How do you build a community?
One of things that I believe almost everyone wants is a sense of being a part of a community. In a traditional college setting, there is an infrastructure in place to assist in building that community. In the career focus sector, I haven’t found too many places that build a community. To be fair, most students who attend a career college just want to learn the basics tenets of their program. They have little or no time to get socially involved. However, there is a pocket that does seek out the social component of a collegiate career.
At my institution, a collaboration of faculty and student came together and created such an organization. As in any new endeavor it took constant coaching and cheering to get the students on board. For the first year and half we hovered between 5 and 25 students. To date, we have a quarter of the student population as active members. Students are implementing the skills they learn in the class to furthering the mission of the organization as well as building programs that are relevant to their needs. We have a small but active alumni group that pitches in whenever we have an event. Students have also moved from our associate degree program to our bachelor program.
How do you build a community?
Did any of the ideas shared in this thread resonate with you, Chana? What are you doing now to build community?
How do I build a community at an online college?
Beth, how do you schedule the monthly movie? I assume that this is shown before or after scheduled classes. How well attended are the movies? Do the students have the time for a whole movie?
Loren Kroh
We do different events quite frequently. The last Monday of every month we have popcorn and a movie for both our day and night students. Also once a quarter we do a spirit week and the Friday of that week we have a campus wide BBQ to where the older classes and staff put it on for the new students to welcome them into the program. We believe this is a key event just for the fact that the newer students can talk to senior students and find out how later quarters go; it also is a good networking time for students. It helps them build relationships with people that are not in class with them day in and day out. It also helps staff build a relationship with students. This helps students get more comfortable with staff so they are more likely to come talk to us when they are in need of help. We also one a quarter have a breakfast and dinner for the students. This just brings all the day and evening students together.. We like to make sure that we are bringing our day and evening students together as much as possible.
Beth, how often do you have campus wide events¿ What are the most effective ones to bring students together¿
At our School. We have different events and awards that we do with the students.. We like to bring the students together as a whole instead of seperating them by classes. Also when doing this staff is present as well to show support in awards ands events we have.
Community starts within you and the same time have the same purpose of your insititution. The commnity will shape the school and the organizattion.
I don't know that you can, but if the student sees value in extracurricular activities they will find a way to participate. They will want to know how it will improve their job prospects (learning additional skills, enhancing their resume, etc) to justify investing the time.
Loren Kroh
It seems like students barely find time for class in between a full-time job and kids nevermind extracurricular clubs. In your experience, how do you overcome this?
Herve, do you have any data to support your statement that students engaged in clubs have higher success rates? Any sense of why this is the case?
Loren Kroh
we have a lot of clubs at our school. students engaged in clubs have definitly higher success rate and more sense of belonging to the institution.
Interesting contrast, David. Any thoughts why there is such a marked difference in cultures? Is anyone doing anything to improve the under-performing campus?
I work at two campuses of the same institution, it is like night and day.One campus has a wonderful robust sense of community,one is halter-stalter.The campus that has the rich environment starts with a staff and faculty that is a community. The students draw Identity from each program. The faculty and staff are engaged in the larger community in the area. We are well regarded in the professional communities we train for. Our placement department actively courts students during their training. Most programs have intern components, and recruiters are regularly on Campus. My experience at the other campus is not rich. There is little faculty interaction, turnover is high, and even within programs, community is hard to come by.
A sense of community and belonging goes a long way toward good retention.
Ana, is this a formal community with regularly scheduled events or an organically evolving one based on normal daily activities? Is there an attempt to provide direction and/or structure?
These ideas are great! Our institution is small so the students get to know each other. They form a community where they have a sounding board for their daily struggle with the balance of education, family life and their job. The staff is sincere in their committment to see students succeed and become part the the larger community as a contributing member of the workforce.
Nicely done, Penny. Sounds like a good template for others to copy.
The open labs you describe, Christopher, are an interesting alternative to more formal organizations. How much participation do you get in your labs? Does it vary greatly from week to week?
Have you talked to students to confirm their interest? It's my experience that this is a popular complaint, but that doesn't necessarily translate into participation.
At my institution, my program is very fortunate to have a strong sense of community. This involves a sense of community within the college, as well as a sense of community within the city that the college exists. The students benefit greatly from these relationships.
Within the program, I encourage my students to form relationships with each other by creating a contact list which contains all of the student's phone numbers and e-mail addresses in order to contact each other whenever they have questions or concerns about anything that goes on in our program.
We also have a lengthy (three (3) month) project which is built in as a course within our program. Due to the nature of this project, it is imperative that all of the students work together to create a successful final production. This project truly creates a strong bond between my students and ultimately, a strong sense of comunity.
As far as creating a sense of community within the city that the college exists, I constantly and repeatedly take my students on excursions to organizations, institutions, businesses, and events that directly relate to their major area of study. I introduce them to numerous people who are actively employed within our industry and insist that they create relationships with these professionals in order to obtain references, letters of recommendation, internships, and employment.
