Learning and Organization

March 2024
In 2022, Humber College launched the Bhutan Education and Skills Training (BEST) project, a five-year, $4.8 million (CND) initiative funded through the Government of Canada to support the reformation of the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system in Bhutan’s technical training institutions. The project unites Humber College, Bhutan’s Ministry of Education and Skills Development, 10 national TVET institutions across Bhutan, the private sector, and local civil society organizations. The project is focused on building institutional capacity to support students who are often...
February 2024
At Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), we are leaders in applied education; we centre technology in our teaching and programming to equip our graduates with skills to be the problem-solvers of tomorrow. In fall 2023, SAIT welcomed Dr. Bill Rankin as Expert in Residence to facilitate the development of innovative teaching and learning approaches through the integration of new and emerging technologies. Through his Teaching Innovators Programme, Rankin will work with SAIT instructors to push the limits of technology integration in their own pedagogy. “What is really powerful about...
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December 2023
Each year in spring, almost all community college associations and organizations hold their annual conferences. From February through May, these conferences attract thousands of community college administrators, faculty, sponsors, and assorted representatives from various organizations interested in the community college. The conferences are always an exciting time, where old friends meet, new friends are made, and creative ideas are shared in hundreds of sessions and forums. As President and CEO of the League for Innovation in the Community College (League) for 23 years, and having worked in...
June 2023
Imagine a place where individuals of all ages and their families can come for the ultimate hands-on career exploration experience. At Austin Community College’s (ACC) Make It Center (MIC), the possibilities are boundless. This innovative new hub will revolutionize the way we perceive career pathways by introducing visitors to a multitude of options they may have never considered before. Through dynamic partnerships and collaborative efforts, the MIC will inform, inspire, and captivate students and community members alike, empowering them to uncover meaningful careers that align with their...
May 2023
It is no secret that opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to participate in research and innovation are more prominent in university settings than in community colleges in the United States (Arnaud, 2019; Wladis & Mesa, n.d.; Wladis & Mesa, 2019). On a recent study abroad visit to three community colleges, or technical schools as they are called in Denmark, the author discovered that there had been focused research and innovation departments in these institutions for many years. She realized then that the U.S. had some catching up to do. Inspiration A few years ago, a team...
April 2023
Authors’ Note: This article is largely excerpted from the authors’ full study report, The Philosophy and Practice of General Education in Community Colleges in the United States, which was presented as a paper at the 2022 International Symposium on General Education and published in the associated Journal of General Education and Multi-Culture (2022), both sponsored by Shih Hsin University, Taiwan. Excerpts of the full study also appeared in the League for Innovation in the Community College’s Learning Abstracts, 24(12), “Understanding general education in the community college: A national...
March 2023
Much like online learning, the concept of course sharing is not new; for decades, college students have taken classes at nearby schools that offer seats for visiting learners. In fact, online course sharing originated in community colleges in the late 1990s (Walker, 2021). Today, given the recent transformations within higher education, alongside great strides in technology, the modes through which course sharing can occur now span across individual institutions, consortia, and online platforms and networks. Thousands of colleges and universities across the U.S. use course sharing frameworks...
May 2022
In response to a pandemic that has disrupted lives and derailed plans for so many in its service district, Indian River State College (IRSC) has made its most significant investment ever in eliminating barriers to higher education. The college introduced the IRSC Promise in March at a special assembly for Fort Pierce Central High School seniors. Funded by the IRSC Foundation, the Promise is a tuition-paid program for qualifying 2022 high school graduates from public and public charter schools in Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee, and St. Lucie counties who seek to earn associate degrees at...
March 2022
In August of 2020, Rio Salado College became a founding partner of the College Innovation Network (CIN), which was designed to connect leaders from colleges and universities with EdTech innovators to advance students’ academic, career, and life outcomes (Flores, 2020). In August 2021, CIN, an initiative spearheaded by WGU Labs, published the results of a multi-institution survey aimed at understanding students’ learning experiences with education technology (EdTech) during the 2020-2021 academic year.  The New Digital Divide: How EdTech Self-Efficacy is Shaping the Online Student Learning...
March 2022
For over 100 years, the community college has been evolving as one of the most effective institutions of higher education in addressing the social and economic needs of the nation. During the 1950s and 1960s, there was general agreement that the community college was a comprehensive college designed to serve the multiple needs of a diverse student body through a variety of programs, including developmental, transfer, vocational, general, and community education. In the past few decades, that purpose has been changing as the developmental, general, and community education programs have been...
December 2020
In March 2020, as the world became drastically different due to the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions found themselves pivoting to remote operations, quarantine, and technology-enabled strategies for working and learning. At SAIT, a polytechnic in Western Canada, actions to ensure the techno-resiliency of instructors were taken through innovative use of a community of practice (CoP) model and a digital learning exchange, which have proven to be effective in empowering postsecondary educators to master this difficult transition. We have learned that CoPs can also be used to advance...
November 2020
The College Innovation Network (CIN) announced on August 4, 2020, the names of higher education organizations which will serve as founding partners in its pilot year, including Rio Salado College. CIN was launched in the spring by WGU Labs, Inc., with support from the Charles Koch Foundation, and is designed to connect leaders from colleges and universities with educational technology (EdTech) innovators to advance students’ academic, career, and life outcomes. “This CIN pilot will provide resources for us to continue and expand upon our long-standing heritage of developing innovative...
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April 2020
Digital badges, or micro-credentials, are portable, verifiable, data rich, digital representations of attained knowledge and skills that provide evidence of specific, tangible skills: cognitive, soft, and technical. Digital badges align training with the needs of the workforce, and provide Madison College the opportunity to award meaningful and recognized credentials that go beyond the traditional boundaries of our degrees. They also empower individuals to take their learning achievements with them, wherever they go, allowing the earner to own their knowledge. Madison College has been issuing...
December 2019
Like most community colleges across the U.S., Kirkwood Community College embodies the widely celebrated educational ideal that it’s never too late to get a college education. This ideal is on display every day at 10 campuses spread out over the college’s seven-county service area in eastern Iowa. In fact, the age range for enrolled, degree-seeking students at the college is from 16 to 74 years old, and that range grows even wider when dual enrollment numbers are considered. When Kirkwood first opened its doors in 1966, the educational delivery format was the same for every student, no matter...
August 2019
Those at Moraine Valley Community College (MVCC) in Palos Hills, Illinois, believe that the measure of student success is best determined by the students themselves. With that in mind, the college’s Completion Commitment Committee implemented several initiatives, including a Retention Academy, to help students reach their goals. Student success can be completion of a degree, but it can also be completing a class or achieving a passing grade. “Of course, when we talk about completion, we want students to earn a degree, but that’s not the only way they are successful,” said Dr. Margaret Lehner...
April 2019
Over the past few years, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) has prioritized the implementation of an institutional youth engagement strategy. Reliably producing skilled, work-ready graduates in demand by industry is SAIT’s core contribution to the provincial economy (SAIT, 2019). The youth engagement strategy’s overarching vision is as follows: Southern Alberta Institute of Technology is a leader in creating the future workforce by delivering life-changing experiences for youth. To achieve this mandate, the institute recognizes and embraces its unique support role in overcoming a...
March 2019
In literature, King Arthur is well-known as the originator of the round table. This table was a place for leaders to meet and discuss important topics. It created a space where each leader could easily see and hear the others and add to the conversation; at a round table, everyone was equal. Mentoring roundtables serve the same purpose, with a focus on mentors’ experiences mentoring new online faculty. At Wake Technical Community College, a key component of the college’s quality enhancement plan—eLearning Preparedness Initiative across the College (EPIC)—is mentoring for new online faculty....
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June 2018
Students and community members were invited to the Aims Community College Fort Lupton campus to celebrate National Agriculture Day and participate in the Future Farmers of America (FFA) career development event in March 2018. Guests who attended the National Ag Day event saw baby chicks hatch; rode on the Precision Agriculture Mobile Educational Technology Unit (a John Deere gator equipped with auto-steer and GPS technologies); learned about dairy farming from June the Cow, an animatronic full-sized fiberglass Holstein that was provided by the Western Dairy Association; and interacted with...
August 2017
Since the launch of the American Graduation Initiative in 2009, the call to increase college graduation rates and to create a better educated workforce for the jobs of the future has become nearly universal. According to Former President Obama, speaking at the University of Texas on August 9, 2010, “in a single generation, [the U.S. has] fallen from first place to 12th place in college graduation rates for young adults" (as cited in de Nies, 2010, para. 3). He advocated for America to “once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world” by 2020 (as cited in Fry, 2017,...

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