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Lucy Dodge and Martha E. Kendall

ABSTRACT
Although the term "learning communities" may be familiar to some faculty, this article describes several types of learning communities and explains the benefits to both students and faculty. Fostering workforce skills, encouraging problem-solving skills, and increasing retention and success are some of the benefits for students and faculty. In addition, faculty members gain new teaching skills and energize their teaching and learning. Teachers should follow the guidelines provided in this article to implement new learning communities and strengthen existing ones.
    Key words: learning communities, collaborative learning
    The separation of academic disciplines creates artificial boundaries between subjects that students could better understand as interrelated parts. Integrated instruction promotes the discovery of connections, a vital skill in our changing world, where learning how to learn is more important than memorizing specific data that may soon become obsolete or irrelevant. A learning community (LC) weaves together the learning, skills, and assignments of two or more classes into a unified mosaic of educational objectives by blending the instruction of logically related disciplines. The same cohort of students enrolls in all classes within the learning community.
    The Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education at Evergreen State College has led the national movement to implement learning communities. (See their extensive Web site, http://learningcommons.evergreen.edu/). The American Association of Higher Education (AAHE) is partnering with the Washington Center's National Learning Community Project to promote learning community efforts at campuses across America. According to the AAHE, more than five hundred institutions now offer learning communities. For a sampling of colleges and universities that provide extensive and varied LC programs, see appendix 1.
    Lucy Dodge has been an instructor in the computer information systems department at San Jose City College (SJCC) for more than twenty years. Ever since learning communities were first offered at SJCC in 2000, virtually all of those in which she has participated--for example, linking computer applications with chemistry, ESL composition, or developmental composition and study skills--have fostered a learning environment in which students not only acquired skills but also discovered that the subject matter is "fun and easy to study," according to student Mary Grace Torres.
    Martha Kendall, a member of the English faculty at SJCC, serves as the learning communities coordinator. She helps faculty members create and implement LCs, informs the campus about the evolving program, and represents SJCC at regional and national conferences. Participation in the twelve-college South Bay Regional Learning Communities Consortium, originally funded by a Packard grant, helped launch the program by enabling faculty members and administrators to attend many work-shops led by innovators in the LC movement, such as Barbara Leigh Smith and Jean MacGregor of the Washington Center, Vincent Tinto of Syracuse University, and Ana Torres-Bower of Cerritos College.
    SJCC is an urban community college serving more than ten thousand day and evening students. Reflecting California's changing demographics, SJCC's diverse ethnic population is 37 percent Asian, 29 percent Latino, 20 percent Caucasian, 8 percent African American, and 6 percent other. Twenty-nine percent of the students are not U.S. citizens, and English is not the primary language for 40 percent of the students. Forty-five percent of the students are low income according to the federal definition. Eighty-three percent of the students attend part time, and the same percentage have jobs. The 31-49-year-old age group makes up the highest percentage of students.
    To prepare students for success in a global multicultural society, SJCC faculty members are challenged to teach underprepared students the life skills essential for their success in the highly competitive work world of Silicon Valley. Our experience in isolated classes, computer labs, and learning communities suggests that learning communities provide the most effective structure for fostering students' success. On an anonymous LC assessment, one student wrote, "I would recommend this type of class to anyone coming to college because it helps you adjust to the college environment." As Vincent Tinto said at an LC Consortium-sponsored workshop in Los Altos, California, in fall 2001: "Our research supports the claim 'that students in learning communities not only learn more, they speak of learning better'" (pers. comm.). Dr. Louis Albert, then vice chancellor of the San Jose-Evergreen Community College District, supported our development of Learning Communities because, in his words, "[t]hey promote deep, long-lasting learning" (pers. comm.).
    At SJCC, most semesters we offer about eight LCs that encompass developmental- , ESL- , and transfer-level courses. Each LC serves approximately thirty students. For example, at the developmental level, one LC combines reading, writing, study skills, and computer applications. An LC for ESL students typically pairs writing and reading or writing with computer applications. An example of a transfer-level LC is organic chemistry linked with computer applications; students learn how to communicate the results of their chemistry research by means of PowerPoint presentations. Other examples of learning communities include the following combinations:
    * Learn Two Languages: HTML and French
    * Success in Chemistry Supported by Study Skills
    * Winning Strategies in Math and Critical Thinking
    * Multimedia for Journalism

HOW DOES A LEARNING COMMUNITY BENEFIT STUDENTS?
    As members of a learning community, students have the advantage of
    * discovering how concepts learned in one subject can be applied to projects assigned in another;
    * working together to solve class-related problems;
    * reinforcing their own skills by teaching and mentoring fellow students in various subjects;
    * learning how experts in each field coordinate classroom activities across disciplines;
    * adapting to multiple faculty members' perspectives and classroom environments;
    * making friends with students enrolled in the community;
    * arranging a convenient class schedule of closely integrated courses; and
    * increasing their chances for success in personal, academic, and professional arenas.

WORKFORCE SKILLS
    Learning communities foster and nourish a variety of skills, including motivation and self-regulation (Stefanou and Salisbury-Glennon 2001), that ultimately serve students well when they enter the workforce and seek leadership positions. These workforce skills, identified as a result of the research initiated in the 1990s by Elizabeth Dole, then secretary of labor, are known as SCANS competencies (Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills 1991). The published list of competencies describes skills that enable workers not only to perform their jobs well but also to function as responsible adults in a variety of environments.
    Goal orientation and self-regulation. Many community college students remain isolated, commuting from work to school to home, never identifying strongly with the college. In the metropolitan San Jose area, a half dozen community colleges are within easy driving distance, and many students dabble at several schools at different times. Their educational experience lacks cohesion. However, once enrolled in a learning community, students form friendships and become part of a group. Walking from class to class together, working on projects that overlap course boundaries, and establishing an identity as part of a synergistic whole, students feel supported and validated. When one student wavers, peers pull him or her along. As SJCC student Kaitlyn Nguyen said of her LC, "Everyone worked together, and we learned from each other." "We got so much support," agreed Alfonso Rosas. Some authors claim that this collaboration and team-building contribute to greater retention (Byrne 2002). The retention rate of students in learning communities at North Seattle Community College is 97 percent, in contrast with the college's overall retention rate of 70 percent. (See the Web site at http://www.northseattle.edu/options/is/ for more information about North Seattle's integrated studies program.) Learning communities engender a sense of belonging to a campus community, providing a structure that promotes student retention (Decker 2003).
    A coping style characterized by solving rather than avoiding problems. Because LCs include at least two classes, and sometimes more, students are given the gift of time together. A student strong in one area, such as computer skills, has time to observe a peer's weakness and offer help; the favor may be returned when the computer-savvy student struggles with a chemistry experiment. Strangers rarely help each other, but friends in an LC create a "we-can-do-it" attitude.
    Collaboration and team-building. Nurtured by this organizational environment, students from friendships with fellow students who share similar interests and whose respect they have earned. Peter Saunders and Kenneth Werner of Western Michigan University (2002) identify collaborative learning as one of the most effective learning environments, second in importance to problem solving. Studies indicate that students who enroll in learning communities tend to become more involved in both academic and social activities (Tinto 1997). One student in SJCC's LC linking chemistry with computer applications wrote on an anonymous survey, "If I needed help, I could always ask my classmates. Students knew each other well. We worked together as a whole class."
    Communication abilities in both speaking and writing. An LC that links a content course and a skills course can help students develop skills necessary for explaining the content they learn. For example, scientists must be able to do more than research; they must be articulate in presenting their findings. In SJCC's LC combining chemistry and PowerPoint, students develop both their science and communication skills. They use PowerPoint slides to organize and explain information so that their peers can understand the results of their research projects. From this process, students learn that they need to be clear in conveying both the facts and the significance of their findings. Peers offer both criticism and support--excellent practice for the professional world, in which they must critique others' work and also respond appropriately during public critiques of their own work. Thanks to the LC, students earn units not only for improving their mastery of their major but also for their growing ability to inform others about their research. At SJCC, many students majoring in the sciences face language and cultural barriers. The LC provides a framework in which students learn the vital skills of organizing and presenting their research in a format that many employers expect professionals to use effectively.
    Time management skills. Within an LC, students are called on to use their time efficiently. Having enrolled in linked classes, they need to coordinate the activities of each class. They must complete their assignments using varied resources, such as a computer lab, writer's workshop, library, interview with an expert, group projects, and so on. Writing about assigned readings reinforces the material, and it models the way successful professionals use multiple skills efficiently throughout the day. As Miguel Lopez, an SJCC student, said, "By taking reading and writing together in one learning community, we learned more rapidly."
    Management of information technology. Although "information management" subsumes many different levels of expertise, ranging from simply formatting a disk to managing an entire database application, in the SJCC LC consisting of ESL intermediate composition and computer applications (Getting Started with Word), we defined "information management" as beginning-level tasks such as opening, closing, and copying a file from the hard drive to a floppy disk; writing and printing a Word document; and saving a page from a Web site. When initially faced with the daunting responsibility of having to become computer literate in English, many students simply stared at the computer screen or repeatedly begged the instructors to complete the tasks for them. By the end of the semester, however, most students were able to complete a majority of the required tasks after reading the instructions by themselves. How is this different from a stand-alone computer applications class? We believe that the significantly greater extent of the interaction among LC students is the key. Instead of dropping the class in frustration, students help each other. Just as effective employees turn to colleagues to help them succeed in their jobs, successful students seek peer advice. LCs encourage this cooperation.
    Interpersonal skills. Anecdotal evidence gathered from SJCC LC students' assessments underscores the cohesive social bonds that develop when students spend time together not only in a single classroom but also in casual conversation and focused study groups outside of class. One student wrote, "Being in this learning community is like having a second family, because we are all so close." Another commented, "We became really good friends." A third said, "Everyone knows everyone. That is something that doesn't happen in a regular college class." Certainly, student friendships can blossom in stand-alone classes, but our experience in LCs suggests that the LC model encourages this community-building to a much greater extent. The diverse demographics of our student population, like that of Silicon Valley, makes successful intercultural communication vital. In the LCs at City College of New York (http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/), students are "assessed on their capacity to work collaboratively in groups; to provide group leadership; and to communicate and use influence effectively when working in cooperative teams established to achieve complex organizational goals." These criteria mirror the skills that are important for students' success not only in academia and the professional world but also in society at large.

IMPROVED STUDENT RETENTION AND SUCCESS
    Table 1 shows a selection of the fall 2001 classes involved in learning communities, comparable nonlearning community courses, and baseline courses. Within each LC (designated as 1, 2, and 3), the table shows the number of students enrolled, the number of students succeeding, and the percentage of students succeeding in each section, class, and learning community.
    "Baseline courses" constituting at least ten years of census data include a range of courses taught at the same times and, if possible, by the same teachers as the learning communities and comparison courses. In the majority of cases, these baseline courses were offered before learning communities became part of the curriculum and, thus, serve as a benchmark against which to compare the results of innovative programs such as learning communities.
    As is also the case for the learning communities and the comparison courses, the percentage of students who passed is derived by dividing the number of students enrolled by the number of students who passed the indicated courses with credit or a grade of C or better (for example, 2858/1375 = 48 percent). The number of students enrolled includes those who completed the course with a passing grade or received a W (withdraw), I (incomplete), NC (no credit), D, or F. At the end of the semester, a higher percentage of the students enrolled in learning communities successfully passed their classes than did students in the baseline group. A chi-square test of the frequencies of success among the baseline classes versus the learning community classes was significant at the .01 level (chi-square = 25.30, df = 7).
    However, other issues besides statistical significance merit consideration when evaluating the effectiveness of learning communities. Leslie Takei, an ESL instructor at SJCC, says that her LC "provides a very supportive environment for students who would normally drop out of stand-alone classes, and it encourages persistence into next-level classes because students have created a strong community of learners that can support them as they continue." Developmental reading instructor Lois Janowski and her LC colleague, composition instructor Michelle Blair, have noted that the majority of their LC students regularly choose to continue with the same cohort from one semester to the next, moving ahead together. In the context of the highly mobile student population at SJCC, such persistence, especially for developmental students, is remarkable.

FACULTY BENEFITS
    The most impressive benefits in learning and student achievement occur when instructors coordinate efforts to produce a combined syllabus reflecting the unified goals of the learning community (Stefanou and Salisbury-Glennon 2001). The success of a learning community positively correlates with having instructors work closely together to blend course objectives so that the resulting creation emerges as more than merely the sum of its parts.
    What is required of faculty members? Some may collaborate daily, attend each other's classes, grade assignments whose objectives go beyond those of a single discipline, and participate in field trips and projects initiated by one instructor but integrated into another's discipline as well. At the other end of the spectrum, some instructors may only occasionally meet with their colleagues to compare notes on students' progress.
    The Washington Center Web site describes a range of formats for learning communities, from the least integrated model, in which one group of students enrolls in two different classes that are minimally integrated, to a residential community, in which students live in designated housing together and enroll in a full-time curriculum together. In many LCs, course boundaries are virtually eliminated, with unifying themes providing the central focus and units awarded only for the LC as a complete package.
    Regardless of the format, faculty collaboration nearly always stimulates growth. Participating in an LC overcomes the traditional isolation that many instructors feel. At SJCC, instructors in an LC invariably try new approaches to teaching as a result of their collaboration with one or more faculty partners. Teachers observe others' successful strategies and add them to their own repertoire of classroom techniques. In Lucy Dodge's LC with chemistry and the Internet, she incorporates the scientific principles of inquiry into the methodology that students use to evaluate the validity of Web sites they explore. Correspondingly, she showed her chemistry colleague Madeline Adamczeski how to send large files in a compressed format to students.
    At Evergreen Valley College in San Jose, California, LC partners Debbie DeLaRosa (developmental reading) and Kelley Wells (philosophy) attend each other's LC classes. Dr. Wells has made fundamental changes in his teaching style as a result of working with a reading specialist. He now rarely lectures; instead, both teachers sit in during students' small group discussions.
    As reported by members of the South Bay Regional Learning Communities Consortium, which consists of a dozen community colleges in our area that use this paradigm, faculty compensation for the extra time needed to collaborate ranges from 0 to 10 percent overload pay. At a recent consortium meeting, however, the overwhelming sentiment of faculty members was that the stimulation of teaching within an LC is enough to keep them going, even when the budget crunch may reduce extra funding. Jim Harnish, of North Seattle Community College, said at a workshop held at SJCC in April 2002, "I was having a mid-career crisis, burned out on teaching the same courses over and over and thinking about getting out of teaching. Then I joined an LC. The experience has completely reinvigorated my teaching and learning and I am still excited about teaching now, eighteen years later" (pers. comm.).

CONCLUSIONS
    Given the rise in nontraditional instructional methods designed to serve a diverse educational and cultural college student population, LCs provide an ideal platform for combining varied approaches to learning (Jamilah 2002). Because LCs cluster classes around skills that are useful in various subjects, students are more likely to perceive the relationships or connections among academic disciplines than if they take separate, non-linked classes.
    Learning communities move the focus of classroom learning from content-centered and teacher-centered to student-centered and learning-centered education (MacGregor 2002), reinforcing current pedagogical trends. As Matt Volkman, an LC student at SJCC, exclaimed, "I never expected to learn as much as I have." In learning communities, both the students and the faculty members are delighted to learn more than they expected.
ADDED MATERIAL
    Lucy Dodge is a professor of computer information systems at San Jose City College, where Martha E. Kendall, an executive editor of College Teaching, is the chair of the English department and the coordinator of learning communities.

NOTE
    Quotations from San Jose City College students were gathered from written evaluations of LCs during 2001-02. For more information about residential learning communities, subscribe to the Residential Learning Community listserv by sending an e-mail to listproc@listproc.bgsu.edu.
    TABLE 1. Detailed Course Success Rates

     Fall 2001      # sects       # stdnts       avg    # suc       %   suc

                     Learning communities

1   Engl-335-102      1               26          19        14        54

    Engl-322-102      1               27          19        20        74

2   Engl-092-104      1               24          18         7        29

    Engl-102-104      1               25          15        15        60

3   ESL-322-103       1               27          27        15        56

    CA-302-102        1               28          28        22        79

    CA-303-102        1               28          28        19        68

    CA-306-102        1               28          28        16        57

  Overall             8              213          27       128        60

                     Comparison courses

1   Engl-335          2               57          29        25        44

    Engl-322          2               55          28        39        71

2   Engl-092          8              176          22        77        44

    Engl-102          4               95          24        59        62

3   ESL-322           2               69          35        46        67

    CA-302            1               29          29        17        59

    CA-303            1               25          25        12        48

    CA-306            1               21          21         8        38

  Overall            21              527          25       283        54

     1998-2000                    # stdnts              # suc       %   suc

                     Baseline courses

1   Engl-335                         451                   221        49

    Engl-322                         407                   115        28

2   Engl-092                       1,136                   533        47

    Engl-102                         406                   242        60

3   ESL-322                          377                   212        56

    CA-302                            38                    25        66

    CA-303                            28                    20        71

    CA-306                            15                     7        47

  Overall                          2,858                 1,375        48

REFERENCES
    American Association of Higher Education. Initiatives--Learning communities partnership. http://aahe.org/initiatives/learningcommunities.htm.
    Byrne, C. 2002. Simple approaches to assessing collaborative learning environments. In Assessment in and of collaborative learning: A handbook of strategies. Ed. Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education's Evaluation Committee. http://www.evergreen.edu/washcenter/resources/acl/iie.html.
    Decker, E. 2003. Approaching diversity through learning communities. Occasional paper, Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education.
    Jamilah, E. 2002. Nontraditional students dominate undergraduate enrollments, U.S. study finds. Chronicle of Higher Education, June 4, 4.
    Kangas, J., K. Budros, and J. Yoshioka. 2001. San Jose Evergreen Community College Office of Research and Planning. SJECCD population data report from Lapkoff Gobalet Demographic Research. RR #3139.
    Kangas, J., K. Budros, and J. Yoshioka. 2001. San Jose City College learning communities and comparison courses. RR #3143. San Jose Evergreen Community College Office of Research and Planning.
    Kangas, J., and P. Falcone. 2002. SJCC F00-F01 LC success rates over time with baseline. San Jose Evergreen Community College District Office of Research and Planning.
    MacGregor, J. 2002. Learning community models. http://learningcommons.evergreen.edu.
    Saunders, P., and K. Werner. 2002. Finding the right blend for effective learning. Learning Technology 4:8-10.
    Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills. 1991. What work requires of schools: A SCANS report for America 2000. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor.
    Stefanou, C. R., and J. D. Salisbury-Glennon. 2001. Developing motivation and cognitive learning strategies through an undergraduate learning community. Learning Environments Research 5 (1): 77-97.
    Tinto, V. 1997. Classrooms as communities: Exploring the educational character of student persistence. Journal of Higher Education 68 (6): 599-623.

APPENDIX 1. EXAMPLES, IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER, OF COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES OFFERING EXTENSIVE AND VARIED LC PROGRAMS (THIS LIST IS BY NO MEANS EXHAUSTIVE)

Four-year institutions                           Two-year institutions

California State University, Hayward          Camden County College

California State University, Los Angeles      Cerritos College

Evergreen State College                       Chandler-Gilbert College

Portland State University                     Community College of Baltimore County

Southwest Texas State University              DeAnza College

Temple University                             Grossmont College

Tennessee State University                    Holyoke Community College

University of Texas, El Paso                  LaGuardia Community College

                                              North Seattle Community College

                                              San Jose City College

                                              Sandhills Community College

                                              Santa Fe Community College

                                              Shoreline Community College

                                              Spokane Falls Community College

APPENDIX 2. GUIDELINES FOR CREATING AND PROMOTING A LEARNING COMMUNITY
    Instructors at SJCC use these guidelines to decide whether two courses are likely to be linked effectively. (SJCC offers LCs consisting of more than two courses, but most new LCs are launched with just two.)
    * Are the courses logically paired so that the content and skills overlap?
    * Will the concurrent enrollment in both courses improve students' abilities to synthesize ideas?
    * Are students more likely to succeed if they study both subjects simultaneously?
    * Do the teaching styles complement each other such that both instructors can work together to coordinate classroom activities throughout the semester?
    * Are the courses popular enough to attract students who wish to enroll in both courses, or are the courses assured of enrollment because they are required transfer or degree courses?
    Because administrative support is crucial to ensure the success of the courses, instructors also follow these steps to obtain approval before offering the courses:
    * They obtain the approval of the division deans who evaluate how to fit the courses into the overall departmental curriculum offerings; and
    * They obtain the approval of the learning community coordinator, who is able to evaluate how the specific learning community fits within the larger program of learning communities that are offered on the campus.
    After the courses have been approved, the instructors work together to create a unified curriculum and develop classroom materials that highlight the objectives of the learning community. Scheduling and promotional activities include:
    * deciding the best times to offer the learning community given the student population and their requirements, such as employment and other required courses;
    * distributing copies of the integrated learning community syllabus to the division deans and the learning community coordinator the semester before the LC is offered;
    * advertising the learning community throughout the college by visiting feeder classes; posting notices in the schedule of classes; and alerting counselors, registrars, librarians, and staff members about the new LC;
    * scheduling time to complete surveys designed to assess faculty and student reactions to the learning community; and
    * enlisting the participation of academic advisors, counselors, the admissions and records office, deans, and the catalog and scheduling staff members. Because students may not be familiar with the term "learning community," outreach programs, visible promotion plans, and student recruitment are crucial to maintaining an LC program, especially at commuter campuses with high student turnover.