UMKC Representative Visits CACC Digital Media Department

Digital Media Instructors Patrick Sasser, Sandy Morrow, Kristi Deneke and Jeff Cochran
 and UMKC rep Leonor Jurado Laspina

The University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) offers college credit to eligible Columbia Area Career Center (CACC) students for the work they do and the competencies they master in our four digital media classes. As part of our dual credit partnership with UMKC, Leonor Jurado Laspina, UMKC Art and Art History Department faculty member, visited us recently and spent the day with faculty and students in our Digital Media Department.

Faculty site visits assure that university courses offered at the career center through the dual credit program are equivalent to the courses offered on campus.  Ms. Jurado Laspina visited with our Digital Media faculty and viewed student work to confirm that students in our Digital Media class (UMKC ART 114 Foundation Digital Design) and our Graphic Design class (UMKC ART 121 Foundation 2D Design) are held to the same expectations and standards of achievement as those students in on-campus sections of the classes. This assurance is required by university dual credit programs that maintain national accreditation through the National Association of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships, as UMKC does.

UMKC site visits also provide ongoing faculty interaction to address course content, course delivery, assessment and student evaluation as well as research and development in the field.   According to Sandy Morrow, CACC Digital Media and Graphic Design instructor, “It was a great opportunity to discuss curriculum and share resources.”  Jeff Cochran, CACC Digital Media and Digital Video/Motion Graphics instructor, commented that “It’s always nice to validate what we are doing here at the career center.” 

The career center’s Dual Credit program continues to grow.  This year 312 high school students enrolled in 370 dual credit courses at the career center for which they will earn a total of 1,161 semester hours of college credit.