YCCD Math Dept Meeting Date: Friday, Feb 18, 2011 Time: 3:00--5:00 p.m. or later [actual end time: 6:40 p.m.] Venue: YC Board Room Attendance [taken from Flex sign-in sheet]: Phuong Le, Ken Berri, Hanan Andrianarivo, Matt Clark, Dennis Schiermeyer, Talwinder Chetra, Roger Davidson, Sarah Kovacs, Michael Papin, Kirk Wardlaw, Quy Bui, Karsten Stemmann, John Steverson, Catherine Heaton, Lauren Syda Klein, John Thoo Agenda/minutes -------------- X) Additions to the agenda or rearrange the topics below? None. A) Any updates from both campus (Chetra) 1) WCC a) Hanan is expecting a son. b) Have in place an "early alert program" for Math 110, 111, and 50 that is funded with BSI money. An IA has been hired who provides intervention to students who have been referred by faculty after failing the first test. c) A math IA has been hired for the WAM (writing and math center) using BSI money. The person works 24 hours/week (recently up from 20 hours/week). Matt mentioned that this IA position has been at the top of the f-t hiring list for 5 years, but has never been funded using general funds.) d) Math 3 is being offered for the first time. e) An associate's degree in math is being developed, and will be sent to the state for approval. 2) YC a) The name of the natural science associate's degree has been changed, so that it now does not include math in the name. b) The associate's requirement has been changed to one math or stat course. c) Math 7 is now listed in Area D2 (here and at WCC). d) The Academic Senate will recommend Roger and Sarah for tenure. e) Lauren and Cathy will be retiring at the end of this year. B) Common final date/time at YC and WCC (Steverson) a) Matt and Lauren are working on having the common final exams at the same time at WCC and YC. At this time, Becky Keating (YC) is working on the YC Fall 2011 final exam schedule. After she is done, and the common final time at YC is set, WCC will work to make their common final time coincide with YC's. b) Matt suggests that YC online students take their common final exams together with WCC students in class, instead of in the library where there is no line-sight proctoring. c) The lack of adequate proctoring of exams at the WCC library was raised as a general concern that needs to be addressed. Matt will check this out with the library, as well as raise the concern with the WCC Academic Senate. Karsten will raise the concern with the YCAS. Mike reports that there have been no noticeable problem at CLC. C) Point distribution for Math 52 final and increasing final exam time period for Math 52 (Heaton) a) Matt will redistribute some points in his draft for this semester's final exam. b) John S noted that at YC the English common finals are 3 hours long, so it would not be unreasonable for us to increase the time for the math common final exams. c) We will stay with 2 hours for the final exam for now, but changed the length of the final exam instead to try to make it more manageable in 2 hours. D) Math 50B and Math 52B finals (Clark) a) The question is whether Math 50B or 52B students should take the same entire common final exam as the other students. There was no agreement one way or another. b) Roger reported that when he has taught Math 52B, his final exam comprised problems from the general common final exam that test those topics covered in 52B, then adds to those problems to make the exam an appropriate length. He has never included questions that specifically test those topics covered in 52A. [Amendment (Davidson; 2/18/11): This is my first semester teaching 52B. My point was that whenever I teach an A/B variant of 50 or 52, I use the common final as the base, based on the sections covered in the course, then I had more problems to make the final an appropriate length.] c) It was noted that Math 50AB students generally continue into Math 52AB, and not into a general 52. Math 52AB students, however, may continue into a transfer course together with general 52 students. [Amendment (Davidson; 2/18/11): While generally your point is true, I noted in the meeting that 7 students have went from Math 50B to regular Math 52. Of those, 4 dropped back into the Math 52A/B path, and 1 received an A and the other 2 passed with Cs.] d) It was decided that we should compare the success of Math 52AB students vs. Math 52 students in their succeeding math class. Once this is know, then we can return to the question of whether all Math 52 students should take the same entire common final exam. Matt will ask Molly Khatami and John T will ask Erik Cooper to track these students. E) Math 111, 50, 52 old finals on the web page (Chetra) Talwinder asked if we should have more recent samples of the common final exams available. It was agreed that we should, and that these should be in addition to the one already online. Mike will send John T copies of recent Math 52 common final exam, Cathy will send copies of 111, and Kirk will send 50. F) Math 110; accelerated Math 110 to Math 52 (Clark) "What to cover in math 110" flyer (Chetra) a) Matt learnt at DVC that students in accelerated sequences were generally successful. (A question was asked if this may be because good students self-selected themselves for accelerated courses.) Thus, Matt suggests that we explore options for shortening the amount of time that is currently required for a student to progress from Math 110 to 52. As an example, we could offer a course that combines Math 110 and 111. b) Roger related that he had read about a self-paced model (for Math 110) that was successful. He will circulate the article among us if he can locate it. [Amendment (Davidson; 2/18/11): Regarding the article I mentioned, it was titled "An Entirely-Online Developmental Mathematics Course: Creation and Outcomes" from Primus 20(6): 498-516, 2010. I only have a hard copy, but I found a pdf and have attached it.] Link to article: . c) Talwinder related that he had heard about an innovative course developmental course (at Foothill College?) that he heard about at last year's CMC3 Monterey conference. Sarah related her experience with another at Laney College. d) Action: WCC will compose a course outline for a course that combines Math 110 and 111 (5 units) that they will try to offer in Spring 2012 as a trial alongside their regular Math 110 and 111 courses. In addition, WCC may try to offer in 2012--2013 eight-week Math 111 and 50 in the fall, and Math 52 and Stats 1 in the spring. e) Talwinder asked whether the "What to cover" sheet for Math 110 could state that calculators are not allowed. Some said that the course outline allows or requires the use of a calculator, but others said not. John T will check the YC course outline and Talwinder will check WCC's. If it turns out that the course outline indeed allows or requires the use of a calculator, then it was agreed that the "What to cover" sheet should be updated to state that calculators should be used after decimals are covered. G) New textbook/new edition for Math 111 (Andrianarivo) We will search for a new textbook for Math 111. Hanan will take point: she will contact publishers and request examination copies for Mike, Sarah, John T, and herself. H) Should some courses be repeatable (Syda) The question is whether any of Math 110 to 52 should be repeatable (after a student earns a C or better in the course). A straw poll was taken: Math 52: 7 yea, 4 nay 50: 11 yea, 2 nay 111: 5 yea, 4 nay 110: 2 yea, 4 nay As a result, we will submit a revised course outline for Math 50 that will allow a student to repeat the course 1 time. Roger will revise the YC outline and Talwinder will revise WCC's. We will return in three years to see what effect this change has had. I) Math 7, Math 21, College Algebra (Clark) a) Kirk will find out if we may test students to see if they are prepared for Math 1A or 9, and if we may keep students from enrolling in those classes if they are not. It would be an algebra test. b) It was agreed that Math 7 (that is not a prerequisite for 1A) should be replaced by a new college algebra course that would, together with 21, be a prerequisite for 1A if students can place (test) out of the prerequisite. Kirk will find out if students would be able to place out of such a prerequisite. J) SLOs after they have been assessed (Papin, Chetra) a) Mike, because he is on the SLO committee, reminded us that, after we submit our SLO assessments, we are supposed to decide if we want to continue to use the same SLOs; if students are meeting the SLOs; and if we want to amend what we do in light of the SLO assessment. b) Moreover, SLOs should be part of our program review. K) Math web page (Chetra) a) Talwinder asked if it could be easier for people to find information on the math web site, for example, the "What to cover" sheets. He would like links to this information to be made more visible on the college web sites. John T and Talwinder will look into this. b) John T reminded everyone that people should be going directly to the math web site http://ms.yccd.edu/math instead of going through the college web sites. By going there directly, they would be able to find information like the "What to cover" easily. He encourages everyone to explore the math web site to see what is there. L) Reminders: (Thoo) John T reminded everyone about the following: Math poetry contest HOM writing contest SVCCM conference Feb 26 at ARC C-ID meeting Feb 25 in San Jose **The End**