June, 2006

Community College Leader - June, 2006 - Full Issue PDF
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Commuter Students: Myths and Realities
Four major myths hinder colleges’ and universities’ efforts to retain commuter students, says John Garland, coordinator for the National Clearinghouse for Community Programs (NCCP). Garland, also interim coordinator for the Office of Commuter Student Involvement at the University of Maryland, College Park, spoke about these myths—and about frameworks that can help us understand the realities—during Magna Publications’ recent audio conference “Understanding and Retaining Commuter Students.”

Encouraging, Supporting Learning Communities
Learning communities, an approach to curriculum design that links two or more courses, can improve student success and retention and help students develop effective learning habits. Learning communities also can improve the instructors’ teaching by exposing them to new teaching techniques and exploring connections between disciplines they might not have considered.

Constructing the Smart Classroom at State Fair CC
Increasingly, distance education is not an either/or dichotomy between studying completely online and studying in a wholly traditional classroom. More and more, students are opting to add at least one distance delivery course to a traditional schedule, and traditional courses are using online and distance delivery technologies to enrich the student experience, creating a new product known as a hybrid course. Creating these courses takes a whole new kind of classroom, one that State Fair Community College in Sedalia, Missouri, has spent the last two years building.

Factors that Affect Department Chairs’ Performance
Department chairs need an accurate description of what the position entails, adequate release time, professional development, and orientation, according to a recent survey of experienced community college chairs.

Conducting a Successful Academic Search
Conducting an academic search is one of the most difficult tasks that university administrators must perform. A successful search can yield a new member of the university community who contributes knowledge and skill that the university needs, while being happy at the institution for perhaps decades to come. A failed search can burden the university with someone who does not contribute, who actually detracts, or who duplicates existing university strengths instead of broadening horizons – again, potentially for decades to come.