Innovations Library

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Active Learning Experiment Challenges Students
Velislava Karaivanova, Tammy Atchison April 2014
Volume: 17 Issue: 4
Count all 461
Active learning, as opposed to traditional lecture-style teaching, has captured the attention of more educators as it challenges students to think independently, thus producing improved learning outcomes. Learning comes from various sources, including lectures, interactive media, cooperative learning, and kinesthetic learning. Cooperative learning is a powerful tool yielding better results (Karaivanova & Atchison, 2013). However, when a peer-teaching approach is applied, in which students present lecture material before the class, the challenge becomes how to motivate students.
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Teaching Strategies, Innovations
Developmental Education: Relevant or Relic?
Pamela Lau March 2014
Volume: 17 Issue: 3
Count all 377
In recent times, community colleges have attracted unprecedented levels of public attention. The Obama administration has positioned community colleges to play a primary role in the nation's economic recovery and expansion. The president has envisioned two-year colleges as the vehicle to deliver job training programs that will impart skills to Americans enabling them to compete with workers from other nations. This vision is strategically tied to his bold pronouncement that our nation's community colleges will have five million more graduates by 2020.
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Programs and Disciplines, Innovations
Preventing Unplanned Pregnancy and Completing College: Online Lessons Support Colleges' Student Completion Agendas
Virginia Kirk February 2014
Volume: 17 Issue: 2
Count all 462
Unplanned pregnancy affects the retention, completion, and success of a large number of college students, yet it is an issue that colleges often overlook when considering their student completion agendas. Resources are now available for colleges to use for free, including three online lessons that have been shown to improve students' knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intent when it comes to preventing unplanned pregnancy.
Tags: Student Services, Teaching and Learning, Student Retention, Learning Resources, Innovations
Getting Connected: Using Social Media to Enhance Student Success, Retention, and Completion
Sarah Hannes, Scylla Lopez, Cynthia Wilson January 2014
Volume: 17 Issue: 1
Count all 389
Over the past decade, there has been a growing public fascination with the phenomenon of connectedness (Rios-Aguilar, Gonzalez Canche, Deil-Amen, & Davis, 2012). One of the most prominent ways in which society is now connected is through social media. While both students and higher education institutions are using social media more and more, educators and scholars face challenges in trying to understand the new dynamics generated by social media in community colleges.
Tags: Student Services, Teaching and Learning, Student Completion, Student Retention, Teaching Strategies, Innovations
An Alternate Pathway to Success: The Towson University Freshman Transition Program
Ann Gamble December 2013
Volume: 16 Issue: 12
Count all 455
According to Dale Campbell, "strategic alliances allow the pooling of resources for innovation and the availability to transcend geographic or political boundaries" (n.d.). The Freshman Transition Program (FTP) is an exceptional example of how partnering together to adapt to the changing landscape has enabled the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) and Towson University to "use the power of leverages to become greater forces of good" (Crutchfield & McLeod-Grant, 2012).
Tags: Student Services, Student Completion, Student Retention, Innovations
Serving Those Who Have Served: Veteran Student Success Summit
Marcia Conston November 2013
Volume: 16 Issue: 11
Count all 456
Recently, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that 21.8 million veterans live in the United States (2013). The report also noted that 92 percent of veterans age 25 and older have at least a high school diploma, while only 26 percent have at least a college degree. Military persons returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan are as likely as civilians to be unemployed. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the jobless rate for all veterans is 6.2 percent, compared with the civilian rate of 7.3 percent (2013). However, the unemployment rate for post 9/11 veterans is 7.2 percent.
Tags: Student Services, Teaching and Learning, Learning Resources, Student Completion, Student Retention, Innovations
OUR READING TOOLBOX: The Reading-Thinking Connection
Sylvia Garcia-Navarrete October 2013
Volume: 16 Issue: 10
Count all 454
Students are entering community college and four-year institutions of higher education unprepared to understand and apply much of the reading material presented to them in college-level classes. Further, they are often found to be lacking in the ability to communicate their thoughts in writing. Although students who enter college deficient in basic academic skills are encouraged to enroll in developmental reading courses, more than two thirds fail to do so.
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Learning Resources, Teaching Strategies, Innovations
Enhancing Rigor in Developmental Education
Melissa Barragan, Maria Scott Cormier September 2013
Volume: 16 Issue: 9
Count all 377
High rates of remediation, low completion rates, and increasing demands for a skilled workforce have made developmental education reform a focus of many community college improvement efforts. The Community College Research Center, through our Scaling Innovation project, studied a range of colleges implementing innovative reforms.
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Programs and Disciplines, Innovations
Redefining Transitions in North Carolina with Basic Skills Plus
Clark W. Dimond III, Randy Whitfield, Pat Phillips August 2013
Volume: 16 Issue: 8
Count all 457
    
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Learning Resources, Programs and Disciplines, Innovations
First Year Learning Communities: Creating Success by Building Relationships
David Gerkin July 2013
Volume: 16 Issue: 7
Count all 456
Learning communities, a growing movement in higher education for almost 40 years, are generally considered to be groupings of two or more courses that integrate course content, often around a unifying theme. One of the prominent features of a learning community is the building of relationships among students and between students and faculty (Smith, MacGregor, Matthews, & Gabelnick, 2004). Barefoot (2000) suggested that learning communities are especially helpful for first-year students because they enable students to engage with one another academically and socially.
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Teaching Strategies, Innovations
Effectiveness of Online Community College Success Courses
Melanie Abts June 2013
Volume: 16 Issue: 6
Count all 454
The benefits of a community college education are many: a college educated population raises incomes and lowers poverty, creates opportunities and solves problems, reduces barriers, and elevates civic engagement (Kirwan, 2007; Rodgers, 2005). Community colleges are the largest and fastest growing sector of U.S. higher education, providing a crucial gateway to four-year institutions and addressing today's workforce needs. However, fewer than half of community college students complete their programs of study.
Tags: Student Services, Enrollment Services, Student Retention, Innovations
Practitioner Packets from CCRC: Translating Community College Research into Practice
Georgia West Stacey May 2013
Volume: 16 Issue: 5
Count all 449
Over the past several years, the Community College Research Center (CCRC), housed at Teachers College, Columbia University, has conducted extensive research and generated dozens of publications on college readiness, online education, developmental education, student supports, and other issues relevant to community colleges. Of course, this research is more effective when it gets into the hands of the educators who are working every day to help students reach their goals.
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Learning Resources, Innovations
What a World: How to Bring It to Your Students
Tara Ebersole, Rachele Lawton April 2013
Volume: 16 Issue: 4
Count all 455
The Global Education program at the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) began several years ago with a small group of individuals who embraced the increasing interconnectedness and diversity of the world and wanted to transform their students into global citizens who would be able to navigate that world. This required the development of a framework that would bring the world to CCBC's students. Today, Global Education is a collegewide initiative that encompasses many promising practices in teaching and learning.  
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Teaching Strategies, Innovations
Strengthening Online Discussion Forums
Karen Powers Liebhaber March 2013
Volume: 16 Issue: 3
Count all 449
Discussion forums can be one of the best assets of the online classroom. However, many forums become a burden to both the student and instructor instead of a tool for encouragement, communication, variety, and learning.
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Teaching Strategies, Innovations
Developmental Math at the CROSSroads
John Squires February 2013
Volume: 16 Issue: 2
Count all 450
As course redesign sweeps across the nation's math classrooms and developmental math programs, it's time to take a second look at a landmark work on developmental education, Accent on Learning, by K. Patricia Cross (1976). From mastery learning to software-guided instruction and self-paced modules, the principles put forth in Accent on Learning are now being implemented at colleges throughout the nation, often with greater success than the traditional lecture system that, until recently, has been the primary mode of instruction in developmental math programs.
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Programs and Disciplines, Innovations

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