NLCC 2021 Concurrent Sessions E
1:00 PM - 1:45 PM (All times ET)
Day Two: Friday, October 22, 2021
Room 1- Interactive Session
Jeremy Brown & Iman Emdad (Georgia Tech)
Diversity Programming Among LLC’s: Achieving Inclusive Excellence
Have you wondered what effective diversity-driven programming looks like in an LLC? Ever considered developing a diversity-focused LLC but don’t know where to start? Impact LLC is a new diversity, social good, and sustainability focused living-learning community at Georgia Tech that utilizes fun events, a mentorship component, community service, and intentional community building. This session will provide the audience with several examples and strategies of what a diversity-focused living-learning community looks like and how to build a strong cohort of students in a residential experience. Finally, there will be a discussion about what connected courses look like, student experiences, and additional resources.
Room 2 - Interactive Session
Shawn Bowers, Sarah Griffith, Hadia Mubarak, Teneal Pardue, Michele Shaul (Queens University of Charlotte)
Exploring Intersectional Identities in Learning Communities
In this session, we will explore how learning communities can be used to facilitate undergraduates’ understanding of identity, intersectionality, and the value of interdisciplinary approaches to learning. Faculty members from History, Religion, Mathematics, English and World Languages will share pedagogical strategies for teaching students about intersectional identities in learning communities through the themes of ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexuality, race, religion, socioeconomic status, and disability, among other facets of identity. Presenters will also discuss why the medium of the learning community offers an effective structure for teaching about intersectional identities. Following this discussion, audience members will explore in small groups how they might employ some of these strategies in their own classes and/or in a class they plan to teach in the future.
Room 3 - Informative/Panel Presentation
Kondwani Phwandaphwanda (University of Kentucky)
Semester-Long Student Feedback About Their Experiences as Peer Mentors
In this session, the presenter will share results of a semester long classroom discussion about aspects of the Peer Mentoring Program at the Lewis Honors College (University of Kentucky). In January 2021, Peer Mentors at the Lewis Honors College were given the task of answering weekly questions about the Peer Mentor Program and where they wanted it to go in the future. Among other things, the Peer Mentors discussed and answered the following questions:
What should be the purpose of the Peer Mentoring Program?
What should be the take ways from the program for Peer Mentors who complete one year in the program?
What competencies should the program focus on?
What should be the role of Peer Mentors during the summer?
What should be the role of Peer Mentors during orientation?
How should Peer Mentors collaborate with Resident Assistants, Faculty, and staff?
What should the orientation schedule look like for new students?
These questions plus many more generated a lot of conversations about how the students experienced the Peer Mentor Program, and how they thought it should move forward.
Room 4 - Informative/Panel Presentation
Sahar Elmenini, Nicole White, LaToya Sherman, & Eric Ayers, M.D. (Wayne State University School of Medicine)
Learning Communities: Improving Imposter Syndrome and Loneliness Among Medical Students
Past research has linked imposter syndrome, isolation, and locus of control together. The creation of learning communities (LCs) is to directly and effectively combat loneliness, feelings of isolation, and IS, to better promote student’s wellbeing and success. It was hypothesized that those who attend more LC events will score lower on imposter syndrome scale and lower on social loneliness scale. It was also hypothesized that those who scored higher on imposter syndrome and social loneliness will have an external locus of control. To test our hypothesis, a survey was sent out to the Classes of 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 at Wayne State University School of Medicine, resulting in a sample size of 144 participants. The students’ responses were recorded via Qualtrics and analyzed. The survey included questions from the following topics: gender, age, class, number of LC events attended, number of non-LC events attended, imposter syndrome, loneliness, and locus of control. Surprisingly, it was found that there was not a significant correlation between the number of LC events attended and imposter syndrome, loneliness, and locus of control. There was a slight positive correlation between loneliness scores and the number of non-LC social events attended. Furthermore, there were correlations between imposter syndrome, loneliness, and locus of control. In summary, this study coincides with past research with the connection between gender and imposter syndrome, loneliness, and external locus of control. Furthermore, our study contradicts past research on the connection between imposter syndrome and loneliness. However, the study fails to affirm that LCs decrease feelings of loneliness and imposter syndrome. Further studies on the different types of LCs and how they contribute to the student body may shed some light on the gaps between LCs, imposter syndrome, and loneliness.
Room 5.A - 15-minute Quick Talk
Lisa Crizer & Shiela Venkataswamy (McHenry County College)
Breakout Room Breakthroughs: Building Community Through Effective Group Work in Remote Environments
One of our goals as Learning Communities instructors has always been to create a strong community of learners in the classroom. Pedagogy designed with this goal in mind helps students work together, share ideas, and learn from one another. In this session, we will reflect on transitioning from a face to face classroom to a remote environment. While challenging, the Zoom classroom gave us an opportunity to evaluate, assess, and make adjustments as we endeavored to continue building community in spring 2021. We will be examining what worked this semester, what didn’t, and how we can all use what we’ve learned to continue to nurture community in a variety of delivery modes.
Room 5.B - 15-minute Quick Talk
Michelle Crooks (Grossmont College)
Not a Robot: Humanizing Your Online Persona in a Learning Community
How do learning community instructors and staff prove that we are present, approachable, fun, and committed to student success in the online space? This is especially critical during those early community building efforts. Learn a few tips and tricks on how to infuse your personality and compassion into your online course content, whether your learning community is fully online or includes some in-person components.
Room 6 - Interactive Session
Lucie Tchouassi (New Jersey Institute of Technology)
Learning Communities, Key Lessons Learned and takeaways in engaging students in a life-changing environment (COVID19 Pandemic)
The COVID19 Pandemic has forced all of us to adjust, rethink and find the most creative ways to make our programs more effective at a time when our students are most in need. We were severely constrained and the “personal touch” had to be redefined. This session will cover the key lessons that the NJIT Learning Communities learned from adapting the program to the virtual world that we were forced into. This session will focus on our Top 5 lessons and takeaways, covering the measures that we found to be most beneficial and their applications to benefit the program, post-pandemic online and in-person settings. Featuring students’ perspectives on impacts, it is our belief that some of the initiatives and measures that were implemented during the pandemic can also be used during “normal time” to reinforce the learning communities program.
Room 7 - Informative/Panel Presentation
Trèon McClendon & Tiana Iruoje (Indiana University)
What's your SAUCE? Think Community!
Our world is continuously growing based on technology and the advancement of savvy personnel. In order to focus on the current society, it is imperative that we build a collaboration within a specific community that ideally deals with like-minded tech professionals future and current. Over the last few decades, cellular devices, iPads, iPods, computers, and most importantly the internet have completely overhauled the way people interact in society and the way educators work in schools.
Our focus of this presentation will be to deliver our special SAUCE of how we have integrated practices and methods around the next generation of technology professionals in our community and leadership development. Secret sauce" has come to mean that thing that you do that is unique, different, and special. We will be looking at ways that we incorporate, High Impact Practices (HIPS) into our tech savvy community currently and in the future building; collaboration, development, hands on experiences, study broad opportunities and an overall welcoming environment.
In addition, we will talk about how we ensure that our first-year students are advancing in not only their studies but leadership involvement as well. Our world is continuously growing based on technology and the advancement of savvy personnel. There will be no return to chalk boards and writing letters because technology has changed the way we view a lot of things. We are here to STAY!
Room 8 - Informative/Panel Presentation
National Learning Communities Collaborative
Fostering the Promise of Learning Communities in a Reimagined Undergraduate Experience
The integrated experience of Learning Communities (LCs)—as course clusters, team-taught courses, living-learning, and residential colleges—stand out as an educational model ready to address present and future challenges and to help students succeed in a changed world. During these times, it is essential to invest in qualities that make LCs effective and to deepen investigation of their scope, type, and how they foster community and equity. This session invites student affairs educators to a discussion with the National LC Collaborative, consider findings of a recent survey of LCs, and share promising practice through discussion of factors that enhance students’ success.