Office of Instruction
Instruction is coordinated through the Office of Instruction. The Vice President and Associate Vice President of Instruction and Student Learning are located here. It is their responsibility to coordinate the operations of the instructional program and facilitate any activities that are needed to plan, improve, and facilitate the delivery of instruction, working in collaboration with the Deans responsible for Instructional Areas/Divisions.
Division Dean/Division Office
The Division Dean is the primary contact point with the college administration for faculty. Most instructional activities are carried out through this office. Class scheduling, curriculum activities, and other related activities are the responsibility of the division dean. The division office is also the primary location for all forms and the starting place for most college processes. The division Administrative Assistant will be a valuable resource to you and will be available to answer many of your questions.
Department Chair
Each academic department has an elected Chair who functions as a liaison between the faculty and the division dean. Curriculum questions and other departmental questions should be directed to this person or to the division dean. The academic department chairs work with their deans to review the curriculum, build the class schedule, coordinate program review, complete unit planning and many other activities important to academic departments.
More detail can be found in the LRCFT Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Flex Obligation and Activities
Required by the AB-1725 legislation, a number of days in the instructional calendar are set aside for professional development activities, known as 'Flex.' Flex Days are scheduled at the beginning of each fall and spring semester. They include one or more days of workshops, and one day of convocation and division/department meetings. All full-time and many adjunct faculty have a Flex obligation. Your Flex obligation is the total number of hours you must spend participating in professional development activities. Your Tentative Course Class Schedule (TCS) states your Flex obligation. See Flex Information.
Travel Request for Professional Development
A request to travel for professional development (PD) purposes can be submitted to the Professional Development Committee, a Shared Governance Committee. See Professional Development Forms and Travel Forms.
Sabbaticals – Professional Development Leaves
Types A and B These leaves provide faculty members with release time from regular teaching assignments to respond to changing educational conditions and student needs. Tenured faculty members are eligible for both Type A and Type B leaves. Tenure-track faculty who have completed three full years of service are only eligible for Type B. Faculty can utilize the release time to engage in studies, projects, or other beneficial activities that fall outside their regular responsibilities. Applications for Professional Development Leaves are considered once per semester. The Professional Standards Committee reviews all faculty applications and submits its recommendation to the College President.
Commencement
The annual commencement exercises take place in May of each academic year and involve an academic procession and the awarding of degrees to graduating students. Full-time and part-time tenured faculty are required to participate in commencement exercises every other year. Rental fee for the cap and gown and shipping costs are borne by the District. Individual staff members are requested to assume responsibility for rental or purchase of appropriate academic hoods.
Procedures for Building the Class Schedule
The preparation of the CRC Class Schedule for each session is coordinated by the Dean of Instruction and Student Learning with the support of the Instructional Services Assistants in the Office of Instruction. The Summer/Fall Schedule is normally printed in mid-to-late March and available in April; the schedule planning process begins in mid-October of the previous fall. The Spring Schedule is normally printed in mid-October and is available in early November; the schedule planning process begins in mid-April of the previous spring.
The division deans, in consultation with the faculty and department chairs, carry out the preliminary activities of schedule development. Factors considered in schedule building are:
- District and college priorities as shared with division deans by the VP and Dean of Instruction and Student Learning
- Review of past enrollment patterns and projected enrollment in division classes;
- Balancing the schedule to ensure access to students during the day and evening, as well as on weekends and through online classes
- Consideration of constraints set by the FTE allocations by the District
- Qualifications of faculty members in terms of preparation and interest in subject fields
- Number of preparations and formula hour loads
- Balance of hour assignments for faculty
- Availability of rooms and other facilities required for courses
Faculty Availability/Preference Form
The Office of Instruction provides each division with copies of the Faculty Availability/Performance Form to distribute to all faculty. Faculty must submit this form to the division office each semester in order to be considered for adjunct or overload teaching assignments. This form assists the division dean and department chair in ascertaining faculty availability, should a future assignment become available. Availability forms are distributed by the division offices to all active faculty each year, per the LRCFT Contract. This form should be returned to the division office. Please see Faculty/Instructional Forms.
Tentative Class Schedule (TCS)
Once your teaching schedule has been submitted by the division office to the Office of Instruction, you will receive a Tentative Class Schedule for your review. Full-time faculty will receive their TCS in their campus mailbox; adjunct faculty will receive their TCS in the US mail. The TCS specifies your assignment and your Flex obligation. It is the responsibility of each faculty member to indicate if the assignment is correct. Any discrepancies must be reported to your division dean as soon as possible.
Curriculum
As a faculty member working with your colleagues, you will be responsible for the content of your classes, the method of presentation, and the cohesiveness and comprehensiveness of your academic program. Proposals for new curriculum and changes in existing curriculum are submitted for the scrutiny of the full academic community through their representatives on the Curriculum Committee.
Curriculum Development
Developing curricula is a primary responsibility of the faculty. Curriculum ideas can come from many sources including program review, advisory committees, colleagues at CRC and other colleges, students, alumni or professional friends. Department faculty are essential to the development of formal curriculum proposals for the college. In order for an idea to become reality, the college uses an official curriculum process managed by the Curriculum Committee. The Curriculum Committee reviews and approves new and revised curriculum.
Included in the process are reviews by the appropriate subcommittees: Prerequisite/Co-requisite/Advisory, Distance Education, General Education, Multicultural Graduation Requirement, and Honors. After college approval of curriculum proposals, they are forwarded to the District Curriculum Coordinating Committee, which, upon approval, then presents all district curriculum to the Board of Trustees for approval. When new programs are developed or existing programs are substantially revised, curriculum is also forwarded to the State Chancellor’s Office for state level review and approval. Career Technical Education (CTE) programs are forwarded for approval to the North Far-North Regional Consortium (NFNRC), prior to being sent to the State Chancellor's Office for state approval. Because of the many layers of review and approval that are sometimes required, the college has established a set of time lines so that curriculum is processed as efficiently and quickly as possible. Once curriculum is approved, faculty are obligated to adhere to the approved course outlines.
Creating Courses for New Programs: LRCCD Program Placement Council (PPC)
Under the leadership of the College and District Academic Senates, the processes to develop and approve new curriculum are already in place as a professional responsibility of faculty, while the allocation of new to college or new to district programs is the responsibility of administration, based upon consultation with faculty involved in curriculum design as well as recognition of the overall needs of the colleges and the district as a whole. The process to maximize district and college resource use through optimal placement of programs is guided by the Los Rios Program Placement Council (PPC). The PPC Guidelines (PDF) and a Visual (PDF) outlining those guidelines are available to help faculty members to take a program idea from inception through the development and approval process.
Curriculum Management Software
The complexity of the curriculum development and review process and the ties to program review and articulation with other two and four-year institutions of higher education has led to the development of a computerized curriculum management system. This computerized curriculum management system, called SOCRATES (System for Online Curriculum Review and Technical Education Support) allows the viewing of course and program outlines as well as the online development and updating of courses and academic programs. Access to SOCRATES is available through the Los Rios College Intranet. More information and assistance is available from the Curriculum Committee, the Curriculum Handbook, and the Office of Instruction.
Establishing Pre-Requisite, Co-Requisite and Advisory Courses
More information about Pre-Requisite, Co-Requisite and Advisory courses is available in the Pre-Requisite Process Manual. This manual is available from the Curriculum Committee Chair, from the Vice President of Instruction and in the division/area offices.)
Both the department and the curriculum committee must approve the prerequisite, co-requisite, or advisory by an approval separate from approval of the course. This approval must be based on a properly completed content review / prerequisite validation packet.
For advisories, submit: (1) Form 4A (Prerequisite checklist); (2) Summary narrative for the content review process including the entrance skills which justify the chosen prerequisite, co-requisite, or advisory; and (3) Updated form 4 (course outline) including entrance skills. For prerequisites and co-requisites, submit the preceding three items and at least one of the following (more than one if several types of prerequisite are deemed necessary):
- For standard pre/co-requisites: Catalog descriptions for courses equivalent to the target and prerequisite courses at three UC or CSU campuses, with a narrative if the comparability of the courses is not obvious.
- For sequential or health and safety pre/co-requisites: Documented content review establishing a link between entrance skills for the target course and the objectives of each pre/co-requisite.
The department submits the content review/prerequisite validation packet electronically to the office of the Vice President of Instruction via the appropriate area dean. If the packet does not seem to meet the guidelines of the validation process, the prerequisite subcommittee communicates with the department and requests additional documentation and/or clarification. Once the packet meets the requirements for prerequisite validation, the prerequisite subcommittee makes a recommendation for approval to the curriculum committee. The curriculum committee determines if the proposed prerequisite, co-requisite, or advisory is necessary and appropriate and does not pose an unnecessary obstacle to achievement of student goals. If so, the curriculum committee approves the prerequisite.
Some prerequisites can only be justified by data analysis. These prerequisites will be conditionally approved for two years via the above process. Conditional approval will be revoked if data analysis is not completed within two years or if the data analysis fails to show that a student who lacks the prerequisite is highly unlikely to succeed in the course. Prerequisites that can only be validated by data analysis include: Mathematics courses (when listed as prerequisite for a course outside of the math department), English or ESL courses (when listed as prerequisite for a course outside of these departments), prerequisites which require a certain letter grade in a previous course (a B or better in Chem 1A), and prerequisites which are stated with recency language (English 1A within the last two years). Some exceptions may apply. When processing the prerequisite validation packet, the curriculum committee will determine whether the prerequisite requires this level of scrutiny.
Prerequisites and advisories are subject to periodic review as follows: Entrance skills will be reviewed each time the course outline is reviewed. Prerequisite validation (documented content review or UC equivalencies) will be verified by department faculty and reviewed by the curriculum committee every six years.
Prerequisites and advisories for offerings under the heading "Special Topics in" or Experimental Offerings in" represent a special case. Advisories for these special offerings do not require content review or separate approval. Prerequisites and co-requisites for these special offerings do not require content review or validation documents, but must have their prerequisites approved by the curriculum committee.
Checking a Student's Prerequisite or Co-requisite Documentation for Your Class
Ask that students bring one of the following to you during the first few days of class:
- Assessment Placement Results (from the Assessment Center, verifying that the student has tested at the course placement level appropriate for the course) OR
- Transcripts showing that the student has taken the required course(s)
If a student cannot provide one of these documents, you must drop him/her from your class. The student may challenge the prerequisite requirement through your division office, by completing the "Pre-Requisite Challenge" form. Allow the student to attend class during the challenge process period.