“Getting a Clue: Linking Content, Activities, and Students in Composition and Orientation Courses”

Getting a Clue, a learning community (LC) linking 50 students in two sections of ENG 111 (College Composition I) and two sections of SDV 100 (Orientation), was first launched at my community college in the fall of 2009, as an effort to link the content and delivery of two essential introductory courses in our curriculum. Integrating of the best of face-to-face and online learning, Getting a Clue demonstrated how blogging, phase-two portfolios, and a class-wide wiki aimed at real-world audiences can solve curricular and pedagogical problems faced in first-year, community college instruction.

Getting a Clue, recently recognized with an Excellence in Education Award in Face-to-Face Teaching from the Virginia Community College System, has since become the signature LC at the college, replicated and scaled up to six sections in an effort to reach more than 150 entering students in the fall of 2010. As one of the project designers, I will present several key features of the model:

• Low-stakes, reflective blog prompts that started students thinking about their goals for college and life; • A student authored wiki — “Surviving Sarge: A Guide for Students by Students” (http://survivingsarge.pbworks.com) — where students learned to create, coordinate, and write for a real-world audience and offer advice to current and future students; • Phase-two portfolios where students documented what they learned for themselves and the LC faculty team; • Testimonials from students about what it meant to work collaboratively and to develop confidence in their student, life, and communication skill sets.