Ver 2013-09-17
Annual Program Review Form
Fall 2013
To complete this form you will be “Looking at last year to plan for next year.” The program review website includes timelines, guidelines, criteria, data, Board priorities, college plans, acronyms to use when referring to priorities and plans, et cetera: www.ccsf.edu/program_review.
NOTE: We are investigating moving to a new format (Google Forms and PHP) to allow for improved synthesis and analysis across program reviews, as well as greater uniformity in reporting format. As you draft your program review please keep in mind that Google Forms does not support special fonts or embedded tables. Use Arial font size 10 which is the default font in this document. If desired, tables may be incorporated through hyperlinks but cannot be directly inserted. Be sure to briefly describe any hyperlinked table(s).
Department: Continuing Education Office; www.ccsf.edu/services/continuing_education
Contact Person: Kit Dai
Date: November 18, 2013
Please check this box to certify that faculty and staff in your unit discussed the unit’s major planning objectives:
1. Description of Programs and Services and their Locations
Continuing Education is the extended learning program of City College of San Francisco. It is a not-for-credit, fee-based, self-supporting program offering short term classes and workshops in a wide variety of areas. Classes/workshops are generally held on evenings and Saturdays. Class lengths vary from 2 hours or up to 7 weeks for 21 hours.
The Continuing Education provides a diverse program to support the public interest in culture, recreation, avocation, personal interest, and life-long education. Classes are designed to supplement or enhance regular CCSF education services and
programs. Continuing Education also works with departments to: 1) explore the transition of deactivated courses to fee-based alternatives, examples – Museum Drawing and Upholstery, and 2) test out a new offering before transitioning to a credit course, for example – REVIT.
Types of offerings
• Art: Soap Making, Raku, Painting, Drawing, Watercolor, Printmaking, Sculpture • Computer: Social Media, Web Production, quick start classes in various applications • Food & Wine: Sushi making, desserts, fresh pasta, wine tasting
• Foreign Languages: French, Portuguese, Greek, and Spanish • Health: Bellydance, Swing Dancing, Massage for Two • Ornithology
• Personal Development: Bicycle Basic Tune Up, Overcoming Hoarding, and Self Improvement • Voice-Over
• Writing: Creative Writing, Illustrating, and Publishing Children’s Book, Writing Short Stories • Upholstery
• Photography
• Business/Finance: Retirement Planning, Become a Notary Public • Test Preparation: Basic Math Review, GRE and GMAT Test Preparation
• Certificate Programs: Wedding Planner, Personal Trainer and Sport Nutrition Consultant Certification, and Bartending Apart from the core enrichment classes, Continuing Education has expanded its educational services to meet the diverse needs of our community. Continuing Education provides the following educational services available for our students:
1. Continuing Education Enrollment in credit classes is for student who has exceeded the allowable repeats in a course family and is interested in enrolling without any credit and units. Student must attend the first class and obtain instructor’s signature on the Continuing Education registration form.
Registration will only be accepted and processed after the credit class minimum enrollment is met, all
permission. Student registration information is kept in the Continuing Education’s database, not in the college’s BANNER system.
Departments participating in co-enrollment are: • Art
• Foreign Languages • Music
• Photography
• Physical Education (PE classes and Wellness Center Membership) • Retail Floristry
2. Online Learning partnered through Education To Go (Ed2go):
Continuing Education has an agreement with Ed2go to offer online not-for-credit classes. Students interested in online classes are able to register and pay the Continuing Education program and take the class through the Ed2Go service.
3. Sommelier Certificate and Diploma: Continuing Education has a partnership with the International Sommelier Guild to offer the Wine Fundamentals Certificate and Sommelier Diploma Programs at the college. This training is not available through regular credit offerings.
4. City University – Department of Human Resources SF Gov: Continuing Education works with the City and County of San Francisco to offer classes through the City University for City and County employees who enroll in Continuing Education’s not-for-credit classes and online learning.
Pricing
On average, student pays approximately $15 to $40 per class hour plus material fees. Each class has a minimum enrollment number: 12 for activity and other lecture classes; 6 for one-day workshops and 7 for computer classes which covers the cost of instruction and program overhead.
Continuing Education program offers an early enrollment appreciation discount of $15 for students who register up to one week before class begins. Early enrollment discount does not apply to certificate classes, such as, Wedding and Event Planning, Bartending Management and Sommelier Diploma and Ed2go online workshops.
Locations
The Continuing Education Office is located at Fort Mason Center, Building B.
Classes are held at various Centers and locations:
• Fort Mason Center – Art, Clay, Drawing, Painting, Spanish, Investment and Retirement Planning, Wine Tasting, Photography
• Chinatown Center – Conversational Greek
• Downtown Center – Foreign languages, Computer Applications, Cooking, Writing, Personal Development, Test Preparation
• John Adams Center – Ballroom Dance, Belly Dance, Ornithology • Evans Center – Upholstery
• Mission Center - Letterpressing
• Ocean Campus - Introduction to Screen Printing and Personal Finance
• Various Sites – Sushi Making at “We Be Sushi”; Museum Drawing class at Legion of Honor and Jewelry Making Workshop at an Art Studio
2. Please provide an analysis of the data trends for your department. If you have additional data that you would like to provide, please also include that here.
Continuing Education Program offers classes/workshops at various locations and sites throughout the city. On average, we schedule more than 130 classes and workshops each semester, approximately 80% in the evenings and 20% on weekends.
Enrollment for FY 2012-13 remained flat as did the economy. The most impacted subjects include cooking, guitar, activity classes, and foreign languages classes which previously were held at the Marina Middle School and Castro sites for more than a decade. These sites with strong local connections and parking attracted students from the nearby neighborhoods. Closing the use of these sites and transferring the class locations requires some time for the population to adjust. Affected classes were moved to various Centers such as Fort Mason, Downtown, Chinatown and John Adams. However, enrollment in these classes have dropped significantly because of limited or no parking and commute time to the new locations, Continuing Education will continue to test out different classes at the locations with available space.
Enrollment in the personal certificate category remains strong. Classes include Wedding and Event Planning Certificate, Bartender Training, Personal Trainer and Sports Nutritionist certification, and GRE/GMAT Test Preparation. For these certificate and preparation classes, prices ranged from $89 to $1,695 per class. The increasing enrollment in these programs, indicate that students are willing to invest in career development training. Continuing Education will continue to expand offerings in the personal certificate category in order to attract new students and offer the needed opportunities. Flexibility to respond to meet the market demand and public needs in a timely manner is a competitive advantage that Continuing Education possesses. As an example; The High Rise Fire Safety Director Certificate Renewal class started spring 2012 with one class to test the market. The large enrollment demonstrated the need for the offering and has now it become a regular offering with the Continuing Education program. The instructor is well connected to the individuals in need making this class well attended.
As a result of site consolidations centers are receiving more room requests for credit classes in the evenings and weekends. Priority is given to credit and noncredit classes. Continuing Education at times finds challenges in securing classrooms for evening and weekend workshops. The space availability has limited some Continuing Education classes to be canceled or moved due to room conflicts resulting in a loss of students and revenue. In one incident a Continuing Education upholstery class at the Evans Center was scheduled in a room that was previously a noncredit class. The room is equipped with upholstery tools and space for storage. This Continuing Education upholstery offering is a product of a noncredit class being deactivated to a fee-based offering and it is still able to draw a large student following on Saturdays. Due to a scheduling conflict, the Fashion Department had to move a credit class into the room, which directly forced Continuing Education to re-schedule the class on a weekday evening. Enrollment dropped from 20 to 10.
3. Please describe any internal or external developments affecting your department since the last program review.
The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) issuance to City College of San Francisco a show cause order citing the College failed to demonstrate meeting the eligibility requirements and accreditation standards became an area of concern.. Since then, the College has worked to implement a series of corrective actions in order to resolve the deficiencies as identified by the Commission. The ACCJC made a decision to terminate the College’s accreditation. It was disheartening for City College, the City of San Francisco, our students, and our community to accept this decision. With the support of State Chancellor’s office City College has an appointed special Trustee to work both the interim and new Chancellor to lead the college to retain its accreditation. The negative publicity created a questionable atmosphere regarding College’s survival. Students were and still are concerned and confused about continuing their studies at City College. In respond to this challenge, the Continuing Education had put in more resources to market the program via traditional and social media. Continuing Education used its social media accounts to maintain a connection with past, current, and potential students by posting the latest news on our offerings, program updates, and has continues to advertise the programs with local newspapers.
The state of the economy, also, continues to influence student enrollment, class offerings, and program revenue. Fee based classes are always an optional expenditure for a household budget. Enrollment for a class is still difficult to predict and in many cases finding the student’s decision to enroll stalled to just before a class begins. Offering an early enrollment appreciation discount that ends the week before the class begins helps to determine a class minimum enrollment.
As the economy improves, the classes with previously marginal enrollment are showing earlier trends of enrollment and there is a greater interest in certificate offerings. The existing fiscal crisis both external and internal has provided opportunities for the Continuing Education Office to work with departments to offer classes that could no longer be sustained by general fund such as Letterpress and Museum Drawing. The office has also experienced an increase of inquiry on how to offer classes through the Continuing Education Program from part time faculty and independent private companies/individuals.
The implementation of the new regulation to Title 5 regarding course repeatability effective Fall 2013 has created a deluge of individuals being locked out of activity classes, performing art, visual arts, and language classes. Continuing Education co-enrollment in a credit class has increased rapidly, from 152 in Spring 2013 to 257 in Fall 2013. Under the new regulation, students may only take a course once and may take up to 4 different courses within a family. The growth in the Continuing Education co-enrollment in a credit class is a clear indication of a need to accommodate a student population of individuals that are still interested in class participation in activity, performing, and visual arts classes, along with a need for students wishing to repeat a class for a greater comprehension of a class. The Continuing Education office has been working with departments
help accommodating these students to co-enroll students in various credit classes. Historically, the number of students choosing this option is ranging from 50 to 100 per semester for the past ten years and has doubled this Fall 2013 semester.
The fee is set to be higher than credit tuition to encourage students to max out the allowable repeat limit. The Continuing Education Credit Enrollment fee schedule: 1 unit = $105, 1.5 units = $145, 2 units = $165, and 3 units = $205.
Take for an example, Yoga, a 1-unit class, 35 hours of meeting.
Option Fees Remarks
Credit Yoga class $69 ($46/unit + $23 student health and other related fees)
Continuing Education Credit Enrollment
$105 For student who has maxed out the allowable repeat limit.
Private Class $350 Price is ranged from $10 to $30 per meeting
This offering for students, departments, and the Continuing Education Office becomes advantageous for all involved. Students are not being turned away and are able to stay active socially, mentally, and physically, as well as, having an option to continue to study a subject that they were able to complete but not completely versed in all the material offered. The departments benefit through the fees collected which are handled as a 50/50 split with the participating department and the Continuing Education program. Departments are able to access their co-enrollment funds for equipment upgrades office or instructional supplies, and maintenance or service needs.
Under the new organization, Office of Continuing Education is now under the Workforce and Economic Development and Educational Centers, Academic Affairs Division. Becoming part of the Workforce and Economic Development and Education Centers unit, Continuing Education is able to establish a stronger link with the Schools, Centers and Grant units, thereby, increasing our visibility within the college.
Civic Center had lost a full-time secretary who provided clerical support to both credit and noncredit programs at Fort Mason Art Center. To remedy the situation, it requires that the duties of the lost position to be absorbed by the remaining individuals and expanding the job duties for all. It impacts the response time to students, faculty, and program needs as well as the ability to perform at optimum levels.
4. Summarize overall departmental/program improvements implemented, in progress, or under
consideration as a result of the assessment of learning, service, and/or administrative unit outcomes. (Be sure to reference the data/reports that underlie these new directions.)
Facility availability is an ongoing challenge for the program. To overcome this, the Continuing Education has started
scheduling weekday afternoon classes to utilize a facility open times and to attract students who do not need the credit offering but still prefer to take day classes. Examples of this are Beginning Etching and Photography classes at Fort Mason Center and the High Rise Fire Safety Renewal Certification class.
In addition, the Continuing Education had converted a small room that is unable to be used for credit enrollment due to room capacity into a multi-use classroom, which is suitable for Continuing Education classes and workshops with smaller group classes such as art workshops, foreign language, notary public classes and lecture classes such as Financial Planning or Voice Over.
Based on the class evaluation and feedback from students and instructors, Continuing Education has implemented the followings:
- Added more retirement planning classes at a different location, the Ocean Campus; - Scheduled the in class offering of the Wedding and Event Planning certification.
- Continued to expand and offer fun and new classes to attract new students, such as, Creative Non Fiction Writing, Dying Techniques, and Taking Pictures with Your Digital Camera.
- Developed the website to include more images with the class description to make the online schedule more colorful and visually interesting.
- Working on adding computer workshops on Developing an App and Responsive Web Sites. - Distributed more printed class schedules to various Centers and community organizations;
- Continued to explore innovative classes for various age groups. One of the targeted groups is high school students. The office together a 2-week summer art program and after school workshops for high school students and publicized it at both the Continuing Education and the College for Teen’s websites.
- Convened the Continuing Education Advisory Committee meeting to gather input and feedback for continuous program improvement
- Highlighted new offerings and open sessions on the Continuing Education’s home page
5. Summarize your department’s progress to date on the major planning objectives identified in the last program review (excluding progress already cited in #4).
Continuing Education continues to build a robust selection of classes to support the public interest in culture, recreation, avocation, personal interest and life-long education. Continuing Education plays an important role to extend the College’s mission into the community by meeting the needs of individuals who might not otherwise attend the college or have concluded their academic studies.
Others as quoted on #4.
6. Assuming a status quo budget for your unit, indicate your department’s major planning objectives for next year (2014-2015). Include objectives that utilize status quo resources as well as objectives that do not require new resources.
As a self-supporting program, the primary objective is always to generate enough revenue to cover direct costs plus operation expenses. Maintaining this goal would entail the following planning objectives for fiscal 2014-2015:
- Strength, develop, and update the business plan for Continuing Education
- Increase visibility of the program through social media and networking to increase the overall enrollment by 7% - Update the marketing strategy to promote Continuing Education classes through optimal use of the advertising budget.
1) Target advertising with neighborhood publications, such as, Ingleside Light, Marina Times and Castro Courier. 2) Increase distribution of printed schedule/post cards/fliers to the community organizations and Centers;
3) Attend school, job and wellness fairs to have direct contact with students.
- To ensure the profitability and growth of the Continuing Education program, there needs to be a continued effort to offer a strong selection of classes and workshops of public interest, develop new classes for the ever-changing public demand, and offer new topics and public excursions in 2014-15. Topics include pastry making, food and culture, walking tours around San Francisco, expand personal interest/career development online learning, and increase the offerings of certificate programs not currently offered through the college.
- Promote Continuing Education to our internal audiences including administrators, department chairs, faculty and classified employees
- Explore with departments to offer pre-requisites topics for classes through Continuing Education. For example; CPR and First Aid classes for child care and health care professions
- Streamline the Continuing Education Co-Enrollment process to make it less cumbersome for both departments and students
7. If your department faced a reduction in your overall departmental budget for next year (2014-2015), indicate the changes that would be made to the delivery of courses and/or services to adjust to the new allocation.
Continuing Education has been operating on a reduced budget for a number of years with coinciding with the economic decline and stabilization, with 90% of the budget going to personnel expenditures. To sustain the operation with a further reduced budget, Continuing Education would continue working to develop programs and workshops with good profit margins.
Reducing an overall budget in 2014-2015, will require the implementation of the following actions: - Ensure the program expands diverse offerings
- Defer all equipment maintenance to keep the non-personnel expenditures to a minimal expense. - Cut back on the production of paper schedules and focus on promoting the program via social media - Greater monitoring of data on trends and to schedule classes which fall into the fast growing areas. - Not allow classes to run if they miss the minimum enrollment set. Currently, if a “Bare Minimum”, the
instructional cost is met, the class might be allowed to take place. Tightening the enrollment management strategy to having all classes meet the minimum enrollment requirement before they start.
- Promote heavily the partnered Ed2Go online workshops as Continuing Education gets paid per referral and increase online partnerships.
- Revise the Continuing Education pricing policy. Depending on the economic climate at that time achieve the revenue goal through a higher class fee and/or a higher enrollment requirement.
- Potentially reassign existing staff to handle other restricted fund projects in order to reduce personnel expenditures
- Student recruitment would have to increase. Polling for what student popular topics would need to take place.
8. Use Excel template to respond to question 8 regarding resource allocation requests.
- Not Applicable