Art New Media
2021-2022 Program Review
1
Unit Profile
1.1
Briefly describe the program-level planning unit. What is the unit's purpose and function?
Art New Media was designed to be a hub of technical and artistic skills using emerging technologies. Art New Media changes with the demands of technology, local industry, and the community. As a CTE program ArtNM is heavily focused on workforce readiness. ArtNM has four distinct parts, 3D Animation and Modeling, Graphic Design, Illustration, and Web Design. ArtNM offers a broad range of subjects; Graphic Design History, traditional illustration, digital illustration, Adobe Photoshop mastery, 3D modeling and texturing, traditional animation in a digital environment, and user experience development for Web and app development. As a department heavily focused on the use of technology we rely on our sister programs, Art, Design Hub, CIS, Journalism, English, and more to achieve our certificate and degree goals. We offer the Art New Media Degree, and the following Certificates of Achievement: 3D Rigging Technical Director, 3D Technical Director, 3D Animation, 3D Modeling and Texturing, Character Design, Commercial Illustration, Web Design, Illustration, Graphic Design: Intern Artist, Graphic Design: Junior Artist, and Graphic Design: Production Artist Certificate. Each certificate is a robust 18+ units meeting the CCCCO standards.
1.2
How does the unit contribute to achievement of the mission of American River College?
Art New Media contributes to the mission of American River College by creating collaborative environments where teams of students can work together after 2-3 semesters of technical training. The American River Review magazine production and the sister courses, Character Design, Facial Expression, and 3D Short Production are examples of interdisciplinary effort, inclusiveness, and identity exploration. We encourage responsible participation through the collaborative efforts of the English dept., Work Experience dept., the Design Hub, and the Animation Club. Courses in ArtNM inspire problem solving and critical thinking.
ArtNM serves the greater Sacramento region by providing industry competitive skills and training based on the most recent demands of technology, industry, and economy. The faculty regularly contact industry partners to keep abreast of the newest demands of the next gen of interns and employees. Also, ArtNM faculty are constantly linked to the gig economy, sharing their firsthand experience with students, giving them the extra edge to achieve their goals of employment, self-employment, and collaborative goals working on pro bono projects; such as indie game development. Our numerous certificates are carefully designed to “stack” enabling the students to earn multiple certificates whilst gaining a degree in Art New Media or another degree, like Art. Courses are transferable to 4-year colleges for the students who wish to continue, and we continue to work towards the goal of 100% transferable.
2
Assessment and Analysis
The program review process asks units to reflect on the progress they've made towards achieving the goals they identified in each of the Annual Unit Plans they submitted since their last Program Review. Follow this link to access your previous EMP submissions. For Faculty support, please contact Veronica Lopez at lopezv@arc.losrios.edu.
2.1
Consider the progress that has been made towards the unit's objectives over the last six years. Based on how the unit intended to measure progress towards achieving these objectives, did the unit's prior planned
action steps (last six years of annual unit plans) result in the intended effect or the goal(s) being achieved?
Some of our previous goals have been achieved. The objective Online Delivery got a boon after COVID sent us home, and we found that ArtNM thrives online. ArtNM at Natomas has stabilized with a basic skills and Graphic Design oriented mission. The Interdisciplinary objective has thrived due to the Design Hub and CIS collaborating with ArtNM. Objectives like Orientation Day or Workshops took a hit after ArtNM lost three critical full-time employees. We were not able to launch either.
ArtNM's objective to create modular certificates and its continued development has yielded an increase in completed certificates.
ArtNM is well equipped with hardware and software, and we have expanded and diversified our offerings. Like the Art Dept., ArtNM is in need of better/newer facilities. A room with a view would be nice. Art New Media is currently in one room, stuffed into a corner. In the past we have seen an decrease in enrollment due to the removal of repeatability. Repeatability was a critical feature of the CC, and a return is much needed for those retraining with the newest software. Repeatability only favors those who are transferring, not the life-long learner, or the retraining/ cross-training student.
The standard data set is intended to provide data that may be useful in promoting equity and informing departmental dialogue, planning, decision making, and resource allocation.
Recent updates include (1) better integration with ARC’s Data on Demand system to provide users with more sophisticated and nuanced ways of exploring their unit’s data and (2) greater emphasis and access to disproportionate impact data (how student achievement outcomes vary by gender, race/ethnicity, veteran, foster youth, disability, and income/poverty level status) to enable users to engage in more advanced student-centered and equity-centered analysis, reflection, and planning.
To access the Enrollment or Disproportionate Impact data reports, you may be prompted to log in to ARC’s Data on Demand system. If so, click on “Log in with ARC Portal” and enter your Los Rios single sign-on credentials (same as Canvas or Intranet).
(To streamline the standard data set, the productivity data element has been removed, as has the green-yellow-red light icon system for all data elements except for department set standards.)
The two data sets show 5 years of fall or spring duplicated enrollment, disaggregated by gender and ethnicity. Note that ARC's data-on-demand tool will soon provide considerably more sophisticated ways of viewing and analyzing your planning unit's headcount and enrollment trends.
- Green
- current fall/spring semester enrollment is equal to or exceeds the prior year's fall/spring enrollment.
- Yellow
- current fall/spring semester enrollment reflects a decline of less than 10% from the prior year's fall/spring enrollment.
- Red
- current fall/spring semester enrollment reflects a decline of 10% or more from the prior year's fall/spring enrollment.
The two data sets show 5 years of fall or spring productivity (WSCH per FTEF: the enrollment activity for which we receive funding divided by the cost of instruction). Note that ARC's data-on-demand tool will soon provide considerably more sophisticated ways of viewing and analyzing your planning unit's productivity trends.
- Green
- current fall/spring semester productivity is equal to or exceeds the prior year's fall/spring productivity.
- Yellow
- current fall/spring semester productivity reflects a decline of less than 10% from the prior year's fall/spring productivity.
- Red
- current fall/spring semester productivity reflects a decline of 10% or more from the prior year's fall/spring productivity.
Precision Campus Report Links
Disproportionate Impact
The disproportionate impact (DI) links now direct you to your unit’s DI data in ARC Data on Demand. The DI data will show which student groups are experiencing disproportionate impact for course success rates (A, B, C, Cr, P), A-B rates, and course completion rates (students who did not withdraw) at the course level.
In addition, a new report on intersectional DI (e.g., ethnicity/race by gender) is available for assessing intersectional Di for course success rates. The intersection DI report defaults to the subject code level (e.g., all ENGWR courses). Use the org tree in the side bar to filter to individual courses (click on the right arrow next to American River College, right arrow next to your division, right arrow next to your department/discipline, then select the specific course to view).
If prompted to log in, click on “Log in with ARC Portal” and enter your Los Rios single-sign on credentials (same as Canvas or Intranet).
Department Set Standards
Shows course success rates (# of A, B, C, Cr, and P grades expressed as a % of total grade notations) compared to lower and upper thresholds. Thresholds are derived using a 95% confidence interval (click the report link for details). The lower threshold is referred to as the Department Set Standard. The upper threshold is referred to as the Stretch Goal.
- Green
- Most recent academic year exceeds the upper threshold
- Yellow
- Most recent academic year falls between the lower and upper threshold
- Red
- Most recent academic year falls below the lower threshold
The faculty's continuous review of student achievement of course SLOs is documented using the Authentic Assessment Review Record (AARR), which involves a review of student work demonstrating achievement of the course SLO. Faculty record student achievement for a randomly assigned course SLO based on one or more authentic assessments that they regularly perform in their classes. The aggregated results are then reviewed annually as part of Annual Unit Planning, in which the results may serve as the basis for actions and, if applicable, resource allocation, and are aligned with college goals and objectives.
The AARR summary link provides an aggregate of the results of the most recent AARR implementation. The AARR results by SLO link provides a more detailed view, including the specific ratings assigned by faculty to each randomly assigned course SLO, and what, if any, actions were taken.
Note: Established thresholds (i.e., green/yellow/red indicators) have yet to be developed for SLO data.
In addition to reflecting on the metrics shown above, it may prove useful to analyze other program-level data to assess the effectiveness of your unit. For instructional units, ARC's Data on Demand system can be used to provide program and course level information regarding equitable outcomes, such as program access or enrollment, successful course completion, and degree or certificate achievement (up to 30+ demographic or course filters are available).
You might also consider pursuing other lines of inquiry appropriate to your unit type (instructional, student support, institutional/administrative support). Refer to the Program Review Inquiry Guide under the resources tab for specific lines of inquiry.
2.2
What were the findings? Please identify program strengths, opportunities, challenges, equity gaps, influencing
factors (e.g., program environment), data limitations, areas for further research, and/or other items of interest.
ArtNM’s strength is in enrollment. Overall, by gender, and by ethnicity are all up by large percentages. ArtNM has been attractive to more African American, Filipino, and Latino since 2016, with a significant boost in 2020. ArtNM’s challenge is productivity and Drop Rate DI. Although productivity is up from Fall 2019 to Fall 2020, it’s still far from the magic 500. Spring 2019-2020 productivity increase is negligible. Retention and interest in our programs is hurting. This may be due to our equity gaps. Our equity gaps are with African American students, where we see an increase in enrollment, but the success doesn’t reflect and the drop rate nearly matches the success rate and AB rate. We can only speculate on the influencing factors, and we’ll note this in the next part in Reflection and Dialog. The data limitations we identified are few. To the untrained eye, this data seems to show an increased interest in ArtNM programs from African American, Latino, Filipino, and more. Areas for further research would be to study if Success Rate DI could bounce back to a green dot if the Drop Rate DI was inverted.
3
Reflection and Dialog
3.1
Discuss how the findings relate to the unit's effectiveness. What did your unit learn from the analysis and how
might the relevant findings inform future action?
The analysis of this data in addition to the revision of nearly all the ArtNM curriculum has led ArtNM to a conclusion. This conclusion is really just the beginning of the new ArtNM. We found that there was little to no inclusivity to ethnicity, specifically African American or we were informed by the curriculum committee of blacks, indigenous, and people of color (BIPoC). This has led us to the conclusion that we are not doing enough to make an environment that is inviting to all people, and especially African American. Again, this conclusion is reached because we have such a large increase in black’s interest in ArtNM, yet eight of our courses are not meeting their needs, and we speculate they are giving up, dropping the course.
3.2
What is the unit's ideal future and why is it desirable to ARC? How will the unit's aspirations support accomplishment of the mission, improve institutional effectiveness, and/or increase academic quality?
Ideally, all people are loved, nurtured, and educated while in the care of the faculty of ArtNM. Ideally, each person feels welcome and looks forward to coming to the next class and feels nostalgic when they look back at their time with ArtNM. That African American students will find a home with the care given by each of us. ArtNM aspires to listen to each student carefully, administer grace where needed, encourage students individually, and rebuke them lovingly. This is desirable to ARC and is in line with the college mission and its commitment to social justice and equity.
ArtNM can support the accomplishment of the mission and improve institutional effectiveness by aggressively using technology to communicate with students and students with us. We don’t just communicate when there’s an office hour, but we make an open channel(s) for their use at any time and we respond to all inquiries. And create safe places where African Americans, especially black men, feel comfortable to openly communicate.
4
Strategic Enhancement
4.1
Identify/define one or more program-level objectives which enhance the unit's effectiveness. What does your unit intend to do to work towards its ideal future? How will success be measured?
ArtNM has identified the curriculum as a place to develop inclusiveness and equity. In the curriculum, we can address the heart of the thinking of the faculty developer to consider others in the community, while also delivering content that is competitive and rich in quality. Additionally, as curriculum lays the groundwork for all other material, most especially the syllabus will be tackled with the same mission. The syllabus is the entry document to any course, and can either draw in a student or repel. Another area to work on is attending programs or events that support faculty in their effort to grow in inclusivity and equity mindedness.
As we strive for this goal, we’ll carefully compare Success Rate DI to Drop Rate DI. With good work, we will see the Drop Rate DI invert for those eight courses; ARTNM 302, 303, 305, 324, 328, 332, 401, and 405.
4.2
How will the unit's intended enhancements support ARC's commitment to social justice and equity?
Art New Media supports ARC's committment to social justice and equity by creating opportunities for our students to take part in direct community engagement by connecting them to the Design Hub Internship program, CIS and other related fields, the Animation Club, and the Sacramento Developers Coalition community formed by ARC alumni. We continue to make an award winning magazine in collaboration with the English Dept.