Surviving the Storm: Impact of Institutional Change on a First-Year - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Surviving the Storm: Impact of Institutional Change on a First-Year - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Surviving the Storm: Impact of Institutional Change on a First-Year Cohort Program E. Jane Fee, PhD Special Advisor to the Dean of Applied Sciences Simon Fraser University, Canada July 25, 2006 19th International Conference on The


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Surviving the Storm: Impact of Institutional Change

  • n a First-Year Cohort Program
  • E. Jane Fee, PhD

Special Advisor to the Dean of Applied Sciences Simon Fraser University, Canada July 25, 2006 19th International Conference on The First-Year Experience Toronto, Ontario

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Organization of Talk

 Program Beginnings at TechBC  The Transition to SFU  TechOne Today  The Future of TechOne  Lessons Learned

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The Technical University of BC (TechBC)

 Public, niche university  Legislation passed – December 1997  Specialized mandate to deliver high-tech programs:

Interactive Arts, Information Technology, Management & Technology –“Doubling the Opportunity” initiative

 Located on south side of Fraser River

  • highest growth area in B.C.
  • lowest participation rates in post-secondary
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SLIDE 4

Academic Innovations at TechBC

 Student success model  Blended learning pedagogy  No Faculty structures – faculty appointed to

University

 Commitment to interdisciplinary models – all

courses/programs developed by faculty teams

 Small class sizes

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SLIDE 5

Immediate Challenges

 CAUT Boycott – Fall 1997  Provincial degree program approval process  Permanent facility would be built “off book”

by Crown Corporation

 Temporarily located in leased space  Capital funding model at 50% of COU

standards

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SLIDE 6

TechOne Program Structure

 Integration of content across courses –

learning community model

 Courses a mix of online and F2F delivery  Education, Technology and Learning Unit

Support program

 36 credits of required coursework

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SLIDE 7

The TechOne Courses

 Disciplinary courses in IA, IT, Business  Interdisciplinary courses in Math/Physics/Stats  Process elements: communication, teamwork,

information literacy

 Integration of content through process element

courses

 Cohort – lab classes of 24  All courses taught in 1-credit, 5 week modules

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The Beginning of the End

 New President hired summer 2001  New Liberal government elected summer

2001

 Core Services Review – Fall 2001  Announcement of transfer of students and

Programs to SFU – February 2002

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Why was SFU interested?

 New campus south of the Fraser River  Doubling the Opportunities initiative  Innovations in online education  Interactive Arts program  TechOne

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2002

 Information Technology and Interactive Arts

Programs frozen

– Became “The Surrey Programs” in

Faculty of Applied Sciences

 Management & Technology dissolved – Students transferred to Faculty of Business

Administration

 200 students accepted to TechOne  Campus staffing arrangements change  TechOne acknowledged as independent program

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SLIDE 11

Transition to a Disciplinary Structure –2002/03

 TechOne courses owned and operated by

home departments (IAT, CS, Bus, Math)

 Advisory program committee – “cooperative”

model

 Program managed by Associate Dean  Sole first-year program at SFU Surrey;

serves as first year of all UG degree programs

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2003 Re-Imagining Begins

 TechOne Restructuring – TechOne will feed ‘Doubling the

Opportunities’ programs

– Revised modules to regular 3-credit

courses

 TechOne numbers double to 400  High-tech crash  Special Advisor appointed

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TechOne Today

 10-15 limited-term lecturer positions  Students largely go into IAT, Computing Science,

and Business degree programs

 500 students, representing – more than 50% of new BC 12 enrollment in

Applied Sciences

– 60% of all enrollments at SFU Surrey  Competing visions beginning to coalesce

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SLIDE 14

Current Curriculum

Fall Spring

IAT 100 IAT 101 TECH 100 TECH 101 CMPT 120 CMPT 125

+ a MATH course Based on degree program

Core Courses Electives

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Current Management Structure

 Separate “Program Director” and Program

Assistant

 Budget subsumed by IAT  Program Director manages 5 core courses;

consults with Computing Science re 2 courses

 Work co-operatively with other departments

to ensure elective courses available

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Why Re-design Again?

Its history

Vision, ownership, resourcing, consistency

New general University requirements

Developing vision of the SFU Surrey campus and new first-year learning community programs

“One-size fits all” model isn’t working for students

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SFU Surrey Vision – First Year

SFU Surrey students enter the campus through first-year cohort programs designed to provide a strong foundation for their academic career and exposure to a full range of disciplinary ideas.

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Why this model?

 Greater flexibility – in number of courses taken each semester – to take electives to fulfill major program requirements  To articulate with all Applied Science undergrad programs  Interdisciplinary courses become the ‘value added’  “Bullet-proofing” for possible changes in Faculty of

Applied Sciences

 Enrollments still down in computing science

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The Vision for Fall 2008

 Reduced interdisciplinary core (4 courses) – Taught by interdisciplinary TechOne faculty  Certificate in Collaborative Technologies to

be awarded at end of year

 One program within a new “Department of X”  Back to learning communities model

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The Framework

Communicati

  • n

& Collaboration (W) History & Social Implications

  • f

Technology Design: Theory & Practice An integrated set of 4 courses Analytical & Critical Reasoning Theme electives as required

Spring

Digital Media Theme Information Technology Theme

Fall

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SLIDE 21

Short-term Challenges

 New University-wide curriculum changes  Increased competition for new students – BC wide – Within our campus  Resources – Faculty are 90% LT teaching faculty – Very lean on staffing  Possible restructuring of Faculty of Applied Sciences

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Lessons Learned

First year students require lots of support:

An effective first-year program must have full-time continuing faculty resources

You must work closely with student support units to create seamless services (e.g., Student Life, Writing Support, Orientation)

Young, enthusiastic faculty will naturally gravitate to innovative first-year programs. You must find ways to attract more senior, experienced faculty

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Lessons Learned

Structures/Funding

Programs must own and control their own resources

Innovative programs require innovative structures

Government policy is always 5 years behind reality

Assessment is a powerful ally

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Lessons Learned

Inertia

You must be ever vigilant in the creation of innovative programs; any challenge will result in going back to “the way we’ve always done it”

The efficacy of well-established programs is not questioned; you must provide evidence of success for new and innovative programs

There will always be those who are not supportive

  • f anything new or different. Just accept this and

move on

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Reasons for Optimism

 New Surrey campus opens September 8,

2006

 Developing partnerships, and technology

initiatives are on the horizon

 General readiness for reform at SFU  Data shows we are being successful

(retention = 85%)

 Students and faculty love the program

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SLIDE 26

www.surrey.sfu.ca

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www.sfu.ca/techone