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"Making Connections: It's About Learning"
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Purpose of the Retreat: The Learning College Retreat offered faculty, staff, students and administrators another opportunity to share creative ideas concerning student learning and to brainstorm ways to foster a culture of learning at Montgomery College. The planning group, consisting of a cross-section of faculty, staff and administrators, worked to ensure that the retreat was a success. By all accounts, it achieved its objective. Despite being the day before a major holiday, a representative group of over one hundred and sixty faculty, staff, students, and administrators from the entire College were actively engaged in the morning's work. After breakfast and preliminary introductions, the day began with a total group sharing exercise, featuring presentations from faculty and staff who have received "Make It Happen!" Innovation Grants and students who had attended the Learning College Student Leadership Summit held the preceding Friday. Subsequently, small groups explored ideas and discussed specific practices that the College could adopt to broaden student involvement and achievement. The morning concluded with the entire group reassembling for a final debriefing. We finished the event by selecting an idea from a box of "top ideas" from each of the 16 groups. The winning group was Group G-8. Members will attend a conference during the ensuing academic year that focuses on learning or assessment. Ceil Coliton, team leader for Group G-8, will be working with her team to identify which conference(s) would be most advantageous in further developing an understanding of Learning College methodologies at MC. We have reviewed the comments made by the participants. Of the over one hundred and sixty participants, nearly seventy people returned their evaluation forms. This was an amazing response rate. We were very encouraged by the positive comments that were made. These were the themes that emerged from the evaluation forms: The general recommendations emanating from the whole group and small-group sessions should be publicized to the larger College community. General recommendations/ideas should be prioritized and implemented. Please review the attachment entitled, "Composite of Ideas," to have a complete listing of all of the ideas/recommendations. This will complement college wide discussions about formulating the most worthwhile strategies for serving our students. The Learning College Retreat was a resounding success because so many people at Montgomery College had the rare opportunity to share their perspectives on learning. We look forward to the participation of all members of the Montgomery College community at upcoming Learning College events. Sponsored by: Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic and Student Services and McLEARNS (a partnership between CPOD, CTL and Office of Vice President for Academic Initiatives & Partnerships ). |
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