Innovations
In 1929, Edwin Link built a small, motorized cockpit mounted on pneumatic organ bellows—a device that could bank, pitch, and yaw in response to a student pilot's controls, entirely on the ground. He called it the Pilot Maker. During World War II, more than 500,000 American pilots trained on over 10,000 of Link's blue box simulators before ever leaving the ground (The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2000). The concept seemed radical: Could a machine truly prepare someone for the sky? The answer was unequivocal. Simulation became the essential first step. It was not a replacement for...
Congratulations to the 2025-2026 Innovation of the Year Award winners from 26 participating League member colleges! The League established the Innovation of the Year Awards almost 45 years ago to recognize local community college programs and initiatives that reflect the spirit of innovation and experimentation on which our organization was founded. The award provides an opportunity for colleges to showcase their innovative efforts; celebrate the dedicated educators, staff, and administrators who are responsible for this exceptional work; and promote a culture of innovation at their...
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Texas higher education is navigating a new reality. Student mental health is no longer a student services issue at the margins of institutional strategy; it is a core condition of student success, shaping persistence, completion, and the ability of learners to fully participate in the educational experience. Yet, even as community colleges and universities have increased support in recent years, many efforts across the state remain fragmented and difficult to scale in ways that are actionable, sustainable, and measurable. That is why a coalition of Texas higher education institutions and...
Anne Arundel Community College (AACC) and the University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center (BWMC) have a strong collaborative partnership dedicated to advancing the region’s healthcare workforce. Grounded in a shared commitment to education, workforce readiness, and community health, this relationship has evolved into a strategic model for building career pathways that strengthen talent pipelines and support long-term organizational growth.
BWMC provides essential clinical placements for AACC’s Registered Nursing (RN) and Practical Nursing (PN) students, giving learners direct...
As the manufacturing sector undergoes a rapid digital transformation, the gap between traditional education timelines and immediate industry needs has widened. Sinclair Community College, in partnership with the Employers’ Workforce Coalition and the Dayton Region Manufacturers Association (DRMA), has launched the Manufacturing Skills Sprint. This intensive, employer-connected model utilizes work-based learning and condensed technical training to move jobseekers into high-demand roles within weeks, rather than years. This article explores the program’s design, its reliance on community...
Writing professors routinely utilize a variety of methods to engage students, facilitate skills development, and create opportunities for achievement. Peer review has a long history in college writing courses, where evaluating one another’s work is often treated as a core competency or an explicit learning outcome. Yet, what students actually do during peer review, and how that activity contributes to their development as writers, varies widely.
Students’ learning depends on factors such as their understanding of the purpose of peer review, whether they have been taught how to conduct one,...
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Agriculture remains the backbone of California’s economy, contributing over $50 billion annually and employing millions (California Department of Food and Agriculture, 2020). But as the industry evolves through rapid technological change, the need for a highly skilled workforce has never been more urgent.
California’s Central Valley, a global agricultural powerhouse, faces persistent workforce shortages. Many farm laborers and processing plant workers lack formal training, which limits their career advancement opportunities. To address this gap, Merced College launched the Agricultural...
As community colleges seek to better serve adult learners and align credentials with workforce needs, competency-based education (CBE) has gained increasing attention. While many institutions express philosophical support, far fewer move beyond pilots to sustainable, collegewide implementation. This gap suggests that scaling CBE is less a technical challenge than a structural and organizational one, requiring aligned systems, clear design decisions, and sustained leadership attention over time.
At Jackson College, JetFlex refers to the institution’s CBE model, designed to allow students to...
Santa Fe College (SF) is currently celebrating 60 years of providing essential liberal arts education, university preparation, career and technical education, and a ticket to upward mobility for students in nearby counties. With a $425.8 million impact on the regional economy in fiscal year 2024 (Lightcast, 2025), the college is strategically poised to have even greater reach by (1) finding innovative ways to meet students from all backgrounds where they are, academically or geographically, and (2) using novel methods to accelerate their success and prepare them to satisfy Florida's high...
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Mitigating risks associated with crime scene investigation can make all the difference when carrying out justice effectively. Julian and Kelty (2015) identified key risks in the forensic process, including a low level of forensic awareness among first responders, lack of professionalism and training among crime scene examiners, inefficient or ineffective laboratory processes, limited forensic literacy and poor communication among key actors in the criminal justice system, and limited financial resources at the front end of the forensic process. The authors noted that, “Ultimately, it is these...
In response to lower academic credential completion rates among apprentices due to employer-designated training, the Business and Technology Division at Delta College launched an apprenticeship expansion initiative. Since its implementation, this effort has led to higher completion rates and increased employer engagement in the region.
Innovation and Approach
The apprenticeship expansion initiative centered on three key priorities to prepare the college for expanding registered apprenticeship opportunities in the Great Lakes Bay region.
Converting Related Instruction (RI) training into...
California community colleges face urgent demands: closing persistent equity gaps, adapting to rapid technological changes, meeting workforce needs, and serving increasingly diverse learners. Foothill College is catalyzing personal, economic, and social change in Silicon Valley by creating protected spaces where innovation, reflective practices, and equity-minded reform can flourish. These spaces, known as culture pods, are a permanent institutional strategy for advancing our core values and contributing to Foothill’s Blueprint for Success and California Community Colleges’ Vision 2030 goals...
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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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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...
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...
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...
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...
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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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...
