Innovations
Across the nation, colleges continue to grapple with a steep rise in the number of students seeking mental health support. Mental health challenges often manifest directly in academic performance—missed classes, difficulty concentrating, or decreased engagement—making support systems essential to learning (Center for Community College Student Engagement, 2024). Many community college learners face socioeconomic barriers, including difficulty accessing affordable behavioral health services (Lipson et al., 2021). These same challenges often intensify their mental health needs while...
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In February 2023, Monroe Community College (MCC) was invited to join a cohort of nine other two-year institutions to participate in the Aspen Institute’s Unlocking Opportunity: The Post-Graduation Success and Equity Network.[i] More than a student success initiative, Unlocking Opportunity (UO) was designed to help participating colleges usher in sweeping reforms at their respective campuses. This endeavor would subsist at the intersection of academic and student-support services and focus on boosting post-completion outcomes, making possible more streamlined transfer in higher opportunity...
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Community colleges were founded on the belief that education must respond to the needs of the communities they serve. Our institutions must be nimble, innovative, and directly connected to workforce and economic opportunities. Jackson College, serving Jackson, Hillsdale, and Lenawee counties, exemplifies this mission. By forging strong partnerships with industry, K-12 districts, state agencies, and regional leaders, the college has launched two transformational projects: the Medical Simulation Center and the Applied Technology Center. These strategic investments extend beyond campus. Jackson...
For 60 years, Dallas College has been committed to preparing learners for workforce success in the dynamic landscape of North Texas. As technology advances and industry transforms, the college is challenged to find the most effective ways to assess workforce needs and design programs that prepare students with both immediate and future-ready skills.
This work directly impacts students, local industries, and regional prosperity. Labor shortages and skills gaps are costly, and industry depends on a steady pipeline of talent that can contribute from day one while continuing to learn and grow...
From Training to Credential: Aligning TDCJ Officer Development With Postsecondary Workforce Pathways
Coastal Bend College (CBC) is a rural community college in South Texas serving nine counties and two partial counties, with the main campus in Beeville and other sites in Alice, Kingsville, and Pleasanton. CBC’s service area spans 8,633 square miles and maintains a population of over 160,000, with 20 percent of those individuals living in Bee County (Hatch et al., 2023). The region’s largest employers include Naval Air Station Kingsville, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) (City of Beeville, 2019; Data USA, 2023).
In March 2024, CBC signed...
Collaboration between community colleges and universities is not just beneficial—it is essential. These partnerships create seamless educational pathways, foster innovation in teaching and learning, and reduce persistent access obstacles. Despite their promise, meaningful collaboration between faculty and staff across these institutional types remains elusive. The barriers are rooted in structural, cultural, and interpersonal dynamics. This article explores the barriers to such collaboration and introduces the Transparency, Relevancy, Authenticity, Vulnerability, Equity (TRAVE) framework as a...
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The rapid pace of industry means education programs must produce skilled, job-ready graduates quickly and efficiently. This trend has prompted many community colleges to reconsider how they design and deliver technical education. At Kirkwood Community College, we use a mastery-based approach. Students advance by proving specific skills rather than sitting through a fixed number of class hours.
To make this possible, Kirkwood has combined asynchronous content and an open lab delivery model. These tools give students flexibility while continuing to hold high expectations for quality and...
In an October 2024 issue of Member Spotlight, the author detailed how Delta College rethought transfer efforts to better impact its students through agreements with four-year partners. As the new Dean of Transfer Programs and Online Learning, he was also charged with exploring transfer pathways to improve the college’s ability to better track students along their journey. Previously, Delta entered into a number of transfer agreements without regard for their efficacy among Delta students or whether they were needed in the first place. Delta needed to be more intentional with its transfer...
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Frey and Osborne’s (2017) “The Future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerization?” provided a critical analysis of how common jobs were vulnerable due to rapid advances in technology. The authors described the potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI), automation, robotics, and advanced sensors to transform the work landscape across multiple disciplines. Their research showed that up to 47 percent of U.S. employment was at risk of being automated within one or two decades. In addition to the technological shifts, 2030 marks the retirement peak for baby boomers (Mishel...
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Applied humanities may be the key to reversing declining enrollment trends in higher education humanities programs (Epstein, 2017; Marcus, 2025). The applied humanities situate enduring “great questions” within practical, interdisciplinary contexts, providing students with a framework to connect timeless ideas with modern challenges, promoting broad perspectives across majors, and strengthening enrollment and visibility (Atkinson, 2021). Applied humanities programs have resulted in increased humanities enrollments at some universities in the United States, with a number of institutions...
In recent years, it has become difficult to engage students outside of the classroom due to their expanding personal and professional obligations and the rise of asynchronous learning modalities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is also often challenging to compete with technological advances, which allow students to watch movies, play games, and engage in social media from the comfort of their homes. However, according to the U.S. Office of the Surgeon General (2023), “human beings are biologically wired for social connection. Our brains have adapted to expect proximity to others” (p...
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Stepping into the world of virtual reality is easy at Merced College’s Dreamscape Learn virtual reality (VR) lab. Students strap in and explore an intergalactic wildlife sanctuary, feeling the wind as their pod navigates the refuge and encountering extraterrestrial creatures. Or, they might shrink down to the size of a molecule and travel through the intricate structures of a human cell. At the VR lab, students don’t just read about science—they experience it.
Merced College is pioneering this revolutionary approach to education as one of the first California Community Colleges to implement...
Undergraduate research, while often not emphasized at community colleges, has found a champion in Johnson County Community College (JCCC). A team of JCCC students was recently named one of five winners of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) AlgaePrize challenge. The team also received the award for best video and a $10,000 prize for their research.
The Chlorella Cavaliers, a volunteer group comprised of JCCC credit students led by Professor of Biology Dr. Heather Seitz, began research in fall 2023. Seitz recruited students from her courses to research and develop a novel strain of Chlorella...
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Across the globe, there is political division, civil unrest, declining trust in public institutions, and a vanishing practice of befriending neighbors. Civic discourse is more necessary than ever for building communities, and more endangered as well. In ancient times, the marketplace was where people interacted and connected. Today, many people spend more time looking at screens than faces. So, where can community members gather, listen actively, and disagree respectfully?
What follows is a brief case study of how the author, a professor at St. Louis Community College (STLCC), successfully...
Maricopa Community Colleges launched its first formal bachelor’s degree transfer partnership with another Arizona community college in July 2025. This innovative collaboration with Northland Pioneer College (NPC) creates an accessible pathway for students statewide and represents a bold step toward expanding high-quality, affordable bachelor’s degree options for students in urban and rural communities. It also offers a replicable model for other community colleges seeking to build student-centered, workforce-aligned partnerships.
Transferring Made Easy
Through this partnership, students who...
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Student-led healthcare clinics first emerged as an innovative response to unmet healthcare needs, particularly among underserved populations, that also provide students with invaluable hands-on learning experiences (Simpson & Long, 2007). Over the past several decades, these clinics have become increasingly prevalent in university settings, where they serve as vital platforms for students to develop clinical, organizational, and leadership skills in real-world environments (Smith et al., 2014). The impact of student-led clinics is twofold: They improve access to care for vulnerable...
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At Anne Arundel Community College (AACC), digital accessibility is more than a compliance issue; it is a vital component of our mission to offer high-quality, affordable, accessible, and innovative lifelong learning opportunities. According to the World Wide Web Consortium (n.d.), digital accessibility means that “websites, tools, and technologies are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them” (para. 6). From providing accurate captions for videos, enabling navigation without a mouse, and structuring documents for screen readers and for users who benefit from clear...
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Like most community colleges across the United States, the Maricopa Community Colleges (MCCCD), a 10-college district in the Phoenix metro area, has been challenged by high attrition and low completion rates. In fact, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (2024) shared that while community colleges are starting to see slight increases in retention and completion, most continue to lose more than 45 percent of students after one year, and even more after the second year.
After decades of retention rates hovering around 50 percent and completion rates in the teens, in 2019, Maricopa...
In the dynamic landscape of media production, where skill and adaptability are paramount, Cuyahoga Community College's (Tri-C) Film Academy stands out as a beacon of innovation. Its six-week Film Crew Intensive Training is not just an educational offering; it is a strategic intervention designed to cultivate a cadre of immediately employable film technicians. Tri-C's model presents a compelling case study in how targeted industry-integrated training can directly address workforce needs and foster student success.
Building Local Crew: The Origins of Tri-C's Film Initiative
The genesis of Tri-C...
“Gig work” and “side hustle” are labels often used to describe the work done by today’s entrepreneurs. These self-employed individuals are a significant component of today’s workforce, and their number is growing. This segment of the workforce found new momentum during the pandemic, which led to 36 percent of the U.S. workforce freelancing in 2021 (Upwork, 2021). Businesses were shut down, workers were sent home, and unemployment compensation was slow coming in and sometimes insufficient. So, workers undertook the steps necessary to feed themselves and their families.
The rapid need to pivot...
