Learning Centers in the 21st Century: A Modern Guide for Learning Assistance Professionals in Higher Education

This vital collection of essays is designed to guide learning assistance professionals supporting student success initiatives in higher education.
Learning centers at institutions of higher education serve as interactive, academic spaces designed to reinforce and extend student learning in physical and/or virtual environments. These environments offer a wide variety of comprehensive support services and programs to enhance student academic success, retention, and completion rates by applying best practices, student-learning theories, and addressing student-learning needs from multiple pedagogical perspectives. Staffed by professionals, paraprofessionals, faculty, and/or trained student educators, learning centers reinforce the holistic academic growth of students by fostering critical thinking, metacognitive development, and academic personal success. This dynamic collection of scholarly articles, written by professionals in the field of learning assistance, addresses issues of interest to a broad range of academic professionals.

Michael Frizell, MFA, Director of Student Learning Services at Missouri State University, is Editor of The Learning Assistance Review, the peer-reviewed journal of the National College Learning Center Association where he also serves as president. He holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Arkansas at Monticello. His poetry, short stories, and creative nonfiction appear in literary journals and in comic books for Tidal Wave Entertainment, where he writes biographies of the famous and infamous. He also serves as the associate editor for Skye Press, an imprint of Oghma Creative Media serializing his graphic novel, Bender, which originally appeared in Saddlebag Dispatches magazine. A hardcover volume collecting the entire series about the infamous serial killer family from Southeast Kansas is expected this fall.

David Reedy, PhD, is retired having worked over 30 years in education from K-12 and in higher education, most recently administering learning assistance programming. Currently teaching for Northcentral University and working with PhD candidates how to design, conduct, and report their dissertation research, Reedy extensively uses APA daily, and helps others to clearly say what they mean so that the reader is able to follow the meaning on the first read. Reedy has served for over 15 years on the NCLCA Executive board in many capacities, including Treasurer and President, and is currently developing webinar offerings that virtually deliver professional development activities.

Laura Sanders is the College of Engineering Assistant Dean for Student Success and the Hesse Learning Resource Center Director at Valparaiso University. She has been a learning center professional in STEM-related academic support for over 20 years and has served on the NCLCA Executive Board for 8 years. Laura is now a past president serving the organization on the Council for Advancement of Academic Standards in Higher Education (CAS) Board of Directors and as a reviewer for the Learning Centers of Excellence program.