President Obama wants it. Billionaire business mogul turned philanthropist Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, say it's key to the nation's economic future. But are America's colleges really poised to regain the world lead in college graduates by 2020? Doing so would require adding an additional 5 million graduates during the next decade--a lofty…

Contends that community colleges need to move from the comfort of the instruction paradigm to that of the learning paradigm for the next century. Asserts that a curriculum based on learner outcomes can be created with the aid of new technology and well-trained faculty. Proposes suggestions for making the transformation to become a learner-centered…

Presents Pedro Hernandez-Ramos's thoughts on Educom's Instructional Management Systems (IMS), a global coalition of organizations working together to create standards for software development in distributed learning. Focuses on the organization's relevance to community colleges, the benefits of participation, why IMS is a global effort, and how…

Defines contextual learning, or presenting new information to students in familiar contexts. Argues that community colleges must be ready for an anticipated increase in contextual learners due to its use in tech prep programs. Describes elements of contextual learning, its application in the classroom, and ways that colleges can prepare for…

Addresses the issue of student engagement in education. Suggests that reasons behind high dropout rates for first-year students may include the college's adherence to the traditional learning paradigm that characterizes the student as a passive learner. Urges institutions to move toward learning through engagement. (NB)

Describes the teaching methods used by Hinds Community College in developing a computer-based, two-year academic degree in Criminal Justice for the Marine Corps' Satellite Education Network (MCSEN). Demonstrates a valuable asset of distance learning, which is flexibility for those students whose jobs often require them to be mobile. (VWC)

Describes Forsyth Technical Community College's (North Carolina) implementation of a four-week "Teaching with Technology" workshop to train its faculty to better understand how technology affects teaching and students' learning. After providing an introduction to the available technologies, the course allowed each instructor to prepare materials…

A study funded by the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education (Benson, Johnson, Taylor, Treat, Shinkareva, & Duncan, 2004) investigated the course structures and environments used for online career and technical education (CTE) courses and compared their effectiveness to equivalent campus-based courses in terms of the extent to…