Computer Information Science
2022-2023 Program Review

The Computer Information Science (CIS) department is an instructional department that offers courses, certificates, and degrees to empower students to realize their potential and succeed. In this context, success includes, but is not limited to:

• the attainment of a specific skill set or knowledge in Information and Communication Technology (ICT),
• to get an ICT industry certification,
• to meet the ICT qualification of jobs or advancements,
• to transfer to a university and continue academic achievement in an ICT related field, and
• to continue lifelong learning and growth.

“American River College places students first in providing an academically rich, inclusive environment that inspires critical thinking, learning and achievement, and responsible participation in the community.”

• Many students enroll in the Computer Science (CS) degree offered by the CIS department. This degree is academically rich as it prepares students to transfer to UCs and CSUs. The CS degree includes many courses that train students to think critically and solve problems independently.

“American River College, serving the greater Sacramento region, offers education and support for students to strengthen basic skills, earn associate degrees and certificates, transfer to other colleges and universities, and achieve career as well as other academic and personal goals.”

• Many of the CISC and CISA courses strengthen basic skills involving the use of computers as a basic toAmerican River College, serving the greater Sacramento region, offers education and support for studentsol for personal use, be it word processing for written communication, spreadsheet for calculations or just the know-how of operating a desktop or laptop computer.
• The CIS department offers a magnitude of certificates that directly relate to well recognized industry certification. Such certificates help students meet qualifications of various categories of jobs in the ICT industry. This, in return, help students transform their future for the better via secure and satisfying careers.
• The Computer Science degree of the ARC CIS department articulates with more 4-year universities than other colleges in Los Rios. This is the result of diligent curriculum development as well as rigor of the classes. Students who successfully transfer ultimately achieve academic and pragmatic career goals.

There is insufficient data to review due to internal departmental coordination issues.

Program strengths

• Classes address SLOs as declared in curricula.
• CISA, CISP, and CISS disciplines reflect high productivity, despite a minor decline in recent years

Opportunities

• Enrollments in CISP and CISW are increasing

Challenges

• Enrollments in CISA, CISC, and CISN are in decline

Equity gaps

• According to the categorization method, there are gaps specific to certain races throughout the program

Influencing factors

Data limitations

• The data provided does not indicate the levels of basic skills (English reading, mathematics) of students. Many reports from the ICT industry have identified reading is the most important factor of success, followed by mathematical reasoning and writing skills.

Areas for further research

• One potential area of further research is to see whether there is a strong correlation between the achievement of basic skills and success in CIS-specific classes and programs. For example, math basic skill can be evaluated based on high school transcript of highest level math class and grade, or highest level math class in Los Rios and grade.

CISA discipline enrollment and productivity

• The exceptional enrollment and productivity of this discipline is mostly due to the necessity to learn apps for word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation.
• While the use of Microsoft products is likely to continue, offering courses to use Google Drive apps may ensure even healthier and most robust enrollment.

CISC discipline enrollment and productivity

• The decline is expected to continue as more students start college with increased knowledge regarding the operation of computers and information technology.
• Revamping the PC Support programs (should be called IT Fundamental) should improve enrollments in courses in the CISC discipline.
• A potential growth area is to offer CISC courses related to the system administration of enterprise computing (IBM mainframe) systems.

CISN discipline enrollment and productivity

• The CISN discipline has relatively low enrollment and productivity. This is due to several factors.
• The CISN programs may need to be realigned to reflect industry needs.
• The CISN courses may need to be realigned to eliminate in-discipline cannibalization. Many CISN courses share SLOs.
• The variety of similar, yet distinct, courses makes it difficult to schedule classes, and this also significantly impacts productivity.

CISP discipline enrollment and productivity

• The CISP discipline has robust enrollment and productivity. This is due to the high early-career median salaries of related occupations, as well as the overall high demand in the job market.
• This trend is likely to continue due to the energy injected by GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) technologies.
• The CISP discipline can also potentially grow by offering classes in Enterprise Software Engineering. The curricula are already developed, but staffing these classes can be challenging due to the exclusivity of IBM technologies.

CISS discipline enrollment and productivity

• The CISS discipline has robust enrollment and productivity. This is likely to be a continuing trend due to the adversarial nature of cybersecurity.
• Given the robust enrollment and productivity, the CISS discipline may benefit from another full-time faculty members.

CISW discipline enrollment and productivity

• Despite the relatively low enrollment of the CISW discipline, the productivity is respectable.
• The programs in the CISW discipline are fast changing. As such, course and program curriculum development revision remains vital to maintain the enrollment and productivity of this discipline.

The ideal future of the CIS department

• To continue to transform the lives of students, be it learning basic computer operation skills, acquiring specific knowledge in select classes, accomplishing career related certificates for advancement, or transferring to four-year universities to start a career as a software engineer (or a related occupation).
• To keep up with the ICT industry. The ICT industry evolves at an increasingly fast pace. At the time of this program review, OpenAI is releasing ChatGPT 4.0. Such tools can dramatically influence what a person needs to enter, sustain, and grow in an ICT career.
• To be open and understand our students as individuals. To help each student identify necessarily elements to succeed. To offer support, when possible, to help each student succeed.
• The ideals listed above completely align with the mission of American River College to “...to strengthen basic skills, earn associate degrees and certificates, transfer to other colleges and universities, and achieve career as well as other academic and personal goals.”

Program objective 1

• Working with the STEM HomeBase, improve the self-awareness of students, particularly of work-personality (for example, Holland code, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator).
• This objective helps each student assess and choose a program and a career objective that aligns with interests, preferences, and strengths.
• This objective also helps each student identify study strategies that are specific to the identified characteristics to improve effectiveness and success.
• The success of this objective can be measured by student program-level success in the next seven years.

Program objective 2

• Working with the STEM HomeBase, offer inventory assessment of necessary elements to succeed, including but not limited to time budgeting/allocation, space to study, food availability, mental wellness, study skills, study habits, etc.
• This objective helps each student identify what elements may be missing and seek assistance to acquire all necessary elements.
• The success of this objective can be measured by student course-level success in the next seven years.

Program Objective 3

• Working with the STEM HomeBase, provide success support that address most, if not all, of the items listed in Program objective 2.
• This objective may be achieved with improving the awareness among educators of the support that everyone can offer in the interaction with students and planning of course material.
• This objective works in tandem with Program Objective 2 to ensure students have all the necessary elements to succeed.
• The success of this objective can be measured by student course-level success in the next seven years.

Program Objective 4

• Based on the feedback of the department student survey, prioritize efforts to improve and innovate resources to help students succeed.
• This objective involves communicating with departmental colleagues about the resources and assisting colleagues who are interested to provide such resources without imposing unduly workload.
• The success of this objective can be measured by the next student survey to see if the availability of the resources is improved.

• Let's start with program objective 1. Social justice is about “liberate rather than oppress others, particularly disproportionately impacted persons.” Often, this perceived oppression is subjective based on portrayal of people based on over-generalization and stereotypes. Individuals can internalize these external images and form a self-opinion of limitations. A well-designed personality trait/preference assessment liberates an individual by providing an objective evaluation. Such assessments can be liberating because an individual may have the self-opinion of “oh, I cannot possibly do this” due to over-generalization and stereotypes. After an assessment, the same individual may gather evidence-based and scientific (at least mathematically modeled) affirmation of “hey, according to this assessment, I can do this!”
• However, this “can do” is still conditional on the necessary elements to succeed. This is where program objective 2 comes in. Equity is about “providing educational opportunities and support that meet the needs of the community.” Many students who attend American River College may not be born into families that have been valuing education for generations, lived in a neighborhood that assigns children to academically achieving public schools, or had the opportunity to transfer to programs that aim to prepare K-12 students for college. Program objective 2 aims to bring the awareness of the necessary elements to succeed to all students. To put more simply, this objective let students understand the value and necessity of the opportunities and support.
• Opportunities and support are pointless unless they are offered, and this is program objective 3. This objective is about “providing educational opportunities and support that meet the needs of the community.” For example, program objective 2 may bring the awareness of “there are note-taking skills that can help improve success in a class,” program object 3 introduces the note-taking skills in extracurricular workshops and departmental tools. Note-taking is just one of the many necessary skills to succeed in college.
• While program objectives 2 and 3 are initiated by educators who are academically successful, program objective 4 takes into consideration what students value. This is necessary because certain resources might not have been available to educators when they were college students due to technology, philosophies of education, awareness, etc. In other words, program objective 4 infuses current and student-centric feedback to program objective 3. For example, note-taking techniques may vary greatly depending on whether an in-person lecture is digitally recorded and transcribed.