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WEST HILLS COLLEGE
BRIDGE
LEARNING COMMUNITY INFO FOR INSTRUCTORS

What is a Learning Community?

"Learning Communities are restructuring efforts that thematically link or cluster courses during a given term and enroll a cohort of students. Learning Communities provide both students and faculty an opportunity for increased intellectual interaction and shared inquiry."
* Washington Center News, Spring 1995

At West Hills College, we are developing the Bridge Program in order to enroll and retain Hispanic and low income students with a program that is both academically and socially supportive, and inclusive- useful to both Hispanic and non-Hispanic students. Our foremost goals have been to increase retention without sacrificing content or academic standards, to increase student skills for self expression, in particular writing, and to increase the rate of student degree completion. Bridge Program sponsored instructors and staff are active at Coalinga, Lemoore and NDC.

We are creating unified matrices of instructional and support services which are called Learning Communities. These Learning Communities are groupings of two to five courses with shared instructional goals and components. The classes are distinguished by their shared content, greater student interaction and also by the high degree of collaboration between the instructors. The Learning Community concept can be viewed as the collegial manifestation of the learner-centered instructional paradigm.

The Bridge Program has offered other activities to support, and enhance the Learning Communities effort. We have offered Supplemental Instruction and working groups within the Learning Community classes called Focused Interest Groups that focus on supporting the instruction of targeted classes with additional materials. We have also sponsored the development of "micro-classes" to teach topics such as basic research and work citation skills. Bridge Lab components that emphasize group tutoring strategies have been offered at all three College sites .

Why Do We Need Learning Communities?
   * To help students better engage the material
   * To give Faculty need a chance to interact with each other intellectually
* To help students get more involved with the campus
   * To encourage students to form study and support groups
   * To help students see connections between disciplines
   * To help students see the relevance of fundamental skills to all disciplines
   * To give Students the opportunity to see intellectual investigation being modeled

Elements of a Successful Learning Community
   * A central theme or question around which the Learning Community is focused
   * High, but clearly stated expectations of students, but also a willingness to shift the program emphasis if needed
   * Faculty who work effectively together
   * An emphasis on student involvement: active learning, frequent writing, and work in collective groups
    * Faculty who solicit frequent student feedback on the substance and processes of the learning community classes
   * Faculty who enjoy working together to discuss ideas, texts, and assignments

Bridge Program
West Hills College

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