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Teaching portfolio

Eric Darsow | February 2019

contents by CCAC-AFL-CIO 2017-20 contract article X.D. headers

1. Academic resume
2. Course outline
3. Sample assignments
4. Sample of laboratory assignments or projects
5. Sample of examinations and/or written assignents
6. Summary of student survey (CCAC's SOSO results)
7: Evidence of Professional Growth since last portfolio
8: Written assessment from reviewers
9: Information or Involvement in Assessment
10: Information related to enhancing equity and diversity
11: Service to the college and/or community
12: Statement of anticipated future professional growth

Academic resume

Eric Darsow: Resume Feb 2019

Course outline | CIT-111: Introduction to programming - Java

My courses outline are comprised of three sub-documents: the summary of standard course information, the session schedule with content URLs, and my unified grading system portal. The following set pertains to CIT-111: Introduction to programming- Java

CIT-111: Java Course Syllabus SP19

Java 3-Term master session schedule

Free-of-point grading system

Sample assignments

Python and Java

[DAT-129: Python 2] Looping exercise worksheet and the key on github

[CIT-111: Introduction to programming - Java] Listing of three sets of practice exercises

Data analytics

[DAT-102: Intro to data analytics] Descriptive statistics with histograms lesson module

[DAT-102: Intro to data analytics] Data-based program evaluatio station set/ round robin

Sample of laboratory assignments or projects

Computer component laboratory: station guides

CIT-115: Introduction to information Systems -- Operating System lab guide with embedded video

Sample of examinations and/or written assignments

DAT-102: Intro to data analytics -- Exploring the US Census Opportunity Atlas online mapping tool

CIT-130: Object-Oriented programming -- Inheritance essentials written assignment and mini-project

Evidence of Professional Growth since last portfolio

Conference posters @ the American Public Health Association 2018 Meeting

poster 1: Fusing Geospatial (GIS) Education and Youth-Led Participatory Action Research: A case study of urban youth engagement in open source mapping to address lead exposure in Lincoln-Lemington

authors:Eric Darsow, MS Information Technology, Community College of Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, PA, Denise Jones, MA, Youth Enrichment Services, Pittsburgh, PA, Marcus Poindexter, PhD Student, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA and Dennis Jones, PhD, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV

official poster bay info: Slot: 3199.0 - PS-SCI: Monday, November 12, 2018: 1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m.

abstract: Background: A community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach increases the impact of projects undertaken to address exposure of harmful lead levels. Few existing CBPR studies, however, center youth directly at each stage of the process as peer educators and interventionists. Additionally, increased reliance on computerization often involves communities surrendering control of pivotal phases of the research process to technical experts. Purpose: This study evaluates the effectiveness of a CBPR project focused on lead poisoning prevention coordinated by Youth Enrichment Services (YES), a non-profit organization in Pittsburgh. Teenage youth from the focus neighborhood became the study’s architects, data gatherers, and analysts thereby centering their critical perspectives in an adult-centric research regime. Methods: The researchers employed a peer-teaching model in mentoring a subset of the participants to use open-source digital mapping tools. These were used to analyze findings related to the communication patterns and built environment conditions present in the neighborhood as they relate to toxic lead exposure.

The students’ final products were evaluated using a four-axis scoring rubric and post-program interviews. Results: The spatial analyzer group digitized research zone maps, created a choropleth map of home age/condition, and produced a heat map of social gathering hotspots. Students who entered the program with limited exposure to data systems achieved proficiency in both the academic and technical skills to generate and share meaningful findings related to lead exposure. Conclusion: Integrating technical skills education with youth-driven CBPR adds the critical dimension of youth experience into the research process that enables community ownership of study data.

poster 2: Closing the STEM Achievement Gap with Open Source Tools: A case study examining the use of technical education and peer teaching in a youth-led community-based participatory research project

authorsEric Darsow, MS Information Technology, Community College of Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, PA, Denise Jones, MA, Youth Enrichment Services, Pittsburgh, PA, Marcus Poindexter, PhD Student, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA and Dennis Jones, PhD, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV

official poster bay info: Slot: 2103.0 - PS-SCI: Sunday, November 11, 2018: 4:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m.

Abstract: Background: Public high schools in Pittsburgh struggle to implement robust STEM programs to prepare students for workforce demands in our information economy. This presentation offers a case study of a peer-teaching, field-based learning model designed to fill these gaps in technical and data-related education. Methods: Through an intensive, nine-week field research program centered around toxic lead exposure in a Pittsburgh neighborhood, researchers mentored a subset of five students participating in a larger youth research team to acquire and implement skills in research data system design and geospatial analysis. We addressed limited baseline technical skills among the student subgroup by implementing a peer-teaching model which deepened students’ knowledge and reduced disengagement behaviors common in a teacher-as-expert educational model.

Results: After a two-day rapid exposure process, students chose technical domains in which to develop mini-expertise including data importing, map feature digitization, and data instrument design. As domain experts, students then supported one another in creating their individualized digital outputs through side-by-side tutoring. As high-level facilitators only, the researchers helped to match peer-experts and peer learners strategically throughout the work cycle.Through this process, students successfully engineered a high-quality kernel density (“heat map”) map of social gathering patterns in the target neighborhood, a choropleth map depicting the age of the local housing stock, and a playground equipment exposure risk assessment. Conclusion: By harnessing and then channeling the varied interest and technical skill levels of the student cohort, peer teaching models significantly enhanced technical learning outcomes when implemented in an applied, community-oriented research context.

Curriculum design and testing

CIT-130: Object-oriented programming 1 & CIT-244: OO-2

student opinion survey feedback annotation

Municipal code enforcement database [MCED]

Technology Rediscovery LLC., the technology firm I created to house the development and deployment of the code enforcement web application, which now directs the productive energies of four CCAC North/West hills students. Each is learning to write software on a team, design module code, manage code with distributed version control systems (like git), and interface with clients. Further, as I engage with my contracting students, I am honing skills in project management, client relations, and team leadership which, indeed, have spillover effects into other ares of my work at CCAC.

As of February of 2019, the Municipal Code Enforcement Database [MCED] is in pre-beta testing with client governments: Pitcairn and Chalfant in the Turtle Creek Valley area. In conjunction with the Turtle Creek Valley Council of Governments and the Steel Rivers Council of Governments, the stable Beta version of the system v.0.9 will be deployed mid-year. We may potentially be administering system services for over a dozen municipalities throughout the region by the end of the calendar year.

Municipal code enforcement web application repository home page

A screen shot of the project's online source code repository, which has been released under the copy-left GNU Public License V.3 for sharing and collective ownership and improvement through time.

Municipal code enforcement database [MCED]

screen clipping of the code enforcement action requests management page for code officers and municipal staff taken on 14-FEB-19

Written assessment from reviewers

As reviews of my 2019 portfolio arrive, their written feedback and my reactions will be posted here promptly.

Addressing changes requested by written reviewers

The following document displays review by Dean Jeff Thomas and my satisfaction of article X, Improvement of

2019 Reviewer: Academic Dean Jeff Thomas, CCAC North/West

review of teaching portfolio by dean Jeff Thomas

download a pdf version

Information or Involvement in Assessment

Program assessment: Comp. Info systems 050.3

In collaboration with Professor Walter Pauli at CCAC Boyce, I created the following assessment plan and instruments for continuing our 4-year cycle of assessing our CIS transfer program. Upon review of my proposed documents, we decided to not assess this course, CIT-115 since it is an intro course and does not contain learning objectives most beneficial for assessing program strength.

Interestingly, even though we did not implement these assessment tools, these exact instruments were praised by the remote guest speaker during the CCAC All-College faculty training day in January, 2019.

Computer information systems (CIS) assessment (pdf)proposed assessment plan

Inst. 1: Wikipedia accuracy mini-study (pdf | editable)

Inst. 2: Focus group guide for participating students (pdf | editable)

Data analytics program assessment

I continue to direct, write, administer, evaluate, and implement the four-year assessment cycle for our Data Analytics program, which is currently serving its first two cohorts with an expected first graduation in Spring of 2021. The following document outlines our assessment progress including results and reactions to the latest administration of the assessment instruments.

Data analytics program assessment cycle plan and results

Information related to enhancing equity and diversity

Community-oriented, field-rich data summer camp 2018 with Youth Enrichment Services 501(c)(3) and Technology Rediscovery LLC

Summer 2018: Partnering with Youth Enrichment Services (YES) based in East Liberty, Pittsburgh, I worked with eight high school/college-bound students who investigated youth-related marketing strategies of big tobacco companies during the summer of 2019.

The students participating in YES's programs often experience one or more dimensions of marginal status in context our society's hierarchical social strata. More than half of the students participating in the 2017 summer cohort hailed from high schools whose science programs are classified by YES as severely under-resourced.

Click the image box below to jump to the actual index section of technologyrediscovery.net

Summer 2018 tobacco study program link page on technologyrediscovery.net

Service to the college and/or community

Learn standing up! CCAC Leadership Development Institute session facilitation, NOV-2018

Lead by Valery Keebler, the CCAC Leadership Development Institute met at CCAC North's Innovation lab to explore the concept of innovation. I led a one-hour session composed of the following sequence to build creative energy around fast-paced, multi-structured, multi-modal learning experiences:

Participants were seated 2-3 per table, each table provided access to vertical, roving white board. Initiate process with the declaration of our central inquiry:

What are the central differences and similarities between CCAC students and students enrolled in a traditional four-year school?
How do these differences impact our work as educators?

Participants began independently brainstorming a starter set of differences on a 3x5 card
At the table level--with roving white boards nearby each--folks created a T-Chart comparison of student group characteristics that contained all the unique contributions from each member. Redundant ideas were collapsed with discussion.
Finally, at the room level, unique ideas from each table's board were discussed briefly and transcribed to one central board.

Results:

Results: In 15 minutes we had both engaged individually and interpersonally, evaluated and compared dozens of entity characteristics (e.g. students from different types of schools in this example), and negotiated publicly differences in opinion.

Artifacts:

Figure LDI.1: Session participant comparison idea organizers

Figure LDI.2: Session participant comparison idea organizers

Figure LDI.3: Session participant comparison idea organizers

Figure LDI.4: Responses from participants

Optional 1: Sample of Handouts

Optional 2: Samples of Unsolicited Students Letters and Comments

Optional 3: Peer/professional observatiuon and evaulation

Summary of student survey &

Statement of anticipated future professional growth

Raw SOS data for terms SP17, FA17, SP18, SP19

Darsow SOSO raw files: quant scores and written feedback

Data-driven professional growth

The CCAC student survey feedback tool forms the basis of my professional growth plan for the upcoming year. Using an anthropologically based coding process, all student review comments were reviewed in batches from Spring 2017 through Fall 2018. I extracted eight growth areas by grouping similar course weakness listings found throughout the survey result set.

With these eight areas in place, I will be assembling growth-area-specific documentation and planning in each sub-section below. Further evaluation of my courses will seek to track the efficacy of my reactions to these student comments. Follow-up survey data will, of course, be listed as it is generated in the following sections.

Derivation of growth areas

The complete set of written Survey Of Student Opinion (SOSO) was read twice: first without any marking, with an eye for delimiting about a dozen subgroups or thematic patterns in the responses. On the second read, legible, relevant, and non-redundant responses were parsed into either growth or strength area and queued for screen clipping.

The 43 written excerpts from SOSOs administered during the four main academic terms Spring 2017 through Fall 2018 were displayed on a computer monitor using a PDF browser. Screen clippings were taken of each and the filename selection process commenced.

Filename allocation as focused coding

Assigning a filename to each clipping unfolded clip-by-clip. The screen clip software prompts for a filename immediately after taking a snip. Instead of accepting a default integer-sequence-based filename, each exerpt was categorized into an organically evolving set of growth and strength areas.

At the modest scale of responses, this informal--perhaps even crude--categorization scheme felt sufficiently organic to warrant treating the groupings as the basis of this year's portfolio reflections.

the file naming system reflects a hierarhical categorization scheme with the main trunk split between growth and strength areas. Each growth or strength sub-category received a stable number by the end of the coding process. A short word title was assigned for comprehension of the file list as a meaningful set of categorical groupings related to teaching improvement. After the _ the term and course are listed, which together can be used to locate the raw PDF file dump from the CCAC faculty self-service site. browse the image directory directly

Growth area 1: Close curricular gaps

Reflections on curricular gaps and planned action steps follow the primary student data excerpts.

Excerpt G1-1

Excerpt G1-2

Excerpt G1-3

Excerpt G1-4

Excerpt G1-5

Excerpt G1-6

Reflections on curricular gaps

As an enthusiastic planning, nobody is more acutely aware of existing curricular gaps than I. Unfortunately, as I hope to explain, time scarcity preserves their existence.

Each moment of my class preparation time surrenders--either willingly or begrudgingly--to trade-offs between these focus ares:

Long-term course planning: generating and organizing learning objectives relevant at the lesson or activity level
Providing student feedback: to work submitted via the student folder system
Lesson activity building: Writing session guides, station sets, practice sets, etc.
Lesson embellishment: Designing compelling hooks for complex topics, creating visual aids, finding film clips
Documentation: Recording session-specific and activity-specific notes in electronic form, scanning, cropping, posting, and annotating student work samples

During teach term from Spring 2017 through the current Spring 2019, I have endeavored to create the entire gamut of course materials (from long-term plans, project outlines, down to activity-specific worksheets and posting student work) for at least one and sometimes two or more courses.

Curricular gaps have most frequently manifest themselves in a lack of glue between major activities around core concepts. Vocabulary building, for example, should be happening prior to every major project in every unit. Less planning has occurred in these ares because my brain gravitates to 'grand schemes' that balloon to consume entire lessons, weeks, or units--squishing out less glamorous (but, indeed, foundational) core skill building time.

Action steps: strengthening the curriculum

Choose and use a textbook for Java. Status: The Liang9 has been chosen and a class set purchased with funds from the Ida Mae and Donn D. Legacy Education Fund. Fruit is being picked already as ready-made explanations and charts of core data have already been used collectively in all three Java classes.
Major overhaul of lesson-level objective tracking system. Status: Master sequences for each course set are in the works and about 1 week from completion.
Inclusion of actual lesson objectives on each student handout. Status: New hamburger template includes lesson objectives in its tabular header.
Create objective series pages for housing all core content on a topic. Status: Planned for SP19.