Academic learning communities are widely recognized as the single greatest factor in increasing student retention and academic success in the first year at colleges and university across the country.
The learning community model builds relationships among participating students and between students and university faculty and staff.
The integration of basic skills development with college-level courses eliminates the discouragement, financial burden, and tedium of having to take a full semester or year of non-degree credit, pre-college courses.
The integration of a skills-building regimen with content-oriented college-level work yields a pedagogically sound, more authentic basic-skills development model and provides greater support for the work required in college-level course(s).
Students are exposed to interdisciplinary approaches and invited to think critically about the nature of academic disciplines, which prepares them to make informed decisions about both their general education program and their major course of study.