Project Description
Rationale for our Learning College Project
SCC Learning Outcomes
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The Surry Community College Learning Initiative:

Creating a Learning-centered College by Improving Student Engagement through
Critical Thinking, Assessing Learning Outcomes, And Reforming Organizational Culture

The SCC Learning Initiative is an ambitious project weaving together several strands: the learning college paradigm, student engagement, critical thinking, learning outcomes assessment, and college culture. This comprehensive plan is meant to permeate every College policy, program, and practice, so that learning becomes the major priority of the College in word and deed. Humber College of Toronto, one of the twelve Vanguard Colleges identified by the League for Innovation as excellent models of learning-centered institutions, has identified two “essential questions” for the learning college: “Does this action contribute to learning at our college?” and “How do we know this action contributes to learning at our college?” Surry will attempt to apply those questions to every aspect of the institution and use the answers to engender significant, lasting change.

Most importantly, the Initiative is meant to take root in each classroom, with the goal that every student is given every opportunity to fully engage in learning. The Initiative's critical thinking focus encourages students to actively engage in tasks of intellectual complexity and to take responsibility for their learning. Establishing college-wide learning outcomes and assessing those outcomes via the Institutional Portfolio model facilitates cohesion among college programs as all divisions work toward improving students' critical thinking, communication, reading, technological, quantitative reasoning, and social skills.

The SCC Learning Initiative is intended to trigger authentic change. This kind of change creates new challenges for the College: the challenge of reforming culture and practices, the challenge of acknowledging and revising strategies that do not engage students in learning, and the challenge of rethinking old and often cherished approaches to teaching and learning. Some will find (and have found) this threatening, but Surry’s leaders are committed to communication and collaboration across campus, creating a dialogue where many voices are heard and that encourages creative responses to the Initiative.

The leaders of the SCC Learning Initiative see the accreditation process as an opportunity, not a threat, welcoming the challenge of creating a premier learning institution for the 21st century. The job of the SCC Learning Initiative team will be to involve the entire community in order to decide on specific strategies for best fit in our own environment. The specific objectives we have been working on can be found on this site's objectives page. Our strategies for achieving these objectives, of course, will be unique. In all cases we hope to make them best fits for us and models that other colleges may find useful.