Incorporating High-Impact Practices for Retention: A Learning Community Model for Transfer Students

Abstract

Transfer from one institution to another is increasingly common for students during the course of their higher education careers. The number of students moving from community colleges to four-year universities continues to rise. Transfer students report experiences of alienation, isolation, and other personal and academic challenges. To address this problematic transition, the authors propose a cohort-based learning community model that incorporates high-impact practices of first-year experience programs demonstrated to improve retention. These include enhanced advising, project-based student collaboration, application of knowledge across courses, collaboration of core faculty, peer support, and required participation in campus activities. This model, applicable to any major and particularly useful for those comprised heavily of upper division courses, is applied in a Sociology department. Findings from the pilot study suggest that students experience increased sense of community, improved academic and social integration, and great promise for retention. Ultimately, the comprehensive model and assessment plan detailed in this article can be implemented in a similar manner across disciplines and universities for a variety of student populations of concern.

The European Conference on Education 2020: Official Conference Proceedings

“…This obviously helped students to become more familiar with the University and to learn more about the community on-campus. This was an outcome shared in the work of Thomas et al (2018) and Dagley et al (2016), where students also expressed their positivity over feeling a part of a community. In relation to how the students related well with the SLC members, it is perfectly plausible because of how the SLC members were students just like the first-year students (an outcome which was originally hoped for).…”

“…To address this problem from a higher-education standpoint, the endeavour was to create a Student Learning Community (SLC), an effort that has been gaining considerable attention amongst higher education institutions and is recognised for improving student success and retention (Thomas et al, 2018;Dagley et al 2016;Scott et al, 2017).…”

Integrated Support Strategies for Promotion of Students’ Retention and Achievement During First Years of College

“…For example, a cohort may comprise of the entire enrollment of a small General Science or English class that co-enroll in a history course with a larger class size. Empirical support for the educational effectiveness of LCs programs showed students became more actively involved in classroom learning, reported greater intellectual gains, tended to form their own support groups that extend beyond the classroom, spent more time together outside of class, and displayed high rates of retention (Thomas, Walsh, Torr, Alvarez, Malagon, 2018;Johnson, 2000).…”

Preparing Students to be Global Citizens

“…Thomas and Dagley highlighted their use of course restructuring to aid the improvement of student success and retention in their learning communities. In the course structure of Thomas et al (2018), a combination of group-based academic work such as group-projects, and compulsory extra-curricular activities such as plays and social events, were incorporated with the aim of strengthening students' social networks and their familiarity with the institute; a means to help students integrate better with the institute. Similarly, the course structure of Dagley et al (2016) also encompassed a combination of group-based work, social activities, and the use of an academic advisor.…”

“…In stark contrast to the work of Thomas et al (2018) and Dagley et al (2016), the work of Scott et al (2017) did not include any course restructuring, and instead emphasised two key parts of their learning community, an "Academic Boot Camp", which was a 3-hour session designed to help incoming students integrate into a different environment, and hour-long monthly meetings with students to support them during their education. As students would be unfamiliar to the workloads at the institute, the boot camp aimed to help create familiarity with the resources available, whilst also help to create social networks between students (Scott et al, 2017).…”