Meeting Date: 
October 3, 2016
Date: 
10/03/2016 10:00 am to 11:30 am
Location: 
109 Gilkey Hall
Event Description: 

A PDF of the minutes can be found here.

Minutes: 

Voting Members Present: Dennis Bennett, Isabelle Brock, Steve Giovannoni, Filix Maisch, Dana Sanchez, Inara Scott, Bill Smyth
Voting Members Absent: McKenzie Huber, Kira Hughes, Weihong Qiu, Rorie Spill Solberg
Ex-Officio members present: Academic Affairs - Heath Henry
Guests: Bill Bogley

 

The Orientation Host introduced this year’s programs up for review: Social Processes & Inst, WIC in College of Liberal Arts and Literature & Arts.  Explains that Rorie will assign members to courses from these categories to review and the Orientation Host will send those courses to other Members.

It was explained that all course information is available within SharePoint.  Brought up the CORE report; this pulls all student data related to the courses: distribution, primary college, grade, etc.

One Member brought up some concerns about confidentiality and was assured that only committee members with permission have access to SharePoint and the CORE report within.

Another Member asked that it clarified that, if they chose to print out the CORE report, should it be treated as confidential information? Yes.

The Orientation Host then explained how the Submission Table works – it is available for some courses, not all, and is merely a different way for instructors to fill out the form, but has all the same information.  It covers things like CLO, Subject, Activities and Assessment of the course. 

There may occasionally appear a page on the submission table that has incorrect or outdated information. This is from a leaked example sheet that is still sometimes used by instructors – skip the page.

When going over the form, the Orientation Host explained there may be more than one syllabus for each class due to a variety of reasons: ecampus vs on campus, multiple teachers, etc.

Committee members will fill out Qualtrics form for each course they are reviewing based on the information in SharePoint and CORE.

A Committee Member asked if you can go look at past information in CORE. The answer is yes.

Another Committee Member asked the Orientation Host to clarify an example being shown: Why is there only one set of answers if there are two teachers? Teachers will each fill it out if they teach it differently OR fill out one if they teach it the same; clarification can be sought from department/college.

The Orientation Host showed a question on a form that was submitted; it was faded out.  Explained that this means the instructor did not see the question, likely due to criteria not being met (for example, the question may have related to an Honors course but this particular course was not an Honors course).

A Committee Member asked for clarification on what should be looked for in the submitted syllabi. Heath told them there is a checklist within the Qualtrics form committee members fill out that explains what criteria needs to be met.

The Orientation Host assured everyone that the Qualtrics form saves as you go and you can go back to answer skipped questions.  If you submit by mistake, email the Orientation Host and he can reopen the form.

- Warned everyone of rare glitch where, if you fill out the form in Mozilla then go and try to finish it in Explorer, it may erase the form.  This isn’t supposed to happen but there has been at least one documented case.

A Committee Member asked if Qualtrics reminds you if you missed or skipped questions.  The answer is no, it does not.

Another Committee Member asked how many questions there were on the form: It’s somewhere in the forties, but some do not pop up unless criteria is met.  There are multiple outcomes for each course and the questions will repeat for each outcome.

The Orientation Host reminded everyone that there should be a line on the syllabi that states how the course fulfills its Bacc Core requirement. A Committee Member brought up that instructors may not put it on there if they are unaware the course they are teaching is in the Bacc Core.

Another Committee Member had the following questions:

  • Will the multiple syllabi be in the same spot?
    •  Yes. 
  • Would it be likely for me to review courses within my own college?
    •  Yes, since most of the courses being reviewed are from CLA.
  • Is it okay for me to review the course if it’s one I’ve taught in the past (a few years ago)?
    • Yes, because all the information is within the last year.

The Orientation Host assured everyone that, if they have questions, feel free to add a comment into the comments field to ask someone else to review or assist.  It is also okay to go back to the college or unit to ask for clarification.

Faculty Senate Staff asked that people be as specific and clear as possible on the forms in the case of absence or if a period of time has passed so that discussion does not get held up.

The Orientation Host went over the last few questions on the form:

  • No Discussion Needed
    • The course will not be discussed in the meetings and it will be approved.
  • Some Discussion Needed
    • May need a few things fixed or clarified and needs to be discussed
  • Recommend for Probation
    • Course will be discussed and possibly put on a three-year probationary period, where it will be reviewed again after the period is up.

A Committee Member clarified that, except in the case of a three-year probationary period, courses are reviewed every seven years.