Learning Commons Proposal
December 2014 D. Achterman & K. Warren
Overview
Like many other institutions, Gavilan College has struggled with the challenge of integrating
instruction with the myriad services students need to complete certificate or transfer programs.
Such integration happens both through shared institutional vision and the creation of physical
and virtual spaces where collaboration can occur. The proposed Gavilan Learning Commons will
be such a space, where students can access the facilities, technology, and support from tutors and
faculty to increase success and persistence. With a systematic approach to providing academic
support, faculty and staff will have opportunities to discuss student learning outcomes, identify
gaps, and collaborate on shared interventions. At the Learning Commons, directed learning
activities (DLAs), workshops, group study sessions, and tutoring activities will be provided to
meet students’ academic support needs.
The Learning Commons Approach
The Learning Commons is a flexible, hybrid space, designed to accommodate a range of learning
activities at any given time. Students come and go throughout the day, completing both required
and self-selected activities to meet the academic demands of their courses. Faculty and staff-led
workshops run according to a schedule developed in collaboration with classroom instructors to
build and extend key learning objectives. Students work together in small groups at tables,
sometimes with a tutor or supplemental instructor facilitating. Students may work
independently, using library resources to research, using technology to write or create
presentations, or finding a comfortable chair or computer station where they can study. Students
will also find library and writing center faculty and staff to assist them in their work.
Supplemental instructors facilitate study groups during key times in a course, and students in the
study groups learn to facilitate their own groups for future work.
Faculty will create directed learning activities (DLA's) that students complete and review with
individual tutors as part of their assigned coursework; workshops presented by faculty or skilled
supplemental instructors will help students apply new reading, writing or research skills to take
them deeper into the content introduced in class; faculty and staff provide just-in-time instruction
for students to use technology to locate, organize and analyze information and to create
presentations.
Such activities are not designed exclusively for those students who might struggle and need
“extra help.” They are designed with the understanding that all learners need to engage in these
kinds of activities to be successful students. The result is that those who have struggled to
acquire the habits, dispositions and skills to become successful students are required to
participate in activities that will help them do just that. Meanwhile, already-successful students
will engage in activities that will deepen and accelerate their learning.
Integrated Planning = Greater Success
At the Learning Commons, faculty and staff will collaborate to provide supplemental instruction,
tutoring services, and academic coaching, ensuring close integration of services leading to
greater student success. Effective support programs provide:
time on task
alignment with core college curriculum
supplemental assistance
continuous collection of evidence to track impact and make informed decisions about
effectiveness (Casazza & Silverman 18).
Data from such programs show a significantly higher success and persistence rate for those
students attending services three or more times in a semester. For example, at Chaffey College
(2009-10), among those who accessed services for all classes, success rates were 73.8%,
compared to 66.5% for non-attenders (Success Center Data, 2009-10). According to a recent
report of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education (2012) “student
success can only be attained through integrated and sustained strategies and programs that are
part of a systematic plan and, ultimately, are supported by an institutional culture” (25).
Academic Support: A Key Ingredient for College Success
At a time when colleges face increased accountability, through SSSP and Equity, it is critical to
provide a system of services at Gavilan to ensure that students who enter our doors can complete
their transfer and certificate goals.
Research on student retention has shown that providing access without support has resulted in
high drop rates and low numbers of students persisting to completion (Casazza & Silverman 7).
The cost of this high turnover is steep both for institutions, students, and taxpayers. As we have
seen an increasingly diverse student population seeking higher education, colleges must find
ways to serve those who were once considered “non-traditional”—such as working adults, firstgeneration, students of color, veterans--but are now essentially the new normal. Colleges that
successfully serve these students have developed integrated systems involving high expectations
along with comprehensive academic
(such as tutoring) and non-academic
support (counseling) embedded in
the overall culture of the college:
High Expectations (HE) +
Comprehensive Support (CS) =
Student Persistence (SP) (Casazza
& Silverman 8).
Student support is often viewed as a
deficit model; students struggle with
their writing, so they go to the
writing center to get additional help.
They score poorly on a test, so they seek tutoring to correct their flawed thinking or approach.
The proposed Gavilan Learning Commons represents first and foremost a shift from this deficit
model to one of supported learning engagement—not just for Basic Skills students but for all
students. It’s based on a body of research that says learners create their own meaning, that one of
the ways this happens is in social and collaborative contexts, and that providing key instruction
and support outside the classroom to help students deepen their understanding and reflect on
their learning facilitates greater student achievement (Brooks & Brooks). Moreover, that
instruction and support is designed by faculty and staff specifically to scaffold students’ work on
existing curriculum.
One of the important lessons from Norton Grubb’s Basic Skills Education in Community
Colleges (2013) is that “students don’t do optional.” An equally strong message from the studies
done for that book is that student support services—tutoring, supplemental instruction, writing
centers, libraries, early alert efforts, and more—work best when they are not just coordinated but
integrated into instruction, and that this integration occurs when faculty and staff function as a
team.
We Are All Learners
The metacognitive frame for the Learning Commons space is that we are all learners; we are all
novices and experts, and students, faculty and staff engage in learning side by side. Embedded
in the daily activities and practices of the space is an ongoing examination of our own learning;
Learning Commons tutors and supplemental instructors engage in ongoing action research,
consulting with faculty throughout the year and presenting their findings to their learning
community. Faculty participate together in an inquiry process focused on their own professional
learning, a process that they not only model but actively share with students and Learning
Commons staff.
A Home for Instructional Improvement
The Learning Commons will also provide the opportunity for a more powerful feedback loop
from instruction to assessment to revision of curriculum. Instructors, working with faculty and
staff connected to the Learning Commons, communicate regularly about student learning
outcomes and aspects of the curriculum where students need the most scaffolding and support.
From such discussions, collaborative planning for interventions can occur, with projected
outcomes and assessment plans. Through cross-disciplinary professional learning about student
learning, effective pedagogy, and intervention strategies, faculty and staff will participate in a
continuous cycle of improvement focused on key teaching and learning issues on our campus.
References
Brooks, J.G., and M.G. Brooks. In Search of Understanding: The Case for the Constructivist
Classroom. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 1993.
Casazza, Martha E., and Sharon L. Silverman. “Meaningful Access and Support: The Path to
College Completion.” Aug. 2013. Council of Learning Assistance and Developmental
Associations. Web. <http://www.nade.net/site/documents/breaking news/CLADEA
White Paper REVISED FINAL.pdf>
Grubb, W. Norton, with Robert Gabriner. Basic Skills Education in Community Colleges: Inside
and Outside of Classrooms. New York: Routledge, 2013.
“Student Populations Positively Impacted by Success Center Access, 2009-2010.” Chaffey
College, 2010. Web. <www.chaffey.edu/rtc/rtc_2010.pdf>.