Teaching chemistry to nonscience majors is challenging because most students come to class with negative beliefs about chemistry. Those mindsets stem from their inaccurate prior knowledge of how chemistry relates to their daily lives. To address the issues and promote students' engagement in chemistry courses, we implemented ubiquitous biodiesel…

Placement exams are high-stakes assessments that determine many students' college trajectories. More than half of entering students at community colleges are placed into developmental education in at least one subject, based primarily on scores from these assessments, yet recent research fails to find evidence that placement into remediation…

A community college IT manager or director tries to keep business relationships at arm's length when he deals with hardware vendors. Possibly, he has little interaction with vendors, or if he does, maybe he prefers to simply bounce from vendor to vendor if service, support, or performance is disappointing. (In the minds of many IT managers, the…

This report presents the findings of exploratory research designed to identify the characteristics of the outsourcing of instruction at community colleges and the forces that promote or block its spread. It is the second in a series of reports by the National Center for Postsecondary Improvement and the Community College Research Center on the…

Finding the perfect vendor partner for any campus initiative takes more than patience and planning; it takes an open mind. In the case of the two institutions and their software initiative leaders profiled in this article, a careful assessment of need--coupled with a good deal of out-of-the-box thinking--led to innovative approaches to vendor…

Information technology (IT) presents community colleges with both powerful opportunities and formidable challenges. The prospects of expedited and more efficient business processes, greater student access through distance learning, improved communication, and strengthened relationships with students can embolden the most hesitant college…