Academic Delivery Group Meeting
October 6, 2011
1:00 p.m.
Personnel Conference Room
Members Present: Jackie Blakley, Eugene Grant, Scott Harvey, Lynn Lewis, Donna Shannon, Sarah Shumpert, Brian Swords
Members Absent: Tim Bowen, Gwen Owens
Others Present: Galen DeHay
Length of Meeting: 2 hours
Topics Discussed:
Dr. Buckhiester welcomed Galen DeHay, who attended as Gwen’s designee.
The minutes of the September 27 meeting were approved with a minor change.
Scott discussed the drop/add pilot and noted the following:
- The policy was more strictly enforced this time.
- Some students were added to a class when it was not college error.
- Jumpstart was excluded from this procedure.
- The calendar will be revised to note that the add period ends at 8:00 p.m. on the last add day.
- We did not account for Military Science classes at Clemson. Clemson started later than Tri-County which created some issues. After discussion, the group agreed that if Clemson starts later than we do, we will allow our students to add Clemson’s classes (Military Science, band, music) after our add deadline.
- Cooperative work experience and internship classes may start later than the end of the add period, and we will allow these student to add these classes after that date.
- We need to consider the impact of cancelled classes and what we can do for those students. Cancellations can impact financial aid.
- The Business Office used an old purge e-mail, which encouraged students to re-register for classes, which may have caused some confusion. The Business Office is aware of this and will no longer use that e-mail.
- Students who want to register for class, but missed the add deadline because of military service will be considered on a case by case basis. We need to be careful that we are not setting up the student to fail. The group agreed that the dean, department head, and instructor must all agree with a decision to allow the student to register for class. Scott needs additional documents (military orders, etc.) on file, and will revise the Curriculum Student Registration Form to include the dean’s signature.
- If a student was purged because he/she added a class, Scott returned the student to all the classes except the new class.
- If a student was administratively dropped for non-attendance, but was really in the class, Scott needs a justification/explanation of what happened before he will consider adding the student back to the class.
- The Business Office payment plan flyer will be re-worded to avoid confusion about the date to “enroll” in the payment plan.
- A list of the upper/lower level math, English and sciences classes, in which movement from one to the other is allowed, will be made available.
All in all, Scott considered the drop/add pilot to be successful. Many of these issues happen every year, and would have come up regardless of the date.
Scott addressed the issue of students sitting in class. On occasion, a student who has never registered, never paid, and is not on the official class roll, is allowed to remain in class. At times, if the student has participated and has grades, the instructor will request that the student be added to the class. This practice needs to stop. The deans stated that they want to know when this happens. Scott will update the form to include a dean’s signature, and will require justification before he places the student in a class. He reminded the group that financial aid is a big issue as we drop and add students. Scott will continue to follow this, and will report on this issue again after spring semester.
The group revised the ADG meeting pattern again. Academic Delivery Group will now meet on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month, beginning at 2:00, in RH 102. This revised meeting pattern will begin on Tuesday, October 25.
Sarah updated the group on Blackboard. A workgroup (Sarah, Jackie, Scott and Mary Heyer) met to try to determine which Blackboard reports would provide Mary with the information she needs to conduct a financial aid student audit. Two documents, the Grade History Report and the Discussion Board posting, show the dates and times a student is involved in the class, and will meet the requirements for a financial aid audit. Sarah distributed instructions on how to access these reports through Grade Center and Performance Dashboard. Mary will request the reports from the instructor, but will also be given limited access to Blackboard, in case she needs to run reports herself. All the members of the workgroup were pleased with this solution. The group agreed that faculty need to be made aware of this process. Sarah will send the instructional handout to the deans and they will distribute to faculty.
The workgroup also addressed the need for a common assignment to verify online attendance. The group agreed that an ice-breaker/introductions discussion board posting would provide this attendance information. The deans will meet to create the standard assignment. It was suggested that this assignment be in the same place in all online classes.
Scott discussed the Fall 2012 academic calendar. A few of the dates have not been decided yet and have the TBA notation. The Calendar Committee will address these dates at the next meeting. Scott noted that, at the top of the page, the session dates in parentheses have been expanded to include the exam dates.
Galen asked about faculty involvement in section changes. Section changes can be made on days four and five, but the change must take place in Student Records.
The Spring and Summer 2013 calendars and the Policy and Procedure Review agenda items will be moved to the next meeting.
Under Announcements, Lynn was pleased to report that Medical Assisting received a 10 year accreditation renewal, with the next site team visit scheduled for 2014.
Jackie mentioned the Anderson Campus wine tasting event to support the new Culinary Arts program.
Sarah reported that the vice president at Blackboard has admitted that the problems with the new version are Blackboard’s fault. We are not the only college experiencing problems, and the resolution of these issues is a top priority for Blackboard. Blackboard is supplying another patch, and everyone is cautiously hopeful.
Eugene announced that Robert Bosch, LLC will provide $35,000 to fund an additional robotics team. He also reported that representatives from USC were on campus to provide information about USC’s engineering bridge program. About 40 Arts & Sciences students attended the meeting.
Scott reported that Acalog has been approved, but a snag has created a skewed timeline. The implementation will be finished on December 9. We will not start building the catalog until after drop/add in the spring. With this late start, we will have six weeks to prepare the catalog. Scott noted that while it is a relatively simple process, people need to attend training.
Donna reported that Faculty Senate met on September 28, with the next meeting on October 19. Penny Edwards is this year’s vice president and Mandy Orzechowski is the secretary. We will use electronic voting via Survey Monkey to elect the adjunct representatives. Faculty Senate is working on the attendance policy, and the group continues to move forward.
Recorded by: Anne Bryan
Next Meeting: Tuesday, October 25, at 1:00 p.m., in the Personnel Conf. Room, RH 102
