EDLD 8434: The Community College

Spring Semester 2016-2017

ABSTRACT CRITIQUE

Topic: Transferring Community College Students

Source Title:
Author(s)/Editor(s): Harold O. Levy
Chapter/Article Title: Four-year colleges should admit more community
college students
Journal/Book/Publication Title: Community College Daily
Publisher: American Association of Community Colleges
Volume/Issue: Vol. 87 Issue 2
Date: November 3, 2016
Page(s): 6-7
Website: http://www.ccdaily.com/Pages/Academic-Programs/4-year-college-
sould-admit-more-community-college-students.aspx

Material Presented:

The article presented material on the fact that four-year institutions should admit
more community college students, particularly the top college and universities. Levy
presented the idea that most college students do not have the opportunities to continue on
to the four-year institution, especially the top or Ivey league colleges, even thought that
was their disclosed intent. Princeton University stopped admitted transfer students in
1900s and this year Princeton stated they plans to open a small transfer admission
program in 2018. Most student that attend a community college come from a lower
income family but that does not mean they are not capable. Levy proceeds to explain one
of the ways we need to help admit more of these students is to offer additional financial
assistant to them. As stated in the article these students primarily come from low-income
families, so making four-year institutions more affordable would help increase their
ability to attend. Pell covered 80 percent of low-income college students attendance in
the 1970s but now it only pays 30 percent of public college and 17 percent at a private
school, due to inflation and rising college tuition. In my opinion, I agree with Levy. I
work at Reinhart Universitys, a Private Christian University, with the adult population
and within the Professional Studies office. We bring in more transfer credit than most of
our online program competitors. If a transfer student were to attend out main campus, the
story would be very different. Our main campus program accepts a lot less transfer credit.
Therefore, in my opinion, we not only need to help financially but we need to provide
them with the ability to transfer credit from the community colleges. Students that cannot
bring their credit with them is not going to attend. It would not be worth the time or the
money to start a degree over from scratch. Therefore, to admit more community college
students we need to help students financially and then the colleges have to be open to
accepting credits and the capable students.
 ABSTRACT CRITIQUE

Topic: Sustaining programs when grant funding ends.

Source Title:
Author(s)/Editor(s): Heather Boerner
Chapter/Article Title: Not Fade Away
Journal/Book/Publication Title: Community College Journal
Publisher: American Association of Community Colleges
Volume/Issue: Vol. 87 Issue 3
Date: December 2016
Page(s): 14-18
Website: http://www.ccjournal-digital.com/ccjournal/20161201?pg=16#pg16

Material Presented:
The article presented material on the lure of grants, grant selection, and the
importance of preserving grant funded programs after the funding is depleted. The lure of
the grant funded program is the money. Today college are looking at limited funds and
the lure/benefit to the community colleges is the additional funds they provide but how
do you sustain them? The writer also proclaims that we as educators can agree that first
generation students, low-income students, students that have not received adequate
preparation at the high school level might need the college to spend more money on them
compared to other students. So grants are a way to make up the difference and can be
helpful to special populations of students. When deciding to select a grant, selecting one
that does not require hiring new staff and faculty should be key and avoid taking grants
that you dont plan to sustain. From my understanding most grant funded programs that
are selected correctly, typically do get renewed, as long as the grant is working. So, the
article speaks to this in the effect that it states three steps to sustainability; united front,
proving ground for innovation, and sharing success district wide. Keeping the grant
within the main mission of college is one way to prove you are helping accomplishing the
main mission of the college and not just supporting the need of the grant itself. A united
front means that people need to know that the support of this grant is coming from the top
down. I was in a grant funded positon and redesigned some of the faculty processes. It
help to have the president show the support of the redesign in order to get the college on
board with the changes. Also, insure to tell the public and the community the college
supports the grant, it is about the perceived need. Proving ground for innovation is
describing the ability to measure the success of the grant and the hard work that is being
done. Prove success and then shape it in a way that community and the college can see as
useful. The example in the article was the percent of students that were employed after
graduation. Sharing the success is just as important as the success, when attempting to
insure sustainability. Informing the administration and community with the success
stories insure they truly understand that it would be foolish to not continue the program.
The end of the article describes how you need to be thinking about the outcomes from the
grant and what sustainable actions are available to pursue. I think grants can be very use
to a college but I have also seen where staff have abused the funding and did not follow
these steps to insure sustainability. It is sad because the great positivity that could have
come from it is lost and so are the additional employees who were hired.
 ABSTRACT CRITIQUE

Topic: Open Education Resources

Source Title:
Author(s)/Editor(s): Ellie Ashford
Chapter/Article Title: More colleges are using free educational resources
Journal/Book/Publication Title: Community College Daily
Publisher: American Association of Community Colleges
Volume/Issue:
Date: January 26, 2017
Page(s):
Website: http://www.ccdaily.com/Pages/Academic-Programs/More-colleges-
adopt-OER-degrees.aspx

Material Presented:

The article presented information on OER open educational resources, which

are free or low-cost teaching and learning material. The article presents the fact that
students are more likely to finish their degree and faster when participating in OER
course and programs. Some community colleges have moved to programs of study that
are completely OER. The goal of OER is to use free and low-cost (less than $40 per
course) learning material. The article states that schools are saving in the million on
materials. The argument for increasing OER available courses, other than the overall
saving for the college and the students, is that most students do not have their books on
the first day of class. OER allows for an equal footing. The trend for OER course is that
there is not a lot of data available to analysis but some colleges are giving faculty
stipends to help create and adapt OER material. Also, OER is believed to bring more
passion to faculty presenting the material and it is contributing to student completion and
retention. The general consciences are that students like OER course and will attempt to
register for another OER class once they have completed one. Also, OER can be videos
and other material and the faculty believe they are meeting the students at their preferred
learning style. I would agree with this, I have seen in my masters program lots of faculty
use multiple types of learning material and I enjoy the videos, current articles, and other
alternative learn material, just as much, if not more than the text books that are required
for the course. So, I can agree that my experience would lead me to be believe that
students would enjoy the OER courses better. The negative is the time and effort it takes
for faculty to design and implement these materials. College libraries can be very helpful
in assisting faculty in the process and again small stipends are presented to faculty that
participate. For me the reward as a faculty member from participating in the OER courses
would be the increase in grades, participation and completion. So, I feel that if faculty
saw those results it would be easier to spend more time on collecting the materials. Some
states are supporting this new change in learning materials, which leads me to believe we
will see more of this in the current years within higher education.