December 2002	HIGHLIGHTS is a quarterly update of IT@Sinclair a cooperative effort of Sinclair Community College and the National Science Foundation.
CIS Program Redesign  /  Fast Track/J.E.D.I. Program  /  Tech Prep Cisco  /  Faculty Availability & Development Best Practices/Dissemination  /  Organizational & Professional Development
CIS Program Redesign	Four Course Packs have been developed using the new Lesson Plan template. Three new courses are pending approval, as well as two courses being activated, Additionally two courses are being revised and three courses are being provided for online delivery. A competency evaluation best current practice produced by the NSF grant has been provided online in the spring 2002. A pilot of the competency evaluation best practice has been completed from six CIS courses offered in the winter 2002 term. The next step is to review and revise competencies for all of the Computer Information Systems courses and to develop an automated report for competency self-evaluation. For more information contact Charlotte Wharton, charlotte.wharton@sinclair.edu Additional steps include the development of a security certificate program and to develop and entire web program certificate for online delivery. A CISCO cabling certificate is now being considered for Next Steps. For more information contact Jim Horton, james.horton@sinclair.edu.
Fast Track/ J.E.D.I. Program	Fourteen LexisNexis students have earned their J.E.D.I. certificate in June of 2002. J.E.D.I. is a Fast Track program produced in part through the NSF grant and through sponsorship of LexisNexis Corporation. Spring /summer 2002 enrollment Fast Track enrollments indicate 396 spring students and 172 summer students in fast track courses. Twenty two students are in the first public offering of the Fast Track program at Miami Valley Research Park. For more information contact Charlotte Wharton, charlotte.wharton@sinclair.edu.
Tech Prep	Jim Horton and Patty Santoianni participated in April in an IT Alliance radio show highlighting Tech Prep at Sinclair. In March through June there were visits to Belmont, Butler County, Centerville, Fairmont, Miamisburg and Springboro high schools. For more information contact Patty Santoianni, patty.santoianni@sinclair.edu. In April Sinclair participated in discussions with Miami Valley Tech Prep Consortium (MVTPC) to create a Tech Prep Portal role. Also in April, the first annual meeting was held between Miami Valley Tech Prep Consortium and Sinclair's business counselors. In May 2002, the first statewide test-out challenge was held at Miami Valley Research Park, co-sponsored by IT@Sinclair, and the Deputy Assistant Superintendent of Education for Washington, D.C., Hans Meder, visited Sinclair Community College and Miami Valley Tech Prep Consortium. For more information contact Bob Sheehan, robert.sheehan@sinclair.edu.
CIS Program Redesign  /  Fast Track/J.E.D.I. Program  /  Tech Prep  /  Faculty Availability & Development Cisco  /  Best Practices/Dissemination  /  Organizational & Professional Development
Cisco	Jim Horton has led the way in establishing a partnership with our newest local academy: Ohio State University. OSU started classes in August 2002 and is Sinclair's first college/university level institution to be one of our local academies. Russ Morrison, OSU's senior Network Engineer is their lead instructor and is more than qualified to deliver Cisco networking training, and has already helped us in a couple projects. Our partnering in this with OSU will benefit both institutions and we look forward a bright cooperative future. This brings Sinclair to a total of 14 Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) locals and 4 cabling locals. Jim Horton also led the way in developing a Cisco playground at ComputerFest in August. ComputerFest has drawn over 20,000 attendees. Nine newly trained instructors have been provided since April of this year. Five of these are substitute teachers available for local schools.For more information contact Jim Horton, james.horton@sinclair.edu. Nine newly trained instructors have been provided since April of this year. Five of these are substitute teachers available for local schools.
Faculty Availability and Development	Sinclair full-time faculty participated in 30 days of faculty development training workshops and conferences between March and July 2002. There is extensive part time faculty recruiting efforts underway and a new process to address it. Identifying and developing part- and full-time faculty to accommodate the overwhelming student response has become a top priority for this project. Currently, student demand exceeds our faculty capacity. Our corporate partners play a pivotal role in providing state-of-the-art technology and training for key faculty to respond to this demand. For more information contact Charlotte Wharton charlotte.wharton@sinclair.edu.
Best Practices/ Dissemination	The competency evaluation methodology is being developed into a best current practice for the CIS Curriculum Redesign, and will be made available in the October 2002 time frame. Additionally a best practice of Sinclair's new modular design of the CIS curriculum catalog is in line with competencies and jobs curriculum is being developed. This best practice is a document that addresses how we/others can develop and/or update a CIS curriculum. It will also be made available in the October 2002 time frame. For more information contact Dave Siefert, david.siefert@sinclair.edu.
Organizational and Professional Development	Between the colors of Sinclair's logo and the building that is home to The Learning Center, the embodiment of our focus is complete. Red, white, and blue. This month we were designated as the Miami Valley's training center for Homeland Security. The first class scheduled to run December 12 is entitled Weapons of Mass Destruction, designed for EMT, Fire and Police personnel. 2003 will bring Basic Anti-Terrorism Emergency Life-Saving Skills, Bioterrorism, Intelligence Collection, Anti-Terrorism Planning, and Emergency Response to Terrorism Operations to name just a few. The finest IT training programs found anywhere continue to impact our community. For the second straight year we were named a "Preferred Provider" to Wright Patterson AFB as part of their IT reskilling program. Thus far this year we've trained over 50 Base personnel in high-end networking and programming skills who normally would've had to leave the area for equivalent quality.
	"Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha goin do, whatcha goin do when they come for you." And they're coming for those "bad boys" straight from our labs. Last month we finished this year's law enforcement IT series, training 20 police officers (over 80 for the year) in Introduction to Computer Crime. In addition to training our own officers, also in attendance were the FBI, US Secret Service, OSI, IRS and US Postal Inspectors. We'll begin the next series with the Advanced Investigation of Online Child Exploitation. It's the Third Quarter – Do you know where your employees are? If finding and keeping qualified, professional staff is important to you then you know they're at the new SkillsMax center located at MVRP. Skills Max represents a breakthrough in skills assessment and workforce development. By partnering with the companies such as Brainbench, iLearning, saba, SHL and Prometric our expert consultants are able to offer a comprehensive set of tools to individuals, businesses, educational institutions and public agencies working to meet the skill requirements of a dynamic economy. For further information about any of our programs or customized training, please call (937) 252-9787.
CIS Program Redesign  /  Fast Track/J.E.D.I. Program  /  Tech Prep  /  Faculty Availability & Development Cisco  /  Best Practices/Dissemination  /  Organizational & Professional Development
Net Connections	IT@Sinclair.edu Reports, Tools, and Best Practices National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education IT Alliance Information about Dayton area technology industries IT Salary survey A survey of IT Salaries in Ohio Cisco Academy On the Cisco site
For more information on the Highlights Newsletter or IT@Sinclair contact David Siefert 937/512-2195 -- david.siefert@sinclair.edu
DEFINITIONS
Course Packs Course Packs consist of packs of material used by instructor in classroom including tests, teaching materials, book and course materials, and teaching aids. The Course Pack is designed to provide consistent, disciplined model for instructors to use to plan and document a cohesive teaching/learning strategy for each new course. The completed materials help guide the primary instructor, serve as a model for others teaching the same course or materials, and provide a safety net for temporary or substitute instructors if the need arises. The template helps ensure that instruction focuses on and supports the competency-based curruculum, and is intuitive, well organized and simple to adopt and adapt. A new process has been designed to create these course packs and is being tested.
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Fast Track Fast Track consists of a basic model for capturing, identifying and delivering highly targeted technical training suitable to the IT industry's fast-paced and ever changing environment. It is suited to practitioners seeking skill enhancement for professional advancement and to students seeking state-of-the-art technical education. Because Fast Track is designed to provide a more individualized approach to learning, it responds to the IT practitioners' desire to obtain selective, highly targeted training as they need it. As a process, Fast Track is an effective strategy for translating complex technical instruction into distinct components that can be offered at an accelerated pace. As a product, Fast Track becomes a specific fast-paced IT course or program offering designed to help participants achieve a significant skill or learning goal. J.E.D.I. J.E.D.I. (Java Enterprise Development Implementation) was developed as a custom program for a locally based international IT employer, LexisNexis. Once the program was established and successful, a public version of the certificate program was offered.
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Tech Prep IT@Sinclair, in conjunction with the Miami Valley Tech Prep Consortium—a nationally recognized Tech Prep program—has established a strong program enabling students to move from high school to Sinclair in a seamless manner. Working with MVTPC, a total of 17 formal articulation agreements have been created with high school Tech Prep partners. IT@Sinclair aids in curriculum design and development at the high school level; works with high school faculty and administrators to conduct essential faculty development activities; assists in identifying laboratory equipment to purchase and install at partner locations; counsels students seeking highly competitive internships; assists in career nights; and sits on the partners' board of directors. The Miami Valley Tech Prep Consortium (MVTPC) works with 58 area high schools, covering a seven county area, to create seamless career-technical education programs that begin in the junior year of high school and continue through an associate degree in college and beyond. Tech Prep programs stress mathematics, science, communication, and technology. They also emphasize teamwork, hands-on learning, work site experiences, critical thinking, and problem solving.
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Cisco Our partnership with Cisco Systems supports curriculum development assistance, provides training and development opportunities, and supplies technology. Deliverables have included the donation of initial network laboratory equipment for student use, and specialized training for faculty to upgrade hardware-specific skills. The company runs 80% of the internet industry hardware infrastructure, so this is a particularly important partnership. IT@Sinclair is a regional and local academy for Cisco training. MVTPC and IT@Sinclair collaborated to identify and qualify regional high schools for Cisco labs and assist these schools in creating plans of action for the laboratory.
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Implementing Competency-based Learning Evaluations Best Practice, Release 2.0 The best practice, which documents a "how to" process, involves the development of and use of two instruments, called the Start-Point Evaluation and the End-Point Evaluation since the instruments are used to collect information at both the beginning and end of a course. The Start-Point Evaluation is administered at the beginning of the course, and it provides a useful baseline profile of the student's existing competencies. Faculty use this profile to understand the mix of people and abilities present, and to target their instructional strategy accordingly. The End-Point Evaluation is administered at the close of the course and it provides a valuable indicator of whether or not students perceive improvement in their own competency level as a result of the course. This strategy provides a uniquely neutral perspective, since customers (students) are evaluating their own capabilities. These perceptions can be independently verified through objective skills-based tests administered as part of the course.
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IT@Sinclair The IT@Sinclair project is funded through a grant by the National Science Foundation. The project is currently focused on these specific objectives: Re-engineer the CIS curriculum and develop options within the curriculum. Establish partnerships with employers of IT professionals. Create formal relationships with pre-college programs. Offer development programs for faculty. Employ an "adopt and adapt" strategy to take advantage of existing best practices for both education and IT technology. Explore ways to work with under-represented populations. Our mission: We will collaborate with Miami Valley employers to create and sustain Greater Dayton's high performance IT work force by delivering performance-based learning programs and just-in-time learning solutions; in support of lifelong learning, career development opportunities and provided through best practice partnerships.
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