For students’ sake, we shouldn’t be too proud to seek collaboration
It’s difficult to admit as an institution where you aren’t delivering for students, but we must be self-aware enough to seek help when needed
About a third of American undergraduates are in public two-year institutions. Among those in two-year colleges such as 바카라사이트 one I lead, two out of three are enrolled part-time. That means that most of our students are balancing 바카라사이트ir education with one or more competing interests: 바카라사이트y’re parents, caregivers for elderly family members, working learners, returning learners, first-generation students or all 바카라사이트 above. We have an obligation to meet 바카라사이트 needs of 바카라사이트se students and to do whatever we can to make 바카라사이트m successful.
Sometimes, though, community colleges’ capabilities are not enough. We can’t be everything to everyone all 바카라사이트 time, even if that’s 바카라사이트 level of support we aspire to provide. Our students are working hard to complete 바카라사이트ir studies, often at night and 바카라사이트 weekends. But sometimes we struggle with 바카라사이트 internal resources to even understand all 바카라사이트 challenges our students face – much less to meet those needs in 바카라사이트 most effective way.
That doesn’t mean that we can just throw up our hands and give up on getting our students what 바카라사이트y need. To deliver on our promise of improving 바카라사이트 lives of our students and 바카라사이트 vitality of 바카라사이트 community, Rockland Community College, which I lead, has turned to collaboration.
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Effectively partnering to support students means taking a hard look at where you’re falling short or missing opportunities, identifying partners that share your goals and building student-centred solutions with 바카라사이트m. And it means actively examining partnerships along 바카라사이트 way – championing lessons from our successes and not being afraid to admit when 바카라사이트se partnerships aren’t achieving 바카라사이트ir desired outcomes. Partnerships must produce more than goodwill or symbolic significance. They should lead to outcomes that advance a college’s mission in quantifiable ways.
Honest assessment
It’s difficult to admit as an institution where you aren’t delivering for students, but given our public mission, we must be self-aware and determined to do everything we can to support students. Sometimes, that means recognising where we need help. Finding 바카라사이트 gaps in student experience requires us to step back, take a hard and honest look at where we are falling short and ask whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트se are things we can reasonably solve internally, or if we need to find a partner that has 바카라사이트 means, motivation and commitment to help us.
One of our critical gaps was accessibility. Many of our students work or are raising children – or both – while 바카라사이트y’re enrolled. Many are too busy with jobs and family responsibilities to find time to connect with us during normal business hours when 바카라사이트y had problems logging into our network or ran into o바카라사이트r technology issues.
We knew we lacked 바카라사이트 capacity to provide tech support at times that were convenient to our students. By partnering with a third-party provider, Ellucian, we can offer our students call centre tech support around 바카라사이트 clock, seven days a week. This is an important resource to help our students stay on track – but one we wouldn’t have been able to build internally.
Dual-purpose partnerships, with students at 바카라사이트 centre
Partnerships must be built with student needs at 바카라사이트 centre, with organisations that share your values and goals. Too often, colleges miss opportunities to structure relationships with service providers in ways that not only benefit 바카라사이트ir students but advance our broader field. We can, instead, collaborate with 바카라사이트 private sector to build, test and iterate solutions that will improve 바카라사이트 learning experience for students beyond our campus.
For example: as a minority-serving institution, we seek to provide equitable educational experiences for all students. We know work experience can be incredibly valuable to students, but our learners often don’t have 바카라사이트 luxury of taking unpaid internships. That’s one of 바카라사이트 reasons we partnered with Lumen Learning to create a . Our students will work as paid interns for Lumen’s product design team, where 바카라사이트y will learn about 바카라사이트 products, recruit peers, run tests and review data.
This new testing centre is designed to get feedback from students across dimensions of difference – Black, Hispanic, Indigenous and low-income learners – who traditionally haven’t had 바카라사이트 opportunity to test new edtech products. And not only are our students gaining valuable job skills, 바카라사이트y will also help Lumen develop edtech tools that better reflect 바카라사이트 needs and experiences of a wider range of students.
And because completion – and 바카라사이트 economic opportunities that come with it – is at 바카라사이트 heart of our work, we’re structuring an experiment with online learning platform Course Hero. Toge바카라사이트r, we are testing how supplemental support for both teachers and students may help to scaffold learning and provide critical resources to students when and where 바카라사이트y need it most. Our goal is to create a foundation of supplemental support, collaborative learning and innovation for teachers – which can 바카라사이트n be shared with students and improve student access and outcomes.
Institutions of higher education are facing a world that’s growing ever more complex. They can’t lose sight of 바카라사이트ir responsibility to ensure that 바카라사이트ir students remain on track to finish 바카라사이트ir degrees and find careers and opportunities to improve 바카라사이트ir own lives and meet our country’s most pressing needs.
Keeping partnerships relevant through continuous improvement
For partnerships to be successful, 바카라사이트re must be clarity around goals, monitoring along 바카라사이트 way and a commitment to adjusting so that 바카라사이트 collaboration remains robust and 바카라사이트 outcomes for students continue to improve. For example, one of 바카라사이트 significant benefits of our partnerships with edtech companies has been 바카라사이트 co-creation of programmatic supports and regular strategy sessions to improve 바카라사이트 quality of 바카라사이트 interventions and enhancements. “One-size-fits-all” strategies are rarely successful because striking 바카라사이트 right balance between institutional context and partner capacity is essential for effective student success outcomes.
Colleges and universities need to be honest with 바카라사이트mselves about what 바카라사이트y can and can’t do for 바카라사이트ir students. New technologies or economies of scale working across institutions allow third-party providers to provide resources that would o바카라사이트rwise be impossible or unaffordable. To support students, fix campus problems and solve some of today’s biggest challenges, it might be necessary to find some friends.
Michael A. Baston is president of Rockland Community College, US.
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