Dual Credit

Hello Dual Credit students and parents! I will continue to be your point of contact for all your Dual Credit needs while we are conducting school online. This should be a breeze for you guys!! Below, I will post notifications from SPC and other pertinent information about your classes.

Missing y'all!

SPC Dual Credit - (4/3/2020 - Email from Ryan Fitzgerald, Dean of Dual Enrollment & Distance Education)

Good afternoon,

I wanted to provide a quick dual credit update -

TSI

There has been no conversation related to waiving college-readiness requirements - the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) is expected to provide guidelines for fall testing around May 1st. For this summer, both Examity & Proctor U have been approved to launch online remote proctoring services by April 17th - they should be at full capacity by May 1st.

Currently, the THECB is reviewing other temporary measures which could use Zoom, Skype, WebEx for institutions of higher education to proctor TSIA exams remotely.

TEA has approved proctor service fees (for reading and math subject areas only) and TSIA test fees (again, for reading and math subject areas only) to be eligible for reimbursement for ISDs and public charter schools.

Also, please know that all TSIA/TSIA2 trainings scheduled through May 31, 2020 have been cancelled.

The tentative new launch date for TSIA2 is Monday, September 28, 2020.

Grades

South Plains College will not implement or offer a Pass/Fail option for final grades this semester.

After several conversations with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) and the Texas Association for Community Colleges (TACC), the decision has been made to finish the semester using our standard A-F grade scheme.

Conversations with the THECB and TACC have led to concern over the transferabiliy of the Pass/Fail option. It is in the best interest of all dual credit students that actual letter grades be assigned at the end of the semester to ensure their coursework transfers, that their courses satisfy college and departmental pre-requisite requirements for future coursework, and that those grades are included in a student's college GPA, which is used in many institutional calculations for receiving scholarships and honors opportunities.

Please pass the following information along to your dual credit students and adjunct instructors -

Microsoft Office Access

As members of the SPC community, dual credit students and adjunct instructors get free access to Office 365 which includes online access to Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint and 1TB of free online storage with Microsoft OneDrive. They can use Office 365 online or install it on their PC, Mac or mobile device.

Here are the directions we send students and staff, who want access -

To access Office 365, go to https://www.office.com and sign in with the following format: SPCusername@southplainscollege.edu and your MySPC password.

You can then click the link for the individual application you want to use online, or click the install office link towards the top right to install the application to your device.

Library Resources

Dual Credit students can still access the library website 24 hours a day, seven days a week to utilize eBooks, college databases and other electronic resources.

Additionally, we have Librarians available to help via our chat service which you can access here: https://southplainscollege.libguides.com/c.php?g=959780&p=6929750

LibGuides: Chat Page: Home

LibGuides: Chat Page: Home

southplainscollege.libguides.com

Chat includes the ability for us to share our screen or do a video chat to help you answer questions.

Chat Hours:

Monday through Thursday 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM

Friday 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM

Saturday and Sunday 4:00 PM to 10 :00 PM

Last thing - we will be sending out our summer and fall dual credit schedules soon!

A few things to keep in mind - this fall, we will be making our Criminal Justice field of study available to all dual credit students - this means we will offer a sequence of dual credit Criminal Justice courses which include: CRIJ-1301 (Introduction to Criminal Justice), CRIJ-1306 (Court Systems and Practices), and CRIJ-2328 (Police Systems and Practices).

We will begin by offering CRIJ-1301 (Introduction to Criminal Justice) online this fall.

Additionally, we will be offering EDUC-1300 (Learning Frameworks) online this fall, for the first time! This course is designed for early dual credit students, to help them evaluate factors that impact their ability to learn, apply new learning strategies and develop critical thinking skills. We will have limited space in EDUC-1300, so if you have any students who may be interested, let us know!

As always, please let me know if you have any questions!

We're here to help!

Ryan

(806) 716-2542

SPC Dual Credit - (3/31/2020 - Email from Ryan Fitzgerald, Dean of Dual Enrollment & Distance Education)

Good morning high school partners!

A quick dual credit update -

In response to “Stay Home, Stay Safe” directives for both Hockley and Lubbock counties, South Plains College will close indefinitely to all employees, visitors, and students beginning Wednesday, April 1st at 12:00 AM. This closure will apply to all SPC campuses in Levelland, Plainview, and Lubbock.

Though our facilities will be closed, all instruction will continue in an online format.

Please know that WiFi access is available in certain parking lots across multiple SPC campuses.

At this time, there are still no plans to extend South Plains College's spring semester beyond May 7th.

Please encourage your dual credit students to constantly monitor Blackboard and their SPC email account for information from their instructors.

Directions for students who need to access their SPC email account is below:

SPC E-Mail Instructions

• Navigate to https://office.com and select Sign In

• Username: MySPCusername@southplainscollege.edu (please note the @students has been dropped)

• Password: Your MySPC/Blackboard password

• Select Outlook to check your SPC email!

Also, the following links provide quite a bit of information on how to access and navigate Blackboard -

Logging into Blackboard: https://www.southplainscollege.edu/instructional-technology/students/LogIn.php

Navigating Blackboard: https://www.southplainscollege.edu/instructional-technology/students/students.php

During this time all dual credit office staff will be constantly monitoring their email and voicemail.

As always, let us know if you need anything.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me.

Best,

Ryan Fitzgerald, M.A.

Dean of Dual Enrollment & Distance Education

Director of Institutional Research

Adjunct Instructor of Government

South Plains College - Levelland, Texas

rfitzgerald@southplainscollege.edu

(806) 716-2542