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Creating Learning Communities
By Stephen Nason, Director of Residence Life, Unity College
In this article I will offer my perceptions of Learning Communities and how my institution is beginning its learning community program this year. I intend to touch on my definition of a learning community is and why it might be important for an institution to pursue creating a learning community on its campus. At the outset, I would like to make it clear that I do not consider myself an expert on learning communities, rather I see myself as someone interested in Learning Communities and I am hoping to share some of my interest with you.
This fall Unity College is offering a learning community pilot program. The program will consist of 40 incoming students selected by the college, and divided into two groups. The program will provide an alternative way for small groups of incoming students to be academically and socially successful during their first semester at Unity College. The program starts with their “NOVA” new student orientation trip. “NOVA” is a week-long wilderness program held during the summer. Each learning community will consist of a group of incoming students, three faculty mentors, and two peer mentors. The group will form itself into a team which will work on service projects and learn about the environment together.
The group will also participate together in a semester course, Life on the Pond, organized around a theme of introduction to environmental and learning community issues. The course will be filled with special learning activities emphasizing that the material being taught in the program has real-life applications. Finally this program will emphasize creating support networks and strong orientation to the Colleges resources.
The learning community will cluster the students’ classes and common themes that will run through all of the classes. The three linked courses will be College Composition, Biology I, and Perspectives on Nature. These classes will be scheduled on Tuesdays and Thursdays and students will not have any other classes on those days. This block scheduling will, we hope, allow opportunities to schedule out of class activities and provide more flexibility.
When I first heard about the learning community program I was both excited and disappointed. I was excited because I had been hearing about the success of learning community programs at other institutions and I felt that it would fit very well at Unity College. For those who don’t know Unity College’s mission, Unity College promotes “hands-on” learning and learning outside of the classroom. Fisheries classes are held in boats on the pond, forestry in the forests, etc. Learning communities extend this learning pedagogy by combining students and classes together to examine an environmental issue. Students in learning communities learn to work together as a team to overcome the challenges of their class assignments. I have always felt that the most important thing that a college student should do is form and/or get involved in a strong study/support peer group. In many ways that is exactly what this learning community program does.
I was disappointed in that there will not be a residential aspect in the learning communities’ pilot program, however the program is just starting out and coordinating all of the academic parts of a student’s total educational experience is challenging enough. I do envision that the pilot program will be successful and that the next step in Unity College’s development of the learning community will encompass residence life. After all, 80% of a student’s time is spent outside of class and we all are aware that students need support and resources while living in a residence hall. I can envision learning residential communities where all the residents in a given residential area are part of the academic learning community classes. Who knows, perhaps the resident advisor would be a teacher’s assistant for the learning community classes and some of the learning community class instructors might live in the residence with the students? I know that at other institutions this has been tried and has met with a lot of success.
I think learning communities at Unity College will become an asset to the institution. Students will become more involved and more networks will be created as students work together inside and outside the classroom on environmental problems that have real world applications. I believe that it will increase retention and increase the academic success of our students. The learning community program will help our students, especially those students who come to Unity College in need of academic skills development, to learn and apply those academic skills. The Learning Communities will also help students realize that College learning, at its best is a group learning process not an individual challenge. I am hoping to support this program as much as possible this fall and am looking forward to it blossoming and expanding to including residence life in the future.