Innovation Library
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October 2024Imagine a dedicated community college instructor who has spent countless hours preparing engaging...
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Tags: Learning ResourcesOctober 2024A recent Community College Research Center brief (Lahr, 2023) focused on attempts to implement...
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Tags: Workforce PreparationOctober 2024Noncredit workforce education has long been an important function of community colleges. These...
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Tags: AccessSeptember 2024St. Louis Community College (STLCC) began using artificial intelligence (AI) to help students,...
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Leadership and Organization
September
2024
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Graduating high school students across the nation are faced with deciding whether to continue their education or enter the workforce. Many seek higher education in order to improve career opportunities and gain economic prosperity and social mobility (Blackwell & Pinder, 2014). The College Board claims that the average annual income for individuals who have a baccalaureate degree is $53,976. The unemployment rate among these graduates is 4.7 percent, which is lower than the U.S. unemployment rate of 6.7 percent (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014). While these statistics look promising, the...
October
2024
Imagine a dedicated community college instructor who has spent countless hours preparing engaging lessons, only to receive a series of lukewarm student evaluations. Despite their best efforts, the feedback highlights issues unrelated to their teaching effectiveness, such as the difficulty of the course material or the timing of classes. This scenario underscores a critical challenge in higher education: the use and interpretation of student evaluations of teaching (SETs). While SETs are a common tool for assessing educational quality, they are not without their pitfalls. This article explores...
August
2020
Oakton Community College’s Cannabis Dispensary and Patient Care Specialist certificate program is the direct result of a single interaction between a senior Oakton administrator and an Oakton alumnus. The alumnus worked for a medical cannabis dispensary and expressed the need for educated patient care specialists who were able to interact with chronically ill patients—in other words, those with job skills that go beyond being a “weed enthusiast.”
Students and alumni can positively impact curriculum and academic programming as members of career advisory committees and by playing a role in...
October
2024
A recent Community College Research Center brief (Lahr, 2023) focused on attempts to implement large-scale student success initiatives related to guided pathways at two major community college systems. The author reported that both leaders “reflected on the progress they could have made earlier had they included more faculty in the planning and implementation process from the start” (p. 4). Although the sentiment to include faculty in collegewide student success initiatives is shared among community college administrators across the U.S. (Barnett & Cho, 2023; Brown & Kurzweil, 2015)...
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Students of color, males in particular, face significant challenges in higher education. African American male students, on average, are less successful than other racial/ethnic groups, including African American women. Compared to Asian/Pacific Islander or White/Non-Hispanic students, they are less likely to succeed in both developmental and college-level coursework and are more likely to drop out. Latino students are the least likely of all racial/ethnic groups to transfer. African American students and Latino males have the lowest persistence rates (Elgin Community College, 2010).
Students...
Tags: Workforce Preparation
Noncredit workforce education has long been an important function of community colleges. These programs typically prepare students for industry-sponsored certifications, licensures, and/or college-bestowed certificates. They have traditionally been siloed away from credit programs, and, thus, do not have to match credit hour requirements and semester schedules. Yet, in recent years, the landscape of noncredit workforce education—in terms of funding availability, program offerings, and its stature and location within colleges—has shifted dramatically (Van Noy & Hughes, 2022).
Changes to...
