Cover Letter
Dear Members of the Tenure Review Committee,
This portfolio covers my fourth year at Ventura College, from November 2025 to October 2026, the same period as my Self Appraisal. The printed copy and the website at rubyeye19.com have the same content.
Much of this year's work was making things for students and colleagues to use. For CHEM V101 I revised the lab manual, recorded all twelve experiments for a video library, and built thirty-five interactive simulations that open from the course's Canvas modules. For colleagues I reorganized the chemistry department's shared Canvas course and built a Canvas course for the Distance Education Advisory Group. The two largest projects have sections of their own. The Math Readiness Initiative is a study of where students' calculations break down in introductory chemistry, and AI Integration describes what I built with AI and where it is used. The other sections cover teaching, course design, work with colleagues, and service.
The portfolio has nine sections, in this order:
- Overview: this letter, my curriculum vitae, the parameters of the fourth-year review, and a timeline of this year's meetings.
- Teaching Insights: my teaching philosophy, student evaluations, the committee's observation reports, and my Self Appraisal.
- Course Design: how my lecture and lab sections are coordinated, the redesigned lab quizzes, and the tools I tried.
- Math Readiness Initiative: the study, its method and findings, and where it stands now.
- AI Integration: the database of my teaching materials and the work connected to Canvas.
- Instructional Materials: the CHEM V101 lab manual, video libraries for CHEM V101 and CHEM V104, a lecture demonstration, the lab safety video, the interactive simulations, and sample materials.
- Collaboration: peer evaluation given and received, mentorship, and the chemistry faculty introduction board.
- Professional Activities: committee service, the ZTC initiative, the A.S. in Chemistry program, and professional development.
- Looking Ahead: what became of last year's improvement plan, and my fourth-year reflection.
The Tenure Year 4 Parameters page sets out the review criteria in the contract and lists the pages that bear on each one. The feedback from my first three years, and how I responded to it, is on the Improvement Plan and Committee Observation Feedback pages.
Thank you for your visits and comments this fall, and thank you to the colleagues who have observed my classes and written evaluations over the past four years.
Sincerely,
Howard Han
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Ventura College