The mission of Butte College Business Education Department is to prepare students to be successful when entering the world of business and to continue in lifelong education. We value our students’ success and place respect, accountability, and excellence as our core values. Vision statements specific to each of the Department of Business Education Programs are as follows: • The Accounting Program focuses on preparing students to become detail-oriented and able to understand and prepare accurate financial data. • The General Business Program prepares students to be successful as they enter and pursue careers in business fields such as retail management, small business management, marketing, sales and advertising, in both profit and non-profit organizations, operating in today’s global environment. • The Economics Program provides students with intellectual and analytic tools necessary to gain an understanding of economic theory and policy as a way to address issues facing our society. • The Real Estate Program prepares students to take the California Real Estate Sales and Brokers exams and successfully list, sell and invest in real property.
The Department of Business Education includes 4 programs/disciplines: Accounting, Economics, General Business(Marketing, Management and Small Business Management), and Real Estate. In addition, the department has two major focuses, both of them central to the College’s mission: Transfer Program and Career Programs. • The Transfer Program offers an A.S. Degree and facilitates transfer to Bachelor of Science programs, such as the two degree programs offered by Chico State’s College of Business: Business Administration (BADM) and Business Information Systems (BIS). • The Department of Business Education Career Programs (with certificates, Certificates of Achievement and A.S. degrees) develop and enhance students’ work-related competencies. These programs facilitate local economic development and workforce training as they help to create a skilled, professional, entry-level workforce in Butte and Glenn Counties, and offers opportunities for skills enhancement of existing personnel. The following certificates are currently available: • Accounting Program Certificates: Accounting Certificate of Achievement; Account Clerk Certificate; Tax Preparer Certificate • General Business Program Certificates: Business Management Certificate of Achievement; Retail Management Certificate of Achievement; Marketing Certificate of Achievement; Small Business Institute Certificate; Business on the Web Certificate; Human Resources Certificate • Real Estate Program Certificates: Real Estate Certificate of Achievement; Real Estate Sales Person Certificate; Appraiser Certificate. The following Associate of Science (A.S.) degrees are currently available: • Business Administration AS (transfer degree to Chico State) • Business Administration AS-T (transfer degree to CSU schools) • Accounting • Business Management (including 2 options: Business Management, and Small Business/Entrepreneurship) • Marketing • Real Estate.
Accounting SLO’s & PLO’s Discussed Fall 2017:
We reviewed the major topics that were discussed on instructor’s individual SLO’s at the end of the semester. The following topics were chosen to be discussed by all the accounting instructors present:
The understanding of Debits & Credits is fundamental to the SLO’s for all accounting classes, as Debits and Credits are the foundation of the language of accounting. We all have issues with teaching this in a fun, interesting way so as to be memorable for our students. Without this foundational understanding, students will not meet many of the SLO’s.
Critical thinking is foundational skill that supports success for students in meeting the SLO’s. For instance, accounting supports business decision making. Without the ability to employ critical thinking, students are not successful with the SLO’s related to analyzing accounting data and evaluating financial alternatives.
Creating cash flow statements and communicating the reasons for cash changes in a business can be found in the SLO’s for Accounting 2. The method for creating these statements and required components are difficult to teach and difficult for students to understand. Students struggle with the components of the cash flow statements because they are not always intuitive and can be difficult to calculate.
Collective Dialogue: Instructors discussed their SLO reflections from Fall 2017 grade rosters and how these related to PLO's
Planned Improvements: We have all made changes to our teaching approach related to Debits and Credits. We shared class tools we use including mnemonics, a special music video, team challenge exercises and physical demonstrations we use at the white board. Each of us has seen success, but this sharing process gave us even more tools to use in the future.
We all want to continuously challenge students towards greater critical thinking skills and we discussed this at length. Class assignments, where students have the chance to engage in problem solving with immediate feedback from instructors and fellow students are very effective. Asking students to communicate how they solved the problems, and why the steps work as they do, causes them to engage at a deeper level than just rote repetition of methods. One method we discussed was to create groups of student “experts” on a problem, or portion of a problem, who then share with other students. The explaining and re-explaining process helps with critical thinking and problem solving. We also discussed “On Course” tools such as the Jigsaw to help engage students in their learning and critical thinking.
We discussed a couple different approaches to describing the cash flow statement with the associated calculations. One method, which focuses on the balance sheet and how assets and liabilities changed in relation to cash, may be an easier way for students to grasp. We discussed a way to expand our financial analysis project in the ACCT 2 class to include comparison of cash flow statements of two publicly traded companies. This may help student’s make a “real world” connection with the statements.
Impact of Changes on Classroom Performance: The teaching tools for Debits and Credits have improved student understanding and engagement with this tough subject. The bottom line is memorization, followed by understanding. Making the memorization process fun and engaging has energized the process and improved understanding. One example of the impact is that students were actually singing the debit and credit song from the Colin Dodd Youtube video before a quiz.
Using the exchange of ideas in class around “class problems” has the effect of improving student performance on larger practice sets and projects. These projects can only be completed well if the student employs decision making and engages with the material. Improvement in completing these projects shows that critical thinking has improved.
One of the teachers in our discussion group had already employed a new method of describing the cash flow statements with her classes. The students are able to describe the reasons behind changes in such things as other assets in relation to changes in cash. So, this teacher has seen improved performance related to the SLO requiring an understanding and analysis of cash flows.
Economics SLO’s Discussed Fall 2017:
Basic Skills: Being a quantitative science, economics requires a basic level of algebra skills to succeed. The enforcement of the pre-requisite is creating positive impacts upon student outcomes.
Student struggle with abstract economic models.
Collective Dialogue: Steve Price, Andy Radler & Agne Reizgiviciute discussed SLO statements from the previous semester. There was an emphasis from all instructors on basic skills development (Math).
Planned Improvements: Basic Skills-continue to enforce basic algebra pre-requisite.
Abstract Models: Nightly reading quizzes for Price’s class to ensure students are exposed to the models before class to help them understand the concepts. Radler’ classes have weekly reading quizzes for the same purpose. Use in-class exercises and simulations of models and grade student class participation to help their understanding. Create some pop quizzes to get students ready for the exam experience.
Business Education SLO’s Discussed Fall 2017:
Basic Skills: Many of the basic success skills seem to be getting weaker including time management, study habits, social anxiety, communication skills, writing and math skills. Research skills also discussed this semester.
Challenges grasping the wide range of business concepts and vocabulary; A lot of material to cover.
Team Projects losing momentum; Students need more attention paid to goal setting.
Changes Introduced/Planned:
Collective Dialogue: The following instructors discussed SLO statements from the previous semester: Michael Nevens, Jennifer Nelsen, Lisa Christiansen, Bob Stevens, Michael Hubbard.
There was an emphasis from almost all instructors on basic skills development (research and writing) as well as more focus needed in business vocabulary, goal setting, and team projects.
How do these issues fit into out PLO’s and GELO’s:
Basic Skills: Applies to Program Level PLO #1
Challenges grasping the wide range of business concepts and vocabulary: Applies to Program Level PLO #1-3. Without good grasp of business vocabulary, all PLO’s & GELO’s are affected negatively.
Team Projects losing momentum: Applies to Program PLO #2 & #3 as well as BUS 20 GELO #2-3.
Plan for Improvement: Regardless of specific class being taught, all instructors were going to try something new in classes to deal with the gaps in SLO, PLO, & GELO success. Many instructors indicated that additional feedback and monitoring of assessments could help as well as offering additional resources such as CAS and incentivizing students to make use of them. Furthermore, many instructors indicated they may alter their assignments to be m
In 2016/17, the Accounting department awarded 20 AS degrees, 19 certificates of achievement and 25 certificates of completion. Business Education awarded 47 AS, 81 AS-T degrees and 7 certificates of completion. The Real Estate department awarded two AS degrees and two certificates of achievement in 2016/17.
Accounting and real estate degrees awarded declined over the last few years while business transfer degrees increased. The increase in transfer degrees is consistent with departmental goals because transfer degrees better serve students that eventually end up transferring to CSU Chico. However, the decline in accounting graduates is disappointing. Beginning Spring 2018, we are trying to put some new instructors in our Introduction to Accounting classes in hopes of getting students excited about careers in accounting. We fear too many vocational students have been scared out of the major in recent years.
Regarding student equity measures, the department shows varying differences relative to the school averages. Business and economics underperformed school averages and accounting students exceeded equity measures schoolwide. African American accounting students had a performance gap of just 2% versus 8% schoolwide and Latinos outperformed by 2% in accounting whereas schoolwide there was a deficiency of 3%. We're uncertain for the cause of accounting students outperforming school averages. Perhaps it is due to the work of Steve Price in previous years where he offered counseling to students in underperforming categories.
Steve's program was extremely succesful with success rates for Hispanic (+14.2%), economically disadvantaged (+8.6%), veteran (+31.2%), and multi-ethnic students (+16.7%) from 2012-2014 average success rates for the same instructor and same course. However, he wasn't offering counseling any longer in Fall 2016 when the statistics were compiled. LaRee Hartman who taught most of the financial accounting classes in Fall 16 didn't feel she did anything differently and thought that perhaps it was just a statistical deviation. She was curious of the percentage of students that had previously taken Acct 20 or failed the prior semester. We'll monitor her success in subsequent semesters and if she continues to outperform on equity measures. We'll also further analyze her teaching for clues to her success.
The department found the institute day student equity speaker very insightful. His examples of behaviors used by different instructors to improve student performance in at risk groups was interesting and we're hoping to apply his insight.
Going forward the deparment hopes to grow the number of accounting graduates by around 5 students. It also hopes to continue growing business education transfer degrees. The department has the goal of improving business and economics equity rates to school averages. However, this would require counseling services applied to other business majors as Steve Price did with accounting. He would still love to move in this direction with administrative support.
The business education department's top priority is to focus on teaching. The college exists to educate and empower students. Focusing instructor time and energies on teaching works to move the school towards its strategic priorities.
The department will support instructors as they work to improve lesson plans, stay current in their fields of expertise, find better examples to explain key concepts, and make class more fun and engaging. Strong teaching leads to student success and a strong reputation for the department which over the long-term leads to enrollment growth.
To follow are the program review recommendations and a status update on each:
1) Hire a new full-time general business instructor and another economics instructor.
We hired a new general business instructor and replaced a retiring accounting instructor, but continue to request an additional economics instructor. However, declining economics enrollments make an additional economics instructor less necessary.
2) Investigate why catalog no longer shows recommended sequence of study for each business major.
Certificates and degrees requirements are now listed in recommended sequence of study. Work with faculty, counselors has resulted in recommended schedules for most areas of study. The recommended sequence of study for AS-T in business administration is being promoted around the business education building and emailed to new business transfer majors.
3) Avoid scheduling classes that straddle two widely used timeslots which could lock students out of other classes.
The two hour “block” accounting classes and need to squeeze in as many classes as possible during prime time make occasional straddling of time slots unavoidable.
4) The women’s restroom in the BE building is unsafe and must be repaired and updated immediately!
Remodeling was completed over Summer 2015. Hooray!!
5) The door on the men’s restroom opens into the hallway; this is unsafe. This safety issue needs to be fixed ASAP!
Facilities has been notified of the issue and a yellow warning sign has been placed on the door to reduce likelihood of accident. The door apparently can’t be switched to open inward due to ADA regulations.
6) BE rooms 105 a, b, c are small, overcrowded & not well ventilated. Student seating is not conducive to efficient group work. It is recommended that seating be re-arranged and to not schedule classes that incorporate group work into BE 105 a, b or c.
Seating could only be changed in BE105B and BE105C if instructors are willing to lose board space or reduce the number of seats. Since instructors want maximize enrollment and accounting and economics classes require lots of board space, no changes have been made yet to seating arrangement in these rooms. During Fall 2016, tables and seating were reconfigured in BE105A to improve accessibility and group work without reducing pedagogical caps. Facilities has been notified of the issues with ventilation and thermostat and ductwork changes were made in January 2017.
7) Staff and associate faculty morale survey is recommended to fully incorporate their input into unit planning and program review processes.
Associate faculty input is solicited on institute night and throughout the semester as instructors see one another. A formal survey hasn’t been implemented in part due to time constraints (the chair is on double-overload and had a hiring and evaluation nightmares Fall semester). The department is also leery of soliciting input when it isn’t sure it has the power or will to make requested changes.
For instance, part-timers would likely want schedules that were more convenient to them (but which would make it difficult or impossible to staff all sections at the times students prefer). Part-timers would also want to choose their own books rather than using a common textbook across sections. While this would allow individual instructors preferred textbooks, the low volume would increase textbook costs, the different textbooks would make ordering more time consuming to the bookstore, and the different textbooks be less conducive to consistency and rigor across class sections. Perhaps a survey will be administered next year, but our fear is that requesting input and then not acting upon that input is more detrimental to morale than to have never survey.
8) Untapped potential exists for enrollment growth in the department. Modest growth in the number of Introduction to Business courses and in Economics is merited. The college and department should also collaborate with Chico State to move Business Law to lower division as is common practice.
Staffing economics sections has been extremely difficult. Two instructors were let go in Spring 2016 due to ongoing instructional quality issues and Steve Price was involved in student equity projects in 2015-2016 and received release time. It has been very difficult to hire part-time instructors to replace these sections. After too many hours on the phone, Linkedin and surfing the internet looking for qualified instructors, we were able to staff Spring 2016 schedule. We since lost a stalwart part-time economics instructor for some sections because he can qualify for healthcare at CSUC. However, we picked up a promising new economics instructor in Fall 2017 and he did well his first semester. Enrollments in economics began declining in Fall 2016 and we cancelled some sections.
A new online Introduction to Business (Bus 20) section was added Fall 2016. The online Bus 20 class has been successful and another section was added in Spring 2017 to help offset class cancellations elsewhere. This second online section filled quickly. We also added a couple Bus 20 and Bus 8 sections over the last couple years. An online Acct 4 class was added to the Fall 2017 schedule, but this seemed to just cannibalize the face to face classes. So Fall 2018, we will resume offering just one Acct 4 section online.
CSUC does now accept Butte’s Business Law (Bus 8) class in place of its upper division business law class for students earning their AS-T degree at Butte. Chico State’s business law class will be moved to lower division in Fall 2018 allowing all Bus 8 classes to articulate at CSUC.
9) Increase in Real Estate offerings may now be appropriate as well. To accomplish such growth, however, expansion of the faculty and possibly facilities will be necessary, as addressed elsewhere in these recommendations.
With Thurza Andrew’s death, different instructors have begun teaching the real estate classes and this has required some adjustments. Hopefully, as the real estate sector improves and demand will increase for real estate classes. In Fall 2016, a real estate section had to be cut due to weak enrollment. In Spring 2017, enrollments were very weak in Appraisal and Escrow classes (11 & 13 students). The decision was made to keep those sections open this semester but reduce real estate sections from four to three starting in Fall 2017. Most real estate students want to take only the classes required to earn their real estate sales agent’s license which requires three classes. By cutting from four to three sections, it is hoped that enrollment will firm up in the third class.
10) Continued discussion needs to occur between disciplines that require the same courses for students to obtain a certificate or degree. It is evident that disciplines differ in the amount of time they may feel they need to focus on specific content. So, a determination should be made related to the required unit value of specific courses such as Excel.
The BCIS Department created a one unit Excel for Business class that allows accounting students to gain exposure to the Excel without requiring them to take the regular three unit Excel class.
11) Currently there do not appear to be any courses within any of the business programs that articulate with the high schools in the surrounding areas. The expectation is not for the department to accept agreements that don’t benefit students, but rather look into why agreements have not been renewed and pursue those discussions with high schools in an effort to offer agreements that do benefit students.
We have contacted Delia Buzatu who is responsible for articulation with local high schools and expressed our interest in articulating high school accounting classes for our Introduction to Accounting (Acct 20) class. She speculated that some vocational education programs were defunded during the worst of the California budget crisis and so a number of these classes were dropped. The department remains open to articulating classes with equivalent subject matter. Beginning in Spring 2017, we began articulating a personal finance class from Lassen High School and a small business management class was added in Fall 2017. We will also begin articulating AP economics classes beginning in Spring 2018.
Provide excellent instruction in as convenient and efficient a manner as possible.
Strategy 1 - Focus on Teaching
Focus department and instructor resources on providing an outstanding education in the most convenient and efficient manner possible.
The college exists to educate and empower students. Accordingly, instructor time and energies should be focused on teaching. The department will support instructors as they work to improve lesson plans, stay current in their fields of expertise, find better examples to explain key concepts, and make class more fun and engaging. Strong teaching leads to student success and a strong reputation for the department which over the long-term leads to enrollment growth.
Strategy 2 - Explore Online AS-T Degree
Explore Online AS-T Degree
The Introduction to Business (Bus 20) was offered online for the first time in Spring 2016. There has been strong demand for this format ever since. We are also working with Bill Hubbard to develope the Legal Environments of Business (Bus 8) class in an online format. Once this is completed, we will be able to offer all business classes for the AS-T online. Our department's fundamental goal is to provide an outstanding education in the most convenient and efficent manner possible. Offering core classes in an online format improves both convenience and accessibility for some of our students who are unable to attend face to face classes when scheduled.
Strategy 3 - Work with Chico State for our mutual benefit.
Work with Chico State for our mutual benefit.
Maintaining a strong working relationship with Chico State improves student success because students are better prepared when they transfer to Chico State. Maintaining dialogue with Chico State instructors also helps Butte College instructors improve their curriculum and allows discussions around best teaching practices. Recent successes include the inclusion of Butte College accounting majors at CSUC Beta Alpha Psi events, and the movement of business law from upper to lower division.
Either include the suggested sequence of study in the catalogue or implement the educational planning module so students know which classes to take first to maximize success in other classes.
We expect to receive no external resources.
| Original Priority | Program, Unit, Area | Resource Type | Account Number | Object Code | One Time Augment | Ongoing Augment |
| Description | Supporting Rationale | Potential Alternative Funding Sources | Prioritization Criteria | |||
| 1 | Business Education, Accounting, Quickbooks Certified User | Operating Expenses | $4,550.00 | $0.00 | ||
| Certified Quickbooks User exam licensing fees | Accounting students that are "Certified QuickBooks Users" are more capable of gainful employment. To take the exam privately, students would have to pay $300 which means many students are unable or unwilling to take the exam. Approximately 35 students will take the Certified QuickBooks User exam if we are granted the Strong Workforce funds. |
|
|
|||
| 2 | Ongoing Advertising on NSPR for part-time economics instructors | Operating Expenses | $5,000.00 | $0.00 | ||
| Ongoing advertising for part-time economics instructors on NSPR | The loss of a few part-time economics instructors requires either new part-timers or a full time economics instructor. Sustained advertising campaign on NSPR seems to be the most efficient use of resources. Last year we begged and pleaded to advertise and then the ads only ran a week or so and generated no new leads. We've contacted everyone teaching part-time at Chico State as well as Yuba College. |
|
|
|||