Innovations
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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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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Although simulation training has long been recognized as an effective strategy for the development of fundamental technical skills, trainers, educators, and administrators often overlook a critical secondary outcome of training simulation that is hidden in plain sight—the profound leadership development that occurs when students navigate complex, high-pressure scenarios with incomplete information and time constraints.
As students practice consequential decision-making, coordinate team responses, and adapt to unpredictable circumstances in realistic environments, they unconsciously develop...
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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Study abroad is a high-impact practice that improves learning, retention, and success (Kuh, 2008). While a few community colleges in North Carolina have implemented study abroad programs, the impetus to globalize courses and provide students with international experiences is still growing. At Wake Technical Community College (Wake Tech), the leadership supports global education via a formal agreement with UNC World View to offer global components in course curriculum, provide study abroad, and offer scholars of distinction honors to students who complete 15 credit hours of approved global...
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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...
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...
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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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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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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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...
July
2025
Onboarding of faculty workgroups at Delta College is facilitated by the faculty-run Faculty Center for Teaching Excellence (FCTE). As the workgroups have varying needs, the onboarding process for each is, likewise, varied. By tailoring the onboarding process to the workgroup, Delta College strives to achieve its mission to empower, include, and welcome our diverse community.
The FCTE designs onboarding experiences with an intensive focus on belonging because we believe it is the key to retention. To this end, we endeavor to ensure that the welcome is sincere, the integration of all parties...
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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...
As part of its One College model, HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, has created a framework referred to as HawkSOAR. It consists of a collegewide cross-functional team focused on the alignment of HACC’s student success efforts. The concept stemmed from the college’s partnerships with Achieving the Dream (ATD) and the Community College Research Center (CCRC), both of which champion evidence-based institutional improvements for student success. HawkSOAR consolidates all programs into one cohesive structure to establish a strategic, data-informed culture for students and employees...
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