Creating
a Campus Culture for Learning
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Part
A. Building a Framework for
a Learning-Centered Organizational Culture
1.
What strategies are being used to achieve a common understanding
and language of what it means to be learning centered and how the
Learning College concept applies to your institution? If your college is
a multicampus or multicollege institution, how do you achieve this
understanding and language across the entire system?
MATC
has shared the concepts and language of the Learning College in numerous ways.
The first effort was inviting Terry O'Banion to present at the
all-staff in-service in January of 1999.
Terry had previously led a Leadership Council retreat, involving the
formal leaders of the faculty and staff unions as well as all managers.
Earlier, the state technical college system had hosted a presentation
by Terry and the president and the vice president of instructional services
had discussed the principles at meetings with several different
constituencies. Staff from all
five campuses attended both the all staff in-service and the Leadership
Council retreat.
The
administration of the Learning College Inventory was used to create
conversations with staff about the Learning College principles (LCPs).
Functional units hosted meetings where Vanguard team members introduced
the purpose of the project and led discussions on how the principles were
reflected in the work of the department.
Sessions were held for all campus locations and work shifts.
Additionally,
the Learning College Principles were included in the college's strategic plan,
and the strategic initiatives and goals were reviewed to
incorporate Learning College language and concepts.
The College Effectiveness Review Model used by the District Board as a
monitoring process was also reviewed to better reflect principles of the
Learning College.
2
What creative processes are being used to build on existing
cultural values, beliefs, assumptions, and customs to foster buy-in to
the Learning College concept at your college? What existing cultural
elements have been identified as working against acceptance of the
Learning College concept at your college?
There
has been some effort to link the Learning College Principles (LCPs) to earlier
organizational change initiatives. Fro
several years, MATC has been actively training staff and faculty in
Franklin-Covey concepts including the courses 7 Habits of Highly Effective
People and 4 Roles of Leadership.
Specific efforts of departments such as the Student Life Office have
resulted in plans and goals tied to the LCPs.
Another effort is to tie other current change initiatives to the
Learning College initiative. An
example is cross-membership of the Vanguard team with the Strategic Leadership
Forum team in the Consortium for Community College Development project.
A
symposium was developed and offered for all staff on issues in creating
support systems for underprepared students.
Robert McCabe was the keynote speaker on his research and book, No
One to Waste. Presentations
were also made by the Community College of Denver and Valencia Community
College on their significant work in this area.
This has generated a great deal of excitement and energy on this topic.
Task forces have been appointed to follow-up.
3.
What strategies are being used at your college to engender
ownership among all stakeholders (administrators, faculty, staff,
contractors, trustees, students) for student learning and success?
A
number of activities are mentioned above.
The Learning College Inventory was distributed to 712 full- and
part-time employees in December 2000 and January 2001.
Times were selected to meet with small groups of people, typically by
functional area, that were convenient to them.
During each meeting, members of the Vanguard team discussed the
purposes of the Vanguard project and the survey.
It was stressed that this was an opportunity for all of us to learn
more about our efforts to become a learning college.
Time was scheduled for a discussion after the survey was completed and
employees shared how they saw their work fitting into the principles of the
learning college.
The
symposium on underprepared students was open to all staff and conversations
were facilitated to explore MATC's work needed.
Board members as well as staff attended.
The board has taken steps to align their documents with Learning
College Principles by revising both the strategic plan and their policy
manual. The board also holds
"Stakeholder Conversations" annually with various groups.
They held such a conversation this year with student leaders, focusing
on support for student learning.
4.
In what ways is your college asking and answering the two guiding
questions of the Learning College: How does this action expand and
improve student learning? How do we know?
Follow-up
review and discussion will be held on the Learning College Inventory results.
These discussions should help to further expand the focus on learning
and its outcomes. We are
committed to another college-wide administration of the inventory in three
years.
In
the College Effectiveness Review Model, a revision done this year has
attempted to identify outcome measures for student learning and other goals in
the strategic plan. This effort has helped to focus on the need to create more
assessment processes to provide such evidence.
A related activity is preparing to adopt an alternative
quality-criteria-based accreditation process through the Higher Learning
Commission of the North Central Association.
Focus on these questions also comes departments and staff planning and
projects.
The
Student Learning Outcomes Plan is also a method for assessing student learning
in general education across the curriculum.
A set of core abilities has been defined and are identified in courses;
faculty rate students using a set of rubrics.
5.
What collaborative processes are being used to promote
learning-centered principles at your college?
Learning-centered
principles are promoted through activities such as the assessment of students'
achievement of core abilities, staff development offerings such as the
Franklin-Covey and process education offerings and certification courses,
faculty work on outlines of instruction, cross-functional support for the
Learning to Learn Camp and symposium on the underprepared student, and the
program evaluation process.
6.
How is your college cultivating widespread awareness of the value
of changing organizational structures to promote student learning while
honoring institutional history and tradition?
We
are integrating new language and concepts into traditional structures and
traditions by means such as using all-staff meetings and inservice
opportunities to present and discuss these concepts; by modifying language in
the board and administrative policies, the strategic plan, and college
effectiveness monitoring processes; by noting and honoring the student- and
learning-centered efforts of the past such as restructuring the Student
Services function; by committing
to process education implementation; by working on student success models; and
other actions.
Part
B. Placing Learning First:
Organizational and Cultural Change
1.
What steps have been taken at your college to embed Learning
College principles in policies, practices, procedures, programs, and
daily operations?
A
number of strategies are described above.
In addition, the guidelines for program transitions to new workload
formula were reviewed to include Learning College Principles.
The Union-Management Committee and Workload Transition Team are working
with pilot programs to implement the workload formula change and are reviewing
transition plans to encourage use of Learning College Principles.
College
decision making processes levels and responsibilities have been identified as
a focus area to review and assess based on the LCPs.
This is a goal of the Vanguard team.
Some
barriers identified include resistance to change; workloads, commitment to
various priority projects, and burnout; outmoded regulations and policies that
have internal or external constituencies; differences of opinion and
perspective as to how to design programs to support student readiness to
learn; some business or academic practices that are not designed to be
especially student-friendly; and lack of agreement on what constitutes
"learning-centered" policies and practices.
Other specific barriers that are being remedied are lack of consistent
systems for advising and entry-support and lack of ease of access to useful
data.
To
address these, we need to have honest conversations and work collaboratively.
Some of this is occurring in projects like the workload formula
transitions, PeopleSoft implementation, administrative policy reviews,
continuing planning and budgeting updates and redesigns, Student Services
continuing reorganization and space renovation, and Strategic Initiative
Excellence Teams work with setting priorities within the strategic plan.
3.
How is your college overcoming anxiety about or resistance to
making organizational changes that have promise for improving student
learning and success?
Outlines
of Instruction have been mandated. Instructional
design support staff are supporting and rewarding faculty efforts. Advising systems are being created; faculty continue to
receive training. Core abilities
implementation is continuing with much collaborative efforts by faculty and
staff. Strategic planning efforts
attempt to help set priorities and directions for the college. Technology
systems are being replaced and upgraded through PeopleSoft implementation.
Efforts are underway to redesign and make accessible data reports and
needed program and student assessment information.
4.
What methods are being used to link learning-centered programs
and practices across your college to promote student learning and
success?
There
are a number of student success initiatives that are linked within
Instructional Services. Strategic
Initiative Excellence Teams work with setting priorities within the strategic
plan. The symposium on underprepared students resulted in three
task forces being developed to follow-up on needed changes to systems and
processes. Cross-functional teams
are appointed for many initiatives such as core abilities, academic advising,
conflict management services, process education, etc.
5.
How is your college cultivating a culture of evidence to support
learning (i.e., a culture that values assessment and continuous
improvement to ensure that learning-centered principles guide all college
activities)?
Core abilities assessment implementation is continuing
with much collaborative efforts by faculty and staff. Strategic planning efforts include monitoring the progress on
the goals to help set priorities and directions for the college.
Efforts are underway to redesign and make accessible data reports and
needed program and student assessment information.
Process education training continues to expand the faculty and staff
knowledge and commitment to good assessment practices.
MATC has committed to an alternative quality-criteria-based
accreditation process through the Higher Learning Commission of the North
Central Association. Learning
College principles will be a framework for self-assessment.
This quality initiative has been widely discussed with college leaders
and the board.
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