On this page, you will find the PowerPoint slides and resources from some of the workshops presented during our 19th annual ACLC Retreat, held from October 16-18, 2019 in West Hartford, CT.
Click on the titles of the workshops to download the PowerPoint slides.
KEYNOTE: Publicly Engaged Scholarship for Sanity Sake: Beware the Shrinking Imagination (Dr. Timothy K. Eatman, inaugural dean of the Honors Living Learning Community and Associate Professor in the Department of Urban Education at Rutgers University-Newark)
Pivoting on the retreat theme, Innovation through Integration: Using Collaboration to Recharge, Renew, and Remain Sane, Dr. Eatman will engage and encourage participants to consider the multidimensional power of publicly engaged scholarship as a tool for institutional transformation. He argues that while in many ways academe is imperiled by an unrelenting and pervasive dynamic that tends toward complacency and resign, we are only ever as far from progress as we allow ourselves to succumb to shrinking imagination. The work of imagining requires a strategic awareness of challenges and the intentional use of creative approaches to overcome them. Higher education is an important sector for amelioration in this regard.
Learning Communities 101: Developing and Implementing Learning Communities (Brad Hollingshead, Florida Southern College, and Terry Novak, Johnson & Wales University)
Designed for faculty and administrators new to learning communities, this workshop offers participants an overview of best practices in learning communities, including key elements necessary to the success of a learning community. This is an opportunity to begin or continue creating specific learning community ideas for the participant’s home institution. Participants will come away with an understanding of strategies for successfully launching learning communities, as well as resources to support them in their work.
Developing and Integrated and Place-Based ESL-Sociology Learning Community (Jeff Ellenbird and Aurora Bautista, Bunker Hill Community College)
An ESL and Sociology professor share their collaborative process in developing a common theme, content and assessments for a linked course where students use sociological concepts to analyze gentrification and the sustainability of their neighborhood. Participants will take away models and strategies for developing a similar class for their own teaching context.
Ethos, Logos, & Pathos: The Relevance of Rhetorical Appeals Across the Disciplines (Karen Shea and Gail McCarthy, Johnson & Wales University)
This session focuses on the successful collaboration between an English professor and a Graphic Design professor, and more specifically on the ways in which ethos, logos, and pathos operate across course boundaries. First, professors will share assignments, assessments, and student work related to their collaboration. Participants will then consider ways to effectively pair courses across the curriculum with required English courses.
Click Here to view the poster associated with this session.
Growth of a Learning Community: Creating and Changing Connections (Paula Risolo, Kingsborough Community College)
This presentation will focus on a 2-link learning community of English Composition and Student Development. The link has been running since 2013 and has experienced many changes. The changes, both in the college and student population, has allowed this LC to grow and create new ways of connecting. The presenter will give examples of how this link integrates material and connections using technology and providing tips on how to adjust to the ever changing educational environment.
Mind the Gap: Bridging Siloed Learning Communities Through Supplementary Interdisciplinary Interactions (Susan Banks, Chris Brandon, and Melanie Law, Florida Southern College)
Biology and Psychology faculty present a brief overview of linked courses and Freshman Interest Group learning community models currently in use at their college. They offer practical solutions for providing interdisciplinary experiences to larger numbers of students enrolled in single-discipline learning communities by way of developing extracurricular interactions across departments. Group discussion of best practices will follow.
Connecting with Students Outside the Classroom: Designing and Implementing Group Peer Mentoring (George J. Hill, Kingsborough Community College)
In this workshop we will discuss the process of creating group mentoring sessions outside the class to help support students. In these sessions, learning community students are encouraged to take part in a group discussion on a topic such as time management, financial planning, or peer pressure. We will discuss ways to use these sessions to connect with lessons inside the learning community, as well as to connect students with vital support services.
Revitalize Learning, Cross Boundaries, and Foster Collaboration with Tools of Improvisation (Gwen Lowenheim, Pace University)
Teams that improvise together, work better together. Think of a theater ensemble or a sports team. This practical/philosophical workshop will offer tools for building high functioning teams and vibrant learning environments within and among college and university communities and showcase examples from around the world. Improvisation is a great pedagogical tool for creating emergent conversations in which diverse staffs and students can consider each other’s points of view, challenge assumptions and foster curiosity. It promotes environments for harnessing each other’s creative capacities, developing as leaders, promoting agility when dealing with uncertainty and change…and having fun!
The Triple Bottom Line: The Competitive Advantage of Learning Communities (Silviana Falcon, Florida Southern College)
The triple bottom line (TBL) is a framework followed by trendsetting companies committed to social and environmental concerns as well as profits. The TBL suggests three: people, planet, and profit. Higher Education is no different and must create value for the customer. The basis of this presentation is to showcase learning communities as the infrastructure providing foundational support to a new Higher Education TBL: human growth, impact, and academic excellence.
POSTER: The Cascading Effect of Mentoring (Silviana Falcon, Florida Southern College)
Interdisciplinary Indexing: Narrating Interdisciplinary Connections in the LC Classroom (Elizabeth Trobaugh and Steven Winters, Holyoke Community College)
The interdisciplinary index is an integrative template that students can use to make connections between disciplines. We will present indexing examples from two different LCs along with a variety of student samples using Barber’s (2012) model of integrative learning. We conclude with a review of the functions of interdisciplinary indexing. Participants will collaborate and create an interdisciplinary index of their own using an indexing heuristic.
HIP, HIP, Hooray! Infusing More High Impact Practices into Learning Communities (Stacie Miller and Cheryl Scott, Community College of Baltimore County)
Learning communities are a high impact practice (HIP) that provide an ideal platform to infuse additional HIPs. At this workshop, faculty from the Community College of Baltimore County will share activities and student work from HIPs in their learning communities, including global education, service learning, and academic development for new students. Participants will be invited to share any HIPs they have used and to develop a plan for applying more HIPs in the future.
The Atlantic Center for Learning Communities 