Creating Learning Communities: A Practical Guide to Winning Support, Organizing for Change, and Implementing Programs

In recent years, learning communities - a curricular instructional innovation that integrates different facets of the undergraduate experience to enhance and enrich learning - have become the most promising new strategy for promoting student success and satisfaction in college. Learning communities give students the chance to deepen and diversify their education, connect with others who share their interests, and actively participate in the educational process.. "Creating Learning Communities is a guide to the essentials of this rewarding new program area, including how to design, fund, staff, manage, and integrate learning communities into different campuses. Drawing from their own experience, as well as from experiences of campuses around the country, Nancy S. Shapiro and Jodi H. Levine provide both a sound theoretical rationale and nuts-and-bolts advice on the logistical, administrative, financial, and turf-related issues of creating an effective learning community. And perhaps most important, they show how to ensure that such communities embody and fulfill the objectives for which they were established. (From the Publisher)