At EMCC, a learning community is defined as two or more classes from different disciplines that involve a common cohort of students (i.e., students will experience two or more disciplines through a cohort learning construct.) Learning communities are one of the Promising Practices for Community College Success as advocated by the Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE).
There are two kinds of learning communities supported at the college:
- Partially-integrated learning communities: Faculty member is only physically present in her/his own class; two or more classes (cohort students) share common students, class work and assignments.
- Fully-Integrated learning communities: Faculty members are physically present in both classes each time they meet; two or more classes (cohort students) share common students, class work and assignments.
Faculty members who are interested in developing learning communities will discuss the idea with their respective division chair(s) and dean(s). Upon development of a commonly agreed upon understanding and purpose of the learning community, the faculty developers will apply to develop a learning community under the New and Redesigned Course Masters Grant process as administered by FRACTL and the CTL, where the faculty developers will be compensated for the development. If approved, the faculty developers will work with FRACTL leadership to ensure that the learning community meets Quality Matters-aligned best practices. In addition, the Office of the Vice President of Learning will fund the additional cost of developing and training faculty for a learning community
Learning community developers will be funded for going through the New and Redesigned Course Masters Grant process as outlined above. In addition to this development compensation, learning community developers will be compensated for the additional time it requires to coordinate with their faculty colleagues above and beyond the traditional grant process. The following process outlines this compensation model:
Prior Academic/Fiscal Year to Development:
- Faculty members submit a New and Redesigned Course Masters Grant proposal
- Proposal is ranked and approved by FRACTL
- Faculty developers indicate to CTL Director their preference for compensation (stipend vs. reassign time) via the CTL’s faculty training budget
- Reassign time taken in concurrence with course development requires signing a repayment agreement
Development Year - Summer (Begins July 1st):
- Supplemental compensation for learning community development per developer will be equal to 0.5 of a load hour ($412.50 in AY 2018-19)
- Applies to either fully or partially integrated LCs
- Faculty can only be compensated one time to develop a specific learning community, even if there is change in the other faculty member.
- Compensation is through the Office of the Vice President of Learning
- Compensation for learning community training per developer will be equal to 30 hours at instructional rate of $27.50 (total $825) for instructors new to teaching the learning community course and 15 hours at instructional rate of $27.50 (total $412.5) for experienced learning community faculty to work with the new instructor.
- Applies to either fully or partially integrated LCs
- Compensation is through the Office of the Vice President of Learning
Once the learning community has been fully developed and has been approved for adoption by the FRACTL leadership committee, then the learning community can run in the following semester. In addition to the regular load hours of the course being taught, supplemental compensation for teaching the learning community is depends if it is a fully or partially integrated learning community:
Fully integrated LC's:
The load for being in the other person’s class is determined by the load of the other instructors class and determined by the following formula:
reassign time =(0.25)*Load of other instructors course.
For example:
Becky and Dwain do a LC with MAT231 (4 load taught by Becky) and PHY131 (6 load taught by Dwain).
Thus Becky’s reassign time for this LC would be:
reassign time =(0.25)*6 Load=1.5 hours
Dwain’s reassign time for this LC would be
reassign time =(0.25)*4 Load=1 hours
Thus, in this example Becky’s reassign time for the class would not change, but Dwain’s would reflect being in Becky’s shorter class. So in terms of the PHY/MAT LC’s this would not affect the MAT faculty only the PHY faculty.
Partially integrated communities:
reassign time =(0.125)*Load of other instructors course.