SACS Compliance Certification Report (PDF) - South Florida State ...

with a rich and flexible set of course materials, along with course management tools that make it easy todeliver all or a portion of the course online. MyMathLab provides students with a personalized interactivelearning environment, where they can learn at their own pace and easily measure their progress. Anotheronline tool used in the Developmental Math department is the Hawkes Learning System. This studentsoftware is most commonly used as an automated homework and testing system, providing students withmultimedia instruction, unlimited practice problems, error-specific feedback for mistakes, and masterybasedhomework assignments. This interactive software is proven to increase student performance andretention by motivating students through mastery learning.The college's students have access to open computer laboratories and a teaching-learning center on eachcampus. Professional staff are available to assist students in using academic and productivity softwareapplications. Students may use the three specialized technology rooms in the Tutoring and LearningCenter where they can obtain assistance in using technology to complete assignments or gain access tospecific hardware/software that may be required for a specific course, such as the Developmental Math oran online SPC 2600, Introduction to Public Speaking. The college's libraries have extensive databaseservices available to provide students and faculty with access to vast amounts of current informationfrom magazines, periodicals, journals, newspapers, and other references. Additional information aboutthe College’s learning information technology, such as available equipment and hours of service areavailable in the college's Instructional Computer Report.The 2007 Community College Survey of Student Engagement Report (CCSSE) indicated that thecollege's students are using technology in their academic programs and are well satisfied with the qualityof technology provided by the college. For example:• 83% of students responded "Very Much" or "Quite a Bit" to the question of how much the collegeemphasizes using computers in academic work.• 65% of student reported their experiences at the college contributed to their knowledge, skills, andpersonal development in using computing and information technology.• 87% of students reported positively when asked for their level of satisfaction with and declaringimportance of the college's computer laboratories.• 76% of students reported using e-mail to communicate with their instructors.• 92% of students reported that they used the Internet and instant messaging to work on courseassignments.The college has also conducted internal surveys of student use and satisfaction with various forms oftechnology. The SFCC Graduate Satisfaction Survey, given to all graduating students, indicatedthat 91% of students rate their “understanding of computer technology” as “adequate” or higher. Thatsurvey also showed a student satisfaction rating of the Panther Den (Desire2Learn) and Panther Central(Luminis portal) as 75% “satisfied” or “very satisfied”, 10% said it didn’t apply to them and 14% hadno opinion. The “Student Opinion Survey” (SOS) given annually allows the college to assess key areasof college services and student satisfaction as well as benchmark our results against other colleges inAmerica while specially comparing our results with colleges of similar size. This SOS survey for 2010revealed that 53.4% of our students use technology at the college (up from 49% in 2009) and theiraverage satisfaction with that technology was a 4.28 (out of a satisfaction scale where 5 indicated “verysatisfied”). The comparative data from this SOS report revealed that the student satisfaction rating withthis item from other public institutions with fewer than 5,000 students was 4.27. Also evaluated on thatsame five point scale was student satisfaction with “classroom facilities” (where our college’s averagewas 4.18 and the national norms average was 4.0) and laboratories facilities (where SFCC’s averagewas 4.05 and the national norms average was 3.86).Students Access To Technology TrainingTechnological resources are available to students at each of South Florida Community College's campusesand center. Over 770 computers are available in open computer laboratories, classroom laboratories, andopen student areas according to the college’s Instructional Computer Report. The college's computersSouth Florida Community College Page 113 / 202are regularly upgraded as part of the institution's technology refresh program. The math, writing, andopen computer laboratories are staffed by professionals. College IT technology specialists install andmaintain software in the computer laboratories and Tutoring and Learning Center to ensure that newly