The committee's work began at the Ocotillo Kick-off with members identifying learning communities-related topics. From this list, a set of overarching goals for the committee was established.
After some discussion, we decided the committee's first priority was to create an interactive network of integrated courses and programs that would be available to faculty and staff throughout the district. Working with MCLI and PEP grant participants we established our Web site that will provide information not only to faculty and staff, but to students as well.
Our Web page contains general information about learning communities and we have plans for links to a directory of courses, programs, and resources. We have developed and distributed templates for the directory information that includes course names, type of learning community model, and contact person. The information is being provided by faculty and administrators involved in integrated courses and programs at the colleges.
Another Committee priority was to educate ourselves and our colleagues on various aspects of learning communities. To this end, we surveyed committee members about the topics they wanted to know more about and those areas in which they had expertise. The analysis showed that faculty wanted to know more about student and faculty portfolios as an assessment tool. The committee co-chairs indicated their expertise in these areas, and presented members with information on how to use portfolios for assessment, why they are effective, and showed some examples of completed portfolios.
In March, members of the Apollo team joined the committee's discussion. Dialogue centered on the unique needs of scheduling and monitoring students involved in learning communities, and whether the Learner-Centered Systems (LCS) of Apollo could accommodate these special requirements. The members of the Apollo team were very open to suggestions and shared some of the proposed capabilities of the new system.
At our April dialogue day about 40 faculty and administrators gathered at GateWay Community College to share their successes, gain knowledge and identify new sources of professional support. Invited guest Barbara Leigh Smith, a pioneer in the area of learning communities, provided new insights into how to making learning communities more effective, and offered some perspective on where Maricopa fits into the national picture.
In addition, throughout the year the committee spent time investigating learning community models from other institutions. There was some discussion of using a "metaphor" to symbolize the diversity of learning community models and to help educate others. Our committee worked with the PEP grant faculty to flesh out the metaphor of the cactus garden as the array of integrated learning community options available. In this metaphor, each cactus in the garden represents a variation on the theme; the cactus flowers symbolize the natural outgrowth of learning communitiesÑstudent and faculty learning.
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