Innovations Library

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The Tightrope of Student Success
Carmen Ray Allen August 2016
Volume: 19 Issue: 8
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In many ways, the college student’s learning experience is much like navigating a tightrope between a sometimes tentative and fearful beginning to the end goal of success and graduation. Nowhere is the influence on student success more crucial than in the classroom, where students spend most of their educational journey. “For community college students, the classroom is the primary connecting point to everything the college offers…” (McClenney & Arnsparger, 2012, p. 48).
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Student Success, Technology Systems, Innovations
The Adjunct Faculty Academy
Lindsey Dippold July 2016
Volume: 19 Issue: 7
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This article highlights a growing program targeted to orient, train, and further develop relatively new adjunct faculty within the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD). Now approaching its third year, the Adjunct Faculty Academy continues to expand its scope as well as the depths of the collaborative relationships that have been formed each semester.
Tags: Leadership Development, Leadership Development, Mentoring, Organizational Culture, Innovations
Reimagining Distance Education: Obsessed With Becoming the Best
Craig T. Follins June 2016
Volume: 19 Issue: 6
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Alamo Colleges, an Achieve the Dream Leader College, awarded a record number of degrees and certificates (9,778) in 2015. Collectively, stakeholders within the five Alamo Colleges are doing great work to advance overall student success. However, we knew that we could do more, particularly in the area of distance education. We wanted to explore how we could become the best in the successful delivery of distance education. Thus, the chancellor charged me to collaborate with our stakeholders in exploring what it would take for us to become “best in class” in distance education.
Tags: Institutional Research, Organizational Culture, Innovations
A Sharp Focus on Dual Enrollment Professional Development
Ralph Murphy II April 2016
Volume: 19 Issue: 4
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Community colleges are being challenged to produce five million graduates by 2020, in addition to redesigning students’ educational experiences, reinventing institutional roles, and resetting the system to better promote student success (AACC, 2014; AACC, 2012). The onus is upon community college and secondary school district leaders to strategically offer dual enrollment opportunities for adolescent students.
Tags: Learning and Organization, Access, Enrollment Management, Partnerships, Innovations
Improving Student Advisement Through Collaboration
Erin Landers March 2016
Volume: 19 Issue: 3
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Community colleges throughout the United States serve students from a variety of backgrounds. Many of these students need assistance to successfully navigate the course enrollment and financial aid processes, and to complete their chosen degree or certification programs. Strong academic advisement is essential to students’ abilities to navigate course requirements, financial aid requirements, and degree expectations (Strayhorn, 2015).
Tags: Innovations
Successful Implementation of a Formal Annual Assessment Process for Enrollment and Student Services
Clint McElroy, Pat Nash, and Marcia Conston February 2016
Volume: 19 Issue: 2
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In 2004, Central Piedmont Community College’s Enrollment and Student Services (ESS) unit initiated a formal assessment program, specific to ESS, in order to foster a culture of evidence within the unit and to engage a broader range of staff in the assessment process. Prior to that point, most assessment of ESS activities had come in the form of student satisfaction surveys, which provided some indication of perceived quality but virtually no specific data on the actual quality or efficacy of specific services provided.
Tags: Innovations
College Fellows: Creating a Research Opportunity at Your College
Anne McIntosh January 2016
Volume: 19 Issue: 1
Count all 40
If you are planning for a year, sow rice;If you are planning for a decade, plant trees;If you are planning for a lifetime, educate people. - Chinese proverb A scholar-quality program where faculty receive release time to set up and conduct original research studies that benefit students and the discipline is the mission of the College Fellows program at Central Piedmont Community College.
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Classroom Research, Innovations
A Critical Need for Practical Leadership Skills
George R. Boggs 2016
Volume: 19 Issue: 5
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In its most recent reports, Reclaiming the American Dream: Community Colleges and the Nation’s Future (2012) and Empowering Community Colleges To Build the Nation’s Future: An Implementation Guide (2014), the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) has laid out an ambitious agenda for improvement that requires strong college leadership and institutional transformation. The reports are a critical analysis of the colleges and a call on college leaders to be more accountable for student success outcomes.
Tags: Leadership Development, Leadership Development, Innovations
A Dream Deferred: Minority Male Achievement in the 21st Century
Larry Johnson, Jr. December 2015
Volume: 18 Issue: 12
Count all 45
What happens to a dream deferred?Does it dry uplike a raisin in the sun?Or fester like a sore—And then run?Does it stink like rotten meat?Or crust and sugar over—like a syrupy sweet?Maybe it just sagslike a heavy load.Or does it explode?
Tags: Learning and Organization, Diversity, Innovations
Creating Student Success by Supporting Faculty Performance: The Missing Link in Current National Efforts
Adrianna Kezar and Daniel Maxey November 2015
Volume: 18 Issue: 11
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Leaders in community colleges are being challenged to graduate and transfer more students. Many national projects and initiatives are aimed at supporting this effort, including Achieving the Dream, Completion by Design, Next Generation Learning Challenges, and Global Skills for College Completion. As a result, student success and completion are among the top priorities of institutional leaders. Often, campus efforts focus on support programs, supplemental instruction, and new models of remediation, and tend largely to emphasize the roles of staff and student affairs professionals.
Tags: Learning and Organization, Learning Environments, Programs and Practices, Innovations
Massively Micro: Unbundling Education 2.0
Sasha Thackaberry October 2015
Volume: 18 Issue: 10
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The rise of massive open online courses (MOOCs), combined with a recent renewed interest in both competency-based education and the escalation of adoption of open educational resources (OER), have resulted in an environment ripe for “Unbundling 2.0,” a secondary Great Unbundling of higher education supported by technology (Wiley & Green, 2012; Daniel, 2012; Beaven, Comas-Quinn, & Lewis, 2014; Thornton, 2013).
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Technology Services, Innovations
Curriculum: The Missing Element in Reform
Terry O’Banion September 2015
Volume: 18 Issue: 9
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Data are beginning to come in on reform efforts related to the Completion Agenda, which has a goal of doubling, by the year 2020, the number of students who achieved a certificate or an associate’s degree, or who transferred to a university. According to Policy Meets Pathways (Couturier, 2014), a report by Jobs for the Future, “A decade of interventions and improvements have fallen short” (para. 1).
Tags: Leadership and Organization, Learning Environments, Innovations
Student Success and Mindset
Barbara Bouthillier August 2015
Volume: 18 Issue: 8
Count all 516
Have you heard faculty make the following comments or, perhaps, made them yourself?Sam doesn't even try. He shows up for class every day but never picks up a pen, never does any homework, and never asks any questions. What am I supposed to do?Stefanie failed the first test and then just gave up. She doesn't come to class anymore and won't respond to any emails I send. What am I supposed to do?
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Teaching Strategies, Innovations
5½ Tips for Engaging Students Outside of Class
Trey Mireles July 2015
Volume: 18 Issue: 7
Count all 459
Whether studying before coming to class or reflecting after class, learners who actively engage with content outside of class better retain the content they are studying. So what can we do to ensure our learners are engaging with the material outside of class?
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Teaching Strategies, Innovations
Student Mentoring in Community Colleges
Eugenia Paulus June 2015
Volume: 18 Issue: 6
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The U.S has occupied a premier position in the world in part because of its prominence in education and innovation. For the U.S. to remain a competitive leader, particularly in science and engineering, it must engage its students and prepare its next generation of professionals for global competition. This matter of great urgency will require the adoption of a variety of approaches to prepare future students to maintain U.S. eminence both educationally and economically.
Tags: Student Services, Student Completion, Student Retention, Innovations

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