Frostburg State University
M E M O R A N D U M
Date: 17-Feb-1997 06:39pm GMT
From: David Griggs
D2PCGRIG
Dept: Lane Center
Tel No: (301) 687-4151
TO: Remote Addressee ( _service-learning@csf.Colorado.EDU )
Subject: Learning Communities
Hello to everyone on the list,
Here at Frostburg State University in western Maryland, we are creating
several different kinds of learning communities to be implemented in the Fall
1997 semester. At the present time, seven learning communities are being
created: 1) Financial Communications - Money Talk, 2) Leadership Development,
3) Culture, Communication and Community, 4) War and Peace in the Modern World,
5) Latino Student, 6) Frostburg's Global Village: An International Studies
Learning Community, and 7) Learning and Teaching.
In the "Learning and Teaching" learning community, we are working on
coordinating/integrating four different courses with service learning:
Freshman Composition, Introduction to Literature, General Psychology and
Introduction to Higher Education. Twenty-two incoming freshman will be
enrolled in this learning community with the FSU "READ TO SUCCEED!" program as
the main focal point to bring these classes together.
The Introduction to Higher Education course will provide the service
learning component by training students to become tutors for local K-8 grade
students, the General Psychology course will have students learn to identify
the necessary ingredients for literacy, while the English courses will develop
students' skills in describing their own experiences as well as their
appreciation for the written word.
Since we are beginning to develop these learning communities at FSU, we
are looking for various resources available to assist faculty members on
developing learning communities. We are searching for research on learning
communities and other books written on the topic of learning communities to
place on reserve in our library for interested faculty.
We are also trying to locate various kinds of evaluation instruments
other Universities have used when evaluating student behavior or student
satisfaction of learning communities. We have instruments for evaluating
faculty teaching, but we are in need of evaluating how students felt connected
to their respective learning community.
If anyone has any information on the subject of learning communities,
(especially those involving service learning), please write me back at the
e-mail address listed below.
Thank you in advance for your responses!
David Griggs
Asst. Director, Lane Center & Campus Activities
Center for Community Service Learning & Leadership
Frostburg State University
235 Lane Center
Frostburg, MD 21532
(301) 687-4151 (Office)
(301) 687-7049 (Fax)
E-mail: d2pcgrig@fra00.fsu.umd.edu