| Request No. | 2017-06 |
|---|---|
| Date of Request | 10.13.16 |
| Requester | Michelle Pena, Bakersfield College |
| Application(s) | Standard & IA |
| Section / Page | Majors /Administrator |
| Steering Approval | Approved / Deferred to Admin 2.0 |
| Steering Hearing Date | November 4December 6, 2016 |
| Proposed Change to Download File | No |
| Proposed Change to Residency Logic | No |
| Table of Contents |
|---|
Problem / Issue
CCCApply Steering Committee is being asked to take our Ed Goal > Majors alignment implementation one step further and incorporate further branching by meta major.
Steering will review this request during the December 6, 2016 meeting but anticipate it will be approved for future development. Planting the seed now so that our Admin 2.0 developer can consider the effort to implement this level of branching as we build out the Majors module in 2.0.
NOTE: Patty will gather more details and clarification on 'meta majors' and what is meant by 'tiered question'.
Request
from Michelle Pena, regarding Meta Majors:
<<I am being asked if a Meta Major can be added as a filter to the CCCApply Application for the major/program area. We are wanting a tiered question, first question shows Meta major and then the next question would display the majors in the Meta major that was selected.>>
<<To piggy back onto this topic, any ability to better organize the majors list would be nice. We have close to 200 majors now, with certificates, aa, as, and all the duplicate transfer specific degrees (UC and CSU).
I have also been approached several times by my Dean of Admissions and Records about meta majors, but responded that it is an issue that has not yet reached the steering committee (to my knowledge). Apparently, there is quite a bit of discussion on the topic of meta majors at the college level.>>
Proposed Solution
If Steering approves this request, the Administrator 2.0 development team will investigate the level of effort to do this work in the first version of the new tool.
12.06.16: The Steering Committee supports investigating how best to design the Majors module in the Administrator to provide more flexibility and functionality for the college.
Notes
The idea of displaying or grouping majors under a specified "Meta Majors" appealed to the majority of the Committee members, but there was caution in jumping on anything too specific.
There are no standard set of Meta Majors; they would vary from college to college. Therefore the college would have to decide how their programs are grouped. Some colleges describe wanting to group their programs/majors by the School they belong to.
The fact that there are no standards defined for Meta Majors, supports the decision to keep whatever we decide to develop very generic and not prescribe categories.
<< from William Diehl >>
I know we can sort the majors list every which way in Administrator, but has the issue with the actual display in the application been resolved? Last I checked, no matter what sorting was used in Administrator, the actual application still displayed the majors in alphabetical order based on the major_code field… We’d love to see this resolved as we have something like 200 majors with all the transfer degrees, certificates, as/aa degrees offered in our district and sorting them on the application by major type not by major code would be best for us.
Cheers!
https://www.ccctechnology.info/ccctc/topics/how-are-majors-organized-on-the-application
<from Rita Grogan, West Hills College>
| Expand |
|---|
I came across this article about meta majors. My district has been looking at implementing metamajors to reduce student indecision when trying to determine their program of study. For example, my district has two colleges. Each of the two colleges has approximately 70+ degree and certificate programs. Currently, CCCApply creates an alphabetical sort of programs for student selection (no matter how I have tried and it has been reported as an issue to them). Since the admissions application is already quite long, some students become frustrated and pick one in the A’s or B’s rather than look individually at this long list. Besides the benefit of more closely aligning the students actual educational objective and an ed plan, enrollment management and course scheduling will more accurately reflect students’ needs into the future if the student is in their correct program of study from the start. The state of Florida has mandated meta majors in their legislation. If you want to see examples of this in practice beyond the attached article, just good Florida meta majors. Something to consider – I’d personally like to see CCCApply adopt a capability where we can cluster like programs (degrees and/or certificates) using a meta major. This meta major may speak to career paths or other common themes. For example, one meta major might be called Health Occupations. Under this heading the student would then see 6-8 degree and certificate options to choose from rather than 70+ to comb through. >> |
Another email from Rita Grogran, July 11, 2016>>
| Expand |
|---|
I and another admissions person from this list has reported a bug in the option sorting to CCCApply about the arrangement you suggest in your email below. No resolution to date. The problem is that, as a CCCApply administrator, I can sort any way I want but when I post that sorted list, the production environment resorts it back into a pure A-Z list. You provided a good temporary solution but it does not work that way in practice (unless recently fixed). The meta major concept would allow the ability to identify career and educational paths specific to our certificate and degree offerings. Our CACCRAO representatives on the CCCApply advisory board intend to bring this to the advisory’s attention for review and hopefully approval to move it forward as a recommendation. I noted when I tried to contact the various list members directly that contact information for them is not on their web site. Therefore, I also recommend that contact information availability is needed to contact those individuals to present new ideas and needs to the general committee or advisory council. I realize that all technology improvements take time – however, this one should be looked at for viability and ease of use for all of the initiatives currently in play at the state level – it makes sense; it is more user friendly; it uses common language and not institutional jargon or formal degree/certificate titles – too many benefits to mention. |
Supporting Documentation
Here's a video from Florida College System that illustrates what meta majors are.
https://www.floridacollegesystem.com/students/programs/meta-major_academic_pathways.aspx