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Building Communities of Active Learners
Southwest Regional Learning Communities Conference
February
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Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi
Glenn Blalock, Pamela Meyer, Anthony Quiroz
Since 1994, when we first began admitting lower division students, all first-year students at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi have been enrolled in a unique First-year Interdisciplinary Learning Communities Program. In that first-year, all of the nearly 400 first-year students were enrolled in one of three interdisciplinary learning communities, comprising FY Seminars, English composition courses, and two large lecture courses. This year, 2001, nearly all of our 1200+ FY students are enrolled in eight different learning communities, which have evolved from linking only 4 courses to linking 3, 4, or 5 courses (and associated labs). The FY Seminar and the FY Writing Course are at the center of the LCs, providing the intellectual space and support for students to engage individually and cooperatively in critical thinking and writing-to-learn activities to enrich their understandings of the lecture courses. The writing courses are taught in computer classrooms, and they emphasize ongoing inquiry and research in both semesters. They share with the FY Seminar the explicit goal of developing information literacy. All faculty in the Learning Communities collaborate on assignments and activities meant to integrate writing in all courses, emphasizing both the value of writing to learn and of learning to write in different academic and social settings. And faculty in all the courses integrate technology and continue to explore ways to use newer technological tools to enhance the LCs. In other words, our program represents a complex integration of various goals, objectives, and tools. This complexity is both a strength and a challenge. In this presentation, we will address the following questions: 1) How have we maintained (and how will we maintain) the central principles of the program during substantial growth (from 400 FY students in 1994 to as many as 2000 by 2010)? 2) How have we promoted and enabled integration/connections within LCs, and how can we do this more effectively? 3) What assessment have we done, what continued/further assessments can we do, and how can we use these data? 4) As our first-year students bring more diverse academic backgrounds, what other ways can we implement the LC principles, and what will be the role of technology?
contact information:glenn.blalock@mail.tamucc.edu
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