Common Course Numbering: Implementation Plan Approved Amidst Lingering Faculty Concern

Over three years in the planning, the Common Course Numbering implementation plan has finally moved through the councils, commissions, and committees and won its official approval amidst lingering faculty concern and heated debate. Four faculty workshops were conducted between December 2006 and February 2007. The first group of colleges is set to implement the new CCN plan for summer 2007. The new plan adopts the use of a common course designator which is expected to reduce colleges’ CCN related workload about 75% from the previous plan. The “&” symbol will be used as the designator. See the final list of common courses for Summer 2007 and the protocol for course numbers and titles of the 3-digit numbering scheme.

There are faculty in the system who are still unhappy with the CCN plan. (See posts, Feb. 5 & Nov. 7) FACTC has conducted deep discussions on CCN and maintains its neutral position due to the diversity of opinion among faculty. However, as the implementation moves forward FACTC president Diane Pelletier expressed hope that the project would be completed effectively and efficiently, with adequate faculty input for the benefit of students. There may be opportunity to review ‘what worked and what didn’t” at the end of the summer. So the conversation will continue.

CCN statistics:

• Transfer statistics: More than 60,000 students transferred within the Washington CTC system last year. About 15,000 students transferred from community and technical colleges to universities in Washington state last year. (Source: Washington State Board of Community and Technical Colleges)
• The four public baccalaureate institutions are not participating in the CCN project at this time, but have expressed interest in its potential.
• WFT November 2006 CCN survey results: Of the over 300 respondents, 52% had either not heard of CCN or had few details about it; 84% reported that they had not been involved in discussions about it on their campuses. (Source: Washington Federation of Teachers)

Jennifer Wu
North Seattle Community College

K20 Internet 2 Day - Streaming Video

The streaming video of the complete program of the K-20 Internet 2 Day (see posts, Jan. 9 & 17) is now available on the Research Channel website.

http://www.researchchannel.org/prog/displayseries.aspx?pID=868&fID=2596

One of the major challenges of Internet 2 is getting faculty to take advantage of its potential. If you have ideas or questions on how to make the K-20 network work for you, please contact: Connie Michener, 360.725.5101, conniem@dis.wa.gov, or
James Werle, 206.616.8155, jwerle@u.washington.edu