The video essay is an opportunity for students to record their words and combine other visual elements to complete the typical requirements of a standard written paper. Applicable across disciplines and pedagogically aligned with an honors ethos of self-directed learning, video essays allow for individual and collaborative forms of expression…

ePortfolio practice and assessment of essential learning outcomes (ELOs) are well established at LaGuardia Community College (LAGCC). The way in which these practices intersect is via the assessment of authentic student artifacts generated from assignments aligned with ELOs. Student artifacts are deposited into the Core ePortfolio for college-wide…

Community colleges have embraced distance education as a means to provide increased flexibility and access to their large numbers of non-traditional students. Retention rates and student achievement measures alone may not reflect all of the benefits and opportunities that online learning, blended or hybrid learning, and technology enhanced…

Christine McPhail formerly served as president at Cypress College in California and is founder and professor emeritus of the Community College Leadership Doctoral Program at Morgan State University in Maryland. She is the Managing Partner for The McPhail Group LLC and currently serves as a Leadership Coach for more than a dozen community colleges…

This article describes the Student Tutor Education Program (STEP) at Westchester Community College, which identifies and recruits potential future college English teachers at the community college level while they serve as peer writing tutors, with benefits to the entire college community as well as the teaching profession in general. STEP enables…

This paper describes the joint collaboration of Broome Community College (BCC) (New York) and the State University of New York at Binghamton to help their engineering students become self-directed learners (SDL). Gerald Grow's model for staged self-directed learning is presented as a framework for the collaboration, with its four stages of student…

This paper describes the Orange Plan, a learning support system at Orange Coast College (California) which creates alternatives to traditional educational experiences. The Orange Plan is composed of four subsystems: (1) learning contracts, (2) information systems, (3) resource consultants, and (4) interdisciplinary studies courses. Each subsystem…

In a self-directed learning teacher training model used at Algonquin College, students choose a personal learning advisor, tailor curriculum to their needs, build upon their existing knowledge base, select appropriate evaluation strategies and standards, and select a skill and carry out its development. Participants in the two-year program include…

A description is provided of Los Angeles Valley College's Life Science Learning Center (LSLC), which provides: (1) a resource center addressed to the individualized learning needs of students served by the Biology Department; (2) a learning environment enabling students to proceed in self-paced, activity-centered, concept-oriented experiences in…

This report provides a comprehensive description and record of all academic support services provided to students through the South Plains College Learning Center. After an introductory statement clarifies the ever-increasing need for academic support services at open-door institutions, a philosophy and mission statement and a detailed description…

In response to the growing trend toward lifelong learning by mature, goal-seeking adults, Kirkwood Community College has designed two unique, nontraditional programs which emphasize the students' unique interests, skills, background and goals: the Associate of General Studies (AGS) degree program and the Independent Study in Fine Arts Program.…

The low number of students who enroll in advanced courses at community colleges creates a number of problems, including cost inefficiency. One of the benefits derived from writing across the curriculum is the value writing provides in personalizing instruction. Writing is a way of activating passive students and encouraging student interaction…

Describes the library instruction program at Miami-Dade Community College, a self-instructional library skills program consisting of a two-part manual, review exercises, "hands-on" assignments, and computer-scored tests. Reports on faculty and student responses to the program. (DMM)

Sinclair Community College's (SCC's) Experience Based Education (EBE) program offers an alternative approach to learning which operates outside the time, format, and place constraints imposed by traditional, classroom-based education. After introductory material defining EBE and tracing the increased recognition of adult, lifelong learning…

Describes Johnson County Community College's Learning Strategies Program, which teaches students how to learn and to use self-instruction to become independent learners. Reports on program development and implementation; the effects of strategies instruction on grades, study skills, learner satisfaction, and course completion; and plans for…