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Learning Communities

This guide hosts material learning communities information for The Washington Center.

Introduction

Since its founding as a public service center in 1985, The Washington Center for Improving Undergraduate Education at The Evergreen State College has served higher education professionals to support high-impact practices responsive to trends and challenges in the field. As the National Resource Center for Learning Communities, the Washington Center has a distinguished tradition of convening learning community leaders and advancing scholarship and research on learning communities. 

This guide highlights significant research and resources relevant to the work of learning community practitioners.

What is a Learning Community?

From students’ points of view, the most obvious dimension of a learning community are the courses they sign up for. Consequently, deciding which courses to group together in a learning community is critical: the courses need to make sense in terms of student enrollment patterns and curricular pathways.

Educators who design learning communities are inventive; there is no orthodoxy about which curricular models work best so long as it works for students on a particular campus.

A Learning Community Typology

This typology was developed in 2020 by the National Learning Communities Collaborative - a cohort of practitioners, researchers, and organizations.

Linked Courses 

Cohorts of students enrolled in two or more courses led by different faculty members who identify common student learning outcomes and intentionally integrate curriculum as demonstrated by students on scaffolded integrative assignments and assessments. These are not residentially based communities.

Coordinated studies program

Coordinated studies programs are thematically linked courses fulfilling a students’ full semester course schedule. Courses are team-taught by two or more faculty. Some institutions register students for a single course of 8-16 credits while others register students for multiple courses. 

Living-Learning Community

Student cohorts that live together in residence and either a) engage in integrated academic content through an integrative curriculum offered through coursework supported by co-curricular programming or b) participate in residential programming or engage in a residential curriculum co-designed by residence life/housing staff and a faculty partner(s) that complements an academic curriculum. Either approach is represented through clear collaboration between residence life /SL and AA. 

Residential College

A residential college (RC) is a collegiate residential environment in which live-in faculty play an integral role in the programmatic experience and leadership of the community. Features may include academic department association, AA and SA partnerships, linked courses, curricular and co-curricular programming infused into RC, and traditional programs/social events.

Other 

No typology can capture the structure of every learning community program. If the design of your learning community program is not described in options “a-d” or is a combination of the typologies above, please select this option and you will be prompted to describe your program in further detail. 


For a thorough discussion of learning community typologies in the existing literature, see Inkelas, K.K. & Soldner, M. (2011). “Undergraduate Living Learning Programs and Student Outcomes” in Smart, J.C. & Paulsen, M.B. (eds.), Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research 26.

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