Computing in the 21st Century:

A Strategic Initiative

Veronica Wilkerson Johnson

IDSL 835 Capstone Assignment * Ferris State University
December 7, 2012

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Introduction

The Morma Vista Community College (MVCC), situated in the rolling hills of Anytown, USA,
has established a strategic plan to improve computing education for its students. MVCC, since
its recent inception in 1995, has provided quality, accessible education and lifelong learning
opportunities to a diverse population. It has career and technical education; education for
transfer to baccalaureate programs; and services to support economic development and
community vitality. To achieve this mission, Morma Vista Community College offers career
and technical education that prepares graduates for immediate employment and/or continued
education at the baccalaureate level. MVCC is striving to make a difference, as a newer
educational institution, in an environment that needs grassroots development and nurturing to
embrace the existence, and culture, of higher education.

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Strategic Issue

One of MVCCs primary challenges is that the populace in this area lags behind in computing
education, for this subject area is not taught in most of the area K-12 schools since they cannot
afford the technology to support it, and have historically not attempted to seek resources in this
regard. Anytown, USA is a small, rural, farming community with few college graduates.
MVCC, which is Anytowns only community college, has done an excellent job since 1995 in
recruiting students from Anytown and surrounding communities, encouraging student
enrollments and success rates, and in providing remedial and developmental programs to aid
its students advancement. The college has a multitude of first generation students who are
eager to get ahead, but they have arrived at MVCC with the great disadvantage of being
technologically challenged. This lack of preparedness also impedes the success rates of
students who are seeking associate degrees in computing education, graphics and multimedia
fields, or who wish to transfer into technical degree programs at four-year colleges and
universities. MVCC has established good relationships with the four-year institutions, and it
has achieved its needed share of state and local funding due to the proven metrics of its
excellent student success rates.

Planning Process

The MMVC President and Board of Directors formed a Strategic Planning Team which

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developed an Initiative for Accelerated Learning 2016, an ambitious plan to advance technical and
computing education for all students, with the potential to make them computer savvy,
technically skilled, highly employable in computing fields, and marketable internationally.

The planning team is comprised of the MVCC President, a representative from the MVCC
Board of Directors, the Dean of the Multimedia and Computer Graphics Department, three
Computing Education faculty members, several community stakeholders i.e. corporate
leaders and government officials, the Assistant Superintendent of the local Intermediate School
District, and a Professor of Engineering and Technology Advancement from a nearby
university with which MVCC has a transfer relationship. The team has affirmed that
community colleges are well-positioned to support regional economic development, global
initiatives, and to educate and train the regional workforce. It believes that a part of the MVCC
mission should be to help provide trained workers for the highly technical companies in its
surrounding communities. It seeks to address the economic shifts that demand training and
re-training, and it is geographically accessible to diverse populations who come from Anytown
and other cities across the state, providing a relatively low cost of tuition. Most importantly,
the team affirms that all of its students must receive a high quality education, taught by
appropriately trained and credentialed faculty with good support services personnel.

Furthermore, it is well aware that failure to provide computing education in this vulnerable
geographic area would leave Anytown and local residents behind in technical sufficiency,
which, in many ways, is akin to them losing out completely on technical skills training since
MVCC is the only community college closely available. Research that MVCC conducted, using
National Center for Education statistics, 2010 Dicennial Census socio-economic data, and state
and local school statistics focused on neighboring areas in this state, revealed that the K-12
academic scores, the matriculation rates of high school students continuing on to higher

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education, and the per capita socio-economic indices of students and residents in the
neighboring geographic areas were as much as 30% to 40% higher than the rates for students
and residents in Anytown.

The Strategic Planning Team affirmed the following:

Vision for Academic Excellence Morma Vista Community College will be a leader in educational and administrative
technology that enhances student learning, student opportunities, and improves college
management processes and functions.

Mission Statement for Computing Education Excellence

Morma Vista Community Colleges mission in computing education is to develop a curriculum
and campus technology infrastructure to create a pathway for students to become competent
professionals. The computing education curriculum at Morma Vista Community College
spans a range of specialty areas from basic computer technology training to interdisciplinary
training in multimedia computing, computer game design, and graphic arts, designed to help
students and the community keep pace with the rapid changes in technological advancement.
MVCC will continue its tradition of quickly evolving its technology and curricula to meet the
demands of this field, while maintaining and increasing the quality of the programs it offers.

Bolstered by these values, the Strategic Planning Team recruited outstanding computing
education faculty to join with them in developing five action strategies which support the
vision and mission: (1) provide an excellent curriculum to advance students in computing
technology study; (2) enhance computing technology resources on the MVCC campus; (3)
create a campus of scholars that encourages high standards of academic achievement for the

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teachers and the students; (4) establish an excellent computing education department and
encourage the hiring of outstanding faculty; and (5) integrate into the curriculum international
technology perspectives, global initiatives and training opportunities related to computing
education. The Strategic Planning Team will seek, going forward, to insure that the curriculum
and the resulting success of the students in these courses reflect the goals, mission and vision
of the college.

Initiatives and Measures

Initiative #1: Enhance computing education curricular offerings and experiences. Develop a
Center for Retention and Transfer that includes a comprehensive orientation and First-year
Experience Program.
Metric: Creation of measurable thematic options for mastery in computing education and
artistic creation, and measure the increased offerings of special topic electives.

MVCC will also establish a process for systematic review of its computing education program
offerings to ensure that they maintain academic standards and meet the changing needs of the
service area, as they seek continual sources of funding to bolster the MVCC academic
technology plan.

Initiative #2: Upgrade MVCC campus technology to include a 24-hour computing center for
students. The Fishbowl as it will be called, will provide continual computing accessibility.
Also, redesign the college website to give it a more unified and identifiable theme and to make
it more accessible, functional, and informative.
Metric: Development of a student feedback mechanism or portal to assess long-term success of
campus technology provisions and enhancements.

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This initiative will give students a true portal on the website, accessible by their student IDs
and passwords. MVCC will also expand the Colleges technological infrastructure and acquire
high-level video teleconferencing equipment to enable delivery of online and hybrid course
training and increase distance education delivery systems.

Initiative #3: Create and enhance support for a teacher-scholar model.

Metric: Establish an accurate and sustainable student learning assessment matrix, with clearly
identified outcomes and measures, in order to foster a culture of continuous improvement.
Increased faculty scholarship means increased student scholarship. Measure ways in which
MVCC exceeds national and peer institution norms on student satisfaction measures.

Initiative #4: Establish a Department of Computer Graphics developed with

NationalComputing Education Accreditation Council (NCEAC) best practices guidelines.
Recruit and hire faculty for the department who have advanced computer technology training
and credentials.
Metric: Utilize accreditation measures of the National Computing Education Accreditation
Council (NCEAC), and provide an annual assessment matrix of computing faculty.

Initiative #5 Integrate international issues into the curriculum, recognizing the global nature of
the computing education and technology fields.
Metric: Document increases in student involvement in study abroad, the articulation
agreements with international hosts, and statistics of the increased hosting of international
students.

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Reflection

The link between education and prosperity is undisputed. Preparing students to earn associate
degrees and postsecondary training is important for all citizens, but particularly for the
residents of Anytown, USA that I created for this endeavor. . The MVCC Strategic Planning
Team certainly sought to address this need with the development of the Initiative for Accelerated
Learning 2016, the goals of which were described in this paper.
This project has given me the opportunity to identify a unique part of a community colleges
overarching mission, vision and goals, and to expand upon it. I am now more aware of how a
strategic initiative can begin to spin and develop, capturing the loops of the mission and goals,
and, if done well, can help to create a legacy for the college, community and stakeholders
which it advises and serves.

Recent evidence supports the fact that there is a shortage of workers in highly skilled, technical
computing jobs, and that the need for these workers will increase in the future. As was stated
by H. Kasper (2002) of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: A constant for community colleges
has been their ability to quickly adapt to demands of the times. Today, technology is a factor
affecting most of the demographic, economic, and academic challenges that community
colleges face. Innovations in the workplace have forced employees to upgrade their skills or
seek advanced training. New entrants to the labor force also have an increasing need to add to

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their skills through postsecondary instruction. As higher education evolves, it increasingly

emphasizes the value of credentialed and non-credentialed knowledge and skill, and
familiarity with computer technology is a necessity for accessing most 21 st century learning.
Community colleges have taken note. Reacting to technological and other changes,
community colleges continue to test their flexibility as they strive to address changing
educational and training needs.

Workers in highly technical roles can earn excellent wages, and will predictably maintain their
edge in an ever-changing economy. It will be important for all community colleges, however, to
assess how well they are training students to understand technology as we move forward in
the 21st century. As leaders we, and our partners in higher education, play an important role in
this discussion, and in this equation.

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