Description of the Program

1) What are the goals and desired outcomes of the program?

This program is designed to allow graduate students from any and all of Humboldt's master's programs to have additional training and experience in teaching. Only two of our STEM programs (Environmental Systems Mathematical Modeling Option and Biology) have a teaching element explicitly built into the program. The other programs including Environmental Resources Engineering and the several Natural Resource master of science programs do not. Since Humboldt State University only offers master's programs, the goals of this program is to provide teaching internships at our local community college for those students interested in a community college faculty career or to provide teaching internships on campus for those students who are interested in pursuing doctoral studies. In fact, some students pursue both the community college and pre-doctoral tracks of the program. Upon completion of the program, students are awarded a university certificate of study, noted on their transcripts.

2) What are the key components of the program?

Students begin the program in their home disciplines, receiving formal or informal training in the pedagogy of their field. They take a 3 unit course in "Teaching in Higher Education." They then have their student internship experience either at College of the Redwoods (our local community college) or in an undergraduate course at Humboldt State . While they are interns, they also take a 1 unit seminar called "Orientation to Higher Education" where they are introduced to the other components of the faculty role (governance and service). The program ends with a 2 unit capstone seminar where students compile a teaching portfolio, and are guided in the job search process.

3) What is the typical time investment by STEM graduate student participants?

The certificate requires a minimum of 12 semester units. In the STEM disciplines, none or only 3 of these units also count toward their master's degree program of study. Because this is a recognized university certificate program, financial aid caps are increased to accommodate students doing this additional work.

Outcomes of the program

1) What STEM graduate students have participated in your program? For example, numbers per year, disciplines, and stages of graduate career.

Students in Biology, Wildlife, Fisheries, Forestry, and Environmental Systems-Math Modeling have primarily been the STEM participants. They begin the program in the first, second, or third semester of their course of study (The program is very flexible to allow students to fit it in around their master's work load). Twenty to twenty five students (total) finish the program each academic year and about one-third of those students are from STEM disciplines.

2) What have been the impacts of your program on the participants? If available please provide evaluation data or other research evidence.

Unfortunately, there is still no formal evaluation data of this program (follow-ups with graduates and their employers or graduate school faculty are in the development stage). Several of the graduate coordinators have relayed anecdotal evidence that participation has been instrumental in securing teaching assistant financial support at doctoral institutions. Several of the participants have secured part-time teaching positions at community colleges. The experience has convinced a few that community college teacing is really their passion.

3) What have been the impacts of the program on your institution? If available please provide evaluation data or other research evidence.

Again there is no formal evaluation data. The coordinator of the College Faculty Preparation Program regularly receives inquiries from prospective master's students about the program. More of these inquiries come from prospective students considering social science and humanities master's, but prospective STEM students do inquire as well.

Implementation of the Program

1) What are the key factors and challenges for colleagues at another university to consider as they decide whether to adapt your program to their needs?

Since this is a program that serves students from all of the graduate programs at Humboldt State , it may take considerable time and effort to get the various programs to agree to participate at all, and to agree on a common structure. As new faculty join the university, there is an ongoing need for a program coordinator to educate the faculty about the existence and purpose of the program, as well as introducing students in each of the programs about this additional opportunity.

2) What resources are needed to start up your program? What ongoing resources are needed?

Someone who is willing to oversee creation of such a program needs to be given some reassigned time to do this. Reassigned time is an ongoing need to support the coordinator because of the recurrent and continuing need to make the program visible to faculty and students alike. Here the coordinator receives 3 units of reassigned time per semester (out of a 15 unit full time load). The coordinator's home department should receive backfill for the coordinators work outside of departmental responsibilities. In this program, it was essential to get the Education department to commit to offering the "Teaching in Higher Education" course as part of their course schedule each semester. It helps when graduate programs have already developed some pedagogical training for their own graduate students. Some additional course units must be dedicated to the program. At Humboldt State , the two seminars and the community college internship are supported by the Office of Academic Affairs.

3) What is the typical time investment by faculty and staff?

There is no staff assigned to the program per se. Departmental staff and a staff person in OAA handle course scheduling as part of their regular workloads. The three units of reassigned time seems adequate to cover the coordinator's on campus and collaboration with the community college tasks.