Going Beyond Retention and GPA in Learning Communities

Last week, I had the privilege of attending the annual ACUHO-I conference in New Orleans. This was my first time attending the conference, and I walked away with so much valuable information.  Plus, the networking opportunities were plentiful. I had the opportunity to meet some great colleagues and finally put faces to the names I see every day on Twitter.
 

I was very impressed with the content of the workshops I attended at the conference. And for this reason, over the next week, I want to spotlight each of the workshops I attended at the conference. It is my hope that this will help me reflect on the workshops and also share what I learned.

“Going beyond Retention and GPA in Learning Communities – How to Use a Matrix to Take Your Program to the Next Level” was a workshop presented by Kathleen Campbell and Jessica Flake of James Madison University. The program was well-delivered and helped me think about assessment in a new light.

I enjoyed hearing all about James Madison’s learning communities, primarily because it is a topic of discussion here at my own institution.

JMU has 8 different learning communities, six of which are major-related and two of which are interest-related. These communities are largely faculty-driven. Kathleen and Jessica explained that their residence life office doesn’t pull a learning community together unless the faculty in that area expresses an interest in doing so. JMU’s residence life office provides $500 in financial support to each of these learning communities. Faculty members will often use this money to take students on trips or to fund other programming.

What was interesting about this presentation was hearing all about their department’s efforts to assess what these learning communities were accomplishing. At JMU, retention rates from the first to second year are already quite high; therefore, other ways to assess the effectiveness of the learning communities were needed.

Kathleen and Jessica explained their use of a matrix to help pull their assessment efforts together. They helped me think of assessment in a new light, a more simplistic light. In their own words, “It’s not rocket science,” even though so many of us are intimidated at the mere mention of the word “assessment”. They spoke briefly about the importance of making sure our assessment efforts are efficient and effective.

The matrix that Kathleen and Jessica are using has effectively helped them set objectives, implement programs to accomplish those objectives, and then assess whether or not they worked. The matrix is pictured below.

This simple matrix has helped JMU develop their learning communities into more positive, intentional communities. And that is the ultimate goal. The simplicity of this matrix allows it to be applied in various capacities. I think we can all use it to make sure we are accomplishing what we intend to accomplish.

I want to thank Kathleen and Jessica for presenting at the ACUHO-I conference and inspiring me to assess the programs I am responsible for.  After all, assessment isn’t so bad, is it?