Division - Life Sciences
Academic Affairs Program Review Self Study Name of Program: ORNAMENTAL HORTICULTURE
1. Mission
a. College Mission: “Monterey Peninsula College is committed to fostering student learning and success by providing excellence in instructional programs, facilities, and services to support the goals of students pursuing transfer, career, basic skills, and life-long learning opportunities.
Through these efforts MPC seeks to enhance the intellectual, cultural, and economic vitality of our diverse community.”
Check the boxes which best describe how your program supports the college’s mission.
Transfer to a four-year university
Courses meet MPC AA/AS GE requirements Courses meet IGETC/CSU GE requirements
Program supports four-year lower division requirements X Develops occupational skills
X Program offers MPC Certificate and/or degree
X Program influenced by advisory committee reports/recommendations X Program need evident through labor market information
X Supports students’ development of basic skills X Supports life-long learning
b. Program Mission: What is your program’s mission statement? Please explain how the program’s mission relates to the mission of MPC.
Program mission Our mission is to educate students in a wide variety of subjects involved with the field of Horticulture and give them as many practical tools and techniques so they can be successful as horticulture professionals or home gardeners.
Mission’s relationship to
college mission It goes along with it, with the needed emphasis being on the horticulture department’s mission.
c. PROGRAM IMPROVEMENT PLAN: Identify any plans your program has to change or revise its mission.
Plan There are no plans to change or revise our mission at this time.
2. Program Overview
a. Printed below are the courses contained in the MPC catalog, the frequency of these offerings, and the number of sections offered for the past five years. Provide a brief narrative explaining what this information indicates about the health of the program and how the program meets its mission.
Fall 04 Spr 05 Sum 05 Fall 05 Spr 06 Sum 06 Fall 06 Spr 07 Sum 07 Fall 07 Spr 08 Sum 08 Fall 08 Spr 09 Sum 09
ORNH 51 1
0 0
10 0
10 0
10 0
10 0
ORNH 52
0
10 0
10 0
10 0
10 0
10
ORNH 55 1
0 0 0
10 0 0 0
10 0 0 0 0
ORNH 57 1
0 0 0
10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ORNH 59
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ORNH 61 1
0 0
10 0
10 0
10 0
10 0
ORNH 62
0
10 0
10 0
10 0
10 0
10
ORNH 63
0
10 0 0 0
10 0 0 0 0
10 0
ORNH 64
0 0 0 0
10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
10
ORNH 65
0
10 0 0 0
10 0 0
10 0 0 0
ORNH 66
0 0 0
10 0 0
10 0 0 0
10 0
ORNH 68 1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
10 0 0 0 0
ORNH 70
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
10 0 0
10
ORNH 71
0 0 0 0 0 0
10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ORNH 72
0 0 0
10 0 0 0 0 0
10 0 0 0
ORNH 75
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
10 0 0 0 0 0 0
ORNH 76
0 0 0
10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ORNH 78
0 0 0
10 0 0
10 0 0 0
10 0
ORNH 196.10 1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ORNH 196.11 1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ORNH 196.12
0
10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ORNH 196.13
0
10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ORNH 201
0
10 0
10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ORNH 202
0
10 0
10 0
10 0
10 0
10
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ORNH 210.1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
10 0
ORNH 210.2
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
10 0
ORNH 210.3
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
10
ORNH 210.4
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
10
ORNH 210.8
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ORNH 210.11
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ORNH 296.2
0 0 0
10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ORNH 296.3
0 0 0
10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ORNH 296.4
0 0 0 0
10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ORNH 296.5
0 0 0 0
10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ORNH 296.6
0 0 0 0 0 0
10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ORNH 296.7
0 0 0 0 0 0
10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ORNH 296.8
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
10 0 0 0 0 0 0
ORNH 296.9
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
10 0 0 0 0 0 0
ORNH 296.10
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
10 0 0 0 0
ORNH 401
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Sub Totals:
7 9 0 8 10 0 7 8 0 7 5 0 7 7 1
ORNH 90*
0
10
1 10
1 10
1 1 10
10
Comments:
As can be seen, the Horticulture Department offers a large number of
both semester long and short courses covering a wide variety of pertinent
topics applicable to both professional and home horticulturalists. We
rotate the courses that are required for the Certificate or Associate of
Sciences Degree on a regular schedule, and offer the elective courses as
often as we can. Most of the short one half unit “Current Topics in
Horticulture” classes are offered only once. For those that were offered
years ago, if we offer them again, we are required to make some slight
changes to the course name and subject outline. These classes fit in
perfectly with our department mission, as they cover a wide variety of
topics of interest to students interested in Horticulture.
b. Using the following information, comment on the scheduling of your courses or delivery of services as they apply to your program.
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday 6:00
6:30 The majority of our courses are from 6:30-
9:30 pm Monday through Thursday
nights
Comments: We offer most of our courses Monday through Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 9:30 pm. We have found that this is when the majority of our students are available to attend class, as the majority of them work during the day. Our short courses are usually offered on two consecutive Saturdays from 9:00 – 1:00. Our “Basic Pruning” class is scheduled for a Friday evening and the next day, Saturday. Occasionally we will offer a course in the daytime, especially those
involving hands on type work that necessitates light. This type of scheduling has proven successful for our department. Cathy Haas also occasionally team teaches the “Plants and Civilization” class along with Dr. Gail Fail for 1 12 hours on Tuesday and Thursdays
i. If your program offers one or more majors or certificates, can a student complete the majors or certificates in the amount of time published in the catalog?
X Yes.
No.
Comments: Yes, students can complete the Certificate of Achievement or Associate of Sciences in
Ornamental Horticulture in the amount of time published in the catalog if they take the number of units per semester needed to do so. If necessary, we are often able to substitute a required or elective course or two that they have taken for needed courses that weren’t offered during their tenure at MPC.
ii. Does the scheduling pattern you use meet the diverse needs of students?
X Yes.
No.
Comments: Yes, we feel that the scheduling pattern we use meets the diverse needs of students. Because we are primarily a one instructor department, with occasional adjunct instructors teaching a few courses, the evening schedule and the rotation of course offerings has worked well during Cathy Haas’ nearly twenty years at MPC.
b. PROGRAM IMPROVEMENT PLAN: Identify any plans your program has to:
Add or delete courses from catalog.
Courses to be added: At this time, other than any short course topics we might want to offer, there are no known courses to be added to the catalog at this time.
Courses to be deleted: ORNH 70 – “Irrigation Design and Water Economy” is/has been deleted.
Revise scheduling of courses
Revision plans: We are combining the Irrigation Design aspect of ORNH 70 into ORNH 71,
“Landscape Irrigation Practices”.
Provide other avenues for course offerings (distance ed, late start classes, off-campus, etc.)
Other avenues: We already offer the types of courses we have found to be successful.
3. Program Profile
a. Printed are 5 year enrollment trends for this program and for the college. Explain significant increases or decreases in your program in relation to the college.
*Data includes ORNH 51-78, 96.2, 196.x, 201-210.x, 296.x, 401, & 90. Not included 425 - Older Adult
*Source: myMPC Data Mining Spreadsheets - EnrTrend file dated 9/9/2009
Comments: It appears that our department enrollment trends have pretty much coincided with those of MPC overall. As can be seen, the Horticulture Department’s enrollments have stayed quite strong over the years, and they have risen this year over the past couple of years.
Fall 04 Spr 05 Fall 05 Spr 06 Fall 06 Spr 07 Fall 07 Spr 08 Fall 08 Spr 09
ORNH 182 217 160 133 143 154 159 102 134 186
MPC 20965 22394 20902 22526 20582 22656 21412 23058 22933 26711 0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000
0 50 100 150 200 250
ORNAMENTAL HORTICULTURE
Enrollment Trends
b. Printed are the WSCH (Weekly Student Contact Hours) for the college and your program over the past 5 years. Comment on any fluctuations that may have occurred to explain any differences.
*Data includes ORNH 51-78, 96.2, 196.x, 201-210.x, 296.x, 401, & 90. Not included 425 – Older Adult
*MPC data includes all credit courses only
*Source: myMPC Section Data Extract
Comments: It appears that on average, the WSCH of our department has been quite consistent with that of the college. At times we were a bit higher, and at other times, we were a bit lower.
Fall 04 Spr 05 Fall 05 Spr 06 Fall 06 Spr 07 Fall 07 Spr 08 Fall 08 Spr 09
ORNH 472 485 421 286 387 326 391 360 397 392
MPC 80396 82995 76273 82328 74961 79781 79792 78224 83482 97329 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 90,000 100,000
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
ORNAMENTAL HORTICULTURE
WSCH TRENDS
c. Printed are the FTES and FTE for your program, as well as the college’s and your program’s ratios between FTES and FTE. Comment on any fluctuations that may have occurred.
*Data includes ORNH 51-78, 96.2, 196.x, 201-210.x, 296.x, 401, & 90. Not included 425 - Older Adult
*MPC data includes all credit courses only
*Source: myMPC Data Mining Spreadsheets - EnrTrend file dated 9/9/2009
Comments: Once again, it appears that the Horticulture Department is pretty much in line with the rest of the campus as far as WSCH trends are concerned.
ORNH FTES FTE FTES/FTE
School Year Credit Non- Credit
Full-
time
Adjunct Over- load
Total
2006 -2007 Fall 12.9 0 .96 .24 0 1.20
Spring 10.9 0 1.02 .24 0 1.26
Total 23.8 0 Average .99 .24 0 1.23 19.3
2007 - 2008 Fall 13.0 0 .98 .20 0 1.18
Spring 12.0 0 1.06 0 0 1.06
Total 25.0 0 Average 1.02 .10 0 1.12 22.3
2008 - 2009 Fall 13.2 0 .98 .24 0 1.22
Spring 13.1 0 .74 .44 0 1.18
Total 26.3 0 Average .86 .34 0 1.20 21.9
Comments:
In Spring 2009, an ORHN64 section taught by Hass was nonpaid with a 0.24 load. This nonpaid section is not included in the 1.18 FTE total for spring 2009. If the nonpaid was included, the FTE total would have been 1.42.Fall 04 Spr 05 Fall 05 Spr 06 Fall 06 Spr 07 Fall 07 Spr 08 Fall 08 Spr 09
ORNH 15.7 16.2 14.0 9.5 12.9 10.9 13.0 12.0 13.2 13.1
MPC 2679 2765 2542 2748 2502 2657 2664 2880 2779 3224
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
ORNAMENTAL HORTICULTURE
FTES Trends
d. Printed are the gender and ethnicity percentages of this program and the college for the most recent academic year. Address any significant differences between your program and the college.
Comments: The male to female ratio in ORNH changes slightly from term to term, but we generally have more females, as is true for the campus as a whole.
Fall 04 Spr 05 Fall 05 Spr 06 Fall 06 Spr 07 Fall 07 Spr 08 Fall 08 Spr 09 ORNH Male 49.5% 50.7% 40.6% 45.9% 39.9% 40.9% 50.3% 50.0% 40.3% 31.7%
ORNH Female 50.5% 49.3% 59.4% 54.1% 60.1% 59.1% 49.7% 50.0% 59.7% 68.3%
MPC Male 41.8% 41.4% 41.5% 41.2% 41.1% 40.2% 41.5% 42.7% 42.8% 43.5%
MPC Female 58.2% 58.6% 58.5% 58.8% 58.9% 59.8% 58.5% 57.3% 57.2% 56.5%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Percentages
ORNAMENTAL HORTICULTURE
Gender Percentages vs MPC
ETHNICITY percentages for ORNAMENTAL HORTICULTURE
ORNH AfrAm Asian Latino Other White Unknown
Fall 04 MPC 6% 14% 14% 3% 55% 10%
ORNH 3% 3% 18% 1% 70% 4%
Spr 05 MPC 6% 14% 14% 3% 57% 7%
ORNH 0% 2% 23% 3% 65% 7%
Fall 05 MPC 6% 14% 15% 3% 56% 7%
ORNH 1% 3% 18% 0% 68% 11%
Spr 06 MPC 5% 13% 12% 3% 58% 9%
ORNH 1% 3% 17% 0% 72% 8%
Fall 06 MPC 6% 15% 16% 3% 54% 7%
ORNH 1% 6% 20% 1% 66% 7%
Spr 07 MPC 5% 14% 15% 3% 56% 7%
ORNH 1% 8% 21% 0% 66% 4%
Fall 07 MPC 6% 14% 17% 3% 55% 7%
ORNH 0% 5% 19% 1% 67% 9%
Spr 08 MPC 5% 15% 16% 3% 55% 7%
ORNH 0% 2% 15% 1% 70% 13%
Fall 08 MPC 6% 14% 19% 3% 53% 7%
ORNH 0% 3% 21% 0% 67% 10%
Spr 09 MPC 6% 14% 17% 3% 53% 8%
ORNH 5% 8% 7% 2% 66% 13%
Comments: As is true for MPC, the majority of our department students are white. We do have a number of Hispanic students, as well as a few African American and Asian students. Of course, all students are welcomed and treated with respect in our courses.
e. Explain how external factors (e.g. state budget, local economy, local job market, Education Center at Marina, changes in technology, similar program or service at neighboring institutions) influence your program, and describe any measures that have been taken to respond to these factors.
External factors The external factors that have had an influence on our program are cuts in the state budget and a slow down in the local economy and job market. There are fewer funds in our department’s operating budget, and fewer jobs in the local horticulture field. Nonetheless, a good number of our students are employed in horticulture. Similar programs or services at neighboring institutions have little to no effect on our department, as we are quite specialized in our offerings. We use computer programs, digital slide presentations, and DVD’s in our classes. Cathy Haas continues to utilize digital cameras and a laptop computer to produce high quality photographic presentations. She continues to develop a database of photographs and information from both previously and newly taken photographs to be used in her classes.
f. Describe how your program coordinates with other programs on campus and how improved coordination could enhance institutional effectiveness.
Program coordination We work with the other departments in our Life Science Division in any way we can. We also work with the Maintenance and Grounds Department in regards to our maintaining the areas around the Life Sciences Building, the California Native Plant Garden area, and in the near future, in the landscaped area across form the Print Shop. We also coordinate with those programs that all departments have contact with, including the library, counseling, student services, etc.
g. Describe your program’s involvement with the community through recruitment,
articulation, partnerships, facilitation of advisory committee meetings and/or collaboration with business, government, private agencies, or educational institutions.
Community involvement
We do all we can to advertise our courses every semester in local newspaper articles, through fliers, by our presence at horticultural events and by word of mouth. Our best “recruiters” are current and past students. We believe that our department is probably one of the best publicized on campus, largely due to our efforts. We have articulated with the Environmental Horticulture Department at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, which is where most of our students who transfer to a four-year institution go. Cathy Haas works in partnership with area high schools that offer horticultural classes.
Our department has an advisory committee, and we work in partnership with many horticulture - related businesses in the area both by purchasing
merchandise from them, as well as helping supply them with quality employees. They in turn often help us out by giving us tours of their businesses or by being guest speakers in our classes. We also work with the City Foresters of both Monterey and Carmel, as well as with the Monterey Parks Department. We enhance the community awareness of the college and its offerings through partnerships with a large number of horticulture related events, clubs, businesses and professional organizations. Cathy Haas speaks for various groups, and she always promotes the department.
We currently participate, or have participated in a number of community events that have helped promote our department.
The department is also involved with attendance at workshops, seminars, and trade shows sponsored by the professional organizations that involve local horticultural businesses.
Many of our students have received scholarships from local garden clubs,
partially due to our departments’ affiliation with them. Over $18,000 has
been awarded since 1990, which is a large increase over the years before
that.
h. If there are any other measures or considerations you would like to include regarding your program’s profile, please explain.
Other considerations None
i. PROGRAM IMPROVEMENT PLAN (If any boxes checked, describe plans):
Identify any plans your program has to: Details
Improve overall enrollment. We always want to increase our overall enrollment. We feel it is strong, but more students are always welcome.
Improve FTES/FTE ratio. These seem to be fine.
Improve ratio of full-time to part-time
FTE. This has remained pretty consistent over the years.
Increase enrollment of underrepresented groups.
The number of Hispanic students in our department has increased over the years, and we are pleased about that.
Improve coordination with other programs
on campus. Our coordination with other programs on campus is fine.
Improve involvement with the
community. We continue to have strong involvement with the community.
4. Student Learning
a. What delivery modes are used in your program? We utilize traditional classroom, lab and field trips.
X Traditional classroom Distance learning X Lab
X Other: Field trips and guest speakers
b. Indicate how often your faculty and staff refer students to the following services.
(Completing the Faculty/Staff Satisfaction survey will provide data for this question.)
Often Sometimes Rarely Never
Academic Support Center (Tutoring) X
Admissions & Records X
Assessment Center (for ENGL/ESL/MATH placement) X
Business Skills Center X
Counseling X
English & Study Skills Center X
Information Services (College Center) X
Library & Technology Center X
Math Lab X
Reading Center X
Supportive Services & Instruction X
Career/Transfer Center X
Child Development Center X
Cooperative Work Experience X
Extended Opportunity Programs & Services (EOPS) X
Job Placement X
Student Financial Services X
Student Health/Psychological Services X
Women’s Programs/Re-Entry & Cultural Center X
Other:
c. Student Learning Outcomes
i. Have SLOs been created for all courses, certificates, and degrees in your program?
Check all that apply.
X SLOs have been created for all COURSES. If this box is not checked, please list all courses for which SLOs have not been developed.
Courses in need
of SLOs None.
CERTIFICATES. Please list specific certificates offered through your program and their respective SLOs.
Certificates SLOs
Certificate of Achievement in Ornamental Horticulture
Practice sound gardening techniques Explain basic plant functions Identify common local plants
Apply basic principles of landscape design Demonstrate floral design techniques
Identify and propagate various types of plants Apply principles of turf management
Conduct pest management practices
Utilize sound horticultural business management practices Plan and set up effective irrigation systems
CTE MAJOR(S). Please list your program’s CTE major(s) along with their respective SLOs.
CTE Major SLOs
Associate of Sciences in Ornamental
Horticulture
Same as for the Certificate of Achievement in Ornamental Horticulture
ii. After reviewing “Instructor Reflections” and each semester’s “Program Reflections”
forms, summarize what changes occurred as a result of the continuous dialogues.
Reflections summary We decided to merge the two Irrigation courses, and delete the “Irrigation Design and Water Economy” course. We have added three new part time instructors to assist us with the short “Current Topics in Ornamental Horticulture” courses, the “Landscape Irrigation Practices”, “Landscape Construction” the “Organic Gardening” classes and to team teach the “Growing and Using California Native Plants” class. We decided to allow the campus to demolish our shade house and greenhouse at the end of the Physical Sciences Building so the faculty parking lot could be expanded. In return, our other greenhouse, storage shed and nursery beds were also demolished, and a new greenhouse, storage building and nursery bed area are being constructed outside of our Life Sciences Building.
iii. If there is a sequence of courses in your program, what process or framework is used to ensure alignment within sequence of course?
Course alignment
process The only two courses that have any type of sequence involved with them are the
“Introduction to Ornamental Horticulture I and II” courses and the “Basic Landscape Design” and “Intermediate Landscape Design” courses. Students can enroll in either one before of after the other, as there are no prerequisites in our program. Most students, however, if taking both classes, enroll in them in the order they are intended.
iv. How is consistency maintained between multiple sections of single courses?
Consistency We don’t offer multiple sections of single courses in our department.
c. Student Achievement
i. Printed are the retention rates for the college and program over the last 5 years. Discuss similarities and differences between the program’s and college’s rates.
Data has all ORNH sections including 90. Deleted Older Adult 425
Comments
As can be seen, our retention rate is quite high. This is something we are very proud of.
We believe it speaks to the overall quality and caring attitude of our program and our faculty
.ii. Printed are the success rates (passing grades) for the college and program over the last 5 years. Discuss similarities and differences between the program’s and college’s rates.
# Success # Non-Succ. # Withdrawn Totals % Success % Non-Succ. % Withdrawn
ORNH 1148 90 120 1358 85% 7% 9%
MPC 28694 4633 8230 41557 67% 12% 21%
Comments:
Our success rate seems to be very good.
This is another thing
we are very
proud of.
Fall 04 Spr 05 Fall 05 Spr 06 Fall 06 Spr 07 Fall 07 Spr 08 Fall 08 Spr 09 ORNH 90.6% 87.7% 85.1% 91.0% 82.7% 85.9% 88.7% 88.8% 89.0% 87.7%
MPC 76.5% 77.2% 76.3% 78.7% 76.8% 76.2% 76.7% 75.7% 75.7% 76.3%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
ORNAMENTAL HORTICULTURE
Student Retention
iii. Printed are the retention and success rates by age, gender, and ethnicity. Address any significant differences in performance among ethnic, age, or gender groups.
# Success # Non-Succ. # Withdrawn Totals % Success % Non-Succ. % Withdrawn Program’s
Students by Age
0 – 19 yrs 39 18 7 64 61% 28% 11%
20 – 24 yrs 117 25 29 171 68% 15% 17%
25 - 34 yrs 204 19 17 240 85% 8% 7%
35+ yrs 610 48 39 697 88% 7% 6%
Totals 970 110 92 1,172 83% 9% 8%
Program’s Students by Ethnicity
AfrAm 9 1 2 12 75% 8% 17%
Asian 38 6 3 47 81% 13% 6%
Latino 166 28 28 222 75% 13% 13%
Other 6 5 1 12 50% 42% 8%
White 666 66 57 789 84% 8% 7%
Unknown 100 4 1 105 95% 4% 1%
Totals 985 110 92 1187 83% 9% 8%
Program’s Students by Gender:
Male 413 78 64 555 74% 14% 12%
Female 570 32 28 630 90% 5% 4%
Unknown 2 0 0 2 100% 0% 0%
Total 985 110 92 1187 83% 9% 8%
Comments
As can be seen, the majority of our students are older in age than the majority of students attending MPC. Most of our students, no matter what their age, are serious about their studies, and are usually successful in completing their class work and receiving a passing grade. Overall, it looks like our percent of students who withdraw is fairly low.
*Cal-PASS https://my.calpass.org/ only has 4 yrs of data over the last 5yrs. Missing is Fall 2008 and Spring 2009.
iv. Describe factors that may hinder students from successfully completing courses and/or certificates associated with your program. If applicable, what strategies has your program implemented to address these barriers? Have these strategies been successful?
Comments
The factors that may hinder students include financial difficulties, lack of study skills, or issues in their personal life that don’t allow them to continue with their classes. We do all that we can to contact students who have missed class and encourage them to return to class and make up their work. We also sometimes allow students to turn in their assignments late, if they have a legitimate excuse. They receive at least one grade lower for this, however. As stated earlier in this report, if needed, we are allowed to substitute appropriate courses for completing the Certificate of Achievement if the course or courses needed weren’t offered during their time at MPC. These strategies have been successful for us.
v. If the program offers both traditional and distance education courses, compare the retention and success rates of these sections with on-campus sections of the same course(s).
Course Type of Section Retention Rates Success Rates
Comments We only offer traditional courses on campus.
vi. What facilities/equipment/supplies changes have occurred since the last program review? How have these changes affected instruction and/or student learning?
Comments As stated before, a new greenhouse, storage building and nursery bed area is being constructed outside of our Life Sciences Building. When they are built, we will fully utilize them in our classroom and laboratory work with our students.
vii. If there are any other measures or considerations you would like to include regarding student learning, please explain.
Comments We integrate a large number of teaching techniques in our classes, including class and small group discussions, a lot of interaction between the instructor and the students, use of the Internet to explain or show samples of what is being discussed, digital photographic presentations, hands on lab work, guest speakers and field trips. We are proud of the diversity of our teaching methods, and feel that it keeps students engaged.
d. PROGRAM IMPROVEMENT PLAN: Check the appropriate box(es), identifying any plans your program has to improve instruction, processes, and/or student learning.
Identify any plans your program has to: Details
Complete and/or revise SLOs for courses,certificates, and/or degrees. We will do this if needed.
Change status of one or more courses in specific GE requirement areas.
Not applicable
Improve consistency among multiple sections. No improvement needed Improve alignment among sequences of courses. No improvement needed
Improve retention rates. We are doing quite well in this area.
Improve success rates. We are doing quite well in this area.
Support student equity. We don’t really have any problem in this area.
5. Staffing
a. Describe your faculty and staff’s workload.
Cathy Haas is the full time instructor and Department Chair and she always has a full workload. We have four or five part time instructors that teach either the short “Current Topics in Ornamental Horticulture” courses, or one semester long class. There is usually at least one part time instructor teaching per semester.
b. Describe your faculty and staff’s recent staff development activities.
The recent staff development activities include Cathy Haas participating in a Digital Photography seminar, attending and photographing the Monterey Bay Master Gardeners garden tour, and beginning to learn the Curricunet program.
Our part time instructors are employed in the horticulture field, and participate in professional organizations such as the California Landscape Contractor’s Association and the California Nursery and Garden Centers Association.
c. Complete the Faculty and Staff Satisfaction Survey. Discuss your findings from this survey.
Cathy Haas has completed the faculty and staff satisfaction survey. The overall findings state that she is quite pleased with her position, her division, and the tools and equipment she has to do her job. She would of course like to have more funding for the program.
d. Discuss the adequacy of your staffing to meet your program’s mission.
We believe that our staffing is adequate to meet our program’s mission. We are able to offer a
wide range of subjects in our field, and have qualified instructors to do that.
e. PROGRAM IMPROVEMENT PLAN:
Identify any plans your program has to: Details
Take steps to improve faculty and staffsatisfaction.
From conversations with our faculty, it is felt that they are satisfied with their positions in our department.
Seek out opportunities for training and
development.
We are always looking for ways to keep up to date on
the latest developments in our field, and we will continue to do so.
Adjust staffing to meet program’s mission.
We don’t see a real need to adjust staffing to meet our program’s mission. We are always looking for good part time instructors, especially for our “Landscape
Irrigation” and “Landscape Construction” classes.
6. Summary
Summarize and prioritize the PROGRAM IMPROVEMENT PLANS for improving or maintaining the quality of your program area. Include improvement of student attainment of SLOs as rationale for any plan, if appropriate. Distinguish between budget-dependent and budget-independent items.
Priority PIP Item
Supports Inst.
Goal(s)?
Timeline Responsible Person
Budget dependent or independent?
1 Work more closely with local high schools offering Horticulture classes
yes As time allows
Cathy Haas Independent
2 Obtain more funds for our department for
instructional materials
Yes As time
allows Cathy Haas Budget dependent
3 Periodically offer daytime courses during the week to broaden the student population in our classes
Yes As time
allows Cathy Haas Budge dependent
4 Continue to keep up to date on advances in the Horticulture field
Yes As
opportunities arise
Cathy Haas and
the adjunct faculty Depending on the situation, it may or may not be budget dependent
5 Continue to develop the use of computers, power point presentations and computer programs in our
Yes As time
allows Cathy Haas and
the adjunct faculty Independent
