Office of Instruction Update - November 2024

November was a blur of a month, am I right? So will be this update. The best part of writing these is recognizing the folks who are doing cool things on our campus. This month my spotlight is on the Peer Online Course Review (POCR) process and the instructors who, partnering with the POCR Peer Review Team, have aligned their online courses for better accessibility, usability, and just an overall enhanced experience for the student. POCR offers a friendly, constructive way to receive feedback on Canvas course design in a manner that respects each discipline’s unique teaching approaches and each instructor’s personal style. All feedback is confidential, intended solely for instructional improvement. Instructors can expect an initial review, collaborative feedback sessions, and support with final submissions to achieve alignment. Read more about our POCR process.

Congratulations to Heather Boynton, Suzie Brandl, Alexandra Caloca, Stephanie Coffman, Cynthia Elm, Sanjiva Gunasekara, Eugene Hannon, Cody Hoover, Jenna Irish, Shawon Jackson-Ybarra, Teresa Mendes, Liz Romero, Charlotte Samuels, Christopher Schwandt, Tracy Stuntz, and Sheila Wright for aligning their classes through POCR! And much appreciation to our CCC POCR Team of reviewers: Tracy Stuntz (Lead), Heather Boynton, Stephanie Briones, Sanjiva Gunasekara, Cody Hoover, Jenna Irish, Teresa Mendes, Liz Romero, Jared Rutledge, and Melanie Sanwo.

I attended two conferences of note this month. Second one first. Mid November I was at the CBEN (Competency Based Education Network) SKIBExchange Conference in Colorado Springs. We -Monica Chahal, Erin Dolin, Matthew Graff, Teresa Mendes, Whitney Menefee, and Tracy Stuntz- fortunately missed the snow storm a couple of days before (hence the title: SKI-B-E…play on CBE…uh huh…) but still had a marvelous few days of learning and collegiality and deep conversations on everything CBE. I am not sure if it was the cowbells (ask Matthew Graff), or the purified air (very high elevation), but I think we all came back excited and motivated to talking more about CBE and its potential for our college.

The first conference I attended in November was Colegas in Sacramento. Literally, that translates to colleagues. But this conference is something else, much deeper than collegiality. It’s sincere fellowship, camaraderie, brotherhood, sisterhood, familia. Our Clovis team -Nancy Chavero, Ruben Diaz, Hugo Lopez Chavolla, and Angelita Zaragoza- joined community college “colleagues” from all over the state, across instruction and student services, for a 2 days of workshops and presentations. We heard from autora Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodriguez (For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts) and grooved to Grammy awarded La Santa Cecilia. We were, simply, immersed in brown excellence.

In this past month of giving thanks, for all the cool things we do for our students, the things we need to do for ourselves so we can continue to do cool things for our students, and for all y’all reading this, I am thankful.

Respectfully,

James R. Ortez, Ph.D., MPA
Vice President of Instruction