Philosophy and Religious Studies 2023-24 Program Audit

DEPT./AREA: Philosophy / Religious Studies
SUBMITTED BY: Dennis Knepp

General Directions:

Download the following document or copy and save in TEAMS with a new name that identifies your department/area. You are welcome to work in TEAMS on the document, just make sure, you are working on your area audit, not another group’s or the template.
Work with your department(s) to complete the fall, winter, and spring sections within their specified quarter. Each is due by the last record day of the quarter. If something comes up, and the report will not be able to be completed by this time, please let your dean/director know.
Audits will be turned in on TEAMS in the Program Audit (thus a benefit to working on it in there).

2023-2024 Transfer Program Audit Report FALL

PROGRAM QUALITY – TRANSFERABILITY:

Discuss how your department determines that the courses offered are still viable and relevant?

I have been an active member of PLATO-WA since the group was founded. PLATO-WA is a group for logic instructors at community colleges in the state of Washington. We meet annually to discuss logic instruction and challenges.

I routinely submit essays and attend conferences at the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association. This keeps me informed on the latest issues and approaches in philosophy.

I have written book reviews of anthologies for Introduction to Philosophy courses.

I also challenge myself to learn something new when I write an essay in the Pop Culture and Philosophy series. For example, when I wrote an essay about Avatar and Philosophy, I chose to write about Native American philosophers using a book called Native Pragmatism. The editor suggested that I read an anthology called American Indian Thought: Philosophical Essays which opened a whole new world of philosophy for me. Writing in my field is a method of learning about my field.

I also read a lot in my field about the latest developments and approaches that I can then use in my classroom. For example, I recently learned about a Hackett Publishing anthology Women Philosophers of the Early Modern Period that I have incorporated into my PHIL&101 Introduction to Philosophy course. I studied the early modern period in graduate school but we never discussed women philosophers (with the exception of Princess Elizabeth due to her correspondence with Rene Descartes) and so this has been a good example of including diversity in my courses solely based upon extra reading that I do in philosophy.

I also read a lot about Religious Studies such as Ann the Word: The Story of Ann Lee, Female Messiah, Mother of the Shakers, the Woman Clothed with the Sun which greatly informs my discussion of New Religious Movements and the Second Great Awakening. In addition, I frequently visit local churches and places of worship to learn and stay informed. I have invited speakers to my classroom from local churches as well as Islamic speakers, Baha’i speakers, Buddhist speakers, and more. I have also brought students on field trips to local churches, The Islamic Center of the Tri-Cities, and the Wanapum Visitors Center.
Does course curriculum satisfy DTA requirements? How do you know? What needs to change?

Yes. The Catalogue specifies this. Some courses need to be retired.

Please construct a table to show all courses offered by your department and how they transfer to CWU, EWU, and WSU. Identify any courses that do not transfer or transfer as general electives.

Course Number	Course Title	Transferability to CWU	Transferability to EWU	Transferability to WSU
PHIL&101	Introduction to Philosophy	Yes	Yes	Yes
PHIL&120	Symbolic Logic	Yes	Yes	Yes
PHIL210	Ethics	Yes	Yes	Yes
PHIL230 (Needs to be retired)	East Indian Philosophy	Yes	No	Yes
PHIL240 (Maybe should be retired)	Philosophy of Religion	No	Yes	Yes
PHIL250 (Needs to be retired)	Asian Philosophy	Yes	No	Yes
PHIL340	Professional Ethics	No	No	No
REL201	World Religions	Yes	Yes	Yes
REL211	Religion in America	Yes	Yes	Yes
HUM110	Greek Mythology	Yes	Yes	Yes

If some of your courses are not transferring to universities as you expected, what information and/or assistance do you need to help you resolve these transfer issues?

PHIL340 Professional Ethics doesn’t need to transfer since it’s for our BAS-AM program. PHIL230 and PHIL250 need to be retired which will solve those issues. PHIL240 either needs to be retired or I should look into why it doesn’t transfer to CWU.

ADVISING RESOURCES:

Please review your department catalog and website information. Is the information current and accurate? What changes need to be made or would you like to make to better assist students? Submit catalog changes with this report. If you need to make changes to the bigbend.edu website, you will need to submit a work order in the Kace system (where BBT and Advising Map work orders are submitted) in the Communications area to arrange for website changes.

Yes. The employment list should include academia.
Has your department developed advising resources/maps to assist students majoring in your discipline or in a related field? Please describe these advising resources/maps. Have you considered developing transfer resources (such as four-year advising maps) for students intending to transfer to CWU, EWU, or WSU and major in your discipline or in a related field? How could BBCC assist you in developing these resources?

No. There are so few philosophy majors that they should speak to me directly. And no one just studies philosophy. Usually, you study philosophy of something else -- philosophy of art, philosophy of science, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of biomedical ethics, etc. -- and so a philosophy education should be tailored to whichever area of specialization one wants to cultivate.

SCHEDULING:
Please review your course offerings and enrollments over the last three years as well as the FTE information for your department.
Discuss how the scheduling for your courses has been evaluated. Describe how scheduling has been altered or maintained to meet the needs of other programs or populations of students.

Courses have been scheduled according to the availability of our one full-time instructor in consultation with the Dean of Arts and Sciences. Currently there are no part-time instructors but their availability would be consulted as well. There are sometimes attempts to coordinate with other Humanities courses.
Has this program considered providing other options for offering the program content; such as, online, hybrid, nights, competency-based, weekends, etc? Discuss.
a. If yes, what is being considered and why?
b. If no, is this something that should be considered and why/why not?

Yes. The philosophy department has been providing online and hybrid courses for many years. I used to offer night courses on a regular basis but I’ve stopped due to low enrollment and replaced those courses with online courses. I used to offer PHIL&120 Symbolic Logic as a hybrid course in which students could attend in class or watch live online but the technology to do this is no longer available.
Discuss future plans for annual scheduling based on this audit review. Please share how annual scheduling will need to change to meet future student needs as well as any department needs you have identified with respect to instruction.

There needs to be more coordination in scheduling. Electronic equipment needs to be updated in the 1600 classrooms. I learned just this week (on the last day of Fall 2023 instruction) that there was a plan submitted six years ago that will remodel my favorite seminar room 1608 and so I’ll have to see how this will impact my ability to offer on-campus seminar courses such as PHIL&101 and PHIL210. I do not know of any plans to update the technology in any of the lecture hall rooms such as 1609 so that I would be able to teach hybrid versions of PHIL&120 again and I do not know how to go about making such plans happen.

TRANSFER PARTNERSHIPS:
Provide information about how this department is involved in building and/or maintaining specific partnerships/relationships with one or more of our three transfer institutions (WSU, CWU, EWU). List and identify the partners/transfer institutions, describe the relationships that have been established, and what is planned for the future to establish better connections with our transfer institutions.

I do not have partnerships or relationships with these institutions.

CAREER GUIDANCE:
How does your department provide career counseling with information on employment trends, wages, and opportunities to assist students plan their education? What resources do you need to assist you in providing career counseling information to your students and advisees?

I do not have information about employment trends, wages, and opportunities for philosophers.

DEPT./AREA:
SUBMITTED BY:

2023-2024 Transfer Program Audit Report WINTER

PROGRAM QUALITY – INSTRUCTION:

Select all methods that are used by your department to integrate the academic knowledge and skills of your students and ensure that they are taught with the same coherence and rigor as all other students. Please provide short descriptions of each selection.

☒Contextualized Instruction
☐Team-Teaching
☐Math-First Initiatives
☐College-Level Core Curriculum
☒College-Wide Student Learning Outcomes
☐STEM Initiatives
☐Tutoring
☐Flipped Classrooms

☐Just in Time Support Instruction/Accelerated Learning
☒Active Learning/Student Engagement Techniques
☐Project Based Learning
☐Industry Standardized Tests/Exams
☐I-BEST Programs
☐Other (Please describe.)

Contextualized Instruction: Philosophy and Religious Studies courses frequently take abstract issues and apply them to real contexts. For example, rather than just an abstract discussion about the social contract, PHIL&101 students will be asked on the first week of class to assess whether they agree with Euthyphro’s decision to prosecute his own father for murder or do they think that family loyalty is more important than the rule of law.
College-Wide Student Learning Outcomes: Philosophy and Religious Studies courses are assessed each year using college-wide student learning outcomes.
Active Learning / Student Engagement Techniques: Philosophy and Religious Studies courses frequently require participation from all students. For example, PHIL210 Ethics are required to submit questions that they would like to see on the first exam and then together as a course we narrow it down (viewing them without student names!) and pick the best ones to appear on our first exam. This way all students are engaged and creating ethics questions that they want to answer.

PROGRAM QUALITY – STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT DATA:
Please use the student achievement data provided to discuss and review how successful students are within your classes. Please use the Overall Success Rates and Course Success Compare tabs in the About BBCC Tableau workbook to gather the data for the courses in your department. These workbooks can be found on the Institutional Research & Planning page in the Portal.

Are there certain classes with student success rates below 75%? Within your courses, what achievement gaps do you observe within underrepresented groups taking your courses? Which of these gaps are you focusing your efforts on and what are your next steps? How does this student achievement data intersect with your assessment efforts?
Courses under 75% success rate:
- PHIL&120 Spring 2022: 68% success
  - HUG success: 40%
  - A&W success: 82%
- PHIL&120 Spring 2023: 69% success
  - HUG success: 82%
  - A&W success: 62%
- REL201 Spring 2021: 70% success
  - HUG success: 60%
  - A&W success: 63%
    
    I think the textbook for PHIL&120 has been a problem. When I was forced to put the course online, I tried to use the online resources for Paul Herrick’s An Introduction to Logic and his library of YouTube videos. Paul’s textbook and videos are very wordy and I think that’s a problem for students who are not used to that kind of discourse. For the 2023-2024 academic year I have phased out Paul’s wordy textbook and instead I’ve returned to my own pdfs which are shorter, less wordy, and easier to use. I think this will allow us to focus on the concepts rather than be intimidated by the wordiness.
    
    I’ve updated the textbook for REL201 World Religions to Stephen Prothero’s Religion Matters and I recorded a lot of new Panopto Recordings on this new material. I believe that this has helped improve that course as the following success rates show: Fall 2021: 90% success; Spring 2022: 84% success; Winter 2023: 87% success; Fall 2023: 100% success.
Please describe what you are doing as a department to increase student success, especially within courses that exhibit low success rates or that indicate achievement gaps exist for some student groups? How are you closing the loop to see if your efforts have made improvement or not? What further steps do you plan to pursue?

PHIL&120 is the only SQR course that is not Mathematics and so it attracts students who need to fulfil their SQR requirement but don’t want to take another math course. Spring quarter tends to attract the students who have procrastinated on their SQR requirement and need to pass PHIL&120 to graduate in their last quarter. This is a recipe for disaster. Nevertheless, I work every year on improving the course to combat this problem. Because the class is online, students have recently begun using AI to do their online quizzes. This does not help them learn the material. To combat this problem, I will have students in PHIL&120 Spring 2024 do more quiz problems by hand and upload an image. I believe that doing this may also increase student success since it will require the students to show that they learn the material each week. The success rate for PHIL&120 Spring 2024 should close the loop. Tyler Wallace is taking PHIL&120 Spring 2024 and I plan on talking to him about further steps to pursue to improve the course.
Are there additional insights you have observed when looking at student grade data within courses?Please highlight one or more of these observations.

I’ve noticed that the success rate is down particularly for the 2020-2021 academic year. This was our first
year of 100% online due to COVID and I think that explains why that was a particularly bad year.

PROGRAM QUALITY – ASSESSMENT PLAN:
Please review your department’s 7-Year Plan and Course Crosswalk for accuracy and completion. Does the course crosswalk accurately reflect the courses offered by your department? Are all courses offered being assessed once within a seven-year span and are all program outcomes included within your department’s courses assessed at least once during the plan. Update your plan to include seven years moving forward from this year. Submit your updated plan along with the Winter Quarter Program Audit Report.

Yes and yes.

LAB FEES:
Does your department maintain a lab fee account?
1. If yes, please answer the remaining questions regarding lab budgets.
2. If no, please skip the remaining questions regarding lab budgets.
Is the lab account balance adequate to cover consumable expenses?
1. If no, have fees been reviewed? Why/why not? What is needed to ensure consumables are covered. Discuss. (Should this discussion be used to request a fee increase?)
2. If yes, do fees need to be reduced? Discuss.
Is the lab account balance adequate for purchasing needed equipment/technology updates?
1. If no, do fees need to be increased to help support these? What is needed and what will it cost? How much do the fees need to increase? Discuss. (Should this discussion be used to request a fee increase?)
2. If yes, what will be purchased and when?
  
  TECHNOLOGY:
Does your department have the technology available that is needed within courses to prepare students for transfer? Discuss.

I would be able to do PHIL&120 as a hybrid course with my own pdfs if there was a document camera in a room. Years ago I could teach PHIL&120 with students online and students in the classroom at the same time using a document camera, but I am unable to do so since the technology in 1609 has been replaced with a Prometheus Board.
Review your current equipment/technology inventory. Are there equipment/technology purchases that you think that you may need within the next three years. Please discuss equipment/technology where replacement/update is needed or where technology/equipment is obsolete. Have you planned for these purchases within your lab fee account, if you have one? How do you plan to budget for these purchases?

I would be able to do PHIL&120 as a hybrid course with my own pdfs if there was a document camera in a room. Years ago I could teach PHIL&120 with students online and students in the classroom at the same time using a document camera, but I am unable to do so since the technology in 1609 has been replaced with a Prometheus Board.

INTERNAL PARTNERSHIPS:
Provide information about how your department is involved in building and/or maintaining specific internal partnerships/relationships. Briefly describe the partnerships you have been working to develop and what the outcome(s) of those partnerships has been. What are you considering or planning to do in the future?

To do this department audit, I met in Zoom with Dustin Regul from Art, John Owens from Music, and Angela Waites from World Languages. It was a very fruitful meeting, we were able to help each other, and I was able to finish this department audit in that time.

2023-2024 Transfer Program Audit Report SPRING

PROGRAM QUALITY – ASSESSMENT:
We are required by our accrediting body, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), to document our assessment of student learning activities. Specifically, we are expected to assess student learning in our programs, to design and implement changes in our teaching intended to improve student learning, and to use further assessment of student learning to measure the impact of those changes on student learning.

Please review the assessment work you did over each of the past three years and then respond to these questions.

Based on your prior assessments, what were the issues (problems) that you were trying to address in an
effort to improve student learning?

The primary issue was writing effective assignments where the questions and the rubrics match what I
want the students to do.
What changes did you make in your instruction and/or program to address the problems identified in the question above?

I rewrite assignment questions and rubrics to better capture what I want from the students. Sometimes I completely replace assignments.
After implementing your changes, what impact did the changes have on student learning? How do you know/What did the data tell you?

Students did better work on more topics. For example, consider the assessment for PHIL210 Ethics in 2023-2024 over PO5 Students will be able to solve problems by gathering, interpreting, combining and/or applying information from multiple sources. The Ethics textbook contains many chapters on topics in applied ethics (abortion, euthanasia, death penalty, etc.) and each chapter contains multiple essays that present a variety of opposing arguments. In the Fall 2022 course, students were asked to tackle one of these topics by selecting and interpreting them into a two-page essay that they wrote outside of class and the grade average was 66%. In the Fall 2023 course, students were asked to tackle four topics with half page essays each in an in-class exam and the grade average was 82%. I think that giving the students clear exam questions resulted in better essay responses.
What are the implications for your academic program or department? (What are your next steps now? / What will you do to close the loop?)

I will continue to work on improving my assignments to achieve better results from the students. For example, I am offering PHIL 210 Ethics in Fall 2024 and I will be looking at how the students do on the exam where they are asked to gather, interpret, and apply arguments from multiple perspectives in applied ethics.

PROGRAM QUALITY – OUTCOMES:
Did your department invest in technology or equipment used to improve content delivery or student performance? If so, please describe the purchase and the impact it has had on content and/or student performance.

With a greater emphasis on returning to the classroom and with more in-class exams, there has been a greater investment in physical textbooks that students can have with them in the classroom.
Please provide examples of any innovative projects, initiatives, or state-of-the-art equipment undertaken in the last year. Please describe and include links to any social media posts and/or press/media coverage, if applicable.

HUM110 Greek Mythology students recorded themselves reciting passages from Homer. Most students did just voice recording but many also included video. One student recorded while swinging a light saber!
What was the most successful or noteworthy development with respect to program quality and/or program improvement this year?

I added more language about not using AI or ChatGPT in online exams for PHIL&120 Symbolic Logic including a True / False question that asked whether they did their own work and understood the penalty for cheating by using AI or ChatGPT. The Fall 2022 PHIL&120 Symbolic Logic course had several examples of student submissions that seemed suspiciously like they were AI or ChatGPT generated. The Spring 2023 PHIL&120 Symbolic Logic course did not.
What were the most significant challenges (e.g. funding, enrollment, performance, staff retention or turnover, equity, etc.) encountered in the last year? How could BBCC assist in addressing these challenges?

The loss of two full-time Humanities instructors puts a strain on the rest of us in the division. New instructors require screening committees and probationary committees. They cannot do as much committee work as tenured Instructors do and they cannot be division chairs. This extra workload falls onto the rest of us. BBCC needs to continue improving on the Employer of Choice issue.

FACULTY/STAFF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT:
Please provide brief descriptions and dates of professional development in which you and members of your department have participated in the last year.

Sabbatical Winter 2024 to write the essay “Consider Two Audiences for ‘The Fixation of Belief’” for publication in The Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society.
What was the most successful or noteworthy development with respect to faculty/staff retention and professional development this year?

Sabbatical Winter 2024 to write the essay “Consider Two Audiences for ‘The Fixation of Belief’” for publication in The Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society.

Select the methods employed to provide professional development opportunities for faculty/staff. Provide a brief description of each selection.

☐New Instructor Conference/Boot Camp
☐Deans Academy
☐Return-to-Industry
☐Faculty Peer Mentoring
☐Professional Development Days

☐Distance Learning Training
☐Technology and E-Learning Tools
☐Data and Assessment Workshops
☒Subject Matter Conferences
☐Other

I am a member of PLATO-WA which is an organization of philosophy and logic instructors at community colleges in the state of Washington.

K-12 COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS:

Does your department provide opportunity for College in the High School or CTE Dual Credit with area high schools?

a. If yes, list the classes and the schools.
b. If yes, could these offerings be expanded? How?
c. If no, is this an area that can be developed? How?

Not yet. I think that REL201 World Religions would be a great course for College in the High School. I find that students are genuinely curious and excited to learn about the different religions in the world and the course is designated a Diversity course which gives an extra incentive to take it.
Provide information about how your department is involved in building and/or maintaining specific external partnerships/relationships with K-12 schools and the communities in our service district. What K- 12 partners are you working with and what communities are you working in? What was the most successful or noteworthy development with respect to high school partnerships? What are you considering or planning to do in the future?

I’ve been contacted by an instructor in Othello who wanted to teach PHIL&101 Introduction to Philosophy, but they didn’t have an MA in Philosophy and so instead I’ve suggested they offer REL201 World Religions. I haven’t received a response to my suggestion.
Please describe any outreach events you have participated in as a department. What plans do you have in the future to participate in outreach events with our service district communities?

I don’t know if this counts, but I routinely work at New Student Enrollment events where I encourage students to take advantage of the HU General Education requirement to explore courses in humanities even if they aren’t going to major in that field. Students can benefit from a course in Ethics without becoming a philosophy major and students can benefit from a course in World Religions without becoming a religious studies major.

PROGRAM AUDIT SUMMARY REFLECTION/GOALS:
What are some key things you have learned about your program/department as you completed the program audit?

I learned that there are too many PHIL courses in the catalogue. Rather than offer as many different courses as possible, I think that it’s better to offer fewer courses and keep a closer eye on them.
What are the primary actions you have taken over the past three years to improve student outcomes in your program/department? Why were you focusing on these things? How do you know you are making progress?

At the June 2024 Instructional Council, I retired three courses: PHIL 230 East Indian Philosophy; PHIL 240 Philosophy of Religion; PHIL 250 Asian Philosophy. These would make great 300 level courses at a university with a large philosophy department. However, they are unnecessary here at a one-person community college philosophy department. Removing these courses will make it easier to do assessment, audits, and planning.

Offering more classes on-campus so that students are writing in-person exams has reduced the fear of AI or ChatGPT generated content.
What goals do you want to accomplish over the next three years to improve your program/department?

My hope is to offer a more consistent schedule with fewer courses that can be better assessed. I also hope to hire a part-time instructor in Religious Studies to alleviate the burden of offering those courses so that I can focus more on my philosophy courses. Lastly, I hope to be active in local groups like PLATO-WA and attend local conferences like the Northwest Philosophy Conference to continue to grow and be excited about my field.