Dr' J'D' Chase and Dr' Melissa Chase

1
Choices and Challenges

• Forming Articulation Between Two and Four-Year
  Institutions
• Code 349

2
Challenges

• More students are starting their academic career
  in community college
• Many students do not start out planning to
  transfer
• Many community college degree programs are not
  intended for transfer

3
Challenges

• Students attending community college
• May be lower income status
• Families may lack income to support student
• Tuition and fees are more affordable
• More are first-generation
• May need to work while attending school
• Need flexibility in class schedules
• May need distance education programs
• Need or want to be closer to home, especially
  since 9/11

4
Challenges

• Course transferability
• 22 is encouraged by articulation
• Yet more students are taking additional courses
  and then see if they transfer--lack of planning
• Not all articulation agreements fulfill general
  education requirements

5
Choices Articulation at Radford University

• Began work on transfer in IT in 1994
• Originally planned to transfer A.A.S. in IST into
  Adult Degree Program
• Eventually began work on transferring into
  computer science
• Limited success at best

6
Choices Articulation at Radford University

• Multiple factors converged in 2001 to accelerate
  the process
• Radford University formed the College of
  Information Science and Technology
• Radford University and five regional community
  colleges formed the Regional Technology Education
  Consortium (an NSF ATE project)
• ACM released Curriculum 2001
• Presidents Covington and Lewis demanded success!

7
The College of Information Science and Technology

• Formed in 2001 by merging existing IT programs
• Built like a traditional engineering college with
  a common core
• Built upon ACM Curriculum 2001 guidelines
• Strong focus on outreach and recruitment

8
The Regional Technology Education Consortium

• NSF ATE project began in 2001
• Joined Radford University and five regional
  community colleges
• New River Community College
• Patrick Henry Community College
• Virginia Western Community College
• Wytheville Community College
• Piedmont Virginia Community College
• Originally proposed as 11 community colleges,
  reduced to 4, Piedmont asked to join

9
The Regional Technology Education Consortium

• The goals of the project included
• Provide a clear path for AAS students to obtain a
  four-year degree in Information Technology
• Develop CS/IT curriculum to meet industry needs
• Manage/develop existing agreements
• Develop institutionalized procedures to guarantee
  continued congruence between community college
  and four-year institutions
• Encourage 2-year degree completion

10
The Regional Technology Education Consortium

• Project divided into four strands
• Information Technology Curriculum Development
• Career Experiential Learning Opportunities
• Distance Learning Hybrid Technology Model (for
  instruction and training)
• Expand Articulation Agreements for Information
  Technology

11
ACM Computing Curricula 2001

• New standards divided courses into knowledge
  units
• Knowledge units could be dispersed across courses
  in different combinations
• Changed the granularity of the discussion from
  the course to the knowledge unit

12
Administrative Demand

• Increasing frustration over six years of failure
• President Douglas Covington of Radford University
  and President Jack Lewis of New River Community
  College became personally involved
• Eliminated many of the remaining bureaucratic
  hurdles

13
Articulation

• 1st agreement with New River Community College
  completed in 2001
• Several courses transferred directly (i.e. course
  for course)
• Other courses transferred through Body of
  Knowledge
• Individual knowledge units decomposed for each
  course (theirs and ours)
• Look for places in our curriculum where those
  knowledge units cover most, if not all, of the
  knowledge units for our courses
• Look for places where those knowledge units
  fulfill a requirement if not a course

14
Articulation

• Good News!
• Within the Virginia Community College System
  (VCCS), all of the schools work from a common
  course book
• Each course/knowledge unit examined for the New
  River Community College agreement should work for
  other schools as well
• Using this approach, students articulating from
  New River now count all but three credits of
  their community college coursework toward the
  Radford IT degree

15
Articulation

• Bad News!
• Only 80 of each course is required to be common
  by the VCCS
• Thus instructors have complete autonomy even
  within the same school for 20 of the content
• Each school has autonomy over which courses they
  choose to require for their degree programs
• By their very nature, these degree programs
  change rapidly
• Each program requires a unique agreement
• Agreements have to updated often

16
Articulation

• Current Status--College Information Science and
  Technology
• 17 agreements in place with 13 different VCCS
  schools
• Agreements include A.A.S., A.S., and A.A.S.
  degrees
• Agreements generally include transfer of all but
  three credits of the community college work
• Transfer students now make up almost half of the
  incoming IT students at Radford University

17
Articulation

• Current Status--College of Arts and Sciences
• Three agreements in place with two different VCCS
  schools for A.A.S. degrees
• All three agreements are with the Department of
  Media Studies (Web Design concentration)
• Has increased transferability of courses from one
  VCCS program that had little coursework transfer
  previously

18
Ongoing Challenges

• Effective communication between community
  colleges and four-year institutions
• Students must self-identify
• Requires manual manipulation of degree audit
  information
• Advisors not always familiar with articulation
  agreements and need ongoing training

19
Ongoing Challenges

• Students may not understand articulation
  agreements or type of degree completed
• Students may assume they do not need additional
  lower level coursework
• Can be challenging for graduation degree auditors
  to track graduation requirements
• If students switch to another major, agreement
  becomes null and void

20
Ongoing Challenges

• Process is lengthy from development to final
  approval
• Should we honor agreements even if not signed?
  This can impact recruitment.
• Sometimes challenging to help institutional
  administration see benefits of articulation

21
Ongoing Challenges

• More students are coming to four-year
  institutions with dual enrollment credit
• Increased number of freshmen entering with
  Associates Degrees
• Not all programs allow students to automatically
  complete degrees in two years at four-year
  institutions--prescribed curriculums
• If students are even one hour short of
  Associates Degree, may lose large amount of
  transfer credit

22
Conclusions

• More students are transferring from community
  colleges
• Articulation increases transferability of courses
  and provides smoother transition
• Requires collaboration amongst many
  constituencies
• However, the process can be lengthy
• Effective communication is challenging
• Assisting students (and their advisors) with
  transfer-related issues can be multifaceted

23
References

• McPhee, S. (2006). En route to the Baccalaureate
  Community college student outcomes. Retrieved
  October 3, 2006, from the American Association of
  Community Colleges Web site http//www.aac.nche.
  edu
• State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.
  The condition of transfer in the Commonwealth.
  SCHEV Research Report. (ERIC Documentation
  Reproduction Service No. ED 481950)