Committee Meetings and Minutes

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Foreign Languages Task Force

Meeting Minutes

Current Status of Minutes: Final
Date	February 2, 2024
Time	1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Location	Virtual

Members Present
Scott gibby, Lam Lau, Timothy Altanero, Catherine Angell, James Burleson, Rosa Davila, Diane Echevarria, Jan Emberson, George solano, Mary Greff, Fahim Idais, Ramiro Juarez, Yuko Kato, Julie Kleinhans-Urrutia, Talia Loaiza, Guadalupe Lopez, Marcel Ventura, Veronique Mazet, John McMinn-Reyna, Yuri Munoz, Myung-Joo Oh, Mariela Prato-Williams, Rahelina Razanadrafara, Rose joynt, Alina Waguespack
Guests Present
Jason Vidrine

Item # 1:	Departmental Meeting/ Approve Committee Report Fall 2023
Presenter	Mariela Prato- Williams
Discussion	The minutes from the September 8, 2023 Department Meeting were reviewed. Action taken: The minutes were approved without corrections

Item # 2:	Discussion of Committee Reports
Presenter	Mariela Prato-Williams
Discussion	There was discussion of the Committee Reports that had been sent to faculty prior to the department meeting. The following additions were suggested for the indicated committee reports, and have been added. The updated Committee Reports are found at the end of these minutes.

Item # 3:	Assessment Committee
Presenter	Veronique Mazet
Discussion	Véronique Mazet asked to have upcoming assessments put online on the WOLA site. Julie Kleinhans Hooks said that she can do that. She also explained that the department does not find out from the college-wide Assessment Committee what will be assessed until around the beginning of the semester.

Item # 4:	Distance Learning/Early College High School Committee
Presenter	Mariela Prato-Williams
Discussion	Scott Gibby is the contact person for questions about distance learning and Quality Matters certification. Early College High School Committee Early college high school will now include Leander High School at the San Gabriel Campus. With House Bill 8, there is a big push to incorporate high schools, so there will be a lot more early college high school.

Item # 5:	Honor Society Committee/Outreach Committee
Presenter	Mariela Prato-Williams
Discussion	Applications for the Honor Society are due on March 22, and they are available on the WOLA website. Outreach Committee At the International Education Day Reception and Cultural Celebration on January 24th, various international students discussed their experiences when they came to the US and started their studies.

Item # 6:	Free tuition/New Full-Time Spanish Position
Presenter	Mariela Prato-Williams
Discussion	ACC is planning to offer free tuition for high school seniors starting in 2024. Only 10% of our budget comes from tuition, and 58 % of students who have applied to ACC don’t enroll due to tuition and fees. High school seniors who start the program will have 3 years to complete a degree. The WOLA Department will be interview during the spring for a new full-time Spanish instructor. Those who are interested can see the posting (job requisition 5595) and apply in Workday. The posting will close on March 3, 2024 at midnight. All adjunct Spanish instructors are encouraged to apply.

Item # 7:	Reminders and Announcement
Presenter	Mariela Prato-Williams
Discussion	A. Faculty members were reminded to upload their office hours and the syllabus for each section to Lighthouse. B. ACC parking is free for all students, faculty and staff. C. Lynn Lau and the Asian American & Pacific Islander Cultural Center will host a Lunar New Year’s Festival 1-2 pm on Saturday, February 10, in the NRG Lecture Hall.

Item # 8:	Distance Learning/Early College High School
Presenter	Mariela Prato-Williams
Discussion	• Videos produced for Latin have been captioned. • Templates for QM alignment with course level learning objectives have been created for 1411 and 1412 and are now being updated to reflect recent changes to the master syllabi. • Unit level objectives have been started for multiple languages. • Scott Gibby has been approved by the Assistant Dean and the DL office to conduct internal reviews and recertifications for the department. He is the contact person for Distance Learning and questions about Quality Matters certification. • The enrollment is healthy in all of the ECHS and Dual Credit sections. • Fahim Idais is teaching Dual Credit Arabic 1412 at the Austin Peace Academy this spring. • We are finishing the process of hiring a new French adjunct instructor for Dual Credit, Aylin Amore, who will be teaching FREN III at St. Dominic Savio next fall. • Early college high school will now include Leander High School at the San Gabriel Campus. • With House Bill 8, there is a big push to incorporate high schools, so there will be a lot more early college high school.

Item # 9:	Eligibility List/Faculty evaluation/Faculty Interview
Presenter	Mariela Prato-Williams
Discussion	Nothing to report for eligibility. Faculty Evaluation The committee will be working on the 2023 evaluation cycle in February and will send the summary reports to the Dean by the end of February. This is the last time we will be evaluating with the old system. Starting in fall of 2024 we will have to adopt the new system of evaluations. In March and April the committee will hold information sessions regarding the new evaluation system. Faculty Interview A new full-time Spanish position that just opened. Julie Kleinhans Hooks has accepted to chair the search. We welcome all of our adjunct faculty to apply, and we especially encourage applicants who also have 18 additional graduate hours in one of the other languages we offer. The FT position start date is scheduled for Fall 2024. Applications must be submitted by the end of the day March 3rd. We continue to monitor applications for Korean and Japanese adjunct positions. Professional Development Office, if you are not due to complete a specific training, clicking on the link to open it will not work. It will only open if it’s your time to do that training. In Workday, the Department Chair has a link to a special page that shows the training completion information for each faculty member, including the date, so it will be easy for the Evaluation Committee to access this information. For some required training, faculty may be informed that they are not in compliance, but for others they may not. • If you have ideas or suggestions for additional workshops, please let the Professional Development Committee know.

Item # 10:	Scheduling
Presenter	Rosa Davila
Discussion	• Every section of Arabic, Chinese, German, Latin, and Russian made! No cancellations. • One section was canceled in Italian. • Two sections were canceled in French, with a total of seven sections being offered. • The high demand for Japanese led us to add a 12-week JAPN 1411 section. • Spanish offered approximately 70 sections. Seven were canceled. • The most popular option for the majority of our traditional students continues to be ONL followed by some type of campus mix (HYC/HYD/FLX). The bulk of Spanish campus sections (LEC) for Spring 2024 continues to be sections for Dual Credit/ECHS students, who are not considered traditional students. DLS seems to be waning in popularity with Spanish students. The numbers also seem to indicate that we have many students who enroll after the semester starts, thus we need to add more 12 week and 8B sections. We need to continue to make strategic use of the waiting lists for Spanish. • We are waiting for updates on the Spring 2024 schedule to ensure that the sequence is being maintained from the fall to spring terms. • Our department will continue to offer the following class formats: DLS, HYC/HYD, FLX, LEC, and ONL. (DLS - Distance Learning Synchronous, HYC/HYD - Hybrid Classroom and Hybrid Distance, FLX - Hyflex Classroom, LEC - Lecture classes that typically meet twice a week, ONL - Online sections without any required virtual meetings.

Item # 11:	Spanish For Spanish Speakers
Presenter	Rosa Davila
Discussion	Rosa Dávila is applying for a Sabbatical to develop new curriculum for Spanish 2313 and 2315 as OER courses. Our Spanish for Spanish Speakers courses are on hold in the meantime.

Item # 12:	Special Events/Study Abroad
Presenter	Mariela Prato-Williams/Rosa Davila
Discussion	Rosa Dávila, Theresa Oh, and Mariela Prato Williams are planning the WOLA Department’s International Night, which will take place on April 5th. The event will start at 5 pm, but For some required training, faculty may be informed that they are not in compliance, but for others they may not. Special Events Committee The WOLA Deaprtment’s International Night on April 5 will start at 5 pm, but performances will start at 6 pm. We are trying to have a performance for each language. Suggestions are still needed for French, Arabic and Russian. Véronique Mazet asked if we can have a centralized place where we can see what other people are going to do, including all of the other performances. Theresa Oh asked for volunteers. Study Abroad Committee Due to high interest, a second section of the Japanese study abroad program for this summer has been opened. Jan Emberson thanked everyone who helped promote the study abroad program in Argentina in their classes.

Item # 13:	Digital Literacy in our Division/Startegic Planning
Presenter	Mariela Prato-Williams
Discussion	Jason Vidrine discussed the Dean’s initiative to foster digital skills in our division by incorporating technology to allow student to showcase their work, and gave some examples of use of technology with Adobe Express. Adobe Express is free and allows you to create videos, webpages, etc. Véronique Mazet shared how she uses it in her Gateway classes. Talia Loaiza said that she had use voice board activities in Blackboard. Ramiro Juárez shared how he uses a video board in his courses. He shared an assignment example. Jason asked anyone who is interested in learning about this to contact him at cvidrine@austincc.edu. He has tutorial videos he can share. IV. Strategic Planning Scheduling of classes will be data driven. Only classes with 65% or higher enrollment will be automatically rolled over for both College Credit and Continuing Education classes. This means that WOLA has lost several sections for the fall on the initial schedule. Departments will have to justify adding other classes for reasons such as need to complete course sequences of a program or rise in demand. Students should be able to plan their schedules three semesters in advance, and faculty should know which sections they will teach one year in advance.

Item # 14:	Data Summit March 27th at HEB Center
Presenter	Mariela Prato-Williams
Discussion	All full-time faculty are required to attend this event. Adjunct faculty are also encouraged to attend. This summit will explain what data driven decisions will mean. Campuses will be closed, 8-4 pm, and classes will be canceled during those hours. Classes will resume at 4:00 pm. They are still trying to figure out what to do for Early College High School classes. Georges Solano said his ECHS class had already been taken care of. Alina Waguespack said they could probably be supervised at the high school, but the schools need to be informed. Mariela Prato Williams said that the high schools should already know, but it would be good for instructors to check with the contact at the school as well

Item # 15:	Assessment
Presenter	Mariela Prato-Williams
Discussion	This semester, we will be assessing Reading Comprehension in our 1412 classes for our SACS assessment. In Spanish and Japanese 1411, we will also be assessing Social Responsibility, Visual Communication, and Personal Responsibility, and in French 1411 we will assess Visual Communication. The assessment results will be due to Julie Kleinhans Hooks by May 15, 2024. Please send her the total number of students in each section you teach, and how many students received a grade of 10/10, 9/10, 8/10, etc., for each section. Last semester, several languages completed these assessments. • In French 1411, 89.8% of students received a score of 80% or higher on the Social Responsibility assessment, and for Personal Responsibility, 80% of students received a score of 80% or higher on the completion of their work. • In Chinese 1411, 100% of students received a score of 100% on the Social Responsibility assessment, 100% of students received a score of 80% or higher on Visual Communication, and 100% of students received a score of 80% or higher on Personal Responsibility. • In German 1411, 100% of students that attempted the Social Responsibility assessment received a score of 80% or higher, 100% of students received a score of 80% or higher for Visual Communication, and 90% of students successfully completed the Personal Responsibility assessment. • In Latin 1411, 91% of students successfully completed the Personal Responsibility assessment. • In Russian 1411, 100% of students that attempted the Social Responsibility assessment received a score of 80% or higher, 100% of students received a score of 100% on Visual Communication, and 80% of students successfully completed the Personal Responsibility assessment.

Item # 16:	Curriculum
Presenter	Mariela Prato-Williams
Discussion	• The applications to have the 1411 and 1412 courses put in the Core Curriculum were submitted for all languages except Latin. The sample assessments of the different course outcomes for Latin were not available by the deadline. The ACC college-wide Assessment Committee and Curriculum and Programs both approved forwarding the applications to the State Coordinating Board. We are awaiting a decision from the Coordinating Board. It they are approved, we will submit an application for Latin 1411 and 1412. For these applications, the course outcomes and program outcomes were revised to show better how our courses teach Critical Thinking, Teamwork, Social Responsibility, Personal Responsibility, Written Communication, and Visual Communication. In order to make these outcomes fit better with requirements for Quality Matters certification, we will reword some objectives, and combine others that are similar in order to streamline the QM alignments. • Please let John McMinn-Reyna know about any textbook changes, or any other curriculum changes requiring a Master Syllabus to be updated.

Item # 17:	Faculty Problem/Honor Society/New Faculty Committee/Outreach
Presenter	Mariela Prato-William
Discussion	Faculty Problems Nothing to report to the faculty at large. Honor Society In the Fall 2023 semester, we inducted 2 new full members to Alpha Mu Gamma, Nu Sigma chapter. This semester, applications for the Honor Society are due on March 22, and they are available on the WOLA website. New Faculty Committee See the faculty interview committee report above. Outreach The Outreach Committee participated in the International Education Day Reception and Cultural Celebration on Wednesday, January 24th from 4-6 p.m. at HLC 1000. Marcel Pons Ventura, Yuri Muñoz, and Rosa Dávila represented the World Languages Department there. At this event, various international students discussed their experiences when they came to the US and started their studies.

Item # 18:	Professional Development
Presenter	Mariela Prato-Williams
Discussion	• Mark your Calendars for Wednesday, March 27th, 2024. We will be at the HEB Center in Cedar Park for our Data Summit. The meeting will be from 10 am -2 pm. There will be buses you can take if you prefer to leave the driving to someone else. Attendance is required for full-time faculty, and adjunct instructors are strongly encouraged to attend. Everyone will receive professional development hours for attending. Campuses will be closed from 8-4 PM. All classes will be canceled. Alternate learning assignments are recommended for canceled classes. • Spring Development Day was held on January 12th, and a number of workshops of general interest to all faculty were included. • Representatives from five publishers of Spanish textbooks gave presentations to the Spanish faculty on January 26th and February 2nd. Discussions about the merits of each book followed as we make a decision about the next textbook we will use. • Attendance at some college wide workshops and presentations is now recorded by the college and entered in Workday for us. For most activities we need to enter them ourselves in the Workday system. • Please remember that we are all required to complete four mandatory trainings. One of them, Cybersecurity Awareness Training, must be completed every year. The other three, Groundswell (Discrimination & Harassment), Meridians (Title IX & Sexual Misconduct Training), and Tapestry (ADA Awareness), must be completed every two years. • Unfortunately, Workday does not show us when we are due to complete those three training sessions. Instructors need to keep track of it themselves. According to the Professional Development Office, if you are not due to complete a specific training, clicking on the link to open it will not work. It will only open if it’s your time to do that training. In Workday, the Department Chair has a link to a special page that shows the training completion information for each faculty member, including the date, so it will be easy for the Evaluation Committee to access this information. For some required training, faculty may be informed that they are not in compliance, but for others they may not. • If you have ideas or suggestions for additional workshops, please let the Professional Development Committee know. m. Scheduling Below is a summary of Spring 2024 section cancellations by language: • Every section of Arabic, Chinese, German, Latin, and Russian made! No cancellations. • One section was canceled in Italian. • Two sections were canceled in French, with a total of seven sections being offered. • The high demand for Japanese led us to add a 12-week JAPN 1411 section. • Spanish offered approximately 70 sections. Seven were canceled. • The most popular option for the majority of our traditional students continues to be ONL followed by some type of campus mix (HYC/HYD/FLX). The bulk of Spanish campus sections (LEC) for Spring 2024 continues to be sections for Dual Credit/ECHS students, who are not considered traditional students. DLS seems to be waning in popularity with Spanish students. The numbers also seem to indicate that we have many students who enroll after the semester starts, thus we need to add more 12 week and 8B sections. We need to continue to make strategic use of the waiting lists for Spanish. • We are waiting for updates on the Spring 2024 schedule to ensure that the sequence is being maintained from the fall to spring terms. • Our department will continue to offer the following class formats: DLS, HYC/HYD, FLX, LEC, and ONL. (DLS - Distance Learning Synchronous, HYC/HYD - Hybrid Classroom and Hybrid Distance, FLX - Hyflex Classroom, LEC - Lecture classes that typically meet twice a week, ONL - Online sections without any required virtual meetings. n. Spanish for Spanish Speakers Rosa Dávila is applying for a Sabbatical to develop new curriculum for Spanish 2313 and 2315 as OER courses. Our Spanish for Spanish Speakers courses are on hold in the meantime. o. Special Events Rosa Dávila, Theresa Oh, and Mariela Prato Williams are planning the WOLA Department’s International Night, which will take place on April 5th. The event will start at 5 pm, but performances will start at 6 pm. We are trying to have a performance for each language. One is still needed for French, Arabic and Russian. Please contact Theresa Oh if you can volunteer.

Item # 19:	Study Abroad/ Textbook Inventory
Presenter	Mariela Prato-Williams
Discussion	Study Abroad For the upcoming summer of 2024, there are two WOLA offerings. Students will take JAPN 1412 in Osaka and Kyoto, Japan https://simplebooklet.com/japaneseii and Span 2311 and Span 1300 in Argentina. Due to high interest, a second section of the Japanese study abroad program was opened during the second summer session. Both sections of Japanese will be led by Emi Schuster. Jan Emberson thanked everyone who helped promote her study abroad program in Argentina in their classes. Buenos Aires, Iguazú Falls, and Uruguay are destinations during the program in Argentina. https://simplebooklet.com/spanishiii - page=1 Study Abroad For the upcoming summer of 2024, there are two WOLA offerings. Students will take JAPN 1412 in Osaka and Kyoto, Japan https://simplebooklet.com/japaneseii and Span 2311 and Span 1300 in Argentina. Due to high interest, a second section of the Japanese study abroad program was opened during the second summer session. Both sections of Japanese will be led by Emi Schuster. Jan Emberson thanked everyone who helped promote her study abroad program in Argentina in their classes. Buenos Aires, Iguazú Falls, and Uruguay are destinations during the program in Argentina. https://simplebooklet.com/spanishiii - page=1

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