DEPARTMENT SELF-STUDY

DEPARTMENT: Humanities

Degree/Certificate Programs Reviewed Here: AAOT, Gen Ed, transfer

Authors for/contributors to this report: Verne Underwood, Midge Shaw

Department Faculty:

Department Chair: Verne Underwood

Coordinators: Midge Shaw (Writing), Suzanne Chavez (World Languages),

Bryan Jeffs (Music)

FT Faculty: Suzanne Chavez, Ryan Maple, Chip Phillips, Wolfgang Rünzi,

Midge Shaw, Verne Underwood, Rick Williams

Section One – Mission Alignment

How does your department and its program(s) fulfill the larger work of the college?

RCC’s Strategic Plan: 2017-2020, Objective 5: Increase effective student engagement strategies.

“If you think you can catch the bus, you will run for it.” - Lee Peng Yee

Engagement is at the core of classes offered in the Humanities department, from group work in our writing and literature classes to conversations and presentations in our World Language classes to music and theater performances.

In terms of recent curricular changes aimed at increasing engagement, we’ve created a waiver process in all our WR 90 classes which gives students who are willing to work harder the option of challenging WR 115 outcomes through an end-of-term exam; if successful, they move directly from WR 90 to WR 121.

National statistics show that developmental writing students have very poor outcomes, with only 1 in 7 students who enroll in a developmental writing course ever going on to pass a college-level writing course. This is not the fault of a developmental writing curriculum so much as the reality of struggling students who place into developmental writing: students who often lack good study skills and effective engagement strategies.

RCC’s program is unique in that we have a transfer-level elective writing course (WR 115) between our developmental writing (WR 90) and our first-term freshman writing course (WR 121). WR 115 is an essential writing class for a large number of incoming freshmen, but it can be a potential roadblock for developmental writing students since it adds an additional step between developmental writing and first-year composition courses—and another exit point.

Giving WR 90 students an option to shorten their writing sequence is in line with the thinking of Singapore educator, Lee Peng Yee. Students who are convinced they might be able to move faster will try harder. We regularly track pass rates for the end-of-term WR 90 challenge exam, and although we average a modest 11.5% of WR 90 students skipping over WR 115 based on a successful end-of-term challenge (see graph and data below), we expect to increase these numbers with our new WR 91 pilot.

Fall 2016: 137 students enrolled in WR 90 / 34 challenged / 16 passed

Winter 2017: 70 students enrolled in WR 90 / 19 challenged / 8 passed

Spring 2017: 54 students enrolled in WR 90 / 23 challenged / 6 passed

2016/17 totals: 261 students enrolled in WR 90 / 76 challenged / 30 passed

RCC’s Strategic Plan: 2017-2020, Objective 6: Decrease student time to completion while maintaining quality education. 

Over the past two years, the Humanities department chair and writing coordinator participated in a series of state level meetings on placement and remedial reading and writing. During this same time, we moved from a two-term remedial writing sequence (WR 20 + WR 30) to a single remedial writing course (WR 90) which incorporates WR 115 curriculum—even using the same text—in order to offer remedial writing students the chance to skip over WR 115 and move directly from WR 90 to WR 121 through an end-of-term challenge exam.

This year we are piloting a 5-credit WR 91, which is our regular remedial writing class with a weekly lab and tutoring component. The class combines the work of RD 90 and WR 90 into a single course and is designed for students who have placed below college level in both reading and writing. To augment this combination of reading and writing instruction, we’ve added a similar focus on reading (minus the lab component) into our WR 115 courses in order to give WR 90 and WR 91 students an additional term of focused reading instruction. We find that this instruction is needed just as much among our WR 115 students. Our end goal would be to replace developmental reading classes entirely with the added reading instruction in our gateway writing courses.

Although we have only one term of data, this past fall, 100 WR 90 students took the end-of-term essay exam; 22 of them opted for a challenge exam, and 11 of these students passed—successfully skipping over WR 115 and moving directly into WR 121. This works out to 11% of our WR 90 students skipping over WR 115 via this challenge process, which is in line with last year’s overall average of 11.5% (see above).

At this same test, of our 46 WR 91 students (spread between the two sections of this pilot course), 27 of them opted for a challenge exam, and 14 passed that exam. This works out to 30% of our WR 91 students skipping over WR 115, which is nearly three times the success rate we see in WR 90. We will continue to track the pass rate in both WR 90 and WR 91 throughout the year, but this first round of students suggest WR 91 should be our new model for developmental writing.

Section Two – Profile

Brief history of department and its program(s)

The Humanities department has a variety of course offerings, with 14 separate course prefixes which reflect the range of disciplines within our department. Our courses can be grouped into five major areas: Writing, Speech/Communication, Arts and Letters (AAOT courses such as ENG, PHL, and REL), Music, and World Languages.

As a department, we account for roughly 12% of all instructional FTE at the college.

Academic Year

2014/15

2015/16

2016/17

Humanities Dept. FTE

592.3

571.4

574.3

Total Instructional FTE (including Dual Credit)

4,885.2

4558.3

4514.2

Department History

When RCC first opened its doors back in 1971, there were only two faculty in this department—Mary Slayter and Ellen Levine—out of a total of fourteen full-time instructors at the college. Mary Slayter writes about her experience at that time:

My new colleagues and I spent long days on the dandelion-infested lawns of an abandoned Job Corps site composing course outlines while the maintenance crew refurbished bunkhouses that would be converted into classrooms. Out with the urinals and bunk beds, in with the chalkboards and tablet armchairs. I can remember the initial faculty of fourteen sitting around a table in the library trying to create an organizational chart. No hierarchy would do for us; we used coins of various sizes to represent different functions on campus: a fifty-cent piece for the president; quarters, nickels, and dimes to stand for various faculty and classified positions. All the circles were then connected to form a larger circle, showing that everyone was equally important to the functioning of the school.

“Creating Our College, Our Community, and Ourselves,” The Profession of English in the Two-Year College, ed. Mark Reynolds and Sylvia Holladay-Hicks (Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 2005) 16-26.

Our first department chair, Mary Slayter, notes the great freedom and unlimited opportunity for experimentation in the early years of RCC: “We plunged into our work with exuberance and conviction. Our efforts were bolstered by the unbounded confidence extended us by the administration and board, and their permission, almost a mandate, to experiment, to reach the students whatever it took.” It is this pioneering spirit which infuses the work of this college.

In its first year, RCC reached 450 FTE, and as the college grew over the years, the Humanities department also grew with the addition of new full-time faculty: Elaine Weiss, Bill Hotchkiss, Lutz Kramer, Kathy Krauss. The department office for many years was what is now a single classroom in the G building on the Redwood campus. But in 1998, when Q building became available, the chair at the time, Lutz Kramer, moved everyone in under cover of a weekend and occupied the building without permission—and there we remain.

There’s a well-known answer to any perplexing question about why we do things the way we do here at RCC: “There’s the right way, the wrong way, and the Rogue way.” This surreptitious move into Q building was an example of the latter.

Enrollment and Demographics

The graph below shows Humanities department FTE over a 19-year period, starting with the year after RCC’s move into Jackson County: with an initial FTE of 413.4 in 1998/99, a peak FTE of 769.4 in 2010/11, and the most recent FTE of 574.3 in 2016/17.

Dual Enrollment / College Now

The model for dual credit programs are the standards established by the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP), and these standards are included in the Appendix. These standards rest on the premise that there should be little if any difference between the high school course granting college credit and the course as it is taught at the college articulating that credit.

Central to the department’s work with dual credit classes is NACEP’s Assessment Standard 1 (A1): The college/university ensures concurrent enrollment students’ proficiency of learning outcomes is measured using comparable grading standards and assessment methods to on campus sections.

In practice, we feel this requires our department to review samples of every student’s work from their high school to judge if they are doing college-level work. For all our WR 115 and WR 121 articulations, we require students to write an on-demand essay which is graded here at the college and which they must pass (given two tries) in order to receive credit. For our SP 111 articulations, we require every student to submit a videotaped speech and written outline to demonstrate college-level public speaking. And for our ENG 104 articulations, we require a typed paper originally submitted in the high school class that demonstrates college-level literary analysis.

Sections of Dual Credit Offered: ENG 104, SP 111, WR 115, WR 121

Year

ENG 104

SP 111

WR 115

WR 121

Total # of sections

Total # of students

2014/15

6

1

N/A

14

21

170

2015/16

8

3

1

15

27

213

2016/17

10

6

3

17

36

199

The total number of students are the number who received college credit.

The section count includes sections with 0 students, since this generally signifies that no student originally enrolled earned college credit, though all the work of articulation

occurred nonetheless. Since students who did not qualify for college credit are purged from the roster, there is no tracking data to measure the actual student load of dual credit offerings (e.g. grading essays, reviewing student portfolios, viewing speeches).

Finally, in 2016/17, we changed the enrollment term for dual credit to fall, but there

were some sections that were inadvertently listed again in the spring, and those have

been merged in the numbers above (i.e. the errors corrected). We have since moved

back to spring term enrollment for dual credit.

Staffing Narrative

Academic Year

2014/15 (FWS)

2015/16 (FWS)

2016/17 (FWS)

FT

Adj

FT

Adj

FT

Adj

Number of faculty

7

53

7

53

8

49

Number of sections taught in Humanities

76

222

74

227

79

186

The above numbers omit sections with zero enrollment (e.g. CWE), all independent study sections (which generally enroll just 1 student), and all dual credit classes. Cross-listed sections (e.g. all our TA courses) are treated as a single section.

Summer term has also been omitted as it skews our FT to PT results, since a much larger share of summer classes are taught by FT faculty.

Classified Staff: Cindy Henney, Arlene Dowell (both shared with other departments)

Are your staffing levels adequate to support achievement of your student learning outcomes? Why or why not?

Our full-time faculty staffing is not adequate for a department of our size. Below are data showing the percentages of full-time faculty FTE relative to department FTE over a 19-year period (see graph and tables below). After our move into Jackson County in the 1997/98 academic year, full-time FTE steadily moved from around 35% up to 45%, and as a department we approached a 50/50 ratio of full-time to part-time FTE.

That percentage dipped between 2001 and 2004 since a full-time faculty member (Julie Joki) was given a complete teaching release to develop an Online Writing Lab. But after moving back up to 46% in 2004, this ratio then began a steady decline to below 25%. As a result, over the past seven years, roughly one in four Humanities classes were taught by full-time faculty. And after last year’s RIF of a full-time Speech/ Communication instructor, we anticipate the percentage of full-time FTE to drop to 21% for 2017/18 (based on FTE data from 2016/17)—which means that only one in five of our department’s classes this year will be taught by a full-time faculty member.

In the 1998/99 academic year, we had nine full-time faculty (though one member was on a full year sabbatical). At our largest, we were a department of ten full-time faculty members; this year, we are a department of seven full-time faculty members.

Year

98/99

99/00

00/01

01/02

02/03

03/04

04/05

05/06

06/07

07/08

Humanities total FTE

413.4

448.6

433.4

429.3

437.6

427.2

425.9

418.7

442.8

446.6

Full-Time (FT) FTE

142.6

151.8

166.4

197.1

171.4

180.5

197.2

189.9

169.4

174.9

% FTE taught by FT

34.5%

33.8%

38.4%

45.9%

39.2%

42.3%

46.3%

45.4%

38.3%

39.2%

Year

08/09

09/10

10/11

11/12

12/13

13/14

14/15

15/16

16/17

Humanities total FTE

517.8

706.5

769.4

718.2

640.3

626.3

592.3

571.4

574.3

Full-Time (FT) FTE

178.0

211.8

198.5

162.6

149.2

155.6

140.8

134.1

140.9

% FTE

taught by

FT

34.4%

30.0%

25.8%

22.6%

23.3%

24.8%

23.8%

23.5%

24.5%

Our greatest need at this point is for more full-time faculty lines, particularly a full-time Speech/Communication instructor and a full-time Music instructor. The RIFs of 2017 included our full-time Speech/Communication instructor, leaving no one to oversee the range of offerings in this discipline.

In 2008, we made a strategic hire with our first full-time Music instructor, Dr. Ted Dollarhide. Dr. Dollarhide developed a number of new classes over the next few years and grew our Music program dramatically, but after his very sudden death from cancer in April of 2014, this full-time line was dropped.

The graph below tracks the growth in FTE generated by our Music offerings. Our total Music FTE the year before we added a full-time Music position (2007/08) was 8.1, and in the subsequent years Dr. Dollarhide grew the Music program to more than 50 FTE per year. It now sits just above 60 FTE per year, and in 2016/17, Music classes accounted for 11% of our total department FTE.

Along with the need for the addition of two full-time lines—in Speech/Communication

and Music—we will need office space for these new instructors. We have an empty office in Grants Pass, but office space on the Riverside Campus is scarce.

Budget Narrative: Are your Materials & Supplies and Equipment budgets adequate to support achievement of your program learning outcomes? Why or why not?

This spring, our Theater program will produce a large-scale play in Medford, and if this production is successful, we hope to continue with a similar production every spring. This would require a Supplies budget for Theater Arts to cover the costs of costumes, sets, and advertising. Outside of this, we have no pressing demands to increase the Humanities Supplies budget. In terms of equipment, we generally replace FT faculty computers with somewhat newer lab computers (when computer labs get an upgrade).

Facility Narrative: Are the college facilities adequate to support achievement of your program learning outcomes? Why or why not?

RCC classrooms and facilities are adequate for our needs. However, if we were to add future FT faculty positions, we’d be short on office space in Medford. At present, three FT faculty have an office at RVC, in HEC 201; and two FT faculty have an office at RWC, in Q building. The two remaining FT faculty split office space since they have a dual campus assignment on alternating days, so they account for one additional office at RWC and one at RVC.

College Resource Narrative: Are the college resources such as the library, technology, marketing, tutoring, testing, etc. adequate to support achievement of your program learning outcomes? Why or why not?

College resources such as the library and the Tutoring/Testing Centers are excellent resources for our students. The library in particular is a partner with us in WR 121 and WR 122, offering orientation sessions for our students and creating web content to connect with the focus of our various WR 122 classes. This past fall term, the library hosted a “happy hour” get-together where we discussed changes to their website and a more outcomes based approach to library orientation.

Section Three – Current Program Context

How do your programs reflect national/regional/program/discipline trends?

Our writing program has undergone major curricular changes in the past few years to align with national trends in the teaching of composition—gathered from a range of current books on composition and remedial writing as well as papers presented over the past several years at the flagship conference in the field of rhetoric and composition: Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC).

Rhetorical Modes

In 2014, our WR 121 moved from a focus on rhetorical modes (Narration, Description, Comparison/Contrast, etc.) to a much more current focus on Argument. The rhetorical modes approach separates types of writing into a range of discursive modes, with students writing papers such as a personal narrative essay, a description of a place, a comparison/contrast, a definition essay, etc.

This approach—still widely taught—is largely obsolete, and scholarly articles questioning this practice date back to the 1970s. A more up-to-date approach focuses on reading-based writing that incorporates different modes of discourse, but without limiting papers to just one mode. One analogy to the older rhetorical modes approach would be a basketball class where students just shoot free throws or do dribbling drills, but never play the game. Real writing involves an overlap of approaches, rarely separating one aspect or type of writing as an end in itself.

That said, the rhetorical modes approach, like the five-paragraph essay, does have its place in a developmental curriculum, and we still teach the modes of discourse in our WR 115; however, one of the other drivers behind our changes to the WR 121 curriculum was an awareness of the big step separating the exit competencies in WR 121 with the requirements of WR 122. We needed a more academically rigorous WR 121 curriculum to better prepare students for the move to WR 122. This step and the subsequent completion rates for our writing classes are discussed in more detail below in Section Five – Evidence-Based Changes.

Combining Reading and Writing

A second major change, also driven by national trends, was the added focus on reading instruction into our WR 90 and WR 115, combining reading and writing and the use of reading-based prompts rather than personal narratives. This change was in response to a major shift in how we approach underprepared students. The older model of a long remedial curriculum doesn’t work: pass rates are low in remedial classes, and a long remedial curriculum includes too many potential exit points. This has been discussed above in Section One – Mission Alignment, so it will not be further elaborated here.

Discuss local trends or issues in the community or the college that impact your program(s).

No current community trends weigh on the Humanities department offerings. The move into Jackson County back in 1997 was the beginning of a more or less steady period of growth; however, as a college, we have grown primarily through an increasing dependence on adjunct instructors. This is a process spanning some 20 years, so it is not the result of budget decisions made by any one administration, nor is it a reflection of a single biennial state budget.

List your external stakeholders (e.g. advisory boards, employers, transfer schools).

As a department, we serve a large number of AAOT and transfer students, so our most immediate external stakeholder would be the four-year college to which our students transfer. We have no system, however, for tracking our transfer students or connecting their experience in classes offered by our department with their experience in their transfer institution. Anecdotally, we hear that RCC students are strong writers when they move on to SOU, but we have no formal metric to measure their writing abilities and compare them to students from other transfer institutions.

Our local stakeholders are the area high schools in Jackson and Josephine counties. We have over the years met with various teachers and administrators to clarify our expectations for college-level writers. We continue this process through Dual Credit WR 115 and WR 121 articulations and Early College classes, meeting every year with our high school partners and gathering twice a year to grade on-demand writing exams. This generates an ongoing discussion of writing outcomes and expectations in high school and college.

And finally, our nearest stakeholders are not external: they are the degree and certificate programs here at RCC whose students are required to take classes such as Writing, Speech, or Humanities electives.

Writing is the primary requirement that spans nearly all degree and certificate programs. Following is a list of RCC’s degrees and certificate programs, with the exit level writing course or prerequisite writing course which is required in each program (including BT writing courses).

Degree/Certificate Program

Exit Level Writing Course

Alcohol and Drug Counselor

WR121 or higher prerequisite

Automotive Specialist

WR115 (prerequisite)

Basic Health Care

WR30 (prerequisite)

Business Assistant

BT114

Commercial Truck Driving

WR30 (prerequisite)

Construction Trades - General Apprenticeship

WR115

Dental Assistant

WR115 or BT113

Diesel Specialist

BT113 or WR115 or higher

Early Childhood Education

WR115 or BT113 (prerequisite)

Electrician Apprenticeship Technologies

WR115

Electrician Apprenticeship Technologies (Limited)

None

Electronics Technician

WR115 or WR121

Emergency Medical Services

WR121

Employment Skills Training

WR30 (prerequisite)

Exercise Specialist

WR115 or BT113

Fire Officer

WR115

Fire Prevention/Investigation

WR121

Graphic Design

WR121

Health Care Informatics Assistant

WR115

High Technology Studies

WR115 or WR121

Industrial Mechanical Maintenance Technology Apprenticeship

WR115

Industrial Welding Technology

BT113 or WR115

Landscape Technician

WR30 (prerequisite)

Manufacturing/Engineering Technology: Computer Numerical Control Technician

WR30 (prerequisite)

Massage Therapy

WR115 or BT113

Medical Administrative Assistant

BT113 or WR115

Medical Assistant

BT113 or WR115

Medical Coding Specialist

BT113 or WR115

Degree/Certificate Program

Exit Level Writing Course

Microcontroller Systems Technician

WR115

Occupational Skills Training

WR115 or BT113

Pharmacy Technician

WR115 or BT113

Practical Nursing

WR121

Renewable Energy Technician

WR115 or WR121

Sterile Processing Technician

BT113 or WR115

Website Design

WR121

Web Development

WR121

Describe how you gather external stakeholder feedback (e.g. survey, focus group, advisory board meetings).

N/A

Showcase highlights and any changes needed or made based upon that feedback.

N/A

Section Four – Program Learning Outcomes and Assessment

Although the Humanities department is not a program so much as a collection of disciplines, the majority of our offerings support the AAOT, general transfer, and a range of degrees and certificates here at RCC.

Humanities Courses

Under the large umbrella of the Humanities department are 112 separate courses with 14 different course prefixes, grouped into five major areas: Writing, Speech/ Communication, Arts and Letters, Music, and World Languages (see Section Two – Profile above for the distribution percentages for these areas). We regularly update course outlines, with some notable outliers—generally courses which have not been offered in the last few years (e.g. one-time Special Studies classes).

Our Speech and Writing courses are represented in the majority of degree and certificate programs at the college, and the Humanities department owns most of the classes listed under the AAOT Arts and Letters category; thus, the closest we have to a larger program outcome would be the state level requirements of an Arts and Letters course in the AAOT degree:

AAOT, Arts & Letters

OUTCOMES

As a result of taking General Education Arts & Letters* courses, a student should be able to:

• Interpret and engage in the Arts & Letters, making use of the creative process to

enrich the quality of life; and

• Critically analyze values and ethics within a range of human experience and

expression to engage more fully in local and global issues.

* “Arts & Letters” refers to works of art, whether written, crafted, designed, or performed and

documents of historical or cultural significance.

REQUIREMENTS

A course in Arts & Letters should:

1) Introduce the fundamental ideas and practices of the discipline and allow students to

apply them.

2) Elicit analytical and critical responses to historical and/or cultural works, such as

literature, music, language, philosophy, religion, and the visual and performing arts.

3) Explore the conventions and techniques of significant forms of human expression.

4) Place the discipline in a historical and cultural context and demonstrate its

relationship with other discipline.

5) Each course should also do at least one of the following:

• Foster creative individual expression via analysis, synthesis, and critical

evaluation;

• Compare/contrast attitudes and values of specific historical periods or world

cultures; and

• Examine the origins and influences of ethical or aesthetic traditions.

Program Mapping

Recently, the department has worked with Lori Sours to identify the outcomes of each of our four writing courses and map them as a sequence. The resulting program map for our writing courses is attached in the Appendix.

The mapping process helped us visualize the various paths available to those students who place below WR 121, which is the majority of entering RCC students. In the recent reorganization of the Academic Skills department, developmental writing classes were moved to the Humanities department, and the mapping process helped us see where WR 90—as well as the newly created combination reading and writing course, WR 91—fit into our writing sequence.

Faculty Professional Development

The major curricular changes to our writing classes are the result of faculty professional development through regular attendance at the national Conference on College Composition and Communication and participation in state-level meetings about placement processes and innovations in remedial writing. Those changes have been discussed earlier in Section One – Mission Alignment as well as Section Three – Current Program Context, and are further discussed below in Section Five – Evidence-Based Changes.

Section Five – Evidence-Based Changes

Fully half of our FTE is generated by four writing courses: WR 90, WR 115, WR 121, and WR 122. The quality and uniformity of these four courses is the main focus of our department work, since the majority of our full-time and part-time faculty teach one or more of these courses.

Leading up to a major curricular change to WR 121 in 2014 was a growing awareness in our department that the step between WR 121 and WR 122 was challenging, since WR 121—with its emphasis on personal writing—was not adequately preparing students for the demands of WR 122 and independent scholarly research. Data on completion rates showed a drop-off of 8-10% between WR 121 and WR 122, double the drop-off in completion rates between WR 115 and WR 121 (see table below, with more detailed data in the Appendix).

As students progress through an increasingly rigorous writing series, it stands to reason that the completion rates will decline as the rigor and demands of the courses increase. We had been working for many years to mitigate this, identifying aspects of WR 122 which created challenges for our students and discussing changes to the course that would help students succeed, without compromising its rigor. After years of discussion, however, it was clear that the major changes needed to happen in the preceding course.

Our concern when redesigning WR 121 was that although we would close the gap between WR 121 and WR 122, we would end up creating a new gap between WR 115 and WR 121 now that WR 121 no longer included the kind of personal essay students were writing in WR 115. And so, we’ve been tracking completion rates over the past three years, and as the table below shows, the drop-off in completion rates between WR 115 and WR 121 has remained fairly stable at around 4-5% (consistent with the numbers from our baseline year before the curricular change), while the drop-off in completion rates between WR 121 and WR 122 has all but vanished.

Even more encouraging is that our overall completion rates in WR 115, WR 121, and WR 122 have steadily increased over the last three years.

2011/12 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17

WR 90: 71.5% 67.6% 75.9% 63.8%

WR 115: 82.7% 82.8% 83.4% 85.3%

WR 121: 78.7% 78.4% 78.0% 79.9%

WR 122: 70.9% 70.4% 76.5% 79.3%

Section Six - Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

List the Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs) that are relevant to this department and the courses in which there is an assessment that can be aligned with each:

The five general ILO areas are all applicable to the courses offered by the Humanities department, so what follows is a more focused discussion of which courses and discipline areas most clearly align with each.

Institutional Learning Outcome Statements:

Courses aligned with this ILO

Application of Knowledge: Students will synthesize and use knowledge in familiar and unfamiliar situations to effectively solve problems and complete tasks.

• HUM, MUS, and SP/COMM course outlines include AK 3 - Apply knowledge and skills through a global perspective with an awareness of context, personal assumptions, and worldview.

• World Languages require students to apply the grammar and vocabulary they’ve learned to a range of settings, in group discussions, one-on-one conversations, and out-of-class papers.

Approach to Learning: Students will engage in and take responsibility for intentional learning, seek new knowledge and skills to guide their continuous and independent development, and adapt to new situations.

• WR 115’s course outline includes AL 1 - Understand and accept responsibility for learning; and AL 2 - Put forth the time and effort necessary to succeed.

• WR 121 and WR 122 focus heavily on the Approach to Learning, and their course outlines include AL 2 (see above); AL 4 - Pursue goals by creating strategies over time; and AL 5 - Use technological tools to research new information, solve problems, and communicate effectively.

• TA course outlines include AL 2 (see above)

Communication: Students will engage in quality communication using active listening and reading skills and expressing ideas appropriately in oral, written, and visual work.

• WR and SP/COMM courses focus on clear communication in oral and written work, and include COM 2 - Express ideas clearly in oral, written and visual work; COM 3 - Collaborate effectively to achieve course/ learning goals; and

COM 4 - Work respectfully with others by considering opposing viewpoints and different cultural perspectives.

• ENG, HUM, PHL, and REL courses assign analytical papers and exams requiring close reading, and their course outlines include COM 2 and COM 4 (see above).

• World Languages (ASL, FR, ITAL, SPAN) focus on oral and written expression as well as visual expression (in ASL).

Critical Thinking: Students will think critically and creatively about problems and issues in classroom or school, home, work, and community settings to create positive, sustainable solutions

• WR 121 and WR 122’s research focuses on community and global issues and sustainable solutions, and their course outlines include

CT 2 - Raise significant and relevant questions; and CT 3 - Locate, organize, analyze, and interpret data.

• ENG, HUM, PHL, and REL require analytical thinking and an understanding of social and historical context, and their course outlines include CT 1 - Recognize own and others’ emotions, assumptions, biases, and cultural contexts; and CT 2 (see above).

• SP/COMM course outlines include CT 1 and CT 2 (see above).

Personal Growth: Students will balance life and civic responsibilities, believe in themselves, accept and commit to change, self-reflect, and be tolerant and respectful of themselves and others.

• TA courses require flexibility, respect for others, and adaptability, and TA course outlines include PG 3 - Respond positively to change.

Section Seven – Summary

Describe the major strengths, challenges, and themes that emerged from your department/program review.

Challenges

The process of preparing this Program Evaluation began even before this year with the ongoing collection of data on our writing completion rates. The real work of the evaluation, however, was during this past fall term. Some of the data was fairly easy to get, but much of it involved a slow process of printing out a year’s worth of data and then hand counting. For example, getting full-time FTE over a 19-year period required scrolling through the entire list of faculty each year to find the Humanities full-timers among several hundred instructors, then tallying their FTE for that year—and in some cases subtracting FTE for classes taught in other departments. This revealed a pattern in our full-time to part-time ratio that I more or less understood to be the case, but the detail quantified where we have been heading and for how long.

The same process can be seen in the writing completion rates in the Appendix, with a hand tally of the total number of students in each of our four writing courses—each section, each term—divided between A, B, C, and P grades (the completers) and D, F, W, and NP grades (the noncompleters). This became much easier in the 2016/17 academic year when a new tab was added to AdminView: Grade Distribution by Course.

And the Staffing Narrative involved scrolling again through the entire list of faculty—full and part-time—to find who was teaching classes in our department that year and how many sections they taught. Thankfully, the Program Evaluation only asked for three years of data in this category.

Strengths

Despite the difficulty of collecting data and tallying by hand, it highlighted patterns in grading and workload that would have been invisible in a computer-generated report. Looking through the grades in every single section of writing uncovered the outliers: instructors who give most of their students an A, or instructors with unusually high withdrawal rates.

Another benefit from the Program Evaluation was program mapping. Since we are not a program per se, this part didn’t seem to apply to us, but it was suggested we go through this process with our writing courses. At the outset, I had what I felt was a clear sense of the aims and outcomes of each class, but the mapping session was like putting on a pair of glasses after years of fuzzy images; I saw what each of our courses do and how they connect to one another in a rising sequence of increasingly demanding writing tasks and abilities. The tangible outcome of this process is a single page illustrating the sequence of our four writing courses (attached in the Appendix). The larger outcome was a broad departmental conversation about our writing courses and how they connect to one another: a conversation that continued during our fall inservice department meeting.

Probably the single most valuable outcome of this process was a clearer awareness of who we are as a department and a college. Speaking with Mary Slayter and Lutz Kramer about our department’s history, looking back on my first years here at RCC, I felt I could still see the exuberance and idealism which is the beating heart of Rogue.

I remember President Harvey Bennett telling me on the occasion of his retirement that when someone leaves the college, it’s like putting your hand into a bucket of water and then pulling it out. You will see a few ripples, but they subside and their presence is not missed. I respect Harvey Bennett’s wisdom in all things but this; when someone who has greatly influenced our college leaves or retires, their presence remains. The ripples continue to affect those who knew them: their absence not a breach, but an expansion—like gold to airy thinness beat.

Over our nearly five decades, we as a department and college have fulfilled the highest mission of education with unwavering grace, enthusiasm, and optimism:

We are of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise,

Regardless of others, ever regardful of others,

. . .

A learner with the simplest, a teacher of the thoughtfullest,

A novice beginning yet experient of myriads of seasons,

Of every hue and caste . . . moving forward then and now and forever.

Section Eight - Attachments

Table I Program (or Gen Ed*) Learning Outcome Assessment Cycle

Program (or Gen Ed) Learning Outcome Assessment Plan

Assess

Adjust

Confirm/Re-assess

Read actively, think critically, and write purposefully and capably for academic and, in some cases, professional audiences.

2017-18

2018-19

2019-20

Interpret and engage in the Arts and Letters, making use of the creative process to enrich the quality of life.

2018-19

2019-20

2020-21

Critically analyze values and ethics within a range of human experience and expression to engage more fully in local and global issues.

2019-20

2020-21

2021-22

*The term “Gen Ed” is used for “program-level” outcomes in departments that do not offer certificate or degree programs – specifically, Art, Humanities, Library, Math, Social Science, and Science.

2

Updated 8/10/17 L.Sours

Table II Overview of Program Learning Outcomes Assessment Plan

Year

Program Learning Outcome

Course(s) where assessed

Specific CLO(s) aligned with this PLO

Direct Assessments

Indirect Assessments

Assessment methods

Assessment tools

17-18

Read actively, think critically, and write purposefully and capably for academic and, in some cases, professional audiences.

WR 90/91

WR 115

WR 121

WR 122

n/a

In-class essays and out-of-class papers and assignments

Grades on in-class essays and out-of-class papers and assignments

Overall completion rates for all four WR courses

18-19

Interpret and engage in the Arts and Letters, making use of the creative process to enrich the quality of life.

TA 141/2/3

TA 144/5/6

WR 241/2/3

MUS 207

n/a

In-class exams, class discussions, and out-of-class papers and assignments

Grades on in-class exams and out-of-class papers and assignments

Course syllabi

Faculty meetings and discussions

19-20

Critically analyze values and ethics within a range of human experience and expression to engage more fully in local and global issues.

ENG 104-106

ENG 107-109

PHL 102

HUM 101-103

HUM 215-219

n/a

In-class exams, class discussions, and out-of-class papers and assignments

Grades on in-class exams and out-of-class papers and assignments

Course syllabi

Faculty meetings and discussions

2017 NATIONAL CONCURRENT ENROLLMENT PARTNERSHIP STANDARDS Adopted May 2017

Partnership Standards

Partnership 1 (P1)

The concurrent enrollment program aligns with the college/university mission and is supported by the institution's administration and academic leadership.

Partnership 2 (P2)

The concurrent enrollment program has ongoing collaboration with secondary school partners.

Faculty Standards

Faculty 1 (F1)

All concurrent enrollment instructors are approved by the appropriate college/university academic leadership and must meet the minimum qualifications for instructors teaching the course on campus.

Faculty 2 (F2)

Faculty liaisons at the college/university provide all new concurrent enrollment instructors with course-specific training in course philosophy, curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment prior to the instructor teaching the course.

Faculty 3 (F3)

Concurrent enrollment instructors participate in college/university provided annual discipline-specific professional development and ongoing collegial interaction to further enhance instructors' pedagogy and breadth of knowledge in the discipline.

Faculty 4 (F4)

The concurrent enrollment program ensures instructors are informed of and adhere to program policies and procedures.

Assessment Standard

Assessment 1 (A1)

The college/university ensures concurrent enrollment students' proficiency of learning outcomes is measured using comparable grading standards and assessment methods to on campus sections.

Curriculum Standards

Curriculum 1 (C1)

Courses administered through a concurrent enrollment program are college/university catalogued courses with the same departmental designations, course descriptions, numbers, titles, and credits.

Curriculum 2 (C2)

The college/university ensures the concurrent enrollment courses reflect the learning objectives, and the pedagogical, theoretical and philosophical orientation of the respective college/university discipline.

Curriculum 3 (C3)

Faculty liaisons conduct site visits to observe course content and delivery, student discourse and rapport to ensure the courses offered through the concurrent enrollment program are equivalent to the courses offered on campus.

Student Standards

Student 1 (S1)

Registration and transcripting policies and practices for concurrent enrollment students are consistent with those on campus.

Student 2 (S2)

The concurrent enrollment program has a process to ensure students meet the course prerequisites of the college/university.

Student 3 (S3)

Concurrent enrollment students are advised about the benefits and implications of taking college courses, as well as the college's policies and expectations.

Student 4 (S4)

The college/university provides, in conjunction with secondary partners, concurrent enrollment students with suitable access to learning resources and student support services.

Program Evaluation Standards

Evaluation 1 (E1)

The college/university conducts end-of-term student course evaluations for each concurrent enrollment course to provide instructors with student feedback.

Evaluation 2 (E2)

The college/university conducts and reports regular and ongoing evaluations of the concurrent enrollment program effectiveness and uses the results for continuous improvement.

WR 90 Challenges of WR 115 and into WR 121

Total of StudentsFall 2016Winter 2017Spring 20171377054Students ChallengedFall 2016Winter 2017Spring 2017341923Students PassedFall 2016Winter 2017Spring 20171683

Number of Students

Writing

Speech/Comm

Arts & Letters

Music

World Languages

Humanities FTE percentages, 2016/17

0

200

400

600

800

1,000

98/99

99/00

00/01

01/02

02/03

03/04

04/05

05/06

06/07

07/08

08/09

09/10

10/11

11/12

12/13

13/14

14/15

15/16

16/17

FTE

Humanities FTE, 98/99 - 16/17

0

10

20

30

40

50

98/99

99/00

00/01

01/02

02/03

03/04

04/05

05/06

06/07

07/08

08/09

09/10

10/11

11/12

12/13

13/14

14/15

15/16

16/17

FT FTE

% of Humanities FTE taught by full-time faculty, 98/99-16/17

0

16

32

48

64

80

98/99

99/00

00/01

01/02

02/03

03/04

04/05

05/06

06/07

07/08

08/09

09/10

10/11

11/12

12/13

13/14

14/15

15/16

16/17

FTE

Music FTE, 98/99 - 16/17

WR Completion Rates: A/B/C/P vs. D/F/NP/W

Fall 2011 Fall 2014 Fall 2015 Fall 2016

WR 90: 113/162 (69.8%) WR 90: 105/153 (68.6%) WR 90: 108/128 (85.7%) WR 90: 109/177 (61.6%)

WR 115: 359/426 (84.3%) WR 115: 316/377 (83.8%) WR 115: 330/387 (83.3%) WR 115: 343/391 (87.7%)

WR 121: 408/526 (77.6%) WR 121: 434/537 (80.8%) WR 121: 407/513 (79.3%) WR 121: 496/609 (81.4%)

WR 122: 218/302 (72.2%) WR 122: 149/231 (64.5%) WR 122: 169/238 (71.0%) WR 122: 147/231 (63.6%)

Winter 2012 Winter 2015 Winter 2016 Winter 2017

WR 90: 119/159 (74.8%) WR 90: 61/91 (67.0%) WR 90: 50/72 (69.4%) WR 90: 62/99 (62.6%)

WR 115: 282/342 (82.5%) WR 115: 217/264 (82.2%) WR 115: 212/263 (80.6%) WR 115: 209/241 (86.7%)

WR 121: 420/545 (77.1%) WR 121: 320/435 (73.6%) WR 121: 341/453 (75.4%) WR 121: 339/414 (81.9%)

WR 122: 289/423 (68.3%) WR 122: 232/314 (73.9%) WR 122: 256/310 (82.6%) WR 122: 210/265 (79.2%)

Spring 2012 Spring 2015 Spring 2016 Spring 2017

WR 90: 102/146 (69.9%) WR 90: 45/68 (66.2%) WR 90: 44/66 (66.7%) WR 90: 46/64 (71.9%)

WR 115: 237/291 (81.4%) WR 115: 153/186 (82.3%) WR 115: 128/153 (83.7%) WR 115: 146/186 (79.8%)

WR 121: 428/525 (81.5%) WR 121: 394/493 (79.9%) WR 121: 367/463 (79.3%) WR 121: 172/238 (72.3%)

WR 122: 296/410 (72.2%) WR 122: 191/262 (72.9%) WR 122: 208/279 (74.6%) WR 122: 273/298 (91.6%)

2011/12 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17

WR 90: 71.5% 67.6% 75.9% 63.8%

WR 115: 82.7% 82.8% 83.4% 85.3%

WR 121: 78.7% 78.4% 78.0% 79.9%

WR 122: 70.9% 70.4% 76.5% 79.3%

WR Completion Rates: A/B/C/P vs. D/F/NP/W

Fall 2011 Fall 2014 Fall 2015 Fall 2016

WR 90: 113/162 (69.8%) WR 90: 105/153 (68.6%) WR 90: 108/128 (85.7%) WR 90: 109/177 (61.6%)

WR 115: 359/426 (84.3%) WR 115: 316/377 (83.8%) WR 115: 330/387 (83.3%) WR 115: 343/391 (87.7%)

WR 121: 408/526 (77.6%) WR 121: 434/537 (80.8%) WR 121: 407/513 (79.3%) WR 121: 496/609 (81.4%)

WR 122: 218/302 (72.2%) WR 122: 149/231 (64.5%) WR 122: 169/238 (71.0%) WR 122: 147/231 (63.6%)

Winter 2012 Winter 2015 Winter 2016 Winter 2017

WR 90: 119/159 (74.8%) WR 90: 61/91 (67.0%) WR 90: 50/72 (69.4%) WR 90: 62/99 (62.6%)

WR 115: 282/342 (82.5%) WR 115: 217/264 (82.2%) WR 115: 212/263 (80.6%) WR 115: 209/241 (86.7%)

WR 121: 420/545 (77.1%) WR 121: 320/435 (73.6%) WR 121: 341/453 (75.4%) WR 121: 339/414 (81.9%)

WR 122: 289/423 (68.3%) WR 122: 232/314 (73.9%) WR 122: 256/310 (82.6%) WR 122: 210/265 (79.2%)

Spring 2012 Spring 2015 Spring 2016 Spring 2017

WR 90: 102/146 (69.9%) WR 90: 45/68 (66.2%) WR 90: 44/66 (66.7%) WR 90: 46/64 (71.9%)

WR 115: 237/291 (81.4%) WR 115: 153/186 (82.3%) WR 115: 128/153 (83.7%) WR 115: 146/186 (79.8%)

WR 121: 428/525 (81.5%) WR 121: 394/493 (79.9%) WR 121: 367/463 (79.3%) WR 121: 172/238 (72.3%)

WR 122: 296/410 (72.2%) WR 122: 191/262 (72.9%) WR 122: 208/279 (74.6%) WR 122: 273/298 (91.6%)

2011/12 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17

WR 90: 71.5% 67.6% 75.9% 63.8%

WR 115: 82.7% 82.8% 83.4% 85.3%

WR 121: 78.7% 78.4% 78.0% 79.9%

WR 122: 70.9% 70.4% 76.5% 79.3%

ENGLISH 204 Syllabus: Survey of English Literature I (Section #R12)

Instructor: Dr. Verne Underwood Course Time: 10:00-11:50 Mon/Wed

Office: RVC, HEC 201G Place: RVC, HEC 227

Office Hours: Mon - Thu 9:00-10:00 a.m. Office Phone: (541) 245-7569

Email: vunderwood@roguecc.edu

Required Textbooks: The Norton Anthology of English Literature , 9

th

ed., Abrams and

Greenblatt, eds. (New York: Norton, 2012). Volumes A and B.

Course Description: ENG 204 provides a historical survey of important works from the

literature of the British Isles and nations later co lonized by Britain. It is designed to foster

thoughtful interpretation, analysis, and appreciation of literature. The course focuses on Old

English literature through the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

The prerequisite for this course is Writing 121, which may be taken concurrently.

Course Requirements

Attendance and Participation: Because so much of your learning will take place in class, you

must attend on a regular basis, showing up to class ready to discuss the assigned reading each

day. Throughout the term, I will give pop quizzes over the reading (at the beginning of class) ;

these quizzes will add up to 25 % of your overall grade and cannot be made up.

Paper Format: Papers must be typed, double -spaced, and stapled in the upper left corner.

Plagiarism: To plagiarize is to present as your own any work that is not exclusively your own.

Plagiarism of all or a portion of any assignment will be strictly penalized.

Grading:

Pop Quizzes 25%

Paper 25%

Midterm Exam 25%

Final Exam 25%

Exams: The dates for the midterm and final exams are listed in the course outline. These exams

must be taken on their listed dates and cannot be made up later. If you will b e unable to attend

on either day, please let me know as soon as possible (prior to the dates of the exams).

ENGLISH 204 Syllabus: Survey of English Literature I (Section #R12)

Instructor: Dr. Verne Underwood Course Time: 10:00-11:50 Mon/Wed

Office: RVC, HEC 201G Place: RVC, HEC 227

Office Hours: Mon - Thu 9:00-10:00 a.m. Office Phone: (541) 245-7569

Email: vunderwood@roguecc.edu

Required Textbooks: The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 9th ed., Abrams and Greenblatt, eds. (New York: Norton, 2012). Volumes A and B.

Course Description: ENG 204 provides a historical survey of important works from the literature of the British Isles and nations later colonized by Britain. It is designed to foster thoughtful interpretation, analysis, and appreciation of literature. The course focuses on Old English literature through the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

The prerequisite for this course is Writing 121, which may be taken concurrently.

Course Requirements

Attendance and Participation: Because so much of your learning will take place in class, you must attend on a regular basis, showing up to class ready to discuss the assigned reading each day. Throughout the term, I will give pop quizzes over the reading (at the beginning of class); these quizzes will add up to 25% of your overall grade and cannot be made up.

Paper Format: Papers must be typed, double-spaced, and stapled in the upper left corner.

Plagiarism: To plagiarize is to present as your own any work that is not exclusively your own. Plagiarism of all or a portion of any assignment will be strictly penalized.

Grading:

Pop Quizzes 25%

Paper 25%

Midterm Exam25%

Final Exam25%

Exams: The dates for the midterm and final exams are listed in the course outline. These exams must be taken on their listed dates and cannot be made up later. If you will be unable to attend on either day, please let me know as soon as possible (prior to the dates of the exams).

GENERAL INFORMATION AND EXPECTATIONS

Classroom Behavior: Expectations for classroom behavior are outlined in the Student Code of

Conduct, available in the catalog, schedule, and online. Students may not engage in any activity

which the instructor deems disruptive or counterproductive to the goals of the class. Instructors

have the right to remove students from class for not following the Code of Conduct or other

specified classroom rules. The Student Rights, Freedoms, and Responsibilities Statement is

provided for student information on learning rights, require d conduct, and responsibility.

You should silence cell phones unless you are expecting an emergency call, in which case,

please tell me at the beginning of class. Please refrain from texting during class —this is a

distraction to the people sitting near you.

Also, please be punctual, arriving on time —if you have to leave during the class, come clear this

with me at the beginning of class. Simply gathering your things, getting up, and leaving during

class is both distracting and disrespectful.

So do not come to see if there is a quiz, and then leave if you find there isn’t.

Discrimination, Harassment, and Sexual Violence: RCC is committed to ensure that its

learning and working environments are free from all forms of discrimination and harassment,

including sexual harassment. Therefore, it is a violation of College policy for any employee,

student, or third-party at RCC to engage in these practices.

In addition, RCC has a zero tolerance for sexual assault, stalking, intimate partner or domestic

violence, dating violence, and workplace violence. Anyone found participating in any of these

activities will be subject to disciplinary action and prosecuted in accordance with RCC policies

and procedures and Oregon state laws. For more information, go to http://web.roguecc.edu/title -

ix-and-sexual-misconduct.

Safety: The College assists in keeping the campus safe, but a safe campus can only be achieved

through the efforts and cooperation of al l students, faculty, and staff. For information on safety

services, go to https://www.roguecc.edu/safety/ .

Academic Honesty/Plagiarism: Cheating, plagiarism, and other acts of academic dishonesty are

regarded as serious offenses. Instructors have the right to take action on any suspected acts of

academic dishonesty. Depending on the nature of the offense, serious penalties may be imposed,

ranging from loss of points to expulsion from the class or colle ge.

Disability Services: Any student who feels that he or she may need academic accommodations

for a disability—such as vision, hearing, orthopedic, learning disabilities, psychological or other

medical conditions—should make an appointment with the Disab ility Services Office.

• Redwood Campus (Wiseman Tutoring Center): Ph: (541) 956 -7337; Fax: (541) 471-3550

• Riverside and Table Rock Campuses (RVC B -9): Ph: (541) 245-7537; Fax: (541) 245-7649

For more information, go to http://www.roguecc.edu/disabilityservices/ .

GENERAL INFORMATION AND EXPECTATIONS

Classroom Behavior: Expectations for classroom behavior are outlined in the Student Code of Conduct, available in the catalog, schedule, and online. Students may not engage in any activity which the instructor deems disruptive or counterproductive to the goals of the class. Instructors have the right to remove students from class for not following the Code of Conduct or other specified classroom rules. The Student Rights, Freedoms, and Responsibilities Statement is provided for student information on learning rights, required conduct, and responsibility.

You should silence cell phones unless you are expecting an emergency call, in which case, please tell me at the beginning of class. Please refrain from texting during class—this is a distraction to the people sitting near you.

Also, please be punctual, arriving on time—if you have to leave during the class, come clear this with me at the beginning of class. Simply gathering your things, getting up, and leaving during class is both distracting and disrespectful.

So do not come to see if there is a quiz, and then leave if you find there isn’t.

Discrimination, Harassment, and Sexual Violence: RCC is committed to ensure that its learning and working environments are free from all forms of discrimination and harassment, including sexual harassment. Therefore, it is a violation of College policy for any employee, student, or third-party at RCC to engage in these practices.

In addition, RCC has a zero tolerance for sexual assault, stalking, intimate partner or domestic violence, dating violence, and workplace violence. Anyone found participating in any of these activities will be subject to disciplinary action and prosecuted in accordance with RCC policies and procedures and Oregon state laws. For more information, go to http://web.roguecc.edu/title-ix-and-sexual-misconduct.

Safety: The College assists in keeping the campus safe, but a safe campus can only be achieved through the efforts and cooperation of all students, faculty, and staff. For information on safety services, go to https://www.roguecc.edu/safety/.

Academic Honesty/Plagiarism: Cheating, plagiarism, and other acts of academic dishonesty are regarded as serious offenses. Instructors have the right to take action on any suspected acts of academic dishonesty. Depending on the nature of the offense, serious penalties may be imposed, ranging from loss of points to expulsion from the class or college.

Disability Services: Any student who feels that he or she may need academic accommodations for a disability—such as vision, hearing, orthopedic, learning disabilities, psychological or other medical conditions—should make an appointment with the Disability Services Office.

• Redwood Campus (Wiseman Tutoring Center): Ph: (541) 956-7337; Fax: (541) 471-3550

• Riverside and Table Rock Campuses (RVC B-9): Ph: (541) 245-7537; Fax: (541) 245-7649

For more information, go to http://www.roguecc.edu/disabilityservices/.

Smoking Restrictions: Smoking is not permitted on the premises of Rogue Community College

except in designated areas. For more information go to http://web.roguecc.edu/board -policies.

Administrative Drop: Students who do not attend at least 50% of the class sessions during the

first week of school and who do not contact the instructor to indicate a plan to attend will be

automatically dropped from the class during the second week of the term.

Refund Policy: Students dropping a class by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday of the second week of

the term get a full refund. After that there is no refund.

Withdrawal from Class: A student may withdraw from a class between the Thursday of week 2

and the Friday of week 8 at 11:59 pm (week 5 during summer term). A grade of W will be

assigned.

Student Evaluations of this Course: What Do You Think? Students enrolled in all credit

(and some non-credit) courses will receive an RCC email around the eighth week of ea ch term

to complete online evaluations on each course they are enrolled in. Full instructions for accessing

and completing the evaluations will be in the reminder email. These evaluations are anonymous

and will not be released to the teachers until after the term is over. They provide valuable

feedback to faculty about your experiences in and impressions of the course.

School Closure Information: In the event of fog, snow, ice, or other hazardous or emergency

conditions, college schedules may be altere d, including cancellation of classes, campus closure,

delayed opening, or early dismissal. For school closure information, students should (1) check

the college Web site at www.roguecc.edu for the latest information—the message displays in

red directly under the Events Calendar; (2) read RCC email; (3) call the RCC switchboard at

(541)245-7500; or (4) check local radio and/or television stations.

Online Tutoring: As an enrolled RCC student, you have access to our eTutoring serv ices. The

link can be found at http://go.roguecc.edu/department/academic -success/tutoring-services

****************************

Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILO): RCC faculty have outlined a range of skills and habits

we expect in our students as a measure of success in their studies and beyond the classroom.

These are framed as learning outcomes and are divided under five headings: Personal Growth,

Communication, Approach to Learning , Critical Thinking, and Application of Knowledge.

This course will center on Communication and Critical Thinking:

Communication: Students will engage in quality communication, using active listening and

reading skills and expressing ideas appropriately in oral, written, and visual work.

Critical Thinking: Students can recognize own and others’ assumptions and cultural contexts;

raise significant and relevant questions; demonstrate an ability to seek, organize, analyze, and

interpret data; foresee conseq uences of actions; and engage in behaviors that support

sustainability.

Smoking Restrictions: Smoking is not permitted on the premises of Rogue Community College except in designated areas. For more information go to http://web.roguecc.edu/board-policies. 

Administrative Drop: Students who do not attend at least 50% of the class sessions during the first week of school and who do not contact the instructor to indicate a plan to attend will be automatically dropped from the class during the second week of the term.

Refund Policy: Students dropping a class by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday of the second week of the term get a full refund. After that there is no refund.

Withdrawal from Class: A student may withdraw from a class between the Thursday of week 2 and the Friday of week 8 at 11:59 pm (week 5 during summer term). A grade of W will be assigned.

Student Evaluations of this Course: What Do You Think? Students enrolled in all credit (and some non-credit) courses will receive an RCC email around the eighth week of each term to complete online evaluations on each course they are enrolled in. Full instructions for accessing and completing the evaluations will be in the reminder email. These evaluations are anonymous and will not be released to the teachers until after the term is over. They provide valuable feedback to faculty about your experiences in and impressions of the course.

School Closure Information: In the event of fog, snow, ice, or other hazardous or emergency conditions, college schedules may be altered, including cancellation of classes, campus closure, delayed opening, or early dismissal. For school closure information, students should (1) check the college Web site at www.roguecc.edu for the latest information—the message displays in red directly under the Events Calendar; (2) read RCC email; (3) call the RCC switchboard at (541)245-7500; or (4) check local radio and/or television stations.

Online Tutoring: As an enrolled RCC student, you have access to our eTutoring services. The link can be found at http://go.roguecc.edu/department/academic-success/tutoring-services

****************************

Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILO): RCC faculty have outlined a range of skills and habits we expect in our students as a measure of success in their studies and beyond the classroom. These are framed as learning outcomes and are divided under five headings: Personal Growth, Communication, Approach to Learning, Critical Thinking, and Application of Knowledge.

This course will center on Communication and Critical Thinking:

Communication: Students will engage in quality communication, using active listening and reading skills and expressing ideas appropriately in oral, written, and visual work.

Critical Thinking: Students can recognize own and others’ assumptions and cultural contexts; raise significant and relevant questions; demonstrate an ability to seek, organize, analyze, and interpret data; foresee consequences of actions; and engage in behaviors that support sustainability.

COURSE OUTLINE (subject to change)

Volume A

Sept. 25: Intro. to course and syllabus; “The Battle of Maldon” handout

Sept. 27: The Middle Ages, p. 3-28; “The Battle of Maldon” (handout); “The Wanderer,” p. 118 -120

Oct. 2: Beowulf, p. 36-108

Oct. 4: The Book of Margery Kempe , p. 424-438

Oct. 9: Gawain and the Green Knight , p. 183-238

Oct. 11: The Canterbury Tales—General Prologue, p. 238-263; “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” p. 282 -310

Oct. 16: Everyman, p. 507-529—Review for Midterm Exam

Oct. 18: MIDTERM EXAM

Volume B

Oct. 23: The 16th Century, p. 531 -563; The 17th Century, p. 1341 -1369

Oct. 25: Thomas More’s Utopia, p. 572-645

Oct. 30: The Faerie Queene, Book 1, p. 776-855 (Cantos 1-6)

Nov. 1: The Faerie Queene, Book 1, p. 855-934 (Cantos 7-12)

Nov. 6: 20 sonnets (see sonnets and page numbers below) ; Paper Assignment handout

Nov. 8: John Donne, poems on p. 1373 -1377 and 1385-1388; Herrick, “To the Virgins, to Make Much

of Time,” p. 1762; Lovelace, “To Lucasta, Going to the Wars,” p. 1779; Marvell, “To His Coy

Mistress,” p. 1796-1797; Milton, “Lycidas,” p. 1917 -1923

Nov. 13: Paradise Lost, p. 1943-2024 (Books 1-4)

Nov. 15: Paradise Lost, p. 2024-2091 (Books 5-8)

Nov. 20: Paradise Lost, p. 2091-2175 (Books 9-12)

Nov. 22: Intro. to Shakespeare

Nov. 27: King Lear, p. 1251-1339

Nov. 29: Twelfth Night, p. 1187-1250; begin film; PAPER DUE

Dec. 4: Twelfth Night—continue film; Review for Final Exam

Dec. 6: FINAL EXAM

20 Sonnets:

• Wyatt, p. 646-648; “Whoso list to hunt” on p. 649

• Surrey, p. 661-662; “Alas, so all . . .” on p. 664

• Spenser, p. 766-768; Sonnets 65 & 74 on p. 987 & 988

• Sidney, p. 1037-1039; Sonnets 1 & 15 on p. 1084 -1085 & 1087

• Daniel, Sonnet 33 on p. 1014-1015

• Drayton, Sonnets 6 & 61 on p. 1015 -1017

• Shakespeare, Sonnets 18, 20, 55, 116, 130, & 144 on p. 1172 -1185

• John Donne, p. 1370-1372; Sonnets 10 and 17 on p. 1412 & 1414

• Milton, p. 1949-1943; “How Soon Hath Time,” “When I Consider How My Light Is Spent,”

and “Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint” on p. 1939-1943

COURSE OUTLINE (subject to change)

Volume A

Sept. 25: Intro. to course and syllabus; “The Battle of Maldon” handout

Sept. 27: The Middle Ages, p. 3-28; “The Battle of Maldon” (handout); “The Wanderer,” p. 118-120

Oct. 2: Beowulf, p. 36-108

Oct. 4: The Book of Margery Kempe, p. 424-438

Oct. 9: Gawain and the Green Knight, p. 183-238

Oct. 11: The Canterbury Tales—General Prologue, p. 238-263; “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” p. 282-310

Oct. 16: Everyman, p. 507-529—Review for Midterm Exam

Oct. 18: MIDTERM EXAM

Volume B

Oct. 23: The 16th Century, p. 531-563; The 17th Century, p. 1341-1369

Oct. 25: Thomas More’s Utopia, p. 572-645

Oct. 30: The Faerie Queene, Book 1, p. 776-855 (Cantos 1-6)

Nov. 1: The Faerie Queene, Book 1, p. 855-934 (Cantos 7-12)

Nov. 6: 20 sonnets (see sonnets and page numbers below); Paper Assignment handout

Nov. 8: John Donne, poems on p. 1373-1377 and 1385-1388; Herrick, “To the Virgins, to Make Much

of Time,” p. 1762; Lovelace, “To Lucasta, Going to the Wars,” p. 1779; Marvell, “To His Coy

Mistress,” p. 1796-1797; Milton, “Lycidas,” p. 1917-1923

Nov. 13: Paradise Lost, p. 1943-2024 (Books 1-4)

Nov. 15: Paradise Lost, p. 2024-2091 (Books 5-8)

Nov. 20: Paradise Lost, p. 2091-2175 (Books 9-12)

Nov. 22: Intro. to Shakespeare

Nov. 27: King Lear, p. 1251-1339

Nov. 29: Twelfth Night, p. 1187-1250; begin film; PAPER DUE

Dec. 4: Twelfth Night—continue film; Review for Final Exam

Dec. 6: FINAL EXAM

20 Sonnets:

• Wyatt, p. 646-648; “Whoso list to hunt” on p. 649

• Surrey, p. 661-662; “Alas, so all . . .” on p. 664

• Spenser, p. 766-768; Sonnets 65 & 74 on p. 987 & 988

• Sidney, p. 1037-1039; Sonnets 1 & 15 on p. 1084-1085 & 1087

• Daniel, Sonnet 33 on p. 1014-1015

• Drayton, Sonnets 6 & 61 on p. 1015-1017

• Shakespeare, Sonnets 18, 20, 55, 116, 130, & 144 on p. 1172-1185

• John Donne, p. 1370-1372; Sonnets 10 and 17 on p. 1412 & 1414

• Milton, p. 1949-1943; “How Soon Hath Time,” “When I Consider How My Light Is Spent,”

and “Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint” on p. 1939-1943

HUMANITIES WRITING SEQUENCE

P

L

A

C

E

M

E

N

T

T

E

S

T

GED Studies

No Placement Test

Includes independent work in

learning center and non-

credit-bearing classes

No Tuition/term fee

WR 90 – 4 Credits

(Formerly WR 30)

WR 91 – 5 Credits

Reading 90

Writing 90

Required Lab

Credit classes

Enrollment determined by placement test

or DE course prerequisites

Tuition costs

Financial aid-eligible

English as a Second

Language (ESL)

Adult Basic

Skills (ABS)

ADULT BASIC SKILLS PRE-COLLEGE LEVEL

(ADOPTED INTO HUMANITIES JULY 2016 )

COLLEGE-LEVEL COURSES

Credit classes

Enrollment determined by placement

test or by completing required

prerequisites

Tuition costs

Financial aid-eligible

Basic Skills

Brush-up to

Improve

Placement

Test Scores

WR 115 – 3 Credits

WR 110 – 2 Credits

(Formerly WR 185)

Can be taken concurrently

with any writing course.

WR 90, 91, 115 not offered online

Students can test into any writing course except WR 122

Both WR 90 and WR91 offer opportunity to pass WR 115 while enrolled

WR 121 – 4 Credits

WR 122 – 4 Credits

HUMANITIES WRITING SEQUENCE

P

L

A

C

E

M

E

N

T

T

E

S

T

· No Placement Test

· Includes independent work in learning center and non-credit-bearing classes

· No Tuition/term fee

· Credit classes

· Enrollment determined by placement test or DE course prerequisites

· Tuition costs

· Financial aid-eligible

· Credit classes

· Enrollment determined by placement test or by completing required prerequisites

· Tuition costs

· Financial aid-eligible

WR 90 – 4 Credits

(Formerly WR 30)

PRE-COLLEGE LEVEL

(ADOPTED INTO HUMANITIES JULY 2016)

WR 110 – 2 Credits

(Formerly WR 185)

Can be taken concurrently with any writing course.

· WR 90, 91, 115 not offered online

· Students can test into any writing course except WR 122

· Both WR 90 and WR91 offer opportunity to pass WR 115 while enrolled

WR 91 – 5 Credits

· Reading 90

· Writing 90

· Required Lab

WR 122 – 4 Credits

WR 115 – 3 Credits

WR 121 – 4 Credits

Basic Skills Brush-up to Improve Placement Test Scores

GED Studies

Adult Basic Skills (ABS)

English as a Second Language (ESL)

ADULT BASIC SKILLS

COLLEGE-LEVEL COURSES