El Camino College is adding new services and rebranding its program that allows students to earn credits toward any degree of their choice.
The ECC Evolve initiative, a new version of its meta-major program previously known as Guided Pathways, was announced in the College Council meeting on May 20.
Meta-majors group similar college programs into general subject areas, allowing students to try out different fields and earn credits from those courses that can be applied to any degree they pick later.
This program has simplified multiple degree and certificate options into seven meta-majors, making it easier for students to find their path and succeed.
“We picked the name Evolve because it really highlights that we’re about institutional change and continuous change, there’s no end point change is continuous to education,” Crystle Martin, dean of library and learning resources, said.
The transition to the Evolve branding occurred around March, with Guided Pathways having been a part of the college from 2017 to 2018, Martin said.
Beyond the name change, the program has shown significant additions and improvements over the past few years.
Each meta-major now has dedicated counselors to provide specialized support, enhancing the student experience, according to English professor Chris Page.
The effectiveness of Evolve is measured by the Institutional Learning Outcomes report, which evaluates the college’s learning environment.
Guided Pathways measures a different pillar of the essential skills and knowledge of students, outlined in the ILOs, annually. Last semester’s focus was on the pillar of ensuring learning outcomes.
The ILO report is crucial in the ongoing development of ECC’s educational strategies, ensuring that learning goals are met and identifying areas for further improvement.
“I’m hoping it can create more pre-lined pathways for students to be able to explore majors,” Associated Students Organization President Jose Merino said.
The ILO Report has created a consistent way to track student and program success, helping instructors improve their teaching methods by using insights from interviews, surveys and class feedback.
Educational plans used to project students’ schedules ahead of time are one of the many hopeful projects that the ECC Evolve Initiative aims to encompass, while in the early initial stages of it.
“The idea of being able to hand them [students] a schedule on day one that says this is where you’re gonna be all year long,” Executive Cabinet Representative and Vice President of Academic Affairs Carlos Lopez said. “The colleges that have done it have seen increases in retention and success as a result of students knowing they already have another set of classes that they’re registered in.”
A primary goal for Evolve is to simplify the college experience for students, particularly those who are just starting out.
“There’s a lot of little plans that seem sort of trivial but can actually have a big impact on our daily interface with the campus and especially when people are new students,” Martin said. “On your schedule, it says ‘Pool Classroom Building’ but nowhere on that building does it say pool or classroom so Evolve is sort of looking at the systems we’ve set up and at the ways that we can make fixes that will have a positive impact.”
