Institutional Effectiveness Summary Report 2005



Institutional Effectiveness Summary Report 2005The 2005 Institutional Effectiveness summary report for Florence-Darlington Technical College (FDTC) includes the following required Institutional Effectiveness reports and assessment elements:REQUIRED INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS REPORTS 2005Majors and Concentrations on FDTC Reporting Schedule for 2005:Results of Professional ExamsFull or Interim Reports:Programs Eligible for Accreditation?Law N/AAlumni Survey - SatisfactionInterdisciplinary Studies N/AAlumni Survey - Placement DataLiberal Arts & Sciences N/AMajors and ConcentrationsPhysical Sciences N/AStudent Development and ServicesCommunications and Journalism N/AFor Future Reporting:Area Studies Geography and Anthropology N/ATwo to Four Year TransfersMajors and Concentrations:General EducationCivil EngineeringLibrary ResourcesElectro Mechanical EngineeringAdvising ProceduresIndustrial Electricity/ElectronicsEngineering Graphics TechnologyElectronics Engineering TechnologyHealth Information TechnologyCriminal JusticeOTHER REPORTING EXPECTANCIESIn addition to the reports and elements listed above, the Minority Student and Faculty Access and Equity assessment will be reported by the SC Commission on Higher Education. The following elements of Institutional Effectiveness reporting are not currently applicable to the SC Technical College System Sector:Program Changes that have Occurred as a Result of External Program EvaluationSuccess of Students in Developmental CoursesSuccess of Entering Students in Meeting College or University Admissions PrerequisitesAcademic Performance of Student AthletesStudents Participating in Sponsored Research.INTRODUCTION - FLORENCE-DARLINGTON TECHNICAL COLLEGEFlorence-Darlington Technical College is a post-secondary, public, two-year institution serving Florence, Darlington and Marion Counties, whose primary mission is to deliver an affordable, comprehensive technical education. The college has an open admissions policy and annually enrolls approximately 12,000 to 15,000 credit students and 10,000 to 18,000 continuing education students. Through technical, general and continuing education programs, the college responds to the educational, economic and cultural needs of a diverse traditional and non-traditional adult student population. The College's mission statement was approved by the Florence-Darlington County Commission in April 2005.As a vital organization in the community, the college fosters educational and economic growth opportunities that quantitatively and qualitatively contribute to the economic and cultural life and development of the South Carolina PeeDee region is serves. It offers comprehensive technical education in the traditional classroom setting and through on-line instruction, college transfer programs, specialized training for business and industry, continuing education, transitional studies, and student development services. The instruction provided at the college is designed to prepare individuals for careers, advancement, and growth in health services, business, engineering, human and public services, industrial technologies and other fields. In addition to the knowledge specific to their chosen program of study, graduates of the college are expected to have mastered competencies in written and oral communication, information processing, mathematics, problem solving, and interpersonal skills.Institutional Effectiveness And PlanningAt FDTC, strategic planning, operational planning, budget planning and the institutional effectiveness model are combined to create one annual master plan that serves as a vehicle for institution-wide evaluation. As a collaborative action the college has defined its mission and identified key performance indicators in support of its adopted mission to drive the planning process and provide a platform against which to judge success. As part of this institutional effectiveness process, the college conducts an open strategic planning retreat in the spring each year, including all college personnel in the planning process. Focus groups combining faculty, administrators, and staff, led by peer facilitators, meet on Planning Day to discuss the strengths, weaknesses, major opportunities, and major challenges of the College. As a result of the process, the college develops a comprehensive multi-phase plan of institutional goals that serve as the backbone of the institutional effectiveness strategy for the period.The divisions of the college meet and conduct planning sessions inclusive of all of their respective departments in April and May. They evaluate current operational objectives and institutional effectiveness initiatives for the next year. They revise the plans to include goals and objectives in line with the institutional endeavors appropriate to the coming year and these goals are submitted to the FDTC President, and subsequently to the Area Commission, for ratification of and inclusion in the College's Strategic Initiatives.All college departments follow a planning and evaluation cycle that is supervised by the Vice President for Student Services and the Vice President for Academic Affairs. The planning and evaluation cycle is comprehensive, systematic, interrelated, and appropriate to the institution. Each FDTC academic and administrative department annually prepares an?Institutional Effectiveness Report Planning Document?including the development of evaluation criteria that tie directly to selected college goals and subsequently the College Mission. In a college-wide accepted format the document that includes the program's general purpose, establishes select annual goals and objectives, and provides a methodology for periodically assessing student outcomes and operational goals.In the past, the Student Services Division has published a manual defining the IE process and providing a guide to its steps. The?Institutional Effectiveness Report Planning Document?includes a standardized form, The?Institutional Effectiveness Report?that is used by each department to guide its planning and evaluation efforts.?Institutional Effectiveness Reports?require a purpose statement that supports the College's mission statement, and two to three departmental objectives that tie directly to one of the College's six college wide goals. Additionally, departments must identify a means of assessing each of their objectives, and at the end of the cycle of IE, they must publish the results of their assessment, and propose how the assessment results will be used for the improvement of educational programs, services, and operations. These records are used to develop and revise curriculum offerings and instructional techniques and shape the college for the future. Through the?Institutional Effectiveness Reports?of all academic departments, the college defines its expected results and describes its methods for analyzing those results. Combined, these records constitute the College's?Institutional Effectiveness Summary Report.This year, the Student Services Division, created and installed a copy of the Institutional Effectiveness manual and produced an on-line Institutional Effectiveness Report form on the FDTC Intranet for use in updating IE plans and for review by constituencies college-wide. It is designed to make it easier to create the Report and to produce a more universal reporting format across the campus. As well, it provides a place on line where all departments of the college can make updates to their report as they complete tasks and objectives and IE information throughout the college can be shared thus keeping the process open and inter-relational.The budget planning component of the College's strategic and operational planning is based on the ratified Institutional Effectiveness goals and objectives and is conducted in May and June each year. The budget process consists of open budget hearings with the Institutional Effectiveness Report being used to support departmental budget requests.Florence-Darlington Technical College also utilizes the DACUM (Develop a Curriculum) process to assist in academic program review and enhancement. DACUM reviews are conducted for all academic disciplines according to a predetermined three-year cycle for each curriculum.In addition to the Institutional Effectiveness Reports and the DACUM process, all programs at Florence-Darlington Technical College collect and analyze Program Evaluation data in their annual assessments. This data set contains responses from a survey of graduates of the previous academic year regarding current employment status and participation in higher education at an advanced level. This process is annually coordinated by the SC State Board for Technical and Comprehensive Education and called the Program Evaluation Report.Full and Interim Reports 2005Student Development & Student ServicesFlorence-Darlington Technical College strives to provide comprehensive student academic development programming and services through its systematic academic support functions and its college and Student Services Divisions. Piloted by the College's proficient academic advising process, the College's Academic Advisors along with comprehensive developmental learning, instructors and facilitators, resources of The Wellman Library, Enrollment Services, Assessment Center Services, Career Services, Registrar Services, Financial Aid Services, WIA/Intensive Services, and the TRIO programs, FDTC offers all students academic, career and personal development skills training for life long learning.The?English and Mathematics Departments?offer developmental education courses in the areas of reading, English, and mathematics for those students who have been identified as being in need through the use of assessment tools including Compass, Asset, SAT, ACT or other appropriate evaluation methodologies. The courses provide students with the skills needed to attain their goals in their chosen curricula. FDTC also prepares students to earn a high school equivalency diploma (GED).The English department designs courses to supplement and strengthen the students' skills in English, vocabulary, reading comprehension and works in collaboration with all curriculum programs to train new advisors to assist students and instructors to provide FDTC graduates with competencies needed to be successful. This year the department compiled an updated Advising Manual and provided workshops to all faculty informing them of changes to the previous Advising Guidelines. College skills courses are also offered. They are designed to re-enforce students study skills and test-taking strategies, and subsequently, to enhance students' chances for success as they undertake curricula courses requiring these skills.The English department uses a variety of assessment vehicles and methods to review and examine students' work as well as test the success of the department. Yearly, the department reviews data from all semesters including enrollment characteristics per skill as identified above, class retention, course grades, and student opinion surveys, and compares them to the successes and needs identified in previous years. As well, they compare the success rate of students who have completed developmental studies courses to the success rate of students who were not required to take classes in the department. This use of assessment tools has provided a platform for the department to reflect on and examine internal educational methods and to continually inform the advising process at the College.During the past year the department set goals to try to ensure students have retained English skills to carry them from one level to the next. They demonstrated that 75% of students exiting Eng 100 with a grade of C or better fall semester 2004 and then enrolled in Eng 101 in the spring of 2005 passed Eng 101 with a C or better. The department wishes to continue to address other such challenges in building competencies across the discipline and across FDTC curricula in the future. As part of this effort, the department is in the process of standardizing exams for five of the six developmental English courses. To strengthen the standardization in grading English essays, the department also developed departmental point-penalty lists with basic requirements for all English courses and distributed it to all English department faculty.The Mathematics department also works cooperatively with all curricular programs throughout campus to provide appropriated mathematics instruction in order for students to successfully complete their respective programs and provide courses for transfer programs facilitated on campus. The goal of the department is to provide mathematics instruction within the general core of courses that will enable students to perform computations and utilize critical thinking skills to organize, analyze and solve problems.As one goal for this year in review, the Mathematics department chose to continue to standardize the use of exit exams for mathematics courses and to analyze and compare scores from one year to the next to study if students can meet standards in curriculum across the college and with regard to transfer requirements. The department has determined to revise all departmental course exit exams creating four versions of each. Two will be used each term except when new textbooks are adopted. Also, exit exams will be revised every two years. The exit exams were administered in all math sections and the weighted mean was shown to be increased by 6.4 points over the previous year. Comparing the data in a 5-year moving average of exit exam scores reveals that the class mean is 2.9 points more than the previous 5-year moving average. These analyses help the Mathematics department measure success in meeting their goal of providing mathematics instruction within the general core of courses to enable students to perform computations using critical thinking skills to solve problems. Further, the college has created a Math HUB on student learning to begin this summer 2005. It is a mathematics laboratory designed for students to use technology in the advance of their study of competencies in a selection mathematics courses. To measure the effect of the HUB on student learning, the department has begun pre-and post-testing for Math 031,032, 101 and 102. The pre and post-testing will probably be expanded to all mathematics courses in a methodology of monitoring student learning.Additionally, the department has assumed full responsibility for advising the College's Associate of Arts and all undecided students. They have renewed relationships with all State of South Carolina institutions and updated catalogs on collection and prepared lists of website addresses, and transfer guides for use by advisors throughout the College.The FDTC?Student Services Division?also provides leadership in developing and maintaining a supportive campus atmosphere through its efforts to foster academic success and provide personal growth opportunities, cultural diversity and to eliminate educational barriers. It consists of the TRIO Programs, the Student Life and Internships office, the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Intensive Services office, and the Perkins III Success Center (Success Center.)The?Enrollment Services Administration?at FDTC includes the functions of Admissions, Admissions Counseling, Recruitment, and the Assessment Center. It provides leadership in the development and implementation of strategies and activities to recruit and retain students.These FDTC service areas annually create plans to identify goals for each department and evaluate the accomplishments at the year-end. Admissions worked diligently this year to implement several different strategies to recruit students using technology and additional resources from the current student database to identify and mine student prospects. These strategies are in addition to making calls at high schools, business and industry meetings and career development conferences.To ensure that the FDTC student database was being used efficiently the department developed and implemented a plan in coordination with the Assessment Center to install Asset and Compass placement tests at all of FDTC's satellite campuses to increase to opportunity for prospective students to advance through the admissions process in a timely manner not only on FDTC's main campus but also at our satellite sites. It has been determined that the use of these tests has increased from remote sites therefore improving the opportunities for applicants to complete applications and be advanced in the admissions process remotely.Admissions counselors endeavor to ?tele-recruit' additional pending and non-attending prospective students on file in the FDTC database. Pending, accepted, and enrolled students have been tracked on a weekly basis over several years thus providing an opportunity to track and compare data across the years. Further, the Enrollment Services uses the data to inform counselors of enrollment trends and predictions and to create information portfolios to share with Institutional Marketing for promotion of the College.The College Enrollment Services Administration further focused on recruiting college eligible high school students in the high schools and Vocational Centers of the PEE DEE by organizing program specific Open House and career exploration workshops and investigating opportunities to expand and develop greater Dual Enrollment offerings in FDTC's service area. In collaboration with Darlington School District and the TRIO Grant programs in residence at FDTC, the Enrollment Services Administration executed a Pathways grant to successfully implement the KUDER career assessment tool in all service area high schools. This instrument is designed to assist students to begin career exploration as a junior or senior high student and thus give them an opportunity to maximize educational options for the future.In academic year 2004-2005 student development leadership and the Coordinator of the?Office of Student Life and Internships?re-designed and documented student programming to better accommodate student body needs, improve customer service and more quickly immerse students in the learning environment. The office established procedure manuals for all functions of Student Activities, created a technology center for interactive tutorials and other academic training aids to improve student access. As well, in the Success Center developed a training manual to assist with student in-take to the Perkins grant process, the internship application process, the Single Parent program and the Early Alert Program service functions of the Success Center.The?Student Support Services?department of the division performs vital academic and social services for students and researches, develops and administers grant programs designed to mentor and support qualified students in the College's service area from high school through their college experience. This year the director of Student Services collaborated with FDTC's Office of Grants to identify supplemental grant resources to expand student development services available to the general student population as well as managed the activities of the?Upward Bound, Educational Talent Search, and Student Support Services?grant programs. These grant programs are components of the federally funded TRIO Grant program currently in place at Florence-Darlington Technical College. The Upward Bound and Educational Talent Search TRIO program components provide academic counseling and cultural enrichment opportunities to qualified students in targeted middle and high schools and the Student Support Services (SSS) program offers academic and life skills training to qualified students enrolled the College.The primary goal of the SSS's is to increase the college retention and graduation rates for its participants and facilitate the process of transition from one level of higher education to the next. In the 2004-2005 academic year the department was successful at developing a recruitment plan to give emphasis to enrollment of students from select curriculum of the College. They designed packages of eligibility information enumerating the benefits of the grant program, presented it to targeted groups of students and tracked student application and acceptance in the program. The SSS program also worked in collaboration with the Upward Bound grant program to increase the number of Upward Bound graduates who enroll at FDTC by providing an orientation on what the Student Support Services offers students as they enter the college including tutorial services, academic skills training, career skills training and opportunities to participate in sanctioned cultural and student activities.Upward Bound, also a TRIO grant program, is a pre-college academic and cultural enrichment program designed to motivate students to complete high school and make a successful transition into post-secondary education. In the high schools of the three counties FDTC serves, counselors and administrators strive to enroll participants in post-secondary education programs at rates higher than comparable non-participants.To this end, this year Upward Bound sought to improve the knowledge of the Upward Board seniors and their parents regarding FDTC's Admissions and Financial Aid processes, and the services of the Success Center, Student Support Services and the Assessment Center with regard to the academic future of their respective students. The Upward Bound staff surveyed the seniors to assess their understanding of FDTC's academic and student service offerings and from the results, built a workshop to fill in the gaps in student's knowledge and information and to supplement their parents understanding of higher education at the College. Following attendance at the workshop students were surveyed again and the results showed that student's knowledge of the college and its programs and processes had greatly increased. The Upward Bound staff also met the goal of increasing the percentage of participants who entered post-secondary education over the previous year.The College's?Educational Talent Search (ETS)?grant administrators focused on retention and graduation of its students in high school and post-secondary institutions. It provides academic counseling and cultural enrichment services to qualified middle and high school students and encourages them to remain in school and attend a post-secondary institution following high school graduation. Students are provided skill sets to guide them in making sound choices and those that will contribute to improving their quality of life and the economic progress of the FDTC service area.During the 2004-05 academic year, ETS increased its students career planning skills by administering and the Kuder Career Assessments exam to over 50% of its participants and subsequently conducting career planning workshops providing the opportunity for students to acquire on-going and multi-level skill sets in career development. Further, the grant counselors assisted 91% of their students in identifying appropriate financial aid opportunities for post-secondary education and assisted them in completing such applications.The?Workforce Investment Act (WIA)?One-Stop Center uses the case management method to assist WIA participants in obtaining academic instruction, employment training and retraining that allows for economic self-sufficiency. The program provides personal, academic and career counseling as well as skill training. This year the WIA personnel revised the CCAMPIS (Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools Program) grant initiative on campus and met with appropriate college program departments, grants and fiscal coordinators to continue to administer the grant. As well, One Stop counselors continue to refer workers to the over 75 FDTC curriculum and continuing education programs registered as Eligible Training Programs with the PEE DEE Workforce Investment Area.The Office of Registrar Services seeks to improve the College's registration and records management processes for students, and faculty as well as external customers and provide outstanding services and clear communication. It also strives to improve the process of preparing veterans' certifications and transfer credit evaluations for students as necessary.In this year of review, the department created select teams consisting of five employees not previously trained in the Registrar's Office to use procedures on file to test the viability, efficacy and reliability of approximately 13 functions in the office including the Drop/Add/Withdrawal process, the name and address changes processes, residency and grade change functions, and the review and posting of transfer credits, course credits and graduation requirements to the college system among others. The teams successfully tested the thirteen separate Registrar Services functions with 100% accuracy. Having the processes published as they are will allow college employees with access to the college's system to assist students and faculty with any needs at any time.Further, this academic year, the?Registrar Services Department?verified and updated the Transfer Credit time limitations for 100% of transferable courses in accordance the cycle or review by the State Board for Technical and Comprehensive Education's Procedure Number 3-5-101.1. Department members worked in collaboration with the Academic Affairs Division, and with recommendations from the FDTC Curriculum Instruction Committee to revise and update a list of transferable credit courses to show their time limitations and made this information available to the Academic Advisors, Admissions Counselors, faculty and staff and through the College's Intranet to inform and update the academic advising process at FDTC.A Veterans' Student Procedures Manual was also developed by the department this year. They established a list of "Most Frequently Asked Veteran Questions and Answers" to review with Registrar Services staff members and use to educate all staff on the process involved in serving different types of Veteran students. They reviewed Veteran Student Procedures Manual contents with all Registrar staff members and provided training until 100% of staff members could perform basic Veteran functions and services with 100% accuracy. It was determined that annually, the Registrar will conduct on Student satisfaction survey related to Veteran services to assist in identifying departmental areas for improvement and implement corrective actions to improve on the quality of services to the veteran.The purpose of the?Financial Aid Center?at Florence-Darlington Technical College is to help students achieve their educational potential by providing the appropriate financial resources. Student financial assistance is designed to provide access to students who without this assistance would not be able to attend an institution of higher learning.This year the department has focused on communicating parameters and deadlines for applying for financial aid with current FDTC students to ensure that they know all of their options and to assist the Financial Aid operations areas to re-design their processes for an increase in efficiencies in processing data and, as well, to assist students in making corrections to their files to ensure their awards can be made in a timely manner.Additionally, the Financial Aid Staff is utilizing new marketing strategies including new publications outlets, attendance at meetings in the area high schools and magnet schools, and FDTC representations at community educational and governmental organizations such as the Workforce Investment Act One Stop Center. The department is also preparing mailings to prospective students getting out the word to them and their parents regarding the student's options for financial Aid and their responsibilities to submit and verify data before their course begin for the semester.The Financial Aid Center has also performed audits on their internal data processing methods and adjusted them to increase the office's ability to respond to the students be able to make awards more efficiently and quickly from programs such as the SC Needs Based Grants, and SC Lottery Tuition Assistance Program and others.FDTC's?Datatel Administration?department also strove to improve and increase services to students, faculty and administration this year. The department planned and implemented a number of new WebAdvisor functions including Transcript Request, Graduation Application, Financial Aid Loan Application, Financial Aid Award Accept and Loan Change, Instant Enrollment, and Budget Management for Employees during the year.They also assisted the faculty, advisors and administrators with extracting supporting data for the inception of and FDTC Math HUB and new Advising Center during the current academic year. They were instrumental in preparing and analyzing data on student mathematics competencies and creating appropriate reports to guide instructors and advisors in structuring guidelines to increase the College's enrollment and retention through programming in the Math HUB and the Academic Advising Center. Both of these new institutes opened on campus in the summer of 2005.Majors and Concentrations 2005Engineering TechnologiesEngineering TechnologiesThe FDTC associate degree engineering technology programs include Civil Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Engineering Graphics, and Electro-Mechanical Engineering. A certificate program is also offered in Industrial Electricity/Electronics. All of the College's engineering programs eligible for accreditation are accredited and the combined engineering program enrollment represents 5% of the student enrollment. All of the programs use classroom and laboratory experiences to prepare graduates to work as engineering technicians in related engineering positions in various industries and production facilities in South Carolina's Pee Dee region and beyond.In support of engineering technology studies, the South Carolina Advanced Technological Education Center of Excellence (SC ATE) and the National Resource Center for Engineering Technology Education assist students at FDTC. With its state-wide center of operations at the College, the SC ATE Center provides numerous academic and career development initiatives to students here at FDTC. It has assisted the Engineering Technology Department in implementing a pre-engineering Technology Gateway Curriculum, enhancing the Engineering Technology Core curriculum and integrating problem- based courses of study taught concurrently in the context of solving multiple workplace-related problems.The Civil Engineering Technology Department is committed to broadening the students' technical classroom and laboratory experience to provide individuals technical skills needed in the building and manufacturing related industries of the PEEDEE. The program integrates technology, teamwork and collaborative learning into instruction in accordance with the FDTC Mission statement. Its aim is to prepare students to be employed as an engineering technician supporting surveying, manufacturing, construction, design, environmental services or materials testing operations.During the 2004-2005 academic year the Civil Engineering department examined departmental programming aspects as they relate to recruiting strategies and retention methodologies. Enrollment data of the previous several years indicates that the department has consistently met recruitment goals. Department instructors have worked in collaboration with the Colleges' admissions counselor specifically trained to focus on assisting the engineering related curriculum and FDTC's Business and Industry Liaison, to create program parameters and, which various resultant strategies, to recruit achievement minded students with career goals in the engineering technologies.Collaborative teaching methods, in the Civil Engineering Program, as well career guidance, are utilized to assist the students to better understand the technology in an applied manner and to see the relationships between the disciplines in which they are working. Also, it has been observed that the students, working as a team, motivate each other to greater academic success and technological acumen. These program strategies also positively impact the department's retention rate by assisting students with program planning and the completion of internship experiences as well as comprehensive graduation requirements.To continue to improve recruitment and retention, department instructors are implementing more technological demonstrations with prospective students and are developing strategies for meeting and exchanging program objectives with high school science and mathematics instructors and counselors to encourage students to investigate the program and be prepared for its requirements. They are also developing an Introduction to Engineering Technology course to be used across the College's engineering curriculums to assist students in understanding and meeting universal engineering technology concepts and academic requirements.The Institutional Effectiveness plans for the Electro-Mechanical Engineering Technology Department (EMET) also focused on developing broader and systematic recruitment and retention policies. The department did maintain a 100% rate of enrollment in relation to the previous year and 100% of the students continued in the 2nd year coursework from the fall to the spring semesters of the year in review.The department continues to use teaching teams and student teams to facilitate improved learning and concept retention. This choice of learning methodology conveys the EMET concepts and technology to students while integrating comprehensive science theory, interpersonal skills, teamwork and reporting functions of the course work.The EMET department is working in concurrence with the other engineering technologies departments at the college to attract and retain new students. Using a number of marketing avenues, this year, the department conducted an open house for high school students and for people already in industry, to demonstrate to candidates the relevance of an engineering technology job in today's workplace and the benefits of employment in the field. They will use the information collected from the forum to try and create a pipeline of students for the engineering technology degree programs and appeal to different facets of the markets and support elements of prospective students.To further improve program enrollment and retention the Department instructors and leadership have begun implementation of new opportunities for student-instructor interaction and enrichment. A trial mentoring program has been established and instructors have developed criteria to study its impact on students and foster an instructional approach that supports the success for a diverse population of students and the graduation of more highly skilled technicians. Additionally, the program is exploring the creation of a technology seminar which would be required of all matriculated AA/AS students to expose students to concepts and opportunities they may not have previously encountered. Recently, the department held an open house that highlighted engineering technologies for prospective students. Those who attended were surveyed regarding their satisfaction with the program and will be contacted and tracked to encourage future enrollment.The purpose of FDTC's Engineering Graphics Technology Associate Degree program is to train students for work as engineering technicians, drafting technicians, and CAD operators. Graduates of this program are qualified to work in a variety of industries to develop products and support construction. Program recruitment and retention methods were examined in this department during this year.Instructors conducted a nationally normed student survey on instruction, instructor teaching methods and on course content and requirements to gauge student opinion of the program. The data provided shows that students responded favorably to the instructor performance in classroom and the students were satisfied with their instructor's availability outside the classroom as well. Department instructors will continue to use this type of data to analyze the department's operations and prepare strategies to improve the student's learning experience and subsequently student retention.Department leadership continues to identify recruitment tools to attract young and non-traditional students. Exploration sessions for middle and high school students are in development and efforts to attract students from the industrial sector continue as well. The department continues to develop marketing vehicles including video, radio and mailing pieces to enhance an ongoing program of recruitment.The Electronics Engineering Technology Department prepares students to work in the field of industrial electronics, and especially, in the development and maintenance of industrial equipment for production and automation. The departments' goals for this year being examined included, among other objectives, increasing enrollment and retention to the program.During this year of review, department faculty worked in partnership with career and academic counselors to prepare presentations on industry changes and opportunities on electronics in computer networking for use with student audiences in academic counseling, career exhibitions and trade fairs. The department experienced an enrollment increase of more than two times the projected number of new students for the academic year. The department also exceeded its retention goal of maintaining more than 80% of its fall semester enrollment.Further, the department examined students' opinions of on-going instruction to round out an examination of their activities for the year. They used a nationally normed survey to query all students regarding instructor preparation, course delivery, fairness in evaluation, and consistency in interacting with students. The ratings were returned at no less than the national or college average of satisfaction. To continue to advance the students' academic and career building opportunities, the department, this year intends to create more applied technology projects and place more students as internships in local industries.Additional Majors & Concentrations on the FDTC Reporting CycleThe Health Information Management Department presents students with the opportunity to earn an associate degree in Health Information Management (HIM) or a certificate in Medical Coding. Program graduates are qualified to work in the health care operational fields of Diagnostic /Procedural Coding and Classification, Quality Improvement, Utilization Review, Cancer Registrars, Medical Staff Support, Medical Record Supervision and other similar disciplines at hospitals, health centers, medical research institutions, pharmaceutical companies and other health care facilities and insurance companies.This year, the HIM department has undertaken a review of select academic elements of its programs including the HIM Medical Coding Certificate and the Medical Transcription Certificate, which is a new addition to the department's schedule of programs. The department has examined the need to include upper level biology courses where they were not previously included, or revise programs to reflect alternate biological sciences requirements. Department faculty members are working in juxtaposition with student and employer constituencies to determine the appropriateness of such changes and how such changes will benefit graduate employment opportunities and the health care environment of the region. HIM advisors are also making contact with students and closely following up with those students pending enrollments for the Fall 2005 who may need additional guidance with the admissions and advising process.In addition, the department evaluated their course content against the requirements of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), their accrediting agency, and completed preparation for its annual report to the association. Faculty also report that a pass rate of 90% was achieved by program graduates on the Registered Health Information Tech (RHIT) licensure exam this year.The Criminal Justice associate degree program of the Human and Public Services Department prepares students for employment in law enforcement, correctional agencies, the courts, and juvenile services.During this year of review, the Criminal Justice program provided additional technology enhanced course delivery to the program. New assignments using technology were incorporated into case study assignments, practice exams, and assignments outside the classroom to provide additional necessary experiential and didactic elements to the program course work. Some instructors used multimedia or other audio-visual instruction support technology to illustrate client dysfunction, crime scene investigation, analysis of behavior modes, and transforming behavioral methods for children and adults, as well as other conceptual and potential interactive lessons in the curriculum.To further augment the program and its technology aspects, and to encourage non-traditional enrollment to the department, departmental instructors have developed an on-line certificate component, which is designed to be used in markets across the country and will be tested in academic institutions in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia in the fall of 2005. It is a 15 credit hour, one semester program with course work that is directly transferable into a criminal justice degree program.Additionally, the faculty members and the program Advisory Board have scheduled a criminal justice curriculum DACUM for mid-summer 2005 to review current relevance of the competencies imbedded in the CRJ degree program and internship and to recommend any changes deemed necessary to improve the program and enhance students' knowledge and viability in the workplace. Recommendations resulting from the DACUM conference, with suggestions on implementation will be made the CRJ Advisory Board at their October 2005 meeting.Diploma ProgramsThe Industrial Electricity/Electronics Department offers students a diploma program focusing on teaching technical skills associated with electricity and electronics. The program endeavors to match the knowledge and skill preparation being offered by the college to the needs of the local-area industrial and manufacturing firms.For this year of review, department faculty examined student satisfaction survey data to ascertain unrecognized program strengths and use the information in strengthening its recruitment and retention efforts. The student satisfaction survey data reveals that the department provides students with exceptional commitment to student learning, course preparation and administration, and instructor-student interaction.Current approaches to improving program recruitment are collaborative with other college resources. Instructors include FDTC Admissions Counselors in visits to area high schools targeting students interested in the program and collaborate with college Marketing staff to create new descriptive materials in the print and audio visual media to increase awareness of the program's instructional components, future employment opportunities and prospective salary benefits. After examining the efficacy of these techniques, the department has decided to add an additional facet and to contact students and parents of students who attend informational sessions and emphasize the personal and economic advantages to completing college with an engineering technologies award. Instructors hope that this information will boost both enrollment and retention rates.As advisors, faculty plan to stress that a student's success will be eminent if they build the curriculum-defined skills in concurrence with the faculty guided course work and the course sequence designed into the program. Retention data collection shows that student retention from fall semester of 2004 to spring semester 2005 was 100%. For the future, the faculty also plan to place more emphasis on guiding students to on-time graduation and ultimately to a 100% graduation rate.Alumni Surveys for Satisfaction and Placement DataTo date, August 1, 2005, Florence-Darlington Technical College has received and completed Alumni Surveys and Placement Data responses from a number of the 2001-2002 graduates. The college will forward a report on all appropriate alumni survey responses as soon as it receives the suitable number/percentage of completed responses from the population being appraised. ................
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