Common Course Numbering: Pros and Cons
The Faculty Association of Community and Technical Colleges (FACTC) would like to provide an open forum for expressing a variety of faculty voices and perspectives.
According to the October 2006 CCN News, Common Course Numbering is “an effort to identify equivalent community and technical college courses and label them with the same Department/Division Abbreviation, Course Number, and Course Title. Common course numbering will NOT require faculty to change or standardize their course content to be equivalent with another colleges’ or impact course delivery methods." You can learn more about the project at the State Board's Common Course Numbering Project website.
Faculty groups at several colleges have expressed viewpoints opposing the CCN plan. Find out more about the faculty's concerns, questions, and their proposed action plan at this Common Course Numbering website.
So, what do you think? Post a comment.
Jennifer Wu
North Seattle Community College
posted by Jennifer Wu @ Tuesday, November 07, 2006
33 Comments:
My college has been getting its own course numbering system in order the past few years and has been preparing the logistics of this project. I have not heard any complaints from the faculty so far, but I'd say awareness of it is low. The Washington Federation of Teachers has just sent a survey to all the members about this.
The presentation at Tools For Teaching answered all my questions. The number of CTC students who graduate with credits from multiple CTCs was a big argument for this more transparent system for me.
While representing DL at today's Enrollment Fair, I had a student approach me and ask why we didn't have this kind of thing in place already.
His issue was multi-faceted based on the fact that the class he needs is not available at North when he needs it. So he wants to easily determine where in WA State (or even farther out) he can find the class elsewhere.
Let us ge the facts. The CCN news says "Approximately 25 percent of all community and technical college students graduate from a two-year college with credits transferred in from another college." This DOES NOT SAY that these students transfer between community colleges. It includes all students who transfer in. In fact the number that transfer between community colleges is likely to be far less.
However the only numbers available are from the folks who are driving the bus. We need to know where and how these numbers are obtained.
But there is more to this. If this is really directed at the small number of classes touted as being the problem, we are really talking about a far smaller fraction of students. a student who takes a class for interest somewhere, then moves and gets serious about finishing their education contributes to the transfer total, but is unlikely to be involved in the troublesome transfer count. Then too, most courses already have clear descriptions and numbers that while not the same, do not produce confusion.
The system wide cost of this is not trivial and should not be undertaken for a very tiny population. We must have the substantive data for the population that would really be affected and weigh the impact.
CCN Does NOT make transfering more transparent. Because this is not supposed to alter curriculum anywhere, transcript evaluators MUST MAKE THE SAME EVALUATION as before. But now we may be calling DIFFERENT OBJECTS BY THE SAME NAME. CCN officials admit that this will happen. How happy will the public be if courses with the SAME NAME are treated differently at different places.
ASK your transcript evaluators how they will behave under the new system. Are there any CCs or TCs from which your school does not accept one of the main-stream English or intro math courses? What about other intro courses? Do you want to begin accepting these credits now now if all that has changed is the name?
If "no" how do you propose to explain to the public why your school does not acept this credit ? Since the public will justifiably howl at this, is it not more likely that your school will buckle and lower the standards? This is one concern that has been raised.
The alternative is that the weaker course is strengthened. This not only is outside the stated scope of CCN but is (I believe) against the main mission of the CC system. We act locally to meet the needs of our service area. The English or math course in the example here is a product of that particular school meeting the needs of its students in the context of their preparation and the programs at that school. There should be no pressure for them to change a course that is serving the needs of their students.
And no pressure for your CC to accept their credit.
This example is not the only mechanism by which CCN will create pressure to alter curriculum. Some deliberation with the list at your school will show you others. Get the list for your college and try it out in a group with several disciplines.
It seems to me that homogonizing the wonderfully independent diversity of our "community" colleges is not the most constructive way to help students transfer among institutions.
At North Seattle Community College, Sociology 110 (Survey of Sociology)is the first class in Sociology. However, another class entitled "The Global Society" is listed as Sociology 101. This Sociology 101 designation confuses students into thinking it is the first class in Sociology. Therefore, students take the entire course only to find they have not had the introductory Sociology course. The introductory Sociology course is the one required tor specific disciplines. I believe the first course in a discipline should be numbered as 101 to avoid this confusion.
--
Posted by Robert J. Atkins to FACTC Blog at 11/13/2006 12:52:24 PM
FYI, the sbctc site address for this has been changed to: http://www.sbctc.ctc.edu/college/e_commoncoursenumbering.aspx
In reply to Robert J. Atkins. There are a number of good reasons a discipline might not follow his reasonable suggestion. In the case of physics at BCC, the main sequence for Health Sciences majors starts with 114 (currently) and continues the sequence. If you have had calculus and plan an Engineering career, you take 121 (NOT 114) and follow with this sequence. If you got out of high school without physics or it has been many years you take 106 before either of these, and if you plan to follow an IT associates (non-transfer) degree you take 109 first (and only). How can one reasonably make the FIRST class the lowest number if you serve different populations. This example in not unique to physics or to BCC. Students (and others) want a simple answer but what we do is not simple. ADVISING is the key and there is no replacement for this. A fix that conceals the differences between courses at different colleges (as noted above) is a more dangerous diservice to the public in my opinion.
Here is another example where CCN interferes with local decision making, taken from physics. Currently BCC uses 114, 115, 116 as course numbers for the algebra based physics sequence (health sciences) and 121, 122, 123 for the calculus based course (physical sciences and engineering). Under CCN, the later sequence would be elevated to 2xx course numbers. Now these two sequences (as taught here) have better than 70% overlap in content - the principle difference being the mathematical sophistication and support in the presentation of this content. To give the 121 sequence a two hundred course designation erroneously suggests that you can (or should) take one then the other if you want to be very well prepared. In fact we advise against this at BCC because they are essentailly the same course. Both are an introductory survey of all the main topics in physics. Also, except in only the most unusual circumstances, other alternatives exist for weak engineering students who want a slower ramp up. However we already have a problem with self advised students who think this is a good plan and waste 15 credits along with the tuition and time delay this implies. The proposed change in course numbering will only encourage this problem.
On the other hand as different schools serve the students in their area, they adjust the coverage and rigor for both of these courses so that system wide there is considerable variation. It is entirely reasonable that at another college the 1xx / 2xx designation between these two sequences is a reasonable one and diminishes errors among students who self advise.
We at BCC do not want either course designated at the 200 level for the reasons stated and because they are both the FIRST YEAR course for their respective audiences. It is unlikely that UW will (or should) match the 2xx designation if they decide to join us later in common numbering BECAUSE these are both first year courses.
However, I would NOT argue against my colleagues at other schools who, for reasons that suit their students, want a 2xx designation at their school. Instead, I say dump this misguided effort.
If you have not yet seen it, I would encourage everyone to read the November 17, 2006 letter submitted to the CCN committee by the Northwest Biology Instructors' Organization (NWBIO). It was posted to the NWBIO listserv Nov 18, so you should be able to get a copy from one of your biology faculty folks. This letter identifies many specific reasons why CCN is a bad idea for our students, faculty, programs, and colleges.
I agree with "there_are_better_choices". There are other ways for CTCs to respond to Substitutute HB 2382 that don't involve throwing babies out with their bathwater.
Before you decide that CCN is benign ("Much Ado About Nothing"), or that the arguments for CCN outweigh the arguments against, please ask, "Why do you suppose the most vocal opponents of CCN (so far, anyway) have been those faculty who teach in the sciences and other programs--faculty who have long advised students toward "transfer by majors" degree plans rather than toward the DTA?"
Also, ask: "Doesn't a state-centralized articulation system based on something other than common course numbers (Google, for example, Maryland, Ohio, Illinois, and Arizona's) still allow disciplines to use common course numbers if they voluntarily choose to use them?"
I have not yet seen the Washington Federation of Teachers survey. How was it sent to members?
The WFT online survey on Common Course Numbering was distributed to members through local faculty union presidents. Data are still being collected and tabulated. Faculty on some campuses still do not know much about the CCN development.
I am not philosophically opposed to the CCN proposition. All other things being equal, this surely is better for the students.
But getting from the current system that has had approximately 30 independent institutions setting their own course numbers and content for thirty-plus years, to a common system will really be like herding cats.
It is NOT just a bookkeeping detail that an administrator in Olympia or for that matter a computer program could easily perform. Content, sequence, lab hours, and many, many other details will become the devil in this project.
There really ought to be subject-specific fora and statewide meetings to accomplish this. If not possible, traveling administrators that interact with faculty at each campus.
I believe that this could be made to work if adequate time and resources were made available to all community colleges by the state board. Lacking that resource, I predict that the bulk of the inevitable confusion, manual looking up, communications with transfer institutions, and student advising will be borne by faculty, staff, and of course students. Do we all really need that?
P.S. I teach the upper levels of transfer coursework in math, engineering, and computer science. Many, many of my students have previous coursework at FOUR YEAR INSTITUTIONS. This will not affect the complexity involved in their achieving a successful and efficient tranfer experience. I can also say that, right or wrong, the University of Washington is particularly selective about WHICH COURSE was taken at WHICH COLLEGE. If you aren't aware of this, just try to read and absorb the info at their Transfer Equivalency Guide:
http://admit.washington.edu/BeforeYouApply/Transfer/Plan/EquivalencyGuide
George Neal has reposted his comments to the new post Common Course Numbering: The Unsettled Issue (Feb. 5, 2007).
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