Faculty Academy
Ventura College’s Award-Winning Faculty Academy serves as a learning community that is focused on improving instruction and equity in higher education. The academy helps faculty in student-centered instruction, communication and engagement, with a focus on equity mindedness anti-biased practices in the classroom. It provides a supportive peer centered environment to rethink how students learn while exploring innovative techniques to reach and teach students who have challenges in traditional classrooms and/or have diverse learning styles due to unique cultural backgrounds, socioeconomics, or additional factors.
2023 Spring & Fall Cohort
DEADLINE EXTENDED
There are 10 spots available for full time faculty interested in being part of this upcoming year’s academy. We are working on having a part-time cohort in 2024 after reviewing the outcomes of the new AFT contract.
For the 2023 cohort, we will meet in person weekly on Mondays from 3:30-4:45. Due to the time commitment of attendance, supplemental readings, and development of best practices to your course, you can receive 0.1 release time per semester.
If you are interested, please fill out the attached application and return the application to Colleen Coffey CCoffey@vcccd.edu, Kammy Algiers kalgiers@vcccd.edu, or Oscar Rivera oscar_rivera4@vcccd.edu by Nov 16th.
| Faculty Academy | 2023 Cohort |
|---|---|
| Registration Opens | |
| Start Date | |
| End Date |
Monday Dec 4, 2023 |
***Please reach out to Kammy or Colleen if you have any questions.
| Application 2023 | Syllabus 2022 |
|---|---|
Outcomes
-
Recognize personal biases both implicit and complicit and address how they impact teaching practices and hinder student success
- Integrate classroom teaching practices that provide access to the curriculum for all students, especially those affected by equity gaps
- Evaluate teaching practices for various classroom formats
- Assess the major challenges for student success in the classroom and explore and implement potential solutions
- Review the research base of best practices for providing culturally sensitive, anti-biased teaching to ensure student success
- Practice new strategies and share with the learning community
- Develop faculty commitment to sharing resources and best practices regarding equity mindedness, cultural competency, anti-biased practices and universal designs for learning
FA Faculty and Students:
| FA Cohort | Faculty Participants | Unduplicated Students* |
|---|---|---|
| Spring/Fall 2015 | 10 | 3,281 |
| Spring/Fall 2016 | 7 | 2,288 |
| Spring/Fall 2017 | 10 | 2,597 |
| Spring/Fall 2018 | 8 | 1,663 |
| Spring/Fall 2020 | 7 | 1,662 |
| Spring/Fall 2021 | 8 | 1,352 |
| Spring/Fall 2022 | 5 | 1,329 |
| Total | 58 | 12,275 |
*Total does not equal the sum of FA cohorts because some students enrolled in FA participants' classes in multiple years.
| Disciplines taught by FA Faculty: | |
|---|---|
|
1. American Ethnic Studies 2. Anatomy 3. Anthropology 4. Biology 5. Biotechnology 6. Business 7. Child Development 8. Chemistry 9. Chicano Studies 10. Criminal Justice 11. Communication Studies 12. Computer Science 13. Counseling 14. English 15. English as a Second Language 16. Engineering |
17. Environmental Science and Resource Management 18. Geography 19. Geology 20. Geographic Information Systems 21. Health Education 22. History 23. Kinesiology 24. Math 25. Microbiology 26. Philosophy 27. Physiology 28. Political Science 29. Psychology 30. Sociology 31. Spanish |
General Conclusions
When the results are examined across all seven cohorts, they indicate that Faculty Academy participation has a statistically significant positive effect on course success rates. Disaggregated analyses suggest that this effect is particularly evident in student groups that have been traditionally underserved by higher education (i.e. Hispanic students, male students, low-income students, and EAC students).