Today's community colleges are challenged to respond to rapidly changing internal and external environments. Their responses must promote highly responsive and relevant programs and services, while keeping intact the strengths of community colleges--access, student success, and a focus on teaching and learning. Further, these responses must occur in the context of rising costs, decreasing revenues, and increased accountability. Accrediting agencies are requiring colleges to more effectively respond to change by implementing improved planning processes. The research literature on higher education planning suggests faculty are a key constituency to engage in planning efforts. However, little is written about actual faculty experiences in planning. This qualitative study was conducted to provide increased understanding of how faculty at a large, suburban California community college experienced developing discipline specific educational master plans (EMPs) in Spring 2001. Using interactive qualitative analysis methodology, a seven-member faculty focus group first identified the affinities (or themes) of their planning experience. These affinities were used to develop interview questions for another 14 faculty members. The 21 faculty participants were from a total of nine different instructional areas, and had been identified as lead EMP contacts for their disciplines. Following its collection, the data was analyzed to generate grounded theory about the faculty EMP experience. The "Faculty EMP Experience Systems Theory" revealed the primary driver of the faculty experience was their belief eligibility for future resources for their disciplines was tied directly to their EMPs. This was followed by secondary drivers of their past experiences with planning at the college, and the resources they were given, or accessed, to complete their plans. Together, these three drivers directly influenced how the planning work was done. The secondary outcomes of the faculty experience developing EMPs included interpersonal effects of engaging in the EMP process, and unanswered questions about what the administration would actually do with their EMP work. Finally, the primary outcomes of the faculty experience were their evaluation of the EMP processes and products (plans), and the frustrations, if any, they experienced. This new theory suggests implications for practice and further research. / Graduation date: 2003

From the establishment of Harvard in 1636, to the establishment of the first public Junior College in 1901, to the curricular reforms of the 1960's and 1970's, the purpose of higher education and the role of general education have been the subjects for many lively debates. The national debate on issues relating to general education has intensified within the last decade, and community colleges continue to be active participants in these debates. The purpose of this study was to describe the course contents and classroom environments of selected community college general education general biology courses in sufficient detail as to shed light on the contribution each makes to general education. This study offers descriptions, interpretations, and evaluations of community college general education biology classrooms and laboratories. The intent was to present vivid descriptions of the classroom experience and to offer interpretations of what was being taught and what was being learned. / Ed. D.

One purpose of this study was to determine the relationships among community college students' mathematics, electronics, and electronics troubleshooting knowledge. A second purpose of the study was to determine the extent to which independent variables predicted troubleshooting knowledge. Students involved in the study were enrolled in electronics technician associate degree granting programs. More specifically the study was designed to examine the relationships among electronics troubleshooting knowledge and the following independent variables: 1. Number of mathematics courses taken at the community college level 2. Types of mathematics courses taken at community college level 3. Mathematics knowledge as measured by scores on a standardized mathematics test 4. Number of electronics courses taken at the high school level 5. Number of electronics courses taken at the community college level 6. Prior work experience in the electronics industry In addition to examining these variables, this study also sought to answer the question: Which combination of variables best tends to predict troubleshooting knowledge? Usable data were gathered from 100 North Carolina community college students who were enrolled in electronics technician degree granting programs at five randomly selected community colleges. The students participating in this study were administered three data gathering instruments. The instruments included a Student Information and Data Sheet designed to gather demographic information about each student, a standardized mathematics knowledge test designed to cover the mathematical concepts stressed in elementary, intermediate and college algebra, and finally, a paper and pencil electronics and troubleshooting test which consisted of troubleshooting an AM transceiver functional block diagram, a servicing block diagram, a power supply, and a summing circuit. It was determined that under the conditions imposed by this study only one of the independent variables, score on the Mathematics Knowledge Test, could be used with some accuracy to predict troubleshooting knowledge. The independent variable mathematics knowledge, as represented by scores on the standardized mathematics knowledge test, could only predict troubleshooting knowledge with 6.8% percent accuracy. / Ed. D.

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Online learning has grown exponentially within higher education in the past decade, especially at community colleges. As online course offerings expand community colleges need to assess student learning in order to ensure quality learning experiences for students and for accreditation purposes. The purpose of this study was to compare the assessment methods of community college faculty who teach the same course in both face-to-face and online formats, in order to determine the similarities and differences that exist in assessment practices. This study stemmed from the constructionist and pragmatic perspectives of the researcher. Additionally this study asked how community college faculty perceive the effectiveness of different assessment methods on student learning. The method for this research was a qualitative multiple case study in which community college accounting faculty were interviewed to explore how they assess student learning in both the online and face-to-face formats. Homework problems, exams, quizzes were the most commonly used methods of assessment of student learning in both formats by the study participants. Furthermore, exams and quizzes were believed to be most effective in assessing student learning, among the community college faculty members interviewed. Another discovery from this study included the prevalent use of publisher's software,called My Accounting Lab, among community college accounting faculty in administering assessments to students. Additional concerns around assessing online students effectively, managing online student group work, and mitigating online student cheating were also revealed during interviews with study participants. / Graduation date: 2013