In my program area I am experiencing higher than normal last minute sign-ups. This causes a big problem for me and for the instructors. You may have experienced this. The problem is we don’t know whether to cancel a class or let it run. Case in point, on a Wednesday I had 3 people signed up for a class. I needed to cancel it by Thursday and needed, in this case, 5 people for it to go. On Thursday I got number 4 with a possible number 5 so I let it ride one more day. The class ran on Monday with 7 people in it. Had I cancelled on Thursday as I had planned…well, you get the point.
I wish I could say this is something we can fix but it isn’t. With the tight economy, last minute planning and the current culture, this kind of thing may be with us for a long time.
What is an instructor to do? Decide a cut off time that works for you and communicate it to your programmer. If you are good to wait till the last minute, great. If you aren’t, that is great too. Just let us know. Make extra copies of your handouts for those last minute arrivals. Be flexible with your class plan. If you believe you are going to have 5 in class and 10 show-up, be ready to make some changes. No, this doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. Finally, be aware we are watching the registration numbers but can’t monitor them all the time. We do our best to let you know who and how many you will have in class.
Please share with us any thoughts you have on this subject and what kind of challenges you face.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Building and Classroom Updates
Mark June 18th on your calendars because that is the day Community Learning staff leave the COCC campus and move to the Chandler Building. The Chandler Building is located off 9th street on the west side of town. The exact address is 1027 NW Trenton Ave.
Renovation work has already begun and we are excited about the move. Of course the actual moving of all our stuff isn’t exciting but it will be nice to have our own place. We will have an 18 station computer lab and a meeting room that seats 49. The SBDC will be there with us, as they are now, and the Bend Science Station will be there as well. Plan to stop by for a visit this summer when you have the chance or go have a look and let us know what you think.
Also, the college has given Community Learning priority over three classrooms in the Boyle Education Center. By this I mean that we control access to these rooms and have first choice at them. They are rooms 151, 152 and 154 which are down the hall from our current office location. This will go a long way in helping eliminate the issues we have with getting classrooms on campus and help with holding ongoing classes that cross terms.
Renovation work has already begun and we are excited about the move. Of course the actual moving of all our stuff isn’t exciting but it will be nice to have our own place. We will have an 18 station computer lab and a meeting room that seats 49. The SBDC will be there with us, as they are now, and the Bend Science Station will be there as well. Plan to stop by for a visit this summer when you have the chance or go have a look and let us know what you think.
Also, the college has given Community Learning priority over three classrooms in the Boyle Education Center. By this I mean that we control access to these rooms and have first choice at them. They are rooms 151, 152 and 154 which are down the hall from our current office location. This will go a long way in helping eliminate the issues we have with getting classrooms on campus and help with holding ongoing classes that cross terms.
Friday, March 23, 2012
COCC Names Schulz Head of Continuing Education
Central Oregon Community College’s Board of Directors recently named Gerald A. Schulz the director of the college’s continuing education department.
Schulz’s duties include ensuring overall profitability of the continuing education program, organizing contracted training and events throughout the district, monitoring and managing the department’s budget, researching and developing new continuing education programs, expanding the awareness and availability of the continuing education program throughout the region and supervising a staff of nine.
“Significant changes are taking place in the way education and training are delivered,” said Schulz. “My immediate goal is to guide a transition from traditional lecture-style classes to newer methods of engaging our students. I truly enjoy planning and collaborating to bring education to adults.”
Schulz came to COCC in 2010 as the office operations manager, a position that focused on automating and streamlining processes. He also teaches evening classes for COCC Community Learning: “Staying aware and involved with the students and the classroom experience enables me to be a better manager and discover new offerings and improvements for our program.”
Schulz earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of California. A native of Pasadena, he worked as a research chemist before he and his wife developed and managed a computer training school for adults, growing it from 1984 until 2006 to become one of the largest private schools of its kind in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Schulz’s duties include ensuring overall profitability of the continuing education program, organizing contracted training and events throughout the district, monitoring and managing the department’s budget, researching and developing new continuing education programs, expanding the awareness and availability of the continuing education program throughout the region and supervising a staff of nine.
“Significant changes are taking place in the way education and training are delivered,” said Schulz. “My immediate goal is to guide a transition from traditional lecture-style classes to newer methods of engaging our students. I truly enjoy planning and collaborating to bring education to adults.”
Schulz came to COCC in 2010 as the office operations manager, a position that focused on automating and streamlining processes. He also teaches evening classes for COCC Community Learning: “Staying aware and involved with the students and the classroom experience enables me to be a better manager and discover new offerings and improvements for our program.”
Schulz earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of California. A native of Pasadena, he worked as a research chemist before he and his wife developed and managed a computer training school for adults, growing it from 1984 until 2006 to become one of the largest private schools of its kind in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Monday, March 19, 2012
How many in my class?
Wondering how registration is going for your class? You can check it online at any time. Click on the link below to take you to our new registration system and do a search for your class by class title. For instance, I did a search for Macintosh Basics. It brought up the screen showing there were 7 seats. This means that there are 7 seats available. Now I happen to know that this class has a total of 20 seats so that means that there are 13 students signed up for this class right now.
If you don’t know the maximum seats for your class you can find it in two places. It is on your contract which was emailed, mailed or otherwise sent to you or you can call your Program Manager and ask her/him. We will send you a roster before your class, but knowing the number ahead of time can help you prepare.
http://selfservice.cocc.edu:7001/flexibleregistration/index.jsp?frc=CLMAIN
If you don’t know the maximum seats for your class you can find it in two places. It is on your contract which was emailed, mailed or otherwise sent to you or you can call your Program Manager and ask her/him. We will send you a roster before your class, but knowing the number ahead of time can help you prepare.
http://selfservice.cocc.edu:7001/flexibleregistration/index.jsp?frc=CLMAIN
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