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Developing Faculty While Developing Learning
Communities
Richard C. BurkeMari K. Normyle
Lynchburg CollegeLynchburg, VA
Lynchburg College Is a small liberal arts
college (with some professional majors) in central Virginia
2,000 full-time undergraduates
175 full-time faculty 35 majors, 43 minors
And we are
Rich Burke Professor of English
Mari Normyle Assistant Dean,
Academic and Career Services
Co-directors of the Learning Communities Program at
Lynchburg College
Learning Communities at Lynchburg College
Two (or three) linked courses, sharing all students
Freshman courses General education courses Offered in fall Include co-curricular
activities
And a Program All our learning communities—
more importantly, all faculty teaching in them—are part of the Learning Communities Program an organized, on-going, collaborative
effort
Budget
$15,000 p.a. $500 professional development
stipends co-curricular activities workshops and meetings conferences
Co-directors’ pay 0
Goal-directed
Have all entering freshmen in a learning community by fall 2007
Three-part presentation
Launching Sustaining Results
1. Launching: The Origins
Fall 2003: need to improve student learning and engagement in order to help improve retention
Why Learning Communities?
Established as being effective at increasing student learning, engagement, and satisfaction a means to help students “make sense”
of general education courses Augment students’ sense of belonging Experience with linked courses Co-directors’ familiarity and interest Consultant’s recommendation Anticipation of faculty interest Low(ish) cost
Challenge
Developing faculty interest program simply won’t work without
serious commitment from faculty to be effective, will require a
significant portion of the faculty (50-60, ultimately)
Response: Instructional Development Workshops
Meet a perceived need among faculty
Well-established interest on campus in instructional development
Worthwhile even for faculty without interest in learning communities
First Workshop: August 2004
2 days, five hours each day 35 faculty participants
from many departments/broad range of experiences and disciplines
Lunch included (food is a must) Most of the presentations done by co-
directors Intentionally structured and highly
interactive
Workshop Content Current best practices for engaging students Updates on student development theory Characteristics of Millennials Characteristics of Lynchburg College
students “Who are our students?”
Learning Communities: underlying principles different types benefits
Introducing Faculty to LCs
Broad introduction to types, purposes, and effectiveness of LCs
Copies of relevant articles and resources Observations by participants who
taught earlier linked courses “Designing a learning community in one
hour” activity from the Evergreen State Univ.
Winding Up With
Invitation to propose a learning community
Timetable for coming weeks and coming year
Connections among faculty members that might not have existed before
Credibility for co-directors Lots of enthusiasm
Comments from Faculty Participants
“Opportunities to share with colleagues was helpful.”
“Enthusiasm of speakers contributed to learning.” “I had fairly negative and low expectations . . . but
feel that I learned some important and novel (for me) approaches to my teaching.”
“I found incorporating actual information re: how LC students compare nationally . . . will help me teach them better.”
“I gained some knowledge of how to improve communication to students of exactly what I expect, especially with regard to writing assignments.”
Subsequent Instructional Development Workshops
August 2005 16-18 participants
August 2006 70+ participants
Topics included best practices in teaching articulating expectations for freshmen low-stakes writing assignments continuing focus on learning communities
Challenge
Recruiting faculty to teach in the Learning Communities Program participation demands time, energy,
thought, change, compromise, and close cooperation with another instructor
scheduling needs require early commitment by faculty and their departments
Response to Recruitment Challenge
Enthusiasm generated by workshop helped enormously
Plenty of email contacts and encouragement
Match-making offers Clear, specific, and shared
procedures for proposing a LC and for selecting ones to be offered
Having two directors helps as well: more accessible for
questions; different personalities . . .
Challenge
Preparing faculty for learning communities understand nature and goals of program carefully think through how they’re going to
link their courses get comfortable with idea of such close
collaboration Planning is crucial to the success of an LC
Response to Preparation Challenge
Meet, communicate, communicate, meet
Communicate Did we say “communicate?”
Response to Preparation Challenge
Further workshops (January, May), dealing with collaborative teaching and course design team building; partnership building
Guidance and group discussions to help faculty determine how to connect courses, readings, writing assignments, etc.
Discussion of marketing LCs (web, letters) Discussion of co-curricular activities and
their integration into courses
In the second and third years, we’ve been able
to use participants’ experiences and
insights
JanuaryReflection and Adjustments
Workshop
May Preparation
and PlanningWorkshop
AugustInstructional
Development Workshops
Fall SemesterLC proposals submitted
and reviewed
Spring
Sem
este
r
Lear
ning
com
mun
ity
deve
lopm
ent
Summ
er
LC Prom
otion
Reg
istration
The Year’s Cycle of Work
Challenge
Creating student interest value of student buy-in; the learning
community was their choice some costs to students (can’t drop
just one course) be able to show administration that
LCs can appeal to new students
Response in Order to Create Student Interest
Pitch LC titles to 18-year-olds: “You Have The Right To Remain
Silent….” Or Do You?: Politics and Liberty in Western Culture
An Indecent Proposal: Would You Like Fries With That?
Blood, Sex and Power: Global Issues and Latin America
Know the Audience and Speak to It
Write LC descriptions that also appeal to the target audience: “Are you filled with curiosity to know
how Latin American History and Global Politics are full of stories of blood and gore, and explosive issues of sexual politics and power play?”
Publicize LC titles and
descriptions available online
Information in course preference materials
Comments at Admitted Student Open House
Letters to students before Orientation
Information to freshman advisors, in order to reduce confusion and error
Challenge
Managing administrative logistics ensure same enrolment in both
courses no surprise changes in section
staffing get students into requested LCs
Responses to Logistical Challenges
Lots of little details to see to Communicate!
communicate with school deans—and be sure that instructors do as well
Keep everyone working to schedule, to minimize disruptions
Work closely with registrar Oversee placing of freshmen in requested
LCs Directors should simplify logistics for faculty
2. Sustaining: How to Keep Things Going
The greater the initial enthusiasm, the greater the decline as reality sets in
Requires continual work and frequent revision
Requires recruiting additional faculty (returns us to initial challenge)
Challenge
Maintaining a strong, continuing program that meets its goals and evolves as needed dealing with faculty frustrations (and failures?) responding to the unexpected getting things done and done on time; not
losing track of what needs to be accomplished and when
coping with instructors’ competing priorities
Response:Providing Support for
Faculty
Importance of a carefully structured and implemented program
Meetings and workshops for continuing faculty, with attention to program goals and objectives (meeting
and refining) cross-disciplinary cooperation pedagogy assessment co-curricular activities
Central Questions
What’s working in your LC? What problems are you facing? What can be done to deal with the
problems?
Challenge
Continuing to generate faculty interest in order to expand the program to meet goal of including every freshman
in an LC, we need to increase faculty participation
familiarity (no longer new) inertia curricular obstacles loss of some original faculty
Response:Keeping Focus on
Recruiting
New instructional development programs specific and practical advice administrative support
Publicizing successes Revising as needed Using current faculty to raise interest
3. Results: How Well Did We Do?
Assessment for program and course improvement
Assessment to support budget requests
How We Assess
Several elements of the assessment emerge organically, from processes that are part of the program’s activities
Assessment not imposed from without
Assessment Tools
Course evaluations Learning Community evaluations Instructional development workshop
evaluations Retention data Qualitative assessment by faculty Faculty surveys Faculty involvement in professional
activities
General Benefits
Increases cross-disciplinary cooperation among faculty
Breaks down some disciplinary boundaries for students without a full revision of gen ed
Helps students see connections between two or more disciplines
Creates sense of belonging among students
Effect on Retention
Fall 2005 Learning Communities students in lower 60% of class
benefited by increased retention and grades
students in all of our learning communities (including Honors) retained at 5% greater than non-LCs
their stronger retention continues into 4th semester
Freshmen Returning from Fall Semester
Fall 2006 Learning Communities Fall-Spring results
Class (553) 92.6% LCs (171) 91.2% Non-LCs (352) 92.7%
????????????????????????????????! OY!
But this is in the context of the HIGHEST fall-spring retention rate in over 13 years….
Impact on Students
I benefited from being in this LC: 72%I believe being in this LC helped me learn more: 67%I felt more strongly connected to the students in my LC:
86%I was more comfortable working with my professors:
66%The co-curricular activities helped me better understand
what I was learning in the classroom: 64%As a result of being in this LC, I have a greater
understanding of the connections between the content area of these courses: 71%
I would recommend this learning community to other first year students: 67%
And more from students…..
In my learning community, I was more likely to _________than in my other courses:
ask questions in class: 62% participate in class discussions: 70% talk about course materials outside of
class: 58% Seek assistance from professors: 61% Work collaboratively with my classmates:
64%
Faculty Reflections
“What I’ve noticed about [the learning community] cohort is that they are more answerable to one another. It’s the good peer pressure. . . . I think if the linked courses hold high expectations for students . . . treat them as intellectuals who can make difficult connections between disciplines . . . then they become that.”
Impact on Faculty as Teacher
“I became a better teacher working with Jim. He was always challenging me to think about what I was doing and why—how I could do it differently. He was the older faculty member sharing his experience with a new one.”
Impact on Faculty as Learner
“I profited from the experience for at least three reasons: a) I ventured into an area…and an approach…that have long been of interest to me; b) I learned a considerable amount about economics from my colleague…; c) I had the pleasure of meeting regularly with Dr. Turek on matters relating to our ‘project,’ which yielded countless fruitful ideas and good conversations on wide-ranging subjects.”
Programmatic Revisions
More explicit integration of course materials
Better balance of students by ability
Addition of specific teaching applications in instructional development workshops
Additional Directions
Sophomore-level learning communities
Residential interest-based LCs Course + Activity LCs
Summarizing the Key Points
Capture faculty interest with instructional development programs that address their specific teaching concerns
Provide a structure of support that will facilitate both the development and implementation of learning communities
Take a long view of the process and results
