Overview

Serving primarily freshman students, UC’s learning communities program has grown each year at a phenomenal rate. It was begun in the mid to late 1990s with pilot programs in two colleges. In 2000 it was adopted as a university-wide program in hopes that the program would foster increased student retention and lead, eventually, to increased graduation rates. Since its adoption as a university-wide initiative, the program has been designed as a year-long experience co-enrolling students into a set of two or more classes each quarter (students remain with the same cohort fall through spring).

In January 2002 a full-time Director reporting through the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost for Baccalaureate and Graduate Education was hired. That year (2001-2002) the program enrolled 450 students into 30 learning communities. This year (2005-06) the program enrolled over 1,700 students into over 100 learning communities during the fall quarter; this figure represents approximately one-third of the entering freshman class. For the past three years, the students enrolled in learning communities have been retained from first-to-second years of college at significantly increased rates. The students enrolled in the program for three quarters have been retained at dramatically higher rates, consistently at 89-90%, far above our institutional rate of 72-73%.

We have conducted more in-depth assessments that indicate that learning communities’ students do outperform, at statistically significant rates, their non-learning communities’ peers with similar entering characteristics (e.g., HS GPA, ACT scores) in terms of higher GPA and number of credit hours completed. While it is clear that participating in the learning communities program has encouraged UC students to persist in their enrollment beyond the freshman year, what is not clear is how it has enhanced student learning beyond earning higher grades or what relationship any enhanced learning may play in helping students to make sense of their undergraduate experience in any integrative or holistic way.

Team Plans for Summer Institute

1. Focus on the role played by the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences to promote integrative learning through the learning communities course structure. McMicken College enrolls into its major programs the largest portion of freshmen each year—over 1,000—and also teaches the majority of introductory courses taken by students majoring in programs housed in other baccalaureate colleges. Thus, McMicken College of Arts and Sciences teaches a sizeable portion of courses taken by all students admitted to undergraduate colleges housed on the uptown campus.

2. Focus on how to promote integrative learning despite embedding learning communities’ students—sometimes even more than one learning community—into large enrollment classes. This will likely be done through a one credit hour seminar attached to each learning community. However, there may be other creative ways in which to approach this task; developing innovative, meaningful, and easy ways for faculty to approach integrative learning will be part of what the team will accomplish.

3. Focus on how to use the other first-year experience curricular elements—common readings, for example—as an integrative learning tool.

4. Develop a faculty development program for learning communities’ instructors wanting to focus more explicitly on integrative learning.

5. Develop supporting materials and resources for faculty teaching learning communities’ courses.

Issues for Discussion

• Integrative Learning—How can the learning communities structure be used to foster integrative learning? What are some strategies for promoting integrative learning? What are possible integrative learning tools?
• Faculty Engagement—What are some strategies for encouraging faculty to focus more explicitly on integrative learning among first year students and to participate more actively in the Learning Communities program at an institution that does not emphasize teaching in their RPT requirements?
• Peer Instructors—What are possible models for using undergraduates as peer instructors? What type of training and support is required for students who serve in this capacity?
• Assessment—What are possible assessment rubrics that can examine the extent to which students demonstrate the connections that we want them to make (ie connecting skills and knowledge from multiple sources and experiences, applying theory to practice in various settings, utilizing diverse and even contradictory points of view, and understanding issues and positions contextually)?