Learning communities have been demonstrated to dramatically improve student outcomes by engaging students in their learning.This book constitutes a comprehensive guide for readers who want a broad strategic view of learning communities, enabling them to identify which type of LC best meets the learning needs of their students, and the context and mission of their institution. It also provides the tools for planning, designing and implementing what the authors define as “powerful” LCs, and for understanding the assessment implications of their decisions.The potential power of LCs is realized through effective facilitation, appropriate team-building activities, linkages, planning, and active collaboration that promotes learning of the group and the individual group members – all of which topics are covered in this volume.This book is organized around the three themes of setting the stage, designing an LC, and building or enhancing a powerful LC, and covers three types of learning communities – student, professional (faculty, staff), and institutional LCs concerned with student learning – providing a range of tools and forms to facilitate planning. The authors also address designing and maintaining hybrid and virtual LCs. This book is intended as a practical resource for anyone at any level in higher education who wants to champion, develop or redesign student or professional LCs, or even explore broader initiatives to develop their institution into a “learning organization”. Administrators in academic and student affairs will find guidance for setting appropriate policies and allocating resources. The book may also serve as a textbook for graduate courses in institutional leadership and policy studies, curriculum and instruction, student affairs, or assessment/evaluation.
Oscar T. Lenning is retired from academics and is now Director of Lenning Consulting Services. After 15 years of research, writing and consulting at ACT and NCHEMS―and 20 years as academic VP and dean at colleges in New York, Iowa and Oklahoma―he spent eight years leading development of innovative new programs at three different collegiate institutions. Author of 130+ professional publications, his chapter on “Assessment and Evaluation” in1981 and 1989 in Delworth and Hanson’s Student Services: A Handbook for the Profession became the standard for the student affairs profession in that area during the 1980s and much of the ‘90s. Denise M. Hill is Assistant Professor at Des Moines University teaching health law and ethics. She is also an adjunct faculty member at Drake University Law School and an of counsel attorney at the Whitfield and Eddy law firm in Des Moines. She is active in promoting cross-curricular and institutional learning opportunities and founded the first MHA student chapter in the nation of the American Health Lawyers Association. A trained mediator and frequent public speaker, previously she practiced law at two large law firms, was Manager of Public & Regulatory Affairs for the Iowa Medical Society and served as a labor relations attorney for the Iowa Department of Personnel. Kevin P. Saunders is Director of Academic Assessment at Drake University. Previously he served as the coordinator of continuous academic program improvement, chaired the learning communities assessment subcommittee, and taught research and evaluation courses at Iowa State University. He is a former resource faculty member for the Evergreen State College Learning Community Summer Institute and is a current Teagle Assessment Scholar. Andria Stokes is the director of the Center for Transformational Learning and Assistant Professor of Education at Avila University in Kansas City, MO. Her specialty is cognitive education; her focus has been on inquiry and const
