A group composed of President Dr. Mary Lou Apple; Interim Academic Vice-President— Brenda Lewis; Vice-President for Technology and Facilities—Dr. Eddie Stone; Dean of the College—Dr. Jay May; Chair of the Department of Business and Technology—Dr. Randall Bartley; and Professor of History and Grants Coordinator— Dr. Jay Pilzer met to discuss the most viable and valuable programs to enhance our AAS and CTE offerings. After discussions that focused on the mission of the college, our past involvement in the selected areas, our current situation, our goals, and our resources, the plan presented herein was developed.

Introduction

Motlow State Community College is at a decisive point in its history. In the past decade our enrollment in university parallel liberal arts courses has increased dramatically while many of or AAS degree and technical certificate programs have declined in enrollment. For example, our business technology majors have decreased by 59% between 2000 and 2007, and our general technology majors have decreased by 72% over the same period. In the spring of 2007, 323 of our 419 graduates were university parallel programs.

Motlow has also seen a 50% shift toward a more traditional student body of 18 to 22 year olds in the last seven years. Obviously, these changes have not been planned by the college; they are the combined result of a changing regional economy, the emphasis society has placed on four year degrees, the availability of alternatives for business and industrial education, and other factors.
While these issues combine to make a challenging environment for technical and business related offerings, they also present Motlow State with a unique opportunity. The college can now examine and propose a major overhaul of our technical and business programs. However, in order to do so effectively, we must engage in effective planning and program development. Motlow has attempted to plan and develop new courses in the business and technology areas in the past and has had some success. Our nursing program, for example, has grown steadily. However, the college has not been able to gather the definitive information concerning real needs in these areas and the needs and desires of students who are looking at technical or business careers. Inadequate planning comes not from a lack of trying. It stems instead from a lack of resources.

Need

The resources of any state college are limited. Motlow, like most of our fellow state community colleges, has limited financial and human resources to develop new courses or programs. Academic institutions also have structural issues that make it difficult to adjust programs to changing needs. Restrictions on the re-allocation of resources, particularly in regard to faculty, are based on both law and custom. However, Motlow now has 23% of our faculty over sixty years old and who are nearing probable retirement. This gives the college an opportunity to realign our faculty to meet current needs.

Good planning is not then an option; it is a necessity. Program planning and development are activities that cannot and should not be done piecemeal by a committee that meets irregularly and is composed of members who are normally doing too much with too little time. Our proposed grant plan will allocate the time and resources demanded by a thorough planning process so that we can determine where the college needs to go and how we can gather the resources needed to get us there.

The Plan

Motlow intends to use some of the first year of the Perkins IV Grant funds to engage in a methodical and comprehensive planning process. We will hire a director of technical and business program planning and development to evaluate our current AAS programs and technical certificates. This evaluation will be based on the numbers of students enrolled in the past decade and, to the degree possible, their employment and/or education after leaving Motlow. Why have some of our programs grown while others have withered? What new AAS/CTE programs are needed in our service area?
In partnership with area industrial development boards and Chambers of Commerce, we will establish regional industrial and business advisory groups. We will ask these groups to define their definitive needs today and in the foreseeable future. We will ask each of the companies who identify a need to make a tangible commitment to any program that we develop to meet that need.
We will also meet with guidance counselors and other appropriate personnel at area high schools in each LEA to determine the needs and desires of their students. Our goal is to discover the needs of business and industry and integrate them with the needs of area students of all ages. With this information, we can decide which programs we need and create a seamless integration from secondary school, through Motlow, and into suitable employment.
Anecdotal evidence or “flavor of the month” will not yield effective programs for our students or our regional economy; the gathering of hard information will. This planning process will be difficult. Motlow will have to ask the right questions of the right people and then exercise sound judgment to determine what the information means and how it can best be applied. We have the skill and courage to do this. We lack only the information.
The necessary items, for which we will apply Perkins funding, are a Maternal and Neonatal Birthing simulator, and enhancement of our on-line business program. The birthing simulator is a necessary component for our highly successful nursing program. This equipment will allow our faculty to teach birthing skills in a controlled and organized manner. Motlow’s on-line business curriculum allows students who may not have access to on-site classes, to take college business courses. It also provides access to secondary school students who are ready for colligate level work, but for whom regular on-site classes are impossible. Our expansion plan includes a strong marketing campaign in our service areas to let a variety of potential students know that the on-line business program exists and may offer what they need.
The second year of the grant will stress implementing that which we learn in year one. We may have needs for faculty training, recruitment, new equipment, or other areas that can only be determined once the initial plan is successfully implemented.

The Structure

Our Director of AAS planning will report to the Academic Vice-President who will chair a campus-wide planning committee. This committee will help design the research project and will be charged with making decisions based on the information that is collected. Present programs that are no longer necessary or viable will then be reformatted or eliminated. Ideas for new programs to meet newly discovered needs will be subjected to a rigorous test to determine their viability both now and in the foreseeable future.
Motlow will make certain that any new programs meet a need in our service area and that we have the financial, material, and human resources to design and implement any program(s) we adopt. This is likely to be a difficult process. Program development at Motlow will require careful thought and objectivity and is impossible without accurate information.

In order for Motlow to be a full participant in many of these performance categories, we must expand our AAS/CTE programs to meaningful numbers. It is only then that we will be able to have a significant impact on the students in our service area

The Birth and Neonatal simulator will be a valuable tool for preparing our Nursing students to take the RN licensure examination.

One of our projects, the acquisition of a Maternal and Neonatal Birthing Simulator, is a necessary piece of equipment to maintain the excellent preparation that our nursing program has had historically.

The marketing, and thus enhancement of our on-line business programs will swell enrollment in these valuable programs. The addition of a Business Program advisor in the second year will be a valuable resource for students needing any addition support or advisement.

The expansion of programs will increase the raw numbers of participants in this category. The full utilization of our current advisor system and the addition of a business program advisor in year two as the program expands will result in increased rates.

Part of our planning will be to track this over the last five years. We will look at which fields had the best placement record and, to the degree possible, the opinions of employers concerning the preparation of our students.

Our nursing graduates have a placement rate of nearly 100%.

Motlow has done well in attracting men to our nursing program. Our belief that all programs and careers should be open to both sexes is manifest in all of our recruitment, advising, and instruction. This belief leads to our consciousness of the issue at all times and in all phases.

Our business programs have a history of success. By increasing enrollment in them and the establishment of our business course advisement center in year two of the grant, we will significantly increase the graduation rate for both sexes. Our nursing program’s graduation rate for males is the same as that for women. We will endeavor to continue the attitudes that have made our programs gender neutral.

Nineteen hours of our AAS programs are in the General Education Core. Motlow sees our AAS/CTE students as part of the college community, rather than a separate entity. Thus, the general education requirements in literacy and critical thinking are an important component of these programs.

Motlow administrators recently attended a meeting of the Advisory Board for the Rutherford County Board of Education group dealing with career and technical education. Motlow will make a major thrust to coordinate with the Board to make our on-line business courses available to secondary students. We have mechanisms in place that give college credit for some business and technical course at the secondary level and have other opportunities (testing for example) that give secondary students access to collegiate credit. Once established with Rutherford County, we will expand these mechanisms to all of our LEAs.

All Motlow courses, including AAS/CTE courses allow students to receive credit by assessment.

Our planning process will fully integrate with the secondary schools in our service area. Our program development structure will have dual credit, dual enrollment, and articulation built in to any new or expanded programs at the outset.

Our nursing program is, of course, heavily based on clinical experience in the appropriate settings. The Birthing simulator will allow faculty to provide birthing training and experience regularly.

We address this in two areas. First, Motlow will purchase a Noelle Maternal and Neonatal Birthing simulator. This device employs technology to allow simulation of a biological process. The instructors are able to simulate a variety of scenarios to train students in this high risk specialty setting.

Second, the use of on-line processes including videos, discussions, testing, and other methodologies in our on-line business program will expose our students to cutting edge technologies in computer based learning. This exposure will be invaluable in their future careers.

In the second year of the grant we will establish a business program advisor. This person will deal directly with students in our business programs and also be available as a first step consultant on business related issues to our students who operate businesses. The faculty member may require some specific training to be able to fulfill this dual role. Any training in this area will be of high quality, sustained, intensive, and focused on classroom instruction and teacher performance. It will not be one day workshops or conferences. The goal of any training will be to have a lasting impact on classroom instruction.

Motlow uses two systems for evaluation. The first is the traditional grading system which we maintain with integrity. The second is a system of post tests that assesses the skills of our students as they exit the program.

The birthing simulator and the enhanced use of on-line technologies both address this issue. Our planning and program development phase has these at its core. Motlow will evaluate all current AAS/CTE programs and, with partners in each LEA and in business, we will create new programs that meet the demonstrable needs of our service area. Motlow will be able to incorporate the latest technologies into our current and newly created programs.

All Motlow students have access to our advisement center and our career placement center. These are staffed by full time directors who, along with their staffs and faculty members, seek to ensure that all Motlow students receive the best academic and career counseling possible.

Our area has seen a growth in our Hispanic population. This is a group that is underserved. We plan to actively recruit among this population in all of our AAS and CTE programs. In particular we will have a Spanish language version of a 5-7 minute DVD we plan to produce to highlight our on-line business program.

Our planning and program development component will involve business and industrial leaders via Chambers of Commerce and Industrial Development Boards and other means. The programs we develop will be rooted in their needs and their commitment to the programs and their graduates.

We will create a five to seven minute DVD that will explain our on-line Business program’s operation and value. This will be made available to secondary schools, local television outlets, Chambers of Commerce, and students who inquire about our business program. Students who are interested in the program will then meet with Motlow faculty and staff to explore the best options for each student.

The planning and implementation parts of our proposal have this as an essential component. Our advisory groups of business and industrial leaders will have an integral role in the planning and implementation processes.

We will seek to recruit in the Hispanic community. This is a growing and underserved part of our educational landscape.

We will purchase a Noelle Maternal and Neonatal Birthing simulator. ($15, 995)

The on-line business program will provide a wide range of students with access to colligate level business courses. Accessibility is at the core of on-line programs. Motlow believes that there is a great potential forth a growth of service here and that our plan to increase awareness of our on-line business offerings is a major step in this direction.

We have a relationship with MTSU that allows our students to transfer credit via our General Technology program. MTSU will also accept TTC credits that our students bring through Motlow.

Our business program advisor will be able to advise our students who are operating businesses. This will begin as a limited service. If there is continuing demand, we will be open to the expansion of this limited role into an entrepreneurial development center.

That is really the thrust of our application. We need to determine the programs and courses that are needed and then create those with the greatest need and the greatest viability.

Motlow administrators recently attended a meeting of the Advisory Board for the Rutherford County Board of Education group dealing with career and technical education. Motlow will make a major thrust to coordinate with them and make our on-line business courses available to secondary students. We have mechanisms in place that give college credit for some business and technical course at the secondary level and have other opportunities (testing for example) that give secondary students access to collegiate credit. Once established with Rutherford County, we will expand these mechanisms to all of our LEAs.

Motlow has an agreement with MTSU so that they will accept TTC credits that come through Motlow’s General Technology program.

Motlow’s AAS and CTE are typically taught by the same faculty as our university parallel students and often in the same classes. The standards are the same for all.

Our nursing students are compelled to work in health care as part of their clinical training. Our on-line business students will target people presently working in business. We will provide for an integration of the practical and the theoretical. That will be one of the primary focuses of our business program coordinator.

As our planning mode transitions into program development, professional development will be a core function. We can assume that faculty skills may have to be honed or re-directed to be fully effective in new areas.

Our planning process will involve the creation and/or expansion of business and industry advisement groups. These bodies will be central to the planning and program development process that we will undertake in year one.

Our AAS programs are reviewed by an outside, out of state peer reviewer on a routine cycle to assure relevance and quality. Additionally, all of our business programs—to include our AAS programs— are accredited by the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs.

AAS in Business Technology graduates take the Business Technology Exit exam in order to generate a comparative analysis against our base line (initial year’s performance). This process promotes the disciplines within the Business & Technology arena to monitor student performance within their individual course responsibilities and allows faculty to adapt, adjust and implement corrective measures within the delivery and instructional components.

Additionally, our Business Technology programs are monitored by out-of-state peer reviewer for quality control feedback.

Motlow complies with section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 197 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 to make academic accommodations for disabled students. The college has long dealt with and recognized the special needs of single parent students, non-traditional students, students who may need developmental coursed prior to beginning college work, and economically displaced students.

Motlow College has had and continues to have policies that ensure that all programs and areas of study are open to all students regardless of their gender. Our nursing program and elementary education programs, both of which have traditionally been rather gender specific, have enrolled students of both genders.

Motlow College has an Advisement Center for all of our students. In addition, the faculty members in each discipline area provide appropriate advisement for students in these areas. In the second year of the Perkins grant we plan to have a designated specific advisor for our Business program students.

The Business and Technology courses are typically taught by our full time faculty members who teach in the University Parallel programs as well. These faculty members meet the minimum requirements proposed by our accreditation bodies – SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools) as well as Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP). Additionally, we have compiled a qualified pool of adjunct faculty members with the assistance of Extended Services. Typically, these adjuncts have been supportive of our program delivery for a number of years. These adjuncts have a record of excellent service in the classroom and are familiar with our programs.

When an adjunct vacancy may occur, we advise via local service area newspapers, along with historically minority based institutions of higher learning, and national/regional publications such as the Chronicle of Higher Education. Our Nursing adjunct and full time vacancies are sought via such nursing journals and nursing schools in order to target specific market avenues. Hospitals and allied health agencies are specific locales for searching for this specialty.

Our office of Institutional Research maintains a very complete record of the college’s operations in all areas. In particular, we know the age, location, and other facts about our students. We also know their completion rates, grades, and other measures of success or failure. With these we are able to identify areas of strength or weakness and develop strategies to encourage student success.