Curriculum Institute and Student Learning Outcomes Institute

March
2007
Curriculum Committee

The Curriculum Institute will be held July 12-14, 2007, at Loews Coronado Bay Resort in San Diego. Registration for the event is already open, and rooms at the institute hotel are filling quickly. The theme of this year's Curriculum Institute is "Curriculum Toolkit: Building Better Instruction" and reflects the strong emphasis in this year's program on hands-on experience with working with the curricular challenges that confront curriculum committee chairs, curriculum committee staff, CIOs, and faculty in general.

Participants will be able to get their hands dirty in mock curriculum committee meetings.

There will be one mock session for the new curriculum committee participant that covers a lot of the basic issues; the advanced session will challenge experienced curriculum committee participants with issues such as compressed calendars, language of instruction, and effective student-teacher contact.

Those interested in Curriculum Management Systems will have a chance to try them out in the @ONE mobile computer lab under the direction of representatives from Curricunet and WebCMS. There will also be a Curricunet users forum where colleges already using Curricunet can network.

Several of the key sessions of the Institute will focus on Title 5 Regulation changes in the area of curriculum as well as the major changes to come in the next edition of the Program and Course Approval Handbook. Stephanie Low, System Office Academic Planning Specialist and one of our general session speakers, will be on hand throughout the conference to answer questions and learn about your concerns. Members of the System Advisory Committee on Curriculum will provide trainings on tutoring and supplemental instruction, funding of noncredit, and standalone course approval. Other sessions will deal with distance education, accessibility, articulation, prerequisites, and the Basic Skills Initiative.

The Curriculum Institute will be preceded by a oneday Student Learning Outcomes Institute, which focuses on the needs of SLO coordinators. The SLO Institute will begin early on July 11, 2007, and run all day. There will be two tracks, one for new coordinators and one for the experienced. Newbies will learn assessment basics, deal with program outcomes, and begin work with core competencies and institutional outcomes.

The experienced will wrestle with the topics of documenting evidence, developing useful dialog for the creation of SLOs, and advanced work with core competencies and institutional outcomes.

Some of the information from the SLO Institute will also be shared in a much-abbreviated session at the Curriculum Institute.

Information and registration forms are available on the Academic Senate website at http://www.asccc.org.