Innovations
March
2014
In May 2013, over 70 students in the first class of Early College High School at Midland College (ECHS@MC) received associate degrees during Midland College's (MC) 40th commencement ceremony. A week later, in a separate ceremony, the 17- and 18-year-old college graduates received high school diplomas when ECHS@MC observed its first high school graduation ceremony at the Al G. Langford Chaparral Center on the MC campus located in Midland, Texas.
ECHS@MC is a joint educational commitment by Midland College and the Midland Independent School District (MISD). The majority of students attending...
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March
2014
The energy and passion is palatable to anyone who tours Sacramento Hacker Lab, a place where entrepreneurs, hobbyists, students, artists, retirees, and corporate employees mix, inspire, and produce in incubator offices and hands-on fabricating space. Models, custom parts, video game characters, and aquaponics system components are being made on a professional level 3D printer thanks to the Sierra College Center for Applied Competitive Technology (CACT), based in Rocklin, CA.
The Sierra Community College District covers Placer, Nevada, and parts of Sacramento County, and stretches from...
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March
2014
In 2009, the Northwest College of Houston Community College (HCC) proposed the development of a Center for Entrepreneurship in response to local business leaders who requested assistance in reviving an economically declining area of town. The leaders sought ways to create jobs and revitalize the local business community. Seven key strategies were developed to address this challenge:
The creation of strategic partnerships with key economic drivers: management districts, chambers, Community Development Financial Institutions, Greater Houston Partnership, Houston Minority Supplier Development...
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February
2014
As colleges strive to improve student success and completion, helping students delay pregnancy and parenting (or having additional children) means one less factor that can interfere with their college education. However, pregnancy planning and prevention is not something most community colleges have addressed. Free resources are now available for colleges, including three short and easy-to-use online lessons that have been shown to improve students' knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intent when it comes to preventing unplanned pregnancy.
Unplanned Pregnancy and College Completion
Unplanned...
2014
This document in the final report of the League for Innovation's Community Colleges and Public Health Project, published in fall 2014. It provides background on the role of community colleges in education for public health and provides two broad curricular models for community college certificate and degree programs, including "Public Health Generalist and Specializations" and "Health Navigators." The project was initiatied in partnership with the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) Framing the Future task force.
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2014
Beginning in fall 2011, as part of a three-year Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant-funded intervention, nine urban, small town, and rural U.S. community colleges were selected to adopt a Facebook-based application, known as Schools App, for limited use by invited students, staff, faculty, and administrators.
This report on the Getting Connected Project provides an overview of this research, which was the first longitudinal research study to use real-time data generated by the users of Schools App to examine how commuter-based community colleges attempt to use social media technology...
December
2013
I don't blow a whistle, wear a jersey, or give pep talks in a locker room, but I am a coach--an instructional coach. The players are the teachers at a community college, the field is the classroom, and I help a team to practice teaching methods that engage students and improve academic success. Instructional coaches are on-site professional developers who work collaboratively with teachers, empowering them to incorporate research-based instructional methods into their classrooms (Knight, 2007). Interest in coaching has grown dramatically in the last ten years with school districts and states...
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December
2013
Lone Star College System (LSCS) is joining colleges across Texas to encourage students to successfully complete their educational goals through participation in the Commit to Complete initiative. This initiative was created as part of Texas Completes, which brings together three community colleges and five community college systems—Alamo Colleges, Austin Community College, Dallas County Community College District, El Paso Community College, Kilgore College, Lone Star College System, Odessa College, and South Texas College—with a common vision to rethink college practices, transform community...
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December
2013
The Great Ideas for Teaching (GIFT) Center and the Teaching & eLearning Support (TeLS) team at Yavapai College recently ran a very unique professional development challenge that included Ben and Jerry's ice cream and generated over 300 pages of writing from faculty in just nine weeks!
In a nutshell, the two centers challenged the college faculty to write 25 sentences a week about teaching and learning for nine consecutive weeks. Out of about 300 possible full time and adjunct faculty, 17 rose to the challenge.
The faculty who signed up were asked to write the words online, where they...
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November
2013
The Centre of Excellence for Clean Energy Technology (Energy House) at the Dawson Creek Campus of Northern Lights College (NLC) in northeastern British Columbia has achieved LEED® Platinum certification by the Canada Green Building Council.
With the certification, Energy House becomes one of only a few dozen LEED Platinum buildings in the New Construction and Major Renovation category in Canada.
NLC Regional Facilities Manager, Murray Armstrong, andPresident and CEO, Laurie Rancourt, with LEED Platinum plaque.
According to the certification review report completed in June by the Canada Green...
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November
2013
The curtain rose in July on another Front Range Family Theatre production, and this year's production of Jackie and the Beanstalk at Front Range Community College (FRCC) brought total attendance to these summertime productions to nearly 20,000 children and adults since 2004.
Student Giovanni Martelli (Jackie) sells the family cow in a productionof Jackie and the Beanstalk.
Family theater is just one example of outreach activities central to the strategic priorities of FRCC, the largest community college in Colorado with campuses in Fort Collins, Longmont, and Westminster, and a learning...
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October
2013
Today's community college students need to know what research resources are available through their college's library, to learn how to efficiently access the information they need, and to be able to critically evaluate information. The term for this set of skills is information literacy.
Instructors who return to academia or work as adjunct professors have a learning curve to understand how information is now accessed. Full-time faculty with constant demands on their time to keep up with the developments in their field, perform community service, and be available to a larger number of...
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October
2013
Delta College, located in Central Michigan, is renovating its Health Professions Building with financial support from the State of Michigan and generous donors. The $20 million renovation will support new instructional methodologies and technologies by updating the facility that was built in the late 1970s. In keeping with its commitment to sustainability, Delta College is seeking LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for the building.
"We are confident we'll achieve LEED silver certification of the renovation, but we're still striving for the higher gold...
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October
2013
The William and Helen Thomas Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Center at Indian River State College (IRSC) creates a unique synergy between the Florida college and life science institutes to support research and high-skill jobs. Located in the region's growing biotechnology corridor in Port St. Lucie, the $19.5 million Thomas Center serves as a multi-faceted resource for scientific research, economic development, collaborative projects, and student internships. Students gain laboratory experience in the latest procedures using cutting-edge technology, preparing them for...
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September
2013
There is no shortage of data illustrating the proliferation of mobile devices and mobile activity in the general population. This diffusion of devices, applications, and activity extends to the teaching and learning community, right down to the classroom level (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Student Ownership of Technology Devices
Yet, mobile technologies, and even more so, mobile pedagogies are still considered very much an emerging area in higher education. It is critical that some sort of measurement strategy accompany our experimental and pilot programs. But measuring the ability of mobile...
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August
2013
When I first started working in a college testing center in 1999, one of the first things I had to do was to become College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) certified. I had no idea what that meant exactly, but it was something that needed to be done so I did it. Little did I realize at the time how much interest I would eventually have in CLEP exams and the overall impact on student success.
Today, over 1,700 college testing centers administer CLEP exams, and the exams are accepted at roughly 2,900 colleges and universities (The College Board, 2012). According to the College Board,...
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