Grossmont College English Department’s learning community program. A learning community is made up of courses that are linked—they have different instructors teaching different subjects, but they are made up of the same cohort of students. The beauty of this is that students are part of a community of peers who are going through the same experience and learning the same content. Students get to connect with these classmates, collaborate on assignments, and even study together. The instructors all work together to create engaging curriculum often centered around a common theme, problem or public issue. The assignments inspire deep thinking, powerful interdisciplinary connections, and real-world application. As an added bonus, a recent 2021 study of the program proved that students in Project Success learning communities succeed at higher rates and earn higher GPAs!
Recent links combine English 120, English 120/020, or English 124 with popular GE courses in departments such as Ethnic Studies, Sociology, Music, History, and Counseling. Some include face-to-face courses and others fully online courses. Many of these links are also part of other programs on campus that offer students rich resources and special perks, such as direct access to a counselor and priority registration. These programs consist of Umoja, Puente, and the First-Year Experience (FYE) program.
Project Success faculty members are committed to creating a positive experience for students, from collaborating with each other often to ensuring their curriculum is exciting and relevant. Join one today! Please review the content and fliers below for current information on learning community links. If you would like more information, or have questions about Project Success, you can also contact Project Success Coordinator and English Professor, Cathy Miller, at cathy.miller@gcccd.edu.
FYE Learning Community:
Counseling 120: College & Career Success with Ramirez
Section 6077 T/Th 9:30-10:50am
English 120: College Composition & Reading with Rodriguez
Section 4817 T/Th 11-12:50pm
Umoja Learning Community:
Counseling 120: College & Career Success with Hellon
Section 2108 M/W 9:30-10:50am
English 120: College Composition & Reading with Kerford
Section 6093 M/W 1:30-3:20pm
History 180: Black Perspectives I with Harpin
Section 6080 Online
Puente Learning Community Options:
Cohort 1:
English 120: College Composition & Reading with Cervantes
Section 1138 T/Th 9-10:50am
Counseling 120: College & Career Success with Toral
Section 6075 T/Th 11-12:20am
Cohort 2:
Counseling 120: College & Career Success with Toral
Section 9460 T/Th 9:30-10:50am
English 120: College Composition & Reading with Cervantes
Section 4139 T/Th 11-12:20pm
NEW Athletics Learning Community Options:
Cohort 1:
English 120/020: College Composition & Reading + Support with Corrales
Sections 1137 + 6150 M/W 8-10:30am
Math 160/060: Statistics + Foundations with Rawlings
Section 2361 M/W 10:45-12:50pm
Section 2362 T 10:45-12:50pm
Ethnic Studies 114: Introduction to Race & Ethnicity
Section 9682 T/Th 9-10:20am
Cohort 2:
English 120/020: College Composition & Reading + Support with Corrales
Sections 3017 M/W 11-12:50am
Section 5936 Th 9:30-10:25am
Math 160/060: Statistics + Foundations with Denney
Section 2363 M/W 8:30am-10:35am
Section 2365 T 8:30-10:35pm
Ethnic Studies 114: Introduction to Race & Ethnicity with Quezada
Section 0940 T/Th 11-12:20am
EOPS Community
English 120: College Composition & Reading with Nolan
Section 5868 T/Th 12-1:50pm
Ethnic Studies 114: Introduction to Race & Ethnicity with Guido
Section 2542 T/Th 9-10:20am
Counseling 130: Study Skills & Time Management with Rosales
Section 2334 T/Th 10:30-11:45am
Spring 2021:
"I felt I had a lot of support with my classes from other students, teachers, and faculty that I would not have gotten if I wasn't enrolled in a learning community."
"I was scared of college but Learning Community helped a lot this semester. I liked
the joined class session we had about the Zoot Suit."
"The learning community was just that--a community. I appreciated the support more
than anything, however I quite enjoyed the integration between the classes."
Project Success, the learning communities program in English, was started over 30 years ago in 1985. It began with just a few links between basic skills reading and writing courses within English. Early studies conducted at Grossmont College showed it was increasing student success, retention, persistence and transfer rates. Participating students also had a higher mean semester GPA.
As learning communities grew as a best practice across the country, Project Success grew along with it. At one point, there were over 50 links between a wide array of disciplines, such as humanities, sociology, philosophy, communication, biology, psychology, anthropology, and history, just to name a few. Some included two courses in the link and others as many as four. City College's successful learning community program was actually modeled after Grossmont College's because it had gained a positive reputation.
The structure, size and leadership of the program has fluctuated over the years. Since AB 705 and the elimination of most basic skills courses, links are primarily between transfer-level English and other disciplines, although the goal is to create more outside English. Some of the links each semester are also part of other programs on campus, such as Umoja, Puente, and, most recently, the first-year-experience (FYE) program.
Moving forward as we enter into 2022, the vision is for Project Success to align with equity initiatives on campus and the Guided Pathways degree maps for each major.
[click titles to download a PDF]
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