Kaua‘i community college

Descriptive Summary

Due to the small (i.e. one-person) size of most departments, the college does not use departmental course and/or program examinations. However, the Nursing, Automotive, and Electronics programs utilize nationally recognized vendors to measure the effectiveness of student learning. These standardized tests are carefully selected by the participating program to ensure minimal test biases. For example, as a CISCO Networking Academy, the Electronics program participates in the CISCO certification testing. This program has been internationally implemented and is validated by the industry.

In January 2004, the Office of Continuing Education and Training implemented competency-based tests in its contract training series for the County of Kaua‘i. These assessments were directly aligned with the training materials used for the various computer classes. Since many of the computer classes were divided into various progressive workshops, students were required to meet required competencies before progressing to advanced courses.
Self Evaluation
To the extent that Career Technical Educational and non-credit professional training programs at the college utilize standardized tests, they validate the effectiveness of the tests through the relevancy of the content and the demands of the industry.
Planning Agenda

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  The college will continue to rely only on industry-validated standardized tests.
  

II.A.2.h. The institution awards credit based on student achievement of the course’s stated learning outcomes. Units of credit awarded are consistent with institutional policies that reflect generally accepted norms or equivalencies in higher education.
Descriptive Summary
The faculty at Kaua‘i Community College is in the process of documenting Student Learning Outcomes for all of their courses. The Curriculum Committee must approve up-dated course outlines for all existing courses, including SLOs and the means by which student mastery of the SLOs will be measured. This process will be ensured through the use of the Course Action Form (CAF) and should be completed by the fall of 2010. All new courses approved by the college will be required to identify SLOs and the means for their measurement. Faculty teaching the courses will be expected to ensure that students successfully completing their courses have mastered the SLOs through the use of the measurement tools included in the course outlines. All current syllabi include learning objectives, and the awarding of credit is based upon the student’s successful demonstration of his/her achievement of those objectives.
The college ensures that units of credit awarded are consistent with its policies through institutional review by the various divisions, the Curriculum Committee, the Office of the Dean of Instruction, and the chancellor. The college follows generally accepted practice in defining the units of credit. For example a three-credit lecture course is expected to meet for a minimum of 45 hours in the course of a semester.
An external check on units of credit is the articulation process, which enables the college to be assured its courses reflect generally accepted norms in higher education. Articulation agreements have been formalized with other campuses in the UH System, as well as with other colleges and universities in Hawai‘i and on the Mainland.
Self Evaluation
The key document that has been developed to clearly document that both credits and certificates/degrees awarded by the college are based on stated learning outcomes (at both the course and program level) is the Course Action Form. The program faculty and the Curriculum Committee have only just begun to make use of this form, but over the next five years the Curriculum Committee will review every course offered by the college (20 percent each year). When the process is complete, every course should have documented, measurable SLOs and a clear connection between assessment methods and SLOs. All new courses are developed using the new form.
The key section of the CAF which addresses the connection between assessment in a given course and the Student Learning Outcomes is Section G. In this part, the faculty member is asked to list the types of assessment methods to be used for each SLO. The Curriculum Committee has been developing a series of “tips” primarily addressing the mechanics of the form. As faculty develop more comfort with the process, they can begin to engage in more substantive discussions about the SLOs and assessment methods.
Planning Agenda

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  The college will complete the conversion of all existing course documentation to the new CAF.
  

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  Workshops or other support will be provided to faculty who are having difficulties with completing the conversions.
  

II.A.2.i. The institution awards degrees and certificates based on student achievement of a program’s stated learning outcomes.
Descriptive Summary
All programs at the college have developed or (as in the case of the Liberal Arts program) are revising program-level Student Learning Outcomes. In many cases the SLOs are determined by standards established by external organizations such as the National Automotive Teacher Education Foundation, the American Culinary Federation Accrediting Commission, or the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, etc. All courses required for completion of a degree or certificate contributes to the mastery of the program’s SLOs. Collectively, these required and elective courses will address all of the SLOs, and successful completion of all of the required coursework will ensure mastery of the program’s SLOs. One way the college is documenting that all of a program’s SLOs are addressed is through the use of the Course Action Form (CAF) and ensuring that the various course SLOs do, in fact, address the entire program’s SLOs. Individual program faculty, division heads and the Dean of Instruction are responsible to make sure that all SLOs are collectively addressed by the required courses. The Office of Admissions and Records is responsible for verifying that all requirements have been met—all required courses have been passed—before students receive their degrees or certificates.
External examinations in some areas such as Nursing, Automotive Technology, and Auto Body Repair and Painting have validated the rigor of our programs. Other programs, such as Hotel Operations, Culinary Arts, Early Childhood, and Nursing have relied on feedback from employers (Exhibit II-9: KCCM 1-7). They and other programs are in the process of developing surveys for both graduates and employers. The Liberal Arts program has relied, in part, on the success of its graduates at four-year institutions. All students who participate in the graduation ceremony are surveyed to assess their satisfaction with their KCC experience.