Building Communities of Active Learners

Southwest Regional Learning Communities Conference
February

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COMBINED SESSION:
Developmental Models
FACILITATOR: Jonelle Moore, Mesa Community College, Maricopa Community Colleges

One Step at a Time: Building a Community of Developmental Learners
The University of Toledo
Margaret Fritz

The workshop will include a brief description of rebuilding developmental education into a learning community at The University of Toledo. As a result of forming Orientation and Learning Strategy "Combo" courses for developmental and undecided students, instructors tried to find experiences within these courses that would unite the students in the course, with other students, and with other professors. The experience described in this presentation involves one such class that, after finding the library presentation less than helpful, decided to make a video. The video is now used in all the orientation courses, which makes these students recognizable. The professors also challenge their students to find a need and to create the solution. The audience will be shown the videotape and discuss problems students can solve that will help build the learning community.
    contact information:mfritz@utnet.utoledo.edu

NOTE: this session is combined with the following session

Lessons Learned from a 5-Course Developmental Learning Community
Yavapai College
Mary Verbout, Tania Sheldahl, Dave Gorman, Gennie Fuemueller, Kaye Peterson

During the Fall 2001 semester, we combined five courses to create our developmental learning community. Students were enrolled in Fundamentals of Math, Intermediate Reading Improvement, Fundamentals of Computing, Career and Life Planning, and Basic Writing Skills. We accidentally did some things correctly, and we learned lessons that we are going to apply to our next developmental block in Fall 2002.
    contact information:mary_verbout@yavapai.cc.az.us

COMBINED SESSION:
Freshman Seminars with a High Tech Touch
FACILITATOR: Jeanne Hanrahan, Arizona State University East

Learning and Research: The Disjunction Between What We Know About Learning and How We Teach
University of Texas at San Antonio
Rex H. Ball

The presentation will be a Socratic/multimedia exploration of the changing world in which we live, how mass customization in the business world applies to the field of education, and will demonstrate some uses of technology to enhance learning. It will conclude with reflections on current learning theory and how research in that area has affected one individual's Freshman Seminar.
    contact information:rball@utsa.edu

NOTE: this session is combined with the following session

Peer Facilitators and Technology: Engaging Freshmen in the Learning Process
Washington State University
Lori Baker-Eveleth, Al Jamison

A student arrives on a college campus and instead of being excited about college, the student feels confused, bewildered, and possibly even scared about finding a place and voice in the academic community. Upper-class undergraduates can attest to these feelings and experiences and are, therefore, uniquely situated to help students transition into the college environment. Creating a student-centered setting that fosters greater interaction among students and faculty and produces a sense of community helps develop a student's voice within the academy. In this session, we will present the Washington State University's Freshman Seminar, which was designed for exactly this student and other first-year students, who enter their first college classroom with 500 peers. The Freshman Seminar program uses the power of peer influence with two groups of trained undergraduates, peer facilitators and hypernauts, who co-facilitate the seminars. Peer facilitators and hypernauts are trained in the theories and practices of facilitation utilizing writing, critical thinking, the research process, and technology to enhance other students' success in college. These facilitators gain as much, if not more, from the learning experience as the seminar students do. Technology is another key ingredient to the success of the Freshman Seminar program (based on the "7 Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education" by Chickering and Gamson). Students learn how to integrate technology into their research project throughout the semester as well as dialoguing with other students in an online learning environment. Group interaction, peer assessment, and visual communication are important to the success of presenting the project in a web-based environment to the academy.
    contact information:leveleth@wsu.edu

COMBINED SESSION:
Pre-Professional and Pre-Service Cohorts
FACILITATOR: Brenda Larson, Chandler-Gilbert Community College, Maricopa Community Colleges

Pre-Professional Learning Communities: Close Ties for Academics and Advising
University of Northern Colorado
Patricia Doherty, Helena Al-Kubaisi

The University of Northern Colorado (UNC) offers several pre-professional learning communities which include ASCENT for pre-health majors and Class Act for pre-service elementary teachers. These learning communities link general education classes required for pre-professional majors, a profession-specific new-student seminar, and additional tutoring/advising to enhance student success at the university. Learning communities bring together faculty with demonstrated interest in freshman success, provide academic support, facilitate student study groups, and guarantee seating in high demand general education classes. The new-student seminar, taught by a content faculty from the linked classes, acquaints students with the demands and opportunities of the various fields. Students hear from professionals, attend workshops or panel presentations about their program of study, and develop a four-year plan of study in their chosen major. Since the same faculty member teaches the new-student seminar and one linked content class, the student-faculty connection is strong. The faculty members, who assist the students with advising, gain an awareness of advising issues and needs that the students encounter in their time at the university. The result for the students in these pre-professional learning communities is that they are well advised and confident in their educational focus. Faculty also become more knowledgeable and competent about advising issues as they relate to their students. Relationships between faculty and student often continue throughout the student's career at the university. Presenters will provide specifics on how to construct this type of learning community and identify potential obstacles to successful implementation. Time will be allowed for questions from the audience.
    contact information:pldoher@bentley.unco.edu

NOTE: this session is combined with the following session

Regional Culture and Multiculturalism: A Combined Approach for Education Majors in the Clustered Learning Classroom
University of Central Arkansas
Steven Lance

The learning community that my four-year teaching partner and I represent for this conference is the Freshman Interest Group (FIG) program at our university, designed specifically to help build student relationships, establish focused learning communities, and increase freshman retention. I teach writing in four different FIG's spanning four different colleges at our university, combining my freshman-level writing classes with speech-language pathology, geography, speech communication, andÑthe one we wish to discuss hereÑeducation. To the same group of prospective freshman education majors, my partner, Mrs. Carolyn Kelley, teaches an introductory education course, and I teach a composition course. The classes are taught back-to-back in the same classroom, and we voluntarily attend and participate in each other's classes (cooperative teaching/learning). Further pedagogical approaches jointly integrated into the classes are group brainstorming, research, and presentation; carousel learning; mapping; journaling; distribution lists; and the use of the state's public school list-serv to survey teachers in the field. Our strongest, largest, and most integrated unit deals with issues pertaining to both multiculturalism (my partner's focus) and traditional regional culture (my focus) in the teaching/learning environment (diversity issues). Through a variety of pedagogical approaches, we require the students to consider these related topics as they will impact their teaching and the lives of their future students (critical thinking). Students prepare coordinated, major projects as they consider both the specific cultural groups that they will encounter in their classrooms, and also the relationship of their regional culture(s) to more "mainstream."
    contact information:stevel@mail.uca.edu

COMBINED SESSION:
Support for Learning Communities
FACILITATOR: Maria Harper-Marinick, Maricopa Community Colleges

Strengthening the First-Year Experience through Learning Communities: The Paradise Valley Community College Experience
Paradise Valley Community College
Renee Cornell, Anne Eller, Michele Marion

This session is designed for faculty and administrators with entry-level or intermediate experience with Learning Communities (LC) and First-Year-Experiences (FYE) to explore the learning community/first-year experience relationship. The connections with students involved in learning communities have proven especially effective for first-year community college students. Paradise Valley Community College has incorporated the learning community concept into a number of coordinated first-year experiences. Strategies begin with the evolution of the colleges' LC/FYE program and specifically highlight the mechanics of establishing the program. The logistics include administrative buy-in and support, establishing a class schedule and loading the faculty to meet the tasks, identifying courses, marketing the program to the outside community, and finally, the successes and challenges for the teachers and students. The presentation will conclude with a brainstorming/implementation activity and a Q&A session.
    contact information:renee.cornell@pvmail.maricopa.edu

NOTE: this session is combined with the following session

Creating an Infrastructure of Support for Learning Communities
San Jose /Evergreen Community College District
Louis S. Albert, Marcia Corcoran, Martha Kendall, Kelley Wells

Evergreen Valley College and San Jose City College have made major commitments to developing learning communities. In just two years, these colleges have implemented nearly 20 learning communities ranging from developmental to transfer. This session will briefly describe the variety of learning community initiatives at the college, then, focus on the importance of a supportive infrastructure for those initiatives. Topics include faculty leadership and coordination, the role of the Teaching and Learning Center, and administrative support and funding.
    contact information:louis.albert@sjeccd.cc.ca.us

Building and Strengthening Learning Communities: Assessment, Learning Communities Counseling, and Faculty Development
Cerritos College
Kimberly Hubbert, Jan Connal, Brittany Firshein-Lundeen

The panel members will present the steps one can take to build and strengthen a Learning Communities program. Specifically, presenters will share methods of program assessment, student success via a Learning Communities counselor, and faculty recruitment and retention through organized, strategic, and continuous faculty training and development.
    contact information:khubbert@cerritos.edu

The WPI first-year Tutorial: A Learning Community Integrating, Calculus, Physics, and Humanities
Worcester Polytechnical Institute
John F. Zeugner, Arthur Heinricher, Joshua Holwell

The presentation will chronicle the operational obstacles (by administration and faculty) to construction of an integrated learning community in an otherwise fairly innovative science/engineering universityÑwith strategies to overcome those obstacles. Then in a second part, the presentation will illustrate the successes and drawbacks of building a curriculum around interdisciplinary group projects that utilize wireless, interactive technologies while pushing almost all learning into small group interactive modes. Finally, outside financed, independent assessment of the tutorial will be presented.
    contact information:jzeugner@wpi.edu