Title V - Panther Strong Grant Project

Investing in personnel – The grant supported the hire of dedicated staff/talent that will work and develop all other grant-specific initiatives over the course of the next 5 years. They are: (2) Instructional Designers housed within CTLE, a Quality Improvement Coordinator housed in IRE, and a Database Administrator, housed within IT/IRE. These positions will be absorbed by the college upon completion of the grant.

Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE) renovation/construction site identified at the Lake Worth campus – this state-of-the-art facility will serve as the hub for college-wide faculty development activities. Advances in technology, as well as a phase 2 project that will identify spaces at the each of the PBSC campuses, will further enhance and support these offerings college-wide.

CTLE 3D Render

Faculty Summer Institute 2021 – Achieving Equity in Outcomes - Targeting gateway courses, a 3-day (select Fridays in June) virtual event facilitated by faculty coaches with expertise in the areas of diversity and student success. This faculty development event sponsored by Title V in collaboration with the Dr. Barbara Schuler Equity Institute engaged 22 full-time faculty who committed to course re-design using the high impact and best practices presented. All faculty produced a blueprint document that will guide their efforts.  |  View Agenda

Institutional Research and Effectiveness (IRE) acquisition of predictive analytics software – EAB’s Rapid Insight software will support and enhance the college’s ability to proactively address issues affecting the most vulnerable student populations to include Hispanic and low-income students.

Reading Apprenticeship Program – Initial faculty cohort launched fall 2021 with enrollment in the RA 101 course offered by WestEd. 

VISTA Student Support Certificate – currently in development, this faculty development activity will provide information and resources that will guide full-time and adjunct faculty with how to best support Hispanic and low-income students focusing on the grant’s competitive preference priorities of career readiness/guided pathways and financial literacy. The certificate will also cover issues related to data literacy and the power of data to inform best practice.

Center for Teaching and Learning (CTLE) renovation/construction continues – Despite challenges with supply chain that have impacted the original completion deadline, construction continues through the Spring 2022 semester. With much anticipation, it is now projected that the Center will be ready for occupancy by the start of the fall 2022 semester. A Grand Opening celebration will be planned to officially open its doors to the PBSC community.

Faculty Summer Institute 2022 – Belonging, Engagement, and Student Success – For the 2nd summer in a row, faculty have been invited to participate in this innovative faculty development program that aims to support course redesign by infusing best teaching and learning practices into curricula to strengthen pedagogy and impact student success. A wide variety of courses, many representing key gateway courses, will be involved as these often are critical and defining student progress milestones along the path to graduation. The institute will be held in May/June 2022 and selected full-time and adjunct faculty will produce course blueprints that will serve as their guide for implementation over the course of the 2022-23 academic year. A showcase of their work will be planned for later in the academic year.

Reading Apprenticeship Program – A 2nd cohort of 8 faculty completed participation in the RA 101 course offered by WestEd in March 2022. The RA framework will serve as another tool in the toolbox to enhance teaching and learning at the college. To date, 12 faculty/staff have participated in RA 101. 

VISTA Student Support Certificate – The VISTA faculty development certificate program is almost ready to roll out. The training program will include 10 hours of asynchronous CANVAS based training materials and exercises on the topics of 1) Data Literacy, 2) Career readiness/guided pathways, and 3) Financial Literacy. The goal of this training is to build awareness, as well as better equip and empower faculty to support students within their classes in a comprehensive and holistic way. These efforts will create a bridge from the classroom to a variety of existing student support services. It is expected to launch summer 2022 with an initial cohort of 5 full-time faculty, but quickly scale up to include approximately a combined 90 full-time and adjunct faculty during the 2022-23 academic year. 

Center for Teaching and Learning (CTLE) building capacity to foster teaching and learning excellence – Since the Grand Opening on November 30th, 2022, the CTLE has provided an extensive array of services and resources aimed at fostering teaching and learning excellence at the college. Topics range from Artificial Intelligence across the curriculum to hands-on training in the various Active Learning Studios where innovative pedagogy is explored to promote best practices that support student success and completion at the College. |  Read Story

Faculty Summer Institute 2023 – High Impact Practices and Student Success - For the 3rd summer in a row, faculty have been invited to participate in this innovative faculty development program. This 4-day program focused on curriculum and assessment design to improve student retention, engagement, and success. A total of 43 faculty, both full-time and adjuncts, were engaged. Summer Institute participants learned and applied active learning strategies, incorporated financial literacy into the curriculum, and employed high-impact practices to support the success of Hispanic and low-income college students. This year’s Summer Institute resulted from a collaboration between PBSC’s Title V grant and the National Science Foundation STEM Articulation and Collaborative Transfer grant.

Reading Apprenticeship Program – The RA framework serves as another tool in the toolbox that serves to promote teaching and learning excellence. To date, 12 faculty/staff have participated in RA 101. Plans are in development to facilitate the presentation of this framework to faculty participating in the next Summer Institute 2024.

VISTA Student Support Certificate – The VISTA faculty development certificate program launched February 2023. Since then, the CTLE has trained 95 faculty, both full-time and adjuncts through September 2023.The training program is comprised of 10 hours of asynchronous CANVAS based training materials and exercises on the topics of 1) Data Literacy, 2) Career readiness/guided pathways, and 3) Financial Literacy. The goal of this training is to build awareness of student wrap-around services at the college and to better equip and empower faculty to support students within their courses in a holistic way. These efforts aim to create a bridge from the classroom to a variety of existing student support services. Faculty may be eligible to receive a grant stipend along with a badge upon meeting all requirements.

Center for Teaching and Learning (CTLE) building capacity to foster teaching and learning excellence
Since the Grand Opening on November 30th, 2022, the CTLE has provided a growing and extensive array of services and resources aimed at fostering teaching and learning excellence at the college. Topics range from Artificial Intelligence across the curriculum, expansion of a revised VISTA faculty development program focusing on student support services, individual faculty consultations with Instructional Designers to hands-on training in the various Active Learning Studios where innovative pedagogy is explored to promote best practices that support student success and completion at the College. |  Read Story

Faculty Summer Institute 2024 – Empowering Student Success
For the 4th summer in a row, faculty have been invited to participate in this innovative 4-day intensive faculty development program. A total of 48 faculty, our largest cohort to date comprised of both full-time and adjuncts participated. The Summer Institute has been implemented each summer from 2021-2024 at Palm Beach State College to provide faculty with additional high-impact culturally relevant teaching practices to better support Hispanic and low-income student success. However, the principles covered throughout the training are relevant and applicable to students of all demographics and cultural backgrounds, and they feature exploration/training on new forms and uses of technology tools in the classroom, culturally responsive teaching, and curriculum transformation.

Course Learning Outcomes:

• Achieve higher student success rates in gateway courses through course and assessment redesign.
• Apply a culturally relevant teaching pedagogy to make the course curriculum, assignments, and syllabus more relatable, engaging, and accessible.
• Use college resources effectively to identify, evaluate, and address achievement gaps in student success.
• Support the success of our most vulnerable students by creating a positive, engaging, and supportive environment.
• Create a community of support to exchange ideas, technology tools, strategies, and best practices to improve student retention and success at Palm Beach State College.

As a result of this training, faculty produce deliverable projects that provide evidence of implementation or a plan of action that demonstrates application of the new concepts learned within their courses and earn a grant stipend for their time and effort. The Institute’s administrative team submitted a presentation proposal, which was accepted, outlining these practices to the Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) for presentation at their upcoming Transforming STEM Higher Education national conference in November 2024 in Arlington, VA. This is a special opportunity to share our work and best practices with a national audience.

VISTA Student Support Certificate – The VISTA faculty development certificate program launched February 2023. Since then, the CTLE has trained 150 faculty, both full-time and adjuncts through August 2024.The VISTA program is comprised of 10 hours of asynchronous CANVAS based training, materials, and exercises on the topics of 1) Student Support Services, 2) Data Literacy, 3) Career readiness/guided pathways, and 4) Financial Literacy. The goal of this training is to build awareness of student wrap-around services at the college and to better equip and empower faculty to support students within their courses in a holistic and comprehensive way. These efforts aim to create a bridge from the classroom to a variety of existing student support services. Faculty may be eligible to receive a grant stipend along with a badge upon meeting all requirements.

The following initiatives are being added or continue to develop:   (check back for updates)

Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE) 

• ACUE – Effective Online Teaching Practices training
• AI – Artificial Intelligence across the curriculum series
• VISTA Student Support Certificate 
• Workshops and hands-on demonstrations using active learning studios
• Workshops and Guest Speaker Series (new topics every semester)
• Faculty Summer Institutes
• Reading Apprenticeship framework training
• Student Development Theory training
• New Faculty Experience Onboarding Program
• Individual Faculty consultations with Instructional Designers
• Tentative – New Faculty support facility construction at the Palm Beach Gardens Campus