Progress to Date on Objectives: Management Objective D |
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SCC will disseminate project activities, progress, and results as well as best practices related to learning-centered education among partners and community colleges at-large. Two key dissemination forums will be established: a Web site and a project newsletter. In addition to these special dissemination opportunities, the College will distribute information through established forums including regional, national, and international conferences, professional publications, and other media. To date, SCC has disseminated project activities and results in the following ways: A QEP Web site was launched in July, 2003, as a key forum for distributing project activities, progress, outcomes, and related resources to all stakeholders. The Exchange, the QEP newsletter, reports on the progress of the Initiative and spotlights learning-centered practices of SCC faculty and staff. The League for Innovation published a Learning Abstract
describing the SCC Learning Initiative: “Toward a New Way
of Thinking and Learning: Becoming a Learning College,” September,
2003, Volume 6, Number 10. The article was written by the Initiative’s
co-directors, Steve Atkins and Connie Wolfe, and can be accessed
online at: On December, 7, 2003, a team of CISL members presented the SCC Learning Initiative in a concurrent session at the 108th Annual Meeting of the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in Nashville. The session was titled “Developing an Integrated Quality Enhancement Plan.” A description of the session is as follows: “Among the first group of colleges to be reviewed under the Principles, Surry Community College has welcomed the new accreditation process viewing it as an opportunity to create a comprehensive, fully-integrated improvement plan. During this interactive discussion, SCC’s leadership team will present an in-depth description of the College’s QEP. The audience will be involved in the discussion, creating a list of challenges their institutions may face in crafting a QEP, and addressing these challenges to the panel. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of how to facilitate the process.” On December 8, 2003, at the SACS/COC Annual Meeting, Dr. Atkins led a roundtable discussion on Surry’s Learning Initiative. John Brame, Director of Planning and Institutional Research, published an article in CCSSE’s national publication, CCSSE Highlights (Vol. 3, Issue 1), outlining Surry’s use of the survey in the Quality Enhancement Plan: “Using CCSSE to Respond to an Accreditation Agency: The Surry Community College Engagement Story.” The article specifically explains how Surry is using the survey results to improve student learning. The College’s public information officer, Ms. Sue Jarvis, published an article on June 4, 2003, in the local paper, the Mt. Airy News, titled “Surry Community College Uses Results of Community College Survey of Student Engagement to Improve Educational Practices.” Former Mt. Airy News reporter Caroline Beamer submitted an extensive article to the News, as well as to newspapers in the surrounding counties, describing the critical thinking workshops conducted at Surry by Dr. Linda Elder. The article also introduced the Initiative to the public. In the summer of 2003, both the Elkin and Mount Airy papers ran stories on SCC’s Learning Initiative. At the League for Innovation’s 2004 annual conference in San Francisco, several CISL members will present the following learning-focused workshops and roundtables:
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