By Bleah B. Patterson
bpatterson13@student.alamo.edu
A committee of faculty is meeting today at district to plan the next steps for implementing EDUC 1300, Learning Framework, a student development course that has been approved to replace a humanities course in the fall 2014 core curriculum.
Jo-Carol Fabianke, vice chancellor of academic success, said faculty from each of the five colleges have been invited to discuss the textbooks and other course materials for EDUC 1300.
“We will start making decisions about both the learning framework course and our current student development course,” Fabianke said. “The people we selected are current student development experts, some who will end up teaching Learning Framework and some who are just genuinely interested in developing this course. We have about 20 people on this committee.”
Students entering college for the first time in fall, who do not meet college readiness requirements, will need to take both courses, so the goal is to make sure they are not teaching the same material.
“Once we have something written up, we will distribute it, open to the public, for feedback,” Fabianke said. “Another meeting is scheduled for April 11 to continue that conversation based on the feedback we receive.”
FranklinCovey Co., creator of the widespread training materials accompanying Stephen Covey’s bestselling “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” are being asked to collaborate with the Alamo Colleges to create course materials to accompany the textbook chosen by the committee.
“EDUC 1300 was a good place to introduce the seven habits,” Fabianke said. “So we’ve talked with them, not about making a textbook, but about making resources.”
Fabianke said these resources will not be from FranklinCovey’s current publications, but something unique to Alamo Colleges. “It won’t be something old, but brand new.”
The course is also expected to include material from “Principled Leadership,” another of Covey’s books.
“We will continue to develop for the rest of the spring and train faculty and staff in preparation. We will hopefully have everything ready by August,” she said.
