As a success coach, it can be challenging in identifying and referring students to the resources that can aid, and that can assist with each student's success during their first year. It is vital to use modern technological resources that are available at no additional cost to institutions, and which students are currently using, to aid in…

The Virginia Community College System (VCCS) administration identified the need for adequate and proactive advising programs to foster student success. This paper presents a review of "best practices" in advising to determine commonalities, provides a comparison with current VCCS advising practices, and offers recommendations that…

A full-scale oral communication assessment was conducted by the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) during the academic year 2013-14. Key components of this assessment included faculty involvement at all stages of assessment and collaboration with assessment coordinators and lead staff personnel. The VCCS Office of Institutional Research and…

The construct of Universal Design (UD) has been used in a number of fields such as engineering and architecture to design and produce products and services that are usable by people with a wide variety of characteristics. The field of UD supports a framework that can also be used to enhance the field of education. A number of constructs have been…

In a College Composition II (ENG 112) class offered during the spring of 2005 at John Tyler Community College (JTCC), the author implemented an information-literacy curriculum whose salient features include: students collaborated on a semester-long, original-research project. The Metro Richmond Supermarket Price Comparison provided a focused,…

The introduction of the Internet has dramatically changed the process of information transmission as well as practically every other aspect of American society, including the higher education system. Many colleges and universities have taken advantage of the utility of the Internet and instituted online courses and online degree and certificate…

Hybrid courses offer students a chance to know each other in both structured and unstructured situations, which is often difficult in a totally online distance course. The hybrid method also allows for elasticity in scheduling that is not possible in a strictly on-campus course. The on-campus sessions and face-to-face meeting features of hybrid…

In higher education, faculty are often encouraged to collaborate with their colleagues, to--as the "American Heritage Dictionary" defines it--"work together in a joint intellectual effort." The authors often think of such projects as occurring within a department or on a particular campus, but they have discovered that even…

The authors discuss the joining of 12 Virginia community colleges from the Appalachian region of southwestern Virginia with Radford University to form the Regional Technology Education Consortium (RTEC), a three-year project funded by the National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education program and designed to develop articulation…