AAHE Learning Communities initiative

Posted by on October 17, 2003

AAHE Forges Partnership with the National Learning Community Project

AAHE is partnering with the National Learning Community Project at the Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education to strengthen learning community efforts on individual campuses and to foster more robust communities of learning community practice. More than 500 institutions are now offering learning communities. AAHE and the National Learning Community Project are publishing nine monographs on learning communities this fall. The monographs focus on learning communities in different types of institutions (liberal arts colleges, research universities, and community colleges) as well as topics such as learning community assessment, learning communities and service learning, learning communities and diversity, learning communities as a way to optimize learning in a time of limited resources, and learning communities and basic studies, and learning communities and the academic library. This monograph series features exemplary programs in a variety of institutions and the growing body of evidence that demonstrates learning community effectiveness.

Two monographs, Learning Communities in Liberal Arts Colleges and Integrating Learning Communities with Service-Learning are now in print with three other monographs in the fall. Information on purchasing these and future monographs is available online through AAHE. Discounts are available for AAHE members.

In May 2004 in Seattle, AAHE is a cosponsor of the National Learning Community Project’s culminating national conference, “Learning Communities and Reforming Undergraduate Education,” which will feature the latest work on learning community theory and practice and explore a variety of questions about the role of learning communities in reforming undergraduate education.

For more information, visit http://www.aahe.org/initiatives/learningcommunities.htm

Rob Shumer