Innovations Library

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SF Achieve: Driving a College-Going Culture
Quinten Eyman December 2024
Volume: 19 Issue: 12
Count all 10
In a new spin on the challenge of meeting students where they are, Santa Fe College is serving one student a time, at scale. The SF Achieve initiative offers a unique take on a Promise Program by providing not just financial help, but direct college coaching and mentoring to students in their high schools. College specialists, embedded at local schools everyday throughout the school year, meet with students regularly, get to know them, and help them understand how a college education can serve as a launching pad for their goals and dreams.
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Access, College Readiness, Inclusion, Partnerships, Innovations
A Glimpse of the Cosmos: Jackson College's Astronomical Observatory
Talia Burns November 2024
Volume: 19 Issue: 11
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When I was young, I used to look up at the night sky and dream. I lived in Atlanta, a location filled with light pollution, so it was rare that I saw more than a few weak pinpoints of light scattered around the moon. Still, I pondered. Where did the stars come from? Did everyone see the same sky? How did the moon change shape?
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Access, Learning Environments, Learning Resources, Innovations
Incorporating Quality in Noncredit Workforce Programs: Colleges’ Considerations for Program Design
Katherine Hughes and Michelle Van Noy October 2024
Volume: 19 Issue: 10
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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.
Tags: Student Services, Teaching and Learning, Workforce Preparation, Innovations
Forward Thinking: 10 Community College Courses to Meet the Future
Nicholas Vick September 2024
Volume: 19 Issue: 9
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Predicting the future may be a fool’s errand, but as technology evolves and societal changes occur, it is necessary for higher education leaders to consider the next phase of curriculum offerings. For the purposes of this article, the next phase will be viewed through the lens of new courses that institutions may offer as soon as 2030, if not before.
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Workforce Preparation, Innovations
Monroe Community College Embraces Psychological Safety to Move From VUCA to VUCA Prime
Greg Hinton August 2024
Volume: 19 Issue: 8
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Community colleges are complicated environments impacted by precarious funding models, population shifts, burgeoning enrollments of students with nonacademic barriers to success, and more. An institutional climate can easily become volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA). In 1985, Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus’s Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge, “emphasized the need for leaders to be adaptable, comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity, and capable of navigating complex environments” (VUCA-WORLD, n.d., para. 3). In 1987, the U.S.
Tags: Leadership Development, Leadership Development, Organizational Culture, Innovations
Course and Section Data Discussions Lead to Improved Student Success and Reduction in Equity Gaps
Shuang Liu and Karen Cook July 2024
Volume: 19 Issue: 7
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Literature has pinpointed metrics such as credits earned and course success as important measures to best determine academic momentum for community college students (Attewell, Heil, & Reisel, 2012; Jenkins & Bailey, 2017). In fall 2020, Anne Arundel Community College’s (AACC) average course success rate was 72 percent. However, success rates at the section level often varied widely for the same course. Equity gaps existed among student groups with different demographic characteristics and based on course and section designs, such as modality and section length.
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Equity, Institutional Research, Innovations
Award-Winning Programs at League Member Institutions Exemplify Community College Innovation
From the League June 2024
Volume: 19 Issue: 6
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Congratulations to the 2023-2024 Innovation of the Year Award winners from 28 participating League member colleges! The League initiated the Innovation of the Year Award over 35 years ago to recognize local community college programs and initiatives that reflect the spirit of innovation and experimentation on which our organization was founded.
Tags: Innovations
AWS Collaboration Enables Work to Scale
Brad Williams May 2024
Volume: 19 Issue: 5
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Dallas College, originally Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD), opened in 1965 and evolved into seven independent colleges positioned to meet the rapidly growing needs of the now second most populous county in the U.S. In 2020, DCCCD consolidated its individual colleges into a one-college system, with each campus location embracing the opportunities and challenges that manifest in a thriving metropolitan area.
Tags: Innovations
A Community of Practice: Supporting Low-Income Transfer in STEM Introduction
Emily Halvorson-Otts April 2024
Volume: 19 Issue: 4
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Student access and success are foundational to the community college mission. The learning paradigm proposed by Barr and Tagg (1995) initiated the student success movement, which paved the way for the completion agenda in the 2000s. However, only approximately 26 percent of community college students transfer to a four-year institution (Sansing-Helton et al., 2021). The situation is even bleaker when we evaluate the STEM fields.
Tags: Student Services, Access, Diversity, Mentoring, Student Completion, Innovations
Improving Faculty Simulation Proficiency
Virginia Massey-Holt, Michele Marbet, Kae Fleming, and Jo Ann Hanson March 2024
Volume: 19 Issue: 3
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Critical thinking and clinical judgement of the nursing student is essential to the preparation of a competent novice nurse. Opportunities for students to practice making high-stakes decisions independently can be limited in the live clinical setting, for obvious safety reasons. Variations among local clinical placements may further limit the ability for entire cohorts to experience equitable patient cases. In addition, multiple nursing schools are competing for a limited number of clinical sites, straining programs’ abilities to meet clinical contact hour requirements.
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Learning Environments, Programs and Practices, Teaching Strategies, Innovations
Empowering Students as Agents of Change
Todd Brown, Andres Colubri, Pardis Sabeti, and Kian Sani February 2024
Volume: 19 Issue: 2
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In a world fixated on conventional measures of success, the call to empower students as agents of change resounds with urgency. The journey begins by shifting our educational paradigm, placing intrinsic factors like competence, authenticity, and connection at the forefront. As we embark on this transformative endeavor, the following principles delve into practical steps to enhance student engagement and motivation, amplify student voices, and foster collaborative experiences.
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Learning Resources, Teaching Strategies, Innovations
Delta College’s BEDI Services Division: Conceptualization, Innovation, and a Call to Action
Pamela Ross McClain and Nathaniel B. McClain January 2024
Volume: 19 Issue: 1
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Delta College exists as a microcosm of our larger society and is, therefore, impacted by historical inequities. Many sociocultural factors prevail at Delta College which predate the current student body, faculty, staff, and administration. Nonetheless, we cannot deny that we all contribute to the current health and vitality of our learning community. Grace Lee Boggs (Harewood & Keefer, 2009) wisely asserted that “you cannot change any society unless you take responsibility for it, unless you see yourself as belonging to it and responsible for changing it” (para. 60).
Tags: Leadership and Organization, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Organizational Culture, Innovations
Beyond One-Shot Instruction: Reimagining Library Classroom Experiences
Kyle Ceci and Denise Hill December 2023
Volume: 18 Issue: 12
Count all 17
Malcom X (n.d.) once said that “education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today” (para. 2). In the age of information, research has become a key part of that passport to the future. Today, Americans exist in an information-rich world where they often feel overwhelmed. The Pew Research Center found that 35 percent of American adults are interested in improving their research abilities, but express concern about their skills to do so on their own (Horrigan, 2017).
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Access, Classroom Research, Learning Resources, Innovations
The Miles Community College Opportunity Realized Program
Richard DeShields November 2023
Volume: 18 Issue: 11
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Career development programs provide students with valuable skills required in today's job market. Technical proficiency alone is no longer sufficient; employers now prioritize strong interpersonal skills, effective communication, collaboration, and meaningful connections. In response to these demands, Miles Community College (MCC) introduced the Opportunity Realized Program in fall 2022, targeting high school students across eastern Montana.
Tags: Teaching and Learning, Access, Workforce Preparation, Innovations
The Sky’s the Limit at Kirkwood Community College
Justin Hoehn October 2023
Volume: 18 Issue: 10
Count all 13
Kirkwood Community College kicked off a new Aviation Maintenance Technology (AMT) Associate of Applied Sciences (AAS) program this fall. Since its announcement, this innovative offering has garnered a lot of excitement from students as well as community and business leaders. The start of the program, which is expected to pay big dividends not only for students and the college’s seven-county service area, but also for the regional aviation industry, was a historic moment for Kirkwood.
Tags: Economic Development, Teaching and Learning, Community Relations, Learning Environments, Workforce Preparation, Innovations

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