Steps for Initiating a Learning Community

Phase Three: Continuing Development

After a linked course program has been implemented and evaluated, faculty members will want to use their experience to more fully develop the integration potential of their learning community. They may want to change instructional strategies within the current linked format or they may want to be more ambitious in moving toward a seamless course.

The more integrated a learning community becomes, the more important is the need for a framework. A framework can be used to describe the structure for the community and to monitor the progression of the course. It will take different forms because of the different focus and design of each community. Examples of various blank frameworks can be found in the appendix.

When a linked course model is used, or when you begin any block community, a simple table format, in which the courses are kept fairly separate, is useful (see examples of our tables for STARS and Clout). As courses become more closely linked, and major assignments coordinated around a common theme, a Venn diagram may become useful as a way of depicting areas of planned overlap and reinforcement as well as identifying the areas to be kept separate (see example of CLOUT).

As the learning communities becomes more seamless, other creative frameworks can be developed, depending on the nature of the relationships among the integrated courses. Seamless integration requires that the learning objectives and underlying concepts of several courses be loosened from the disciplinary frameworks that usually order them. The resulting collection of ideas and objectives can be unwieldy until they are synthesized within new frameworks that are complex and abstract enough to encompass them all. Without such "roadmaps" to guide them, the instructors (and students) quickly lose their way as the semester progresses; they become overwhelmed and confused. It is harder to evaluate how the course is going--harder to know if you are on schedule. Without a "super" framework to bind the LC courses together, the instructors may revert to more familiar ways of ordering their courses. This will weaken the integration of the community, and the courses may pull apart from each other. A strong framework, on the other hand, can hold the courses together and become the basis for producing a single syllabus for a seamless course.

As the development process continues, it may also be important to expand the integration by involving other faculty members or other courses. Because the entire dynamics of the learning community will be affected, the cycle of curriculum development must be reentered whenever changes of staff or content are contemplated. It will be important to begin again to determine feasibility, pre-plan courses, implement, and ensure ongoing discovery of integration. Frameworks must also be revised or reinvented to capture the realities of the learning communities which are created.

For example, the Venn diagram used to depict our Clout program as it was originally taught had to be revised to depict Clout taught by other instructors. When another English instructor focused less on interpreting and deconstructing essays, and a reading instructor focused more on lecture and library research, the framework for the course changed as well. Because this was anticipated, instructors met prior to the beginning of the semester to pre-plan and attended all classes throughout the semester to identify points of integration. While time consuming, this process of continuing development ensures a dynamic and flexible LC which maintains relevance.

The appendix contains blank frameworks that you may wish to use in developing your own LC. Each blank is coupled with an example of the way we used the framework at GWCC.