Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education

PROGRAM EVALUATION PROFILE

*Refer to Specific Recommendations for Improvement

Standard
Met

PROGRAM EVALUATION SUMMARY

The overall goal of this individualized, open-entry/open-exit program is to prepare students for careers in interactive media and web design, which involves creating, designing, and producing digital media products and services used in business, training, education, entertainment, communications, and marketing. Currently, the instructor serves 35 students (8 adult students and 27 high school students).

The program's competencies are currently identified through Brainbench, Adobe, and ODCTE certification tests. The expectations are comprehensive and well defined for students to succeed in an individualized, competency-based environment that is conducive to learning and student participation.

Opportunities to develop and apply leadership, social, civic, and business-related skills are provided through Business Professionals of America (BPA), the CareerTech student organization for high school and postsecondary business and information technology education (BITE) students.

The facilities available to the program are conducive to learning and support an individualized, competency-based delivery system. Adequate space is available for team-building activities, individualized learning, conferences with individual students, and monitored student testing. Computers are set up on a three-year rotation, which ensures students are trained using current technology. (This would have been the year to purchase new computers; however, the instructor wanted more time to research the impact of switching the learning lab to Apple computers, which is reflective of industry trends within the media industry.)

The instructor actively pursues specific training and professional development activities that will enhance her ability to provide quality training for students.She is currently pursuing her master's degree as well as participating in numerous media training opportunities, including participation in a local Apple User Group. The school is to be commended for supporting this emerging training area by encouraging the instructor to pursue the training necessary for this type of program. The school has provided the instructor with a teaching assistant to help with the management duties of the classroom.

A cooperative agreement exists with Redlands Community College that provides the opportunity for students to recieve up to 27 college credit hours for training received. This indicates that multiple success pathways are being made available for all students by giving them more options upon successful completion of the program. The program completers can go directly to work with their newly learned skills, or they can enter college knowing they have already earned college credit towards a degree.

Curriculum contract and plans of study have been developed to help guide students through the program. These documents outline the path a student must take in order to successfully complete the program, including the certification exams that must be taken. Another organizational method that has been implemented to help students is the requirement that each student maintain a binder that contains general program information, their curriculum contract, progress information, graded assignment, and grade reports.

The school is to be commended for paying the student organization dues for all students, resulting in 100 percent membership. This gives all BITE students the opportunity to participate in Business Professionals of America activities. The instructor is actively involved in the development of BPA activities at the local, state, and national levels. It is admirable that Ms. Brower has been the advisor of state BPA officers, which indicates that professional development and leadership training are high priorities.

The instructor has a strong industry representation on her advisory committee and she has utilized the committee effectively for developing her program. She maintains ongoing communication with members of the committee who provide her with advice and suggestions. She has also developed a good foundation with the lcoal high school business instructors, which will be beneficial in career cluster alignment activities. An example of how she plans to implement suggestions made by the committee is to add the 3D animation career majors to her curriculum and move the Web Services curriculum to another instructor who currently teaches programming.

The instructor actively pursues activities, both professionally and in the community, that will provide opportunities for her students. A wide range of integrated projects has benn implemented into the curriculum, giving students the opportunity to apply the skills that have been learned into a "real-world" situation. Some of those projects include: State BPA Multimedia Work Team, Redlands Community College recruitment video, Student-of-the-Quarter video, Mustang Public Schools website, etc.

SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT

The instructor has developed a career plan of study for students to help define the requirements of the program. It is suggested that more specific information be included for each occupational outcome/career major that includes high school alignment and college-credit opportunities. It is recommended that the college credit alignment be included on the student tracking sheets in order to reinforce the opportunities available and to help students keep track of credits obtained. It would also be advisable to maintain a master document that tracks the total college credit hours that have been awarded to students each year in the program. This could be a valuable recruitment tool.

Projects are the primary component of the work-based experience in the classroom and are clearly a part of the student's overall grade; however, it is not well defined how that grade is determined and how it is calculated into the overal outcome. It is reommended that this be clearly identifiedi so that students are aware of the expectations.

INSTRUCTOR RESPONSE TO RECOMMENDATION: I have worked very hard re-creating Plans of Study, which I call Individualized Training Plans, or ITPs.  They include the courses, Brainbench certifications and college credit.  I have also created a master spreadsheet documenting the college credit received over the last three years.

There are now rubrics set up for each project, and I have clearly defined the grading scale so students know how much of their grade is allocated to each area.  There are three areas:  Daily Grade (30%), Project Grade (40%), and Test Grade (30%).  This grading scale is also explained to the parents during our finalization of enrollment.

The evaluation team discussed withi the instructor the recent changes in the Business and Information Technology Education (BITE) curriculum due to the implementation of the nationwide Career Clusters Initiative and the importance of arranging curriculum into courses and career majors. It is obvious that efforts have been made to follow the Information Technolgoy cluster model as defined by the BITE division. It is suggested that the instructor continue to align curricululm within the state model to ensure that students are receiving the rquired competencies. Individual course syllabi need to be developed (independent of LAPs) that identify specific competencies that will be measure/tested. It is also importan to include on each syllabus the local course name, ODCTE course name (if different), and any articulated college credit associated with the course.

INSTRUCTOR RESPONSE TO RECOMMENDATION: Curriculum has been aligned to the career majors provided by the state department. Individual syllabi have been created for each course.

It is suggested that the instructor continue to pursue training and professional development opportunities that will help her develop/expand the program. It is recommended that the instructor take the Brainbench exams or other industry certifications that are relevant to the career majors/occupational outcomes beining offered in the program. This helps reinforce the value of industry certificaitons and helps the instructor in developing appropriate curriculum for the career pathways.

The instructor should continue to pursue opportunities that would allow alignment to occure between the partner high schools and the technology center. These partnerships will be a key factor in the successful implementation of career clusters.

Now that I fully understand how valuable the advisory committee can be, I make all efforts to get them to participate in the meeting.  I send numerous emails before the meeting as reminders.  I also provided the members an opportunity to Skype in, instead of driving all the way out here.  I had 3 members Skype in.