serve the educational needs of our students and communities.

Montgomery College has an excellent record of embracing new technologies and delivery methods. We offer distance education in synchronous, asynchronous, and hybrid formats. Not only do we have significant online learning opportunities (currently four online degrees), we also offer high-quality training for faculty who
want to develop and teach well-designed online courses—including courses that have earned the Quality Matters designation. We have offered a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for students to improve their writing. We use dozens of discipline-specific software applications to provide course content and training that meets industry standards. We provide technology resources to support student learning in developmental, credit, and non-credit courses as well as for self-directed learning. Faculty have created online content to replace textbooks, as well as Open Educational Resource (OER) banks that provide students with on-demand access to instructional resources. We strive to maintain state-of-the art technology for every discipline in both classrooms and labs, quickly adopting new technologies and innovations that support student learning. A system of libraries and learning support centers embraces innovation and technology in both depth and breadth of their offerings. Finally, we have implemented a number of software applications that facilitate student success in general, including Blackboard, EvaluationKIT, Starfish, Weebly, and Adobe Connect, with additional applications continually under review.

To be relevant, this Academic Master Plan must acknowledge significant changes in technology and pedagogy, and in this era of unprecedented access to information, the rapidly changing nature of education.¹ The advent of free and low-cost online educational options, offered by both public and private sectors, has led some to prophesy the end of higher education as we know it. In 2013, for example, Clayton Christensen, the Harvard Business professor who coined the terms “disruptive technology” and “disruptive innovation,” was not alone in predicting that “15 years from now, half of US universities may be in bankruptcy.”² Christensen and others cited not only the presence of MOOCs, badges, and other online learning opportunities, but also a general dissatisfaction among students and employers with the quality and content of the education offered by traditional institutions.³ Christensen later softened his message to acknowledge that colleges and universities could embrace disruption as an opportunity rather than fear it as a threat.⁴

Montgomery College students and employees span four generations. Providing instruction and supporting the learning of digital natives and those of the “books, bricks and mortar” generation is a challenge. As we continue to incorporate pedagogies that include new technologies to enhance learning, we must do so in ways that acknowledge the learning habits of our millennial-age students and those who will follow them. In a 2012 Pew Research Center report, Anderson and Rainie noted a fairly even divide between experts who believe that the “rewiring” of the brains of subjects under the age of 35 will have a positive effect on their learning and functioning (55%) versus those who predict a negative impact (42%).⁵ What many analysts seemed to agree upon was that the younger generation’s hyper-connectivity and instant access to information may have affected their cognitive habits and functions. Knowing that most students have, at very minimum, different learning styles, educators must continue to adapt our methods that incorporate collaborative, active, and technologically enhanced learning. Core content and mastery are being questioned by students and faculty in this new era of instant access to information. Colleges and universities must continually update curricula in pursuit of education that prepares students for a future that is difficult to predict. Memorization is increasingly less important as learning outcomes expand to assess factual knowledge as well as the mastery of skills, such as critical and creative thinking, collaboration, problem solving, oral and written communication, and the ability to find, apply, and expand on information. As traditional careers are transformed or replaced by technology and new career pathways emerge, colleges must provide students with a foundation on which to build, including being agile, lifelong learners—not only for personal enrichment, but to ensure adaptability, employability, and success.⁶

Yet another challenge for higher and continuing education is that Labor Department data consistently reveals that millions of jobs per year go unfilled as a result of skills gaps, due to employers’ inability to find workers with the skills needed for the positions available.⁷ In Montgomery County, 78% of all new jobs anticipated between 2015 and 2025 will require some form of post-secondary education; in 2015, of the top fifteen occupations which employers had the most difficulty filling, 90% required some form of college education.⁸ These pressures are particularly acute for community colleges such as Montgomery College as we try to align our programs with workforce and transfer pathways; increase enrollment, graduation, and transfer; and reduce time and cost to completion. To meet these goals with decreasing state support, we must identify new funding sources through grants, foundations, business and industry partnerships, and entrepreneurial endeavors. In particular, we must identify financial aid sources for students completing workforce and career credentials. Perhaps most importantly, we must use our resources more efficiently and effectively than ever before.

In addition to the technological, pedagogical, and curricular forces shaping the future of higher education, external influences are stronger than ever. Montgomery College has been fortunate to have reliable funding streams and the support from our county and state officials who understand the connection between outstanding education and economic growth. While the county’s commitment to the College remains steady, competition for resources increases each year. Although federal and state financial support of public education has declined fairly steadily since 1980,⁹ pressure from governmental bodies is stronger than ever for colleges and universities to produce measurable results. In 2009, President Obama set the ambitious goal that “by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.”¹⁰ In 2013, the State of Maryland passed the College and Career Readiness and College Completion Act (CCRCCA), legislation that sets credit limits on associate’s degrees, requires clearer degree pathways, and mandates specific levels of individual student advising. Such legislation sends a clear message to secondary and post-secondary institutions in Maryland that timely completion is a priority in our state. Completion is an area in which Academic Affairs continues to work closely with our counseling faculty colleagues in the Student Affairs division. As we develop our strategies for increasing retention, transfer, and graduation, we look forward to collaborating with counseling faculty and drawing on their expertise and experience in assessing, placing, and guiding students on pathways to completion. In Montgomery County, 78% of all new jobs anticipated between 2015 and 2025 will require some form of post-secondary education; in 2015, of the top fifteen occupations which employers had the most difficulty filling, 90% required some form of college education.

A visionary and innovative academic master plan, fostering agility and responsiveness, is more important than ever in today’s higher education climate as government, industry, accreditors, and students demand measurable results from colleges and universities.¹¹ Internally, institutions of higher education must continually evaluate which disruptive innovations to adopt and which standards to assess--even as we consider the possibility that the very meaning of “education” has evolved in this information age. Our methods of instruction must also evolve to meet the needs of students whose cognitive processes may be very different from those of yesterday’s students.¹² Externally, even as funding streams in many states are reduced, redirected, or cut off entirely, colleges are called upon to improve completion rates and align programs with workforce needs, all while adapting our strategies to serve an ever-changing student body.¹³

In response to the rapidly-changing and challenging higher education environment, in 2014 the Academic Affairs division adopted a new organizational structure that reflected the Montgomery College “One College” model, underscored our commitment to academic excellence, and made possible the development and implementation of this Academic Master Plan. Through a collaborative and transparent process involving more than 200 members of the College community, the Academic Affairs division created a structure that eliminates redundancy, is agile and responsive, and that situates leadership within the disciplines through faculty chairs with supervisory authority. Deans now have Collegewide responsibilities to lead academic programs, and vice-presidents/ provosts lead their Collegewide academic units as well as their respective campuses. This Academic Master Plan is one of several recent initiatives, ignited by the leadership transition, that reflect national best practices. A new and expanding Center for Part-Time Faculty supports student success by serving those who teach over half of our courses. An innovative Achieving the Promise Academy has been designed to address the achievement gap for Latino/a and African-American students. The newly established relationship with the national Achieving the Dream, Inc. will provide the models and coaching to expand data-informed strategies to promote student success and completion.

The Academic Affairs division has mobilized faculty and academic leaders to revise curricula in rapid response to changes in pedagogy, industry needs, technology, and accreditation requirements. With a broader goal and an impact on all degree-seeking students, the General Education program was revised in 2015 and ratified by the full-time faculty, incorporating integrative learning across disciplines, promoting high-impact learning practices, enhancing assessment, and facilitating transferability. The General Studies program was redesigned (almost simultaneously) to provide coherence, rigor, and depth, giving students who are undecided about their major an opportunity to concentrate on an area of interest—a General Studies pathway—that may link to their future studies. The American English Language Program has been revised to accelerate student progress through the curriculum by condensing levels and reducing the number of courses required in the sequence. Developmental English, reading, and math faculty have redesigned their courses to shorten the pathway to college-level courses, and to provide alternative delivery and placement to support student completion. As these large programs are making significant changes, so too are other programs updating courses, incorporating new technology, and streamlining curricula to align their programs with industry and transfer institutions and to foster student completion.

Along with curricular transformation, the Academic Affairs leaders have linked the division’s strategic goals to the MC2020 Plan to increase graduation, transfer, and student retention rates. Department chairs have identified strategies to reduce student DFW grades in high enrollment courses. Academic program coordinators have defined and implemented strategies to support student completion of their programs. ELITE has established a Master Teacher Institute to provide models for effective teaching. The division has responded to the College and Career Readiness and College Completion Act by implementing academic program advising and alternative placement pilots programs in English, reading and math. Finally, a new online catalog provides students with course sequencing that clearly defines the pathway to academic degree completion.

Montgomery College’s Workforce Development and Continuing Education unit has always worked closely with business and industry and continues to make strides in this area. Recent successes include the MI-BEST (Maryland Integrated Basic Education and Skill Training) programs in Apartment Maintenance and Geriatric Nursing Assistant, which educate students in basic workplace and occupational skills simultaneously, and the TAACCCT grant, which provides resources for our expanded program in Cybersecurity Education. BioTrain is another partnership dedicated to delivering relevant training to entry-level and incumbent professionals in biotechnology. The College has been awarded a TechHire partnership grant through the US Department of Labor to launch an innovating training and job placement program.

Long-standing programs with successful business and industry partnerships include those in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), automotive technology, and healthcare. Further, the College partners with industry through advisory councils for both workforce and transfer programs to better meet the workforce needs as well as prepare future workers, and to inform members about the role the College plays in meeting workforce needs. These councils allow the College to better align programs with real-world applications at the certificate, associates, or baccalaureate level and beyond.

For over 70 years, Montgomery College has created successful, targeted programs to bring out the best in particular cohorts; however, going forward, we must look for more opportunities to scale-up these best practices in ways that lead to success for all students. Our experience confirms that we can remain an open-enrollment institution, provide academic support for at-risk (or as we prefer to say, “at-promise”) students, and also attract and serve advanced students. By applying the strategies of targeted programs, such as honors programs, Achieving the Promise, and the Macklin Business Institute, we will promote excellence across the institution, and Montgomery College will be the first choice for any student seeking a degree or credential. As Montgomery College President, Dr. DeRionne Pollard explained in her most recent Washington Post opinion piece, “Opportunity is at the essence of community colleges… .”¹⁴ The aim of this Academic Master Plan is to turn that opportunity into success. Our strong foundation allows us to face the challenges ahead boldly and innovatively and in collaboration with our colleagues in Student Affairs, Advancement and Community Engagement, and Administrative and Fiscal Services, we anticipate meeting those challenges and fostering an environment in which students thrive as we prepare them to navigate a future that is as promising as it is unpredictable.

DATA PHILOSOPHY, ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN, AND SUCCESS INDICATORS

In this Academic Master Plan and throughout the Academic Affairs division, Montgomery College is committed to the responsible and holistic use of data in the broadest sense of the term. In using data responsibly, we seek to see the whole picture and to make decisions that are “data informed” rather than merely “data driven.” By data, we refer to statistics, benchmarks, and other numerical indicators, but also to qualitative surveys, narrative reports, and any other relevant input. Further, we are committed to providing real-time data to as many users as possible in the most efficient ways possible in hopes of influencing outcomes rather than merely dissecting results. All of our proposed Academic Master Plan initiatives are developed with data in mind, and benchmarks and success indicators are in place to measure outcomes and institutional effectiveness. Moreover, our recent designation as an Achieving the Dream institution underscores our intention to build a culture of evidence that informs our decisions for the benefit of our students.

REFERENCES

1 De la Harpe and Mason, “A New Approach,” xx.
2 Suster, Interview accessed on 14 March 2016, http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2013/03/03/in-15-years-from-now-half-of-us-universities-maybe-in-bankruptcy-my-surprise-discussion-withclaychristensen/.
3 Frey, “By 2013,” accessed 14 March 2016, http://www.futuristspeaker.com/2013/07/by-2030-over-50-of-colleges-will-collapse/; Harden, “The End,” accessed 14 march 2016, http://www.the-american-interest.com/2012/12/11/the-end-of-the-university-as-weknow-it/.
4 Roscorla, “3 Things,” accessed 14 March 2016, http://www.centerdigitaled.com/news/3-Things-HigherEducation-Should-Know-about-Disruptive-Innovation.html.
5 Anderson and Rainie, “Millennials Will,” 2-3.
6 Carlos Devece, et. al., ; Knapper and Cropley
7 Cohn, “The State Skills,” accessed 14 March 2016, http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/24/the-state-skills-gapwhos-got-talent.html; Gillespie, “America’s Persistent problem,” accessed 14 March 2016, http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/07/news/economy/us-economy-jobskills-gap/.
8 EMSI 2015.4, Q4.
9 Chronicle of Higher Education, “Twenty-Five Years,” accessed 14 March 2016, http://chronicle.com/interactives/statesupport.
10 https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/highereducation
11 Derek Bok, Higher Education in America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013), 2; Rebecca S.Natow, “From Capitol Hill to Dupont Circle and Beyond: The Influence of Policy Actors in the Federal Higher Education Rulemaking Process,” The Journal of Higher Education 86, no. 3 (2015): 368; George Kuh et. al., Using Evidence of Student Learning to Improve Higher Education (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2015), XX.
12 Christodoulou and Kalokairinou, “Net Generation’s,” 119; Chong, Loh, and Babu, “The Millennial Learner,” accessed 14 March 2016, http://tlc.unisim.edu.sg/research/AdvSoTL-3/chong_loh_babu.html.
13 Kuh, High Impact, excerpt accessed 14 March 2016, https://www.aacu.org/leap/hips; American Association of Colleges and Universities, Greater Expectations: A New Vision, accessed 14 March 2016, http://www.greaterexpectations.org/pdf/gex.final.pdf.
14 “Why Starting,” The Washington Post, 8 April 2016.