1. Articulation Agreements made easy with SAM!

2. What are articulation agreements? • Articulation agreements provide a non-duplicative course of study that aligns both high school and college course work.  • Articulation agreements are made between high school and college faculty to ensure a seamless academic transition from high school to college. 

3. Why? • Agreements give students the opportunity to earn college credit by completing a sequence of high school courses. • Articulated credit is free of cost and is awarded when a student matriculates to post secondary education institution.

4. What are the advantages to the colleges and universities? • Through an articulation agreement, students typically save thousands of dollars on their first two years of tuition increasing the chances of graduating. • As HS students accumulate college credits, their incentive to attend the post-secondary institution increases.

5. HS students that earn credits for the lower level classes usually go on to take more upper level classes in the technology area. • HS students that have proved their proficiency on the SAM exams for the entry level class perform better in the higher level classes once they get to college.

6. Since credits earned by articulation agreements often “jump-start” a student’s college experience, the students are able to graduate earlier.

7. Why use SAM? • SAM is frequently used by both high school and college students. • The basic skills needed to prove competency in specific software (i.e. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access) are easily assessed. • SAM reports provide excellent documentation.

8. Development of Assessment Tool(or Where do we start?) • The college professor meets with the high school teacher and outlines the required skills the students must possess in order to be deemed proficient in a specific college course.

9. The objectives and standards of each high school course (program) is reviewed to determine the appropriate alignment with the college courses.

10. The specific skills that will be tested are chosen from the SAM database and a list is provided to the high school teacher.

11. Using the skills provided by the college professor the high school teacher develops the assessment instrument in SAM. • PCC Exam for OST 1711 - Word I

12. During the school year, the high school students are taught each of the skills in small units utilizing the exams that correlate with the text.

13. Once the students have completed the training and the high school teacher feels each has the ability to complete the assessment, he/she is added to the Section designed just for this assessment.

14. Maintaining a separate Section enables the high school teacher complete control of when the exam is available, how many times the exam may be taken, and which student(s) are permitted to take the exam. • It also provides one report with all students’ names that have taken the exam.

15. SAM 07 • SAM Projects in SAM 07 is another way that the software can be used to assess a student’s proficiency in specific software related skills.

16. In each of the SAM Projects, specific skills are detailed.

17. Illustrated Word Unit A: Independent Challenge 1

18. There are also 6 Capstone projects that are designed to be used at the end of the unit.

19. According to the website, • Capstone “Projects will determine, on an • application level, if a student truly • understands how to work with Word, Excel • and PowerPoint through an introductory • Office level class.

20. The list of skills covered for each Capstone project will help the college professor determine whether

21. Word Capstone Project SKILLS Apply a paragraph border Apply a paragraph style Bold text Center a paragraph Change font size Change paragraph line spacing Change the font Check grammar Check spelling Convert a hyperlink to regular text Create a bulleted list Create a document header Create a table Find and replace text Format a table with a Table Style Insert clip art Insert page numbers Insert text Italicize text Move text Resize a graphic Select text Use Save As

22. What happens next? • At the end of each school year, the high school teachers provide a list of the students that have passed each of the SAM exams or projects linked to articulation agreements. • This list is input into the college database.

23. Once the student matriculates to the college, the academic counselor has access to all previously awarded credits whether it is from articulated credits or dual enrollment.

24. Agreements in Place • Introduction to Computers CGS 1061 • Word I OST 1711 • Word II OST 17?? • Computer Applications CGS 1100