Community college faculty have always been more than classroom teachers, but during the pandemic their roles as counselors, navigators and sources of needed referrals perhaps have never been more paramount--or appreciated. Beyond the dizzying logistics and scrambled pedagogy involved in switching from in-person to online learning, faculty have…

Online learning continues to grow at post-secondary institutions across the United States, but many question its efficacy, especially for students most at-risk for failure. This paper engages that issue. It examines recent research on the success of community college students who take online classes and explores similar comparisons using 656,258…

In 2014, community colleges are overcrowded, underfunded, and serve a diverse population. Community colleges are looking for innovative ways to meet the growing demands of their nontraditional student body on a shrinking budget. Increasing their online offerings appeared to be a perfect solution. Unfortunately, research has shown that community…

The Annual 2013-14 Enrollment Report provides a snapshot of enrollment statistics in Washington's community and technical colleges during the 2013-2014 academic year. Highlighted trends include: (1) In 2013-14, the legislative target (includes university centers, private career schools and community-based organizations) for the system was 139,237…

Using a dataset containing nearly 500,000 courses taken by over 40,000 community and technical college students in Washington State, this study examines the performance gap between online and face-to-face courses and how the size of that gap differs across student subgroups and academic subject areas. While all types of students in the study…

Mississippi's community and junior colleges comprise the nation's oldest two-year system. Throughout history, Mississippi has prided itself on bridging the gap between dreams and reality through increased access to higher education. In the early 1990s, through advancements made possible through telecommunications systems, educators and leaders…

Using a dataset containing nearly 500,000 courses taken by over 40,000 community and technical college students in Washington State, this study examines how well students adapt to the online environment in terms of their ability to persist and earn strong grades in online courses relative to their ability to do so in face-to-face courses. While…

This article describes the results of a mixed-methods study that examined the perceptions of community among online faculty in Washington state community and technical colleges. Twelve community and technical colleges were randomly selected from the 34 colleges in Washington state. Results indicated significant differences between females versus…

Over the past decade, online courses and entire online degree programs have been made available, serving millions of students in higher education. These online courses largely have been designed and taught using the theoretical concepts and practical strategies of Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN). During 2003-04, approximately two million…

This report investigates enrollment patterns and academic outcomes in online, hybrid, and face-to-face courses among students who enrolled in Washington State community and technical colleges in the fall of 2004. Students were tracked for nearly five years, until the spring of 2009. Results were similar to those found in a parallel study in…

People do not want to know the history, minutiae of policy, or operations, or even the political intrigues of a virtual consortium. People want to know if the consortium has value, whether it can help them, and if it is a threat. In this article, the author focuses on the operating principles and policies that have proven successful in the…

This Academic Year Report 2009-10 provides a snapshot of funding, facilities, staffing, and enrollments in community and technical colleges in the past academic year. The report also describes key measures of student outcomes and addresses the most frequently asked questions related to expenditures, personnel and students. Additional demographic…

The 2007-09 Appropriations Act provided funding to the Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) to study the state's capital facility and technology capacity. Specifically, "...state appropriation is provided solely to implement a capital facility and technology capacity study which will compare the 10-year enrollment projections with the…