Adjuncts continue to be an integral part of higher education; however, they are rarely onboarded at higher education institutions. Onboarding involves systematically introducing a new employee to an organization's values, processes, and procedures. For adjuncts, they also need formalized training in pedagogy. Without onboarding adjuncts, higher…

The work of instructional design in community college settings is woefully understudied. This study documents that work in three community colleges in the southeastern United States while placing it in the theoretical context of neoliberalism, and in line with that theoretical context, takes a post-structuralist stance in its methodological…

Research has illustrated the role visual design plays in effective communication and instruction. However, more research has yet to investigate how online course designers (i.e., anyone who designs online courses) add visual appeal to online courses. This study explored the visual design process in online course development. It examines how…

Prior to the Guided Pathways movement, a litany of research in community colleges showed that course placement was inaccurate and ineffective. This article argues that placement might be redesigned, addressing erroneous assumptions about student success in service of pathways. This new placement would integrate three main areas of student success…

This qualitative case study was conducted to understand the process learning center administrators used in the creation or remodeling of learning center spaces at a 2-year college system in the Midwest. Data were collected through interviews, which were transcribed and analyzed to conduct a within- and cross-case analysis. Four themes emerged from…

Leisure education is an important part of community development as well as citizen engagement, and can be offered through a wide-range of providers. Community colleges have historically played an important role in offering these programs, yet little documentation has reported how they are operated or structured. The purpose for conducting the…

Students' learning experience mainly depends on the knowledge and skills they learned in class. The objective of an interior design program is to teach students innovative design thinking and how to express their creative ideas. Students do individual and team assignments to learn relevant design cases and methods. The main teaching focus of…

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework has been shown to support instructors in the design of inclusive instructional learning environments. However, few studies have examined the effects of UDL professional development programmes for community college faculty and staff. The present study examined the effects of a four-day Universal…

This article explores the darker side of appeals to justice and social justice within liberal settings, particularly the US academy, where these terms are frequently mobilized to counter decolonial knowledge formations and aspirations. The authors draw from Frantz Fanon's critique of justice in colonial settings to demonstrate ways in which the…

The 21st-century global economy has significantly changed the landscape of the American workplace. Apprenticeship training programs are gaining momentum as a postsecondary training approach to fill growing worker shortages for industry-specific needs and prepare workers for new or expanding industries (Fitzpayne & Pollack, 2018; Freyer et al.,…

In higher education, a need is felt to redesign curricula to better prepare students for the evolving 'world of work'. The current exploratory study investigated first-year (N = 414) students' approaches to learning, well-being and perceptions of their learning environment in the context of an innovative educational concept: design-based…

The goal of this single-phase and convergent mixed methods study was to compare the differences in the effectiveness of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) presences of a community college blended block instructional model with the in-person counterpart. Data were gathered from the Community of Inquiry Survey, Blackboard LMS reports, and course…

California's community college students have limited housing options. When considering student housing, institutions of higher education must assess the need for funding, land availability, policy, zoning ordinances, nimbyism, liability, management, and student safety. Affordable housing, student housing, safe parking lots, and tiny homes are…

Institutions of higher education are expected by accrediting agencies to perform systematic monitoring of student learning and evaluate the effectiveness of programs of study and institutional operations to identify what needs improvement and then enact planned change to improve the institution; however, many struggle to make this connection. This…

This paper describes the master course design process at the largest institution of higher education in Colorado, USA. The master course design process demonstrated principles of backwards design and employed a team-based approach to course development. The course map was the primary vehicle for communicating the design of the course during…