Did you know that if an online student is not attending your class and you no longer feel they will return and don’t want the student to appear in your D2L grades area you can delete them? You need to go to the Portal (intranet); log on to e-services; class management; find the course for reporting LDA and note the date the student last appeared to be submitting assignments or completing tests.  The financial aid folks happen to like this because they can proceed with collecting funds allocated for that student. Most of us tend not to do this until we submit grades.

Please pay attention to the end of year checklist which applies to all unlimited faculty. It is on the portal under academic affairs, needs to be completed, signed and delivered to your dean by the last day of classes. Note there is an area for classroom software updates and needs- you will need to report what is needed on the checklist as well as talk to Todd Jagerson about it. You will need to complete your Program Review/Annual Report and your Professional Development Plan as well. The latter requires a meeting with your dean which you should plan on arranging.  Again all of the necessary forms for completion are on the portal; you may even receive them via email.

Summer and Fall semester enrollment is down. We have been asked to make a follow up call to prospective students from our program areas. A list of potential students (those that have visited campus) will be coming to us via dean or me with contact information.  In the meantime please encourage your continuing students to enroll in their courses.  I understand nursing is conducting registration sessions this week. The data received today cites Early Childhood and Exercise and Sports Science AAS and AS students have not registered yet. Medical and Dental Assisting looks good. Some of the figures cited indicated that some students have not applied to graduate yet.  

A reminder to pay attention to the email recently received regarding summer campus visits. Potential students that take the time to visit the campus often decide to attend DCTC. It is really helpful for the admissions folks to have program representatives on campus during that time. Carrie Ann and Johnathan are requesting contact information to enable them to inform us if needed.

I think that this is about it for now. Please let me know if you feel a need to gather as a group prior to summer break. – Margaret

We have been asked to put in a full day working within your program area for the day with the exception of a Focus Group Meeting at 1 followed by Kelly’s budget meeting. Open House is scheduled for 4-7 which means most need to be on campus by 11 AM.  Note that I did not add in a lunch or supper break to my 8 hour calculation.

TXT2013: Teens eXperiencing Technical education

July 29 – August 3, 2013

More info coming soon!

TXT website will be updated by April 1.

Thanks for your support and assistance!

Just a reminder that we will be having a presentation on assessment at our next meeting. This is also the Monday we return from Spring Break. Plan on meeting in the lecture room 1-423 near the Medical/Dental Assisting Program Area. Thanks.

Attached are a few documents regarding continuing education that I was asked to pass along to you.

Institute – Save the Date

MnSCU Partnership for Faculty Development

On Course II Workshop

Thanks to all of you for the effort made to get to our department meeting through the snow this morning. The following will benefit members not in attendance and serve as a reminder to others:

Margaret needs program Review feedback ASAP. This is the review done on your program about every three years, the forms of which can be found on the portal under Academic Affairs.

We reviewed guidelines for Retaining Student Work. Your feedback has been sent to Kelly.

Committees: Sara is looking for a replacement to serve on Faculty Shared Governance which meets roughly every third Thursday from 3-4:30. Dawn is seeking a replacement for Institutional Advancement Committee- please check with her for meeting requirements if interested. Can’t stress enough how important it is to have input from our department.

Reminders from VP Murtaugh- Book orders must be in to Jakki by March 1. Complete Public Jobs/Private Data training on D2L if you haven’t already. You have already had 2 weeks to do this.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 28th at 3 PM in 1-420. Topic of discussion will be assessment and led by Patrice who is currently the campus Assessment Coordinator.

FYI- There are two two-way radios for emergency use one of which is located in the nursing program area conference room and the other at the front desk of the dental assisting program area.

Programs that have reported using background checks are Biomedical Equipment Technology, Early Childhood and Youth Development, Dental Assistant, Medical Assistant, Practical Nursing. Visual Communication only performs background checks if the student is going into the field and the facility they are working at requires it. If that is the case, the facility pays for the check, not the school or the student. Julia will be calling an information gathering session with the faculty from the above programs to put some guidelines into place (not a policy).

Dean Larson presented three forms to the committee for use with student learning. They are agreements that include a photo release form, commitment agreement and a waiver release. I recommended using the MNSCU photo release policy that is already in place and make the other forms available on the portal.

The department chairs will have an opportunity to give suggestions on how the program review process can be improved, so please give me any feedback you want to be heard. The current review forms for your programs can be found on the portal under Academic Affairs and I have distributed them to all in the past but have not been given any feedback.

A small group has been pulled together and we plan to meet with VP Murtaugh this week in regard to proposing recommendations on retaining student work. Dawn Braa, Mike Buck and Margaret Noirjean are the happy volunteers for this project.

Last August, during new student orientation and our inservice there was a meet and greet between new students and faculty over a lunch period. This year the plan is to have sessions about how to be successful in their department. Students from a group of programs can connect as well as give faculty a chance to give students strategies for success. Faculty need to show students that the Gen Ed courses are important to the technical faculty. The plan for this orientation is still in the works so if you have suggestions of how to participate that differs from last year please let me know.  

Equipment allocation is once again being done in the spring. Forms will need to be submitted prior to spring break, the details of which will be going out to all faculty shortly. The requests will be submitted through an electronic form. Each piece of equipment will need to connect to the strategic framework.

It sounds like Kelly has planned a full agenda for this day. There will be a department meeting as the day starts in the morning however it sounds as if Kelly has a task for us to complete. We’ll also plan to meet as originally scheduled on Monday, March 25 at 3 when we return from spring break.

Announcements:

Any changes, additions or deletions to course fees need to be reviewed with your dean and then go through the approval process at the March AASC so get them reviewed ASAP.

The Concrete & Masonry Program will  be suspended after this semester.

Book orders are due in March for Summer and Fall semesters. Did you know it is a federal requirement that orders be in when course schedules are posted?

Please get rid of old carbonless copy forms used internally and retrieve what you need from the intranet only at the time you need it. In the future if an incorrect or old form is used it will be returned to you instead of being processed.

There is a new process for equipment allocation that goes with the zero based budget concept you heard about at inservice. Information will be gathered electronically as to what is needed, submitted a week prior to spring break with supporting documentation in order for Kelly to make specific requests from the President. You will be receiving an email from Kelly with the form.

Margaret gathered information about background checks as requested by Kelly.

Per Debra, Linda Flocchini is covering for Roline during her absence.

We had a discussion about maximum numbers of students in labs and online classes. Margaret will be taking our concerns to the next Department Chair meeting.

Patrice had a brief opportunity to introduce assessment information. She is currently serving as the Assessment Coordinator for our campus.

Our next meeting is scheduled during an inservice breakout time on Friday, February 22nd. 

Dates worth noting:

2/20 Health Fair

2/28 Inservice

3/5 & 6 Graduation Fair

3/27 PTK Induction

4/3 Open House 4-6

4/11 True Blue Gala

5/2 Healthy Knight

5/17 Graduation

I’ll have the opportunity to meet with you as a group on both, inservice days Friday, February 1 and 22. Admin knows the meetings are close together; the latter date always occurs as previously scheduled but this semester seemed to start a week later which is why the Friday got pushed out a week-hence 2 meetings in one month.

Skills USA (Anna Voight) is looking for student nominations from all of our areas. Please consider recommending some of your students and perhaps helping with grooming them for this competition. I have a blank student nomination form that I can provide you with. THESE NEED TO BE IN TO ANNA BY FRIDAY, THE 25TH!

In 2012 DCTC had 27 individual/team winners in the state competition and 12 individual/team winners in the national competition.