Mission Statement

The Butte College Communication Studies program offers lower division courses designed to culminate in AA degrees and/or Certificates that are transferable to four-year colleges and universities. The courses are structured to develop personal growth, professional communication, and critical thinking abilities with the objective of enhancing intercultural, interpersonal and public communication skills.

Program Description

The Communication Studies program at Butte College prepares students for transfer to a baccalaureate major in Communication Studies. In addition, this program offers vital communication skills that are in demand by virtually every company and organization. Students with a degree in Communication Studies are prepared to succeed in numerous professions; in fact, many studies cite "effective communication" as the number one skill in demand in today's workplace. Students majoring in Communication Studies explore communication theories and skills needed in our complex world. These include: oral and written communication, critical thinking, interpersonal communication, gender and communication, intercultural communication and sensitivity, and effective group interaction, among others. We offer two degree options.

AA Degree in Communication Studies
The Associate in Arts (AA) in Communication Studies degree is intended for students who plan to earn an AA degree in Communication Studies in support of career or other academic endeavors or who plan to specifically transfer to CSU, Chico.

AA-T Degree in Communication Studies
The Associate in Arts in Communication Studies for Transfer is intended for students who plan to complete a bachelor's degree in Communication Studies or similar major at a CSU campus. 
	(This section adapted from BC 2012-13 Catalog)

The Communication Studies program fulfills the Butte College Mission in six distinct ways:

1. We provide our students with vital communication skills needed for today�s workplace.
2. We provide our students with required courses for lower division general education and transfer.
3. We provide our students with courses that lead to the achievement of degrees and certificates for our program, and in support of other Butte College programs.
4. We provide our students with courses that support student learning beyond the traditional classroom.
5. We provide our students with the knowledge, understanding, mindset and skills that will enable them to interact effectively and appropriately in our multicultural and changing world.
6. We provide our students with deep student learning and civic engagement opportunities. 

It's clear to see how our unique and varied Program Learning Outcomes offer students engaging and meaningful academic, career and life-long learning opportunities.

Program Learning Outcomes (PLO's)

As a result of an AA or AA-T degree in Communication Studies, the student will be able to:
1. Demonstrate skills to connect, work, and play well with others.
2. Communicate ethically, responsibly, and effectively as local, national and global citizens.
3. Research, organize, and create messages using appropriate resources.
4. Effectively present formal and informal communication to a variety of audiences in multiple contexts.
5. Demonstrate critical thinking skills. 

Student Learning/Administrative Unit Outcomes

Process: Since the spring 2017 semester, the CMST department has implemented a procedure whereby all faculty focus on the same SLO when creating their “brief reflections.”This semester all instructors analyzed the results of their assessments for SLO As in every course (we started back at As again because after the Curriculum Review process, we changed all of our SLOs to match the CI-Ds for each course). After receiving all the reflections, faculty names were removed from the comments for each class and the brief reflections were analyzed by course to discover any interesting patterns or concerns. Suggestions for addressing issues were then provided.




Course


Observations/Patterns/Themes


Reflections/Suggestions




CMST 10: Interpersonal Communication
(Face to face = 1 and online = 2)
SLO A: Describe ways that communication creates, develops and changes personal identities including variables such as culture, gender, ethnicity, and race; explain the effect of communication on personal identities.


- 3/3 instructors noted that students were successful in meeting the objective.
- Instructors also indicated that application-based/reflection assignments work well for assessing this objective.


- Instructors should continue to work together to share their application assignments, as this course material seems to work best when students can relate the concepts to themselves and their relationships.
 




CMST 12: Forensics:
SLO A: Distinguish major types of competitive speeches.


- The Forensics Director notes that all students were able to successfully meet this SLO.
- It was noted that if students did not attend tournaments, it would be difficult to meet this objective.
 


- The course should continue to have a minimum requirement for attending and competing in tournaments.
- This competitive process is where much of the learning happens!




CMST 13: Gender and Communication
(Face to face = 1 and online = 2)
SLO A: Distinguish between gender and sex as social constructs and explain their impact on communication behaviors.


- 3/3 classes had positive reflections (re: meeting SLOs).
- One instructor explained that finding a single assignment to assess this SLO is difficult.


- Instructors need to collaborate more to share and brainstorm assignments examining the more effective way to assess this SLO.
 
 
 
 




CMST 14: Argumentation and Debate
SLO A:Critically evaluate reasoning and evidence.


- Half (3/6) of the reflections indicate that SLO A was met in class sections.
- ALL instructors used debates (policy and value) and case briefs to assess the objective.


- One theme is that attendance is a significant variable for success in this class; therefore, instructors may consider including a clear attendance/participation policy to encourage students to attend class.
- The creation and use of rubrics also emerged as an important component of assessing and meeting this SLO. 
- As such, in the Fall 19 semester, the CMST Department held a GIFTS workshop (Great Ideas for Teaching Speech), where instructors shared their rubrics (including those used for Argumentation and Debate). After the workshop, the rubrics were added to the CMST Canvas course shell for easy access. 




CMST 2: Public Speaking 
SLO A:Explain the basic principles of human communication.


- ALL reflections (23/23 – reported that students met SLO A.
- Most instructors used in-class activities (graded or ungraded) or quiz/exam questions to measure achievement of this SLO.


- Since this SLO is quite broad, it might be helpful to once again collaborate on creating a shared assessment for this objective.




CMST 4: Small Group Communication
SLO A: Exhibit effective problem-solving communication skills.


- ALL (11/12) sections positively described successfully reaching SLO C. (One was left blank due to maternity leave.)
- Many instructors indicated that they assign a real-world problem-solving assignment/presentation, so that students can apply the methodology.


- Those who do use an application-based, real-world assignment to assess this SLO note that students not only learn problem-solving techniques, but they express excitement and creativity in their ability to “take action” and make a difference in our community.
 




CMST 6: Oral Interpretation
SLO A: Demonstrate knowledge of what constitutes good literature.


- The one section of this course reported that students are provided with in-class opportunities to practice analyzing and selecting literature for their pieces.
- The instructor noted that students who frequently miss class did not make as good of choices on their literature selections.


- Instructors may consider including a clear attendance/participation policy to encourage students to attend class.
- As well, include low stakes, small point assignments related to in-class work to encourage students not to miss class.




CMST 9: Intercultural Communication
(Face to face = 2 and online = 3)
SLO A:Recognize and articulate how core values, worldviews, and communication patterns shape cultural and individual identities.


- In both the face-to-face and online sections of this course, students were able to meet the objective, but instructors indicated that they would like them to be more effective and successful. 


- One suggestion is to provide more examples of how communication is related to these intercultural themes; 
perhaps creating in-class activities to help comprehending the material before formally assessing the students re: this objective.




*FINAL ANALYSIS NOTE: Analyzing class SLO reflections that focus on the same SLOs has proven to be more useful, yielding more significant results for implementation of new ideas, etc. Our next step is try to standardize the assessment (e.g. pick one assignment that we will all administer) with which to analyze and write about in the “SLO brief reflections.” Therefore, when analyzing them collectively, it will be even more clear as to what is working or not in our classes.
Part 2 – Strategies
The CMST Department will continue to collaborate on teaching strategies via GIFTS workshops. As well, with the new addition of CMST 2 Public Speaking online sections in the fall 2019 semester, the CMST Department is currently conducting a pre-post communication apprehension assessment to compare student communication apprehension in the online vs. face-to-face classes. We are measuring whether or not CA is lessened in both learning environments over the course of the semester and evaluating the differences between the direct vs. the virtual classrooms.
Part 3 – Resource Needs
As indicated in our previous Unit Plans, the Communication Studies Department requests an increase in its annual department budget from $1356 to $3000. This increase would allow the department to conduct further measurements of SLOs using some nationally recognized tools and assessments. It will also help to increase the marketing of its program and AA and AA-T degrees.
 

Standards/Goals for Student Achievement (Instruction Departments)

Our CMST retention rate is 92% as compated to the college's 90% and our success rate is 79% as compared to the college's 75%. This evidences that the CMST department is doing its part to keep students in our classes and succeed. The CMST department focuses on experiential learning pedagogical methodologies that not only help students to take an active role in their learning, but also helps our dashboard students to succeed. Participatory learning is one criteria for culturally responsive/inclusive teaching.  

The CMST department degrees awarded follow along with enrollment trends for the past four years. In the past few unit plans, we have requested funds for marketing. Becuase all but one of our courses meet GE requirements (local and transfer), our degree is a perfect supplement to any other major, but we need to reach the students early to explain the benefits of getting a CMST degree and how the courses fulfill both GE and the major requirements. Currently, we don't have the resources to do that. 

Standards/Goals for Student Achievement (All Other Departments)

N/A

Strategic Direction

While the CMST department supports all of the college's strategic directions and priority themes, it has specifically focused on three of them in the past year:
3. Closing equity gaps: The CMST department has worked to implement cultural responsive teaching techniques in its classrooms. Please see sample techniques below. As well, the chair has been utilizing inlcusive teaching as a criteria in the associate faculty evaluations; not for punative purposes, but rather to spread knowledge. 
Equity-mindedness/Culturally responsive teaching: (Teaching practices that take into account different cultural norms and backgrounds and respond equitably to these differences to determine subject matter, materials, assignments, classroom management, all communication with students, and their evaluation practices. [Dahl, C.])

According to an article entitled “Want to Reach All of Your Students? Here’s How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive from “The Chronicle of Higher Education,” below are some techniques for interacting inclusively with students and creating inclusive course design that Jolene included in the class observed:

Adding structure to small-group discussions: Using guided activities with clear purposes and instructions. 
Connecting with students personally: Calling students by name.
Design a course in which you speak less: Implementing active learning strategies
Give lots of low stakes quizzes and assessments: Simple classroom assessment techniques (CATs) are effective ways of gathering student feedback and testing gained knowledge.
Utilize varying cultural examples in discussions or activities. e.g. Having argumentation students debate a proposition relating to a cultural clash, such as the use of Native American symbols as sports mascots or using ethnic names for some of the characters in the scenarios, can also help minoritized students feel included and engaged in the course content.


4. Meeting enrollment targets: The CMST department has implemented strategic scheduing to ensure that all students have access to our courses; e.g. we offer courses in multiple modalities (including face-to-face and online), in all locations in varying times (including late start and night classes). A specific recent example: in response to the growing number of students who suffer from Anxiety Disorders, in fall 2019 the CMST developed and launched its first fully online Public Speaking synchronous courses. We are currently analyzing findings from a pre/post communication apprehension assessment that we administered to all CMST 2 students in the fall, to see if there are any differences between the online and face-to-face students.  
8. Strengthening Professional Development: Our CMST faculty is regularly attends workshops and conferences to increase their knowledge and expertise. Our faculty are regularly involved in:

NCORE (“National Conference on Race and Ethnicity”): Two of our full-time faculty have attended this conference at least twice (and plan to return). The conference is designed to provide a significant forum for discussion, critical dialogue, and exchange of information as institutions search for effective strategies to enhance access, social development, education, positive communication, and cross-cultural understanding, in culturally diverse settings.
FAIR Classrooms (“Faculty Alliance for Inquiry and Research”): Four of our faculty (3 full-time and 1 associate) have participated in this vital program exploring equity practices on campus and in the classroom. More faculty are signed up for future sessions.
Cultural Awareness Community of Practice: Nearly half of our full-time faculty are currently attending this year-long professional development program that provides practical strategies for supporting students and colleagues at the intersection of marginalized identities.
Instructional Skills Workshop: Almost all of our full-time faculty (and many associate faculty) have attended ISW over the years, sometimes more than once. In addition, three of our seven full time faculty are facilitators for this workshop.
Strengthening Student Success Conference: Over half of our full-time faculty have attended one of these conferences, which provide an opportunity for a wide cross-section of CCC professionals to engage each other about strategies for supporting student learning.
On Course Workshops: Over three-fourths of our full-time faculty have attended either On Course workshops or their national conference, and some have attended several times.
Five-Day Experiential Learning Institute: Two of our faculty, both associate at the time and one now full-time, attended this institute; it was a five-day training with exercise focused specifically on communication, understanding and working with different learning styles, leadership and self-awareness practices.  
International Communication Association Conference: Since our last program review, two faculty members have attended our discipline’s international conference.  This has given them the opportunity to meet with and learn from a pool of celebrated international scholars while also having the opportunity to practice their own intercultural competence.
Western States Communication Association Conference: Several instructors have participated in our regional communication conference over the past few years in various rolls.  As participants, moderators, and presenters, Butte College faculty is represented in the larger field of academics in our discipline.  

In addition, the CMST department holds monthly GIFTS workshops for all faculty at full-time faculty homes, at which full-time faculty provide dinner and everyone shares “Great Ideas for Teaching Students”.
 
 

Program Review

There were two items funded from the previous Validation Team Report recommendations: one FT faculty position and mini-iPads for performance-based classes. Below are the listed recommendations with updates in bold.
1. The CMST department teaches performance-based courses that rely heavily on multimedia for the presentational aid component of public speeches.  As indicated in the CMST self-study, when technology fails or is compromised in any way, it adds significant stress to the already stressful student public speaking experience.  The Validation Team strongly recommends providing an infrastructure for continued and full-time media support for students and instructors in both “smart” and “traditional” classrooms. We recommend training faculty in the use of multimedia and mediated communication technology to support instruction, as well. We recommend only scheduling Communication Studies courses in “smart” classrooms in order to give both instructors and students the needed opportunities to model and practice the use of multi- media for varied speaking assignments. RESPONSE: Over the last two years, the department received funding from the VP of Instruction and Dean for technology support for assessment of student presentations – ten mini iPads and tripods.
2. The CMST Department is drastically underfunded. Its current operating budget stands at $1,367 yearly, which is in stark contrast to allocations for other academic departments of similar size.  The department has concrete student-centered plans that more proportional funding would support. These include the Great Debate and public sphere pedagogy, technology for student use and to demonstrate communication modes, conference opportunities and associate faculty training, as well as marketing efforts to publicize and grow the program. The Validation Team emphasizes that the Forensics budget must be a separate consideration, since this is an activity along the lines of sports teams or the Honors Society. Forensics should not be conflated with the department budget, unless the same applies to these other activities. RESPONSE: Not funded; still requesting an increase in department operating budget.
3. The team recommends that the budget for the Forensic Team be increased to provide stipends for additional events coaches. Because of safety concerns, the team recommends that Butte College provide a driver for the Forensic Team when they travel to tournaments. The Validation Team appreciates that Administration has funded the Forensics Team on an ongoing basis and supports continuance of this ongoing status. RESPONSE: Not funded; still seeking ONE stipend for a Forensics assistant coach.
4. The Validation Team believes that it is imperative to increase the size of the CMST Department by hiring two more full-time instructors. The significant growth of the department and the increasing student demand for classes support the hiring to ensure the department’s ongoing success and ability to provide exemplary speech instruction. We fully appreciate the current hiring of the full-time position for 2014-15; however, the impending retirements of two full-time department members, as well as the small pool of available, qualified associate instructors, further justify the hiring of additional full-time instructors. The Validation Team also strongly supports the CMST Department’s recommendation to restore administrative staff to twelve-month contracts. RESPONSE: One additional full-time instructor position funded and three instructors hired to replace faculty members who retired or resigned. No new hires requested at this time.
5. There is a need for classrooms that support the Communications Studies curriculum. These rooms need to accommodate group activities with movable chairs and tables and must also accommodate individual and group presentations. Not only instructor-friendly smart classrooms, but also student-friendly smart classrooms, are a necessity. Locations of CMST classes need to have an overall better “central hub” to help with building a community among CMST major students. This “hub” would also benefit the CMST faculty in strengthening their family unit. RESPONSE: Not accomplished. We currently have the same two designated CMST classrooms [LRC 137 & LRC 107]. For the past decade, CMST also had the use of LRC 102 for many of its classes; this year it was reserved for another department. Therefore, as of this semester, many of our classes are now held in the LB building, where the technology is failing. We are seeking at least one more dedicated CMST classroom in the LRC building, now that it has new technology for our presentation-based classes.
6. The team recommends that the CMST Department continue with your assessment efforts relative to SLO/PLO/GELO assessment. Look for ways to increase faculty buy-in to the assessment process and associate faculty participation and training.   Develop and implement additional assessments (such as an ESTEAM Criteria and regarding students’ learning at CMST events). RESPONSE: Not funded; an increase in department funds would provide the monies needed to create innovative and significant assessments and marketing for our major.
7. The team recommends that CMST continue your efforts to schedule strategically, developing a consistent schedule (term-to-term in Fall vs. Spring).   Increase numbers of sections as appropriate to reduce bottlenecks impeding students’ goal attainment, allow adequate seats for students completing GE requirements and ensure access for CMST majors.   Offer classes in various modalities, increasing offerings at the Glenn Center and in the summer. RESPONSE: The department continues to work on strategic scheduling; having more dedicated classroom space would be helpful in this endeavor – see recommendation #5 above.
8. The team recommends that the department continues to develop innovative and articulated curriculum, taught in various modes, including courses in Social Media, Speech for Spanish Speakers, a 1-unit elective for Overcoming Speech Anxiety and, most importantly, the courses now part of the AA-T degree. RESPONSE: The CMST department will be addressing these issues again with its next Curriculum Review.
 

Department Goals

Major department goals for the next few years include: 

Civic Expo: We would like to build a large civic exposition modeled similarly to that held by Shasta College, originally taken from the Chico Great Debate.  Our goal is to increase the benefits to our students by providing more opportunities to engage with public sphere pedagogy a bit closer to home.  This requires the financial support of the campus for use of facilities, audio-visual technology, marketing and data collection.  This also requires the support of our entire department faculty and staff, as well as that of library staff and administrators.  The timeline for this is 6 months to 1 year.  
Competitive Forensics Program: We would like to continue to build the competitive forensics team and program.  As faculty, we need to continue supporting the team in a variety of ways - from soliciting the program to students, to helping at practices or traveling with the team as judges.  Active participation from all faculty sends a clear message of support for students that are often the face of our program.  Financially, the addition of a part-time assistant coach would be effective towards keeping the team itself competitive and effective in its use of time. 
Marketing the CMST Major: We would like to build upon our “Talk Fest” event and create a comprehensive marketing program for our major, from collaboration with high school orientations to targeted posters/materials boasting that all of our courses (except for Forensics) meet GE requirements and count toward the major.

Future Development Strategies

Requested Non-Financial Resources

Current Financial Resources

Augmentation Requests