NW Clark News

Truckee Meadows Community College issued the following announcement on October 12.

TMCC Awarded at eLumenation Conference

For the past three and a half years TMCC’s Assessment and Planning Team, as well as TMCC’s academic faculty, have been hard at work improving student learning, not only at the course level but also for TMCC’s many certificate and degree programs. This hard work was awarded at the recent eLumenation conference.

Donna Clifford and Dr. Melissa Deadmond from TMCC’s Assessment and Planning Office were recognized at the conference for their work with eLumen to ensure that TMCC remains a leader in curriculum and learning-assessment.

Measuring student learning outcomes is a process by which TMCC can continue to improve the educational pathways and opportunities offered to students. “We have a sense that our students are learning if they are getting good grades, they finish courses and if they graduate, but measuring student learning outcomes gets at the specifics of what we want our students to get out of our courses and our degrees and certificates,” said Deadmond.

Donna Clifford, who oversees the technical implementation of eLumen at TMCC, said that the annual conference is a way for the college to improve its assessment processes. “We get best practices by attending the conference. For us, it’s about keeping current as well as how to use eLumen software effectively to help improve the assessment on our campus,” said Clifford.

TMCC received the Continuous Improvement Award for establishing the curriculum maps and providing assistance to the faculty to complete their curriculum maps in eLumen. “We provided training to faculty to assist them in completing the curriculum mapping,” Clifford said. “This was a big undertaking, and this training is still ongoing, but we have done really, really well.”

TMCC also received the Innovation Award for our insight and feedback on continuous improvement in eLumen. “We provide eLumen with feedback on what is working and not working to help better their software, because we want eLumen to be beneficial to the faculty as well as other users. Sometimes we are approached to be beta-testers to learn new tools in eLumen before they are implemented. We are continuously learning about eLumen so we can help the faculty build a stronger assessment culture at TMCC,” said Clifford.

“The whole idea of assessment is continuous quality improvement. ELumen is the tool to help us house the data and use the data toward that model,” said Deadmond who noted that Clifford’s technical expertise and the continued investment of time and effort by TMCC faculty are making student learning visible and measurable...making sure that student success is at the heart of what we do at TMCC.

Anthropology Professor Joylin Namie Develops Seminar Series Based on Exchange

In 2020, TMCC Anthropology Profesor Joylin Namie completed an exchange in Jordan through the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) Faculty Development Seminar. The exchange inspired an ongoing investigation into what Namie calls “(Un)sustainable tourism, a study that compares and contrasts the economic and ecological realities of Jordan and Nevada. 

Namie has brought this topic to students in her anthropology classes and, thanks to a collaboration with Hospitality and Tourism Management Program Coordinator Vanina Coudriet, she is also reaching students in HDM 101 classes as well. “This semester, since both [Coudriet’s] and my sections meet on the same day/time, we are combining her HMD 101 with my Anthropology 201 class for a day to focus on this topic, which pertains to both classes,” Namie explained. 

Namie has also created a video lecture with accompanying PowerPoint slides that will be posted on the Council of American Overseas Research website, which will enable instructors around the world to access and teach this material. 

Resource Fair Hosted At TMCC Meadowood Center on Oct. 21

On Thursday, Oct. 21, TMCC’s Meadowood Center is hosting a Resource Fair from 11 a.m.–1 p.m. in the atrium between the North and South buildings. The event is free and open to anyone who would like to learn more about existing community resources.  Although these organizations support the greater Washoe County community, the representatives present at each table will be able to assist TMCC students in securing housing, employment, childcare, as well as medical and dental care. 

Original source can be found here.