Avoiding Crashes on the Information Super Highway

1. Basic Technology Skills Assessment By Matt Butcher & Andra Goldberg Mohave Community College Avoiding Crashes on the Information Super Highway

2. Mohave Community College has 5 campus sites in the 5th largest county in the United States.

3. High tutoring demand for CIS classes – 2nd only to Math Requests from adjunct faculty for better placement or prerequisite courses in some classes CIS classes required across curriculum Advisors notice student frustration with Angel, My Math Lab, My Skills Tutor, and online registration system The Situation

4. CIS Faculty recommended a Technology Assessment during program review of 2009 How to implement? Dean of Students approved pilot of Angel delivered assessment in Spring 2011 Bumps in the road – who manages it, who delivers it, and how is the data interpreted? A Solution?

5. Prezi

6. Development of basic skills evaluation tool • Implementation – cooperation of Student Services and technology staff • Cost constraints – faculty developed their own exam question pool • Angel course developed to house assessment and track student progress Technology Assessment

7. Procedures developed with Student Services – 20 questions from a pool of 50 – need 85% to enroll in courses higher than CIS 110 Introduction to CIS • Advising guidelines only – college policy to be developed based on results of pilot • Access and tracking of assessment scores Pilot of Assessment

8. Student success in classes where introductory level technology classes were completed before taking online courses • Tutoring resources – changes in student requests for tutoring in technology and online courses Evaluation of new procedure

9. Distribution

10. Average Score 85% • Sampled 40/650 – those that scored at or below 65 • 16.25% of this sample scored below 65/100 points – within the 85% success rate parameters • Most students did not sign up for any classes – 40% - students waiting for Spring 2012 classes • Of those that did – • 35% needed developmental courses • 10% enrolled in CIS 105 • 23% enrolled in courses higher than CIS 105 • 5% enrolled in onlineclasses Findings

11. Need to wait to see if students that scored low are still successful in online or higher level CIS classes Is reading a factor? – students that scored low also appear to be scoring low in reading/writing/math Conclusions

12. What is preventing students from enrolling in classes? • July and August tested students – are they waiting for January or Financial Aid issues? • Are they discouraged with low Reading, Math, and Tech scores? • Waiting for more data – need completion rates of these students for this semester Conclusions - continued

13. Prerequisite courses versus assessment tools • Advising and testing services constraints – staff, training, logistics – students taking 3 and 4 tests before starting classes • Budget issues regarding assessment demands – very low with Angel – but difficult to access data in a useable format Discussion with the group