December Updates

December 2022

For many of us, December is the favorite time of the year because of the celebratory atmosphere it brings. As we are beginning to feel the holiday cheer, our December newsletter is filled with festive spirit.

First, I’d like to welcome Josh Jeffery to join us as the new FIPSE Early College Facilitator. Josh is originally from Northwestern Oregon. He is excited to serve in a role that will blend his past experiences in both K-12 and higher education as he works with local high schools and the NPC community. Read “Meet Our Staff” to know more about Josh.

We are currently in Year 2 of the FIPSE Grant Project. Thanks to the hard work of FIPSE Director Raeann Brittain, our Early College team, and members from other departments that work together to implement the project, we are on track to achieving the project's five major goals - improve instructor readiness, improve student readiness, increase the capacity to offer more classes, implement technology solutions to streamline student support services, and increase the number of students attending college after graduation from high school. For more information, view an overview Raeann presented to the college on November 30th. Not only will the project benefit Early College Programs, several initiatives it started such as TargetX, Ad Astra, Jump Start Academy, College Immersion Year, etc., will also have a positive, long-term impact on many other areas closely related to NPC’s strategic goals.

Besides FIPSE, several teams are working diligently on a number of college-wide collaborative projects. We will continue to update you on the progress of Open Textbook Grant, Testing Task Force, HyFlex pilot, LinkedIn Learning Project, and SIP-C in our future newsletters.

December 3rd is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. It is also a day to celebrate diversity, equity and inclusion, which are NPC’s shared values. Last month, our instructional Designer Andi De Bellis and I attended the Accessing Higher Ground (AHG) Conference, where we learned a lot about the legal trends and best practices in IT accessibility and inclusive learning. Check out Andi’s thoughts on designing accessible courses in the ITCS newsletter, and some of my takeaways from AHG22. In addition, to make parents/advocates our partners and part of the support group for students with disabilities, OAI has compiled a list of expectations in hopes of making the processes smoother. Any feedback will be appreciated.

The Library's Discovery Nest in November was a success. Go to the Library Newsletter page and check out the happy faces of our community members who attended this event and their finished projects. If you are a book lover, you don’t want to miss the next Fantastic Books and Where to Find Them - a virtual book club that meets each month on the second Wednesday. The next meeting is December 14.

Last but not least, the ERP Selection Committee has officially kicked off its mission this month. The group's initial task is to establish partnerships with other community colleges seeking a new ERP, mechanisms to collect feedback, members’ time commitments and responsibilities, and expectations for a “dream” ERP. Selecting and implementing a new ERP system is one of the college’s top priorities and a multi-year, multi-million-dollar project. As a member of the committee, I'm excited to be working with our internal and external stakeholders to move this project forward.

Please continue to read other news and updates in our December newsletter. Happy holidays!

Wei Ma, PhD
Dean of Instructional Innovation