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Freshman Engineering Living-Learning Communities at Virginia Tech

Abstract

Living-learning communities have been a part of higher education for many years. Research indicates that students who participate in living-learning communities report a more favorable college experience and are more likely to persist to graduation, to report fewer social problems, and to perform better academically. At Virginia Tech, there are currently two living- learning communities for freshman engineering students. Hypatia, now in its sixth year, currently houses 75 freshman women, and Galileo, in only its second year, houses 180 men. Of our fall 2006 incoming class (186 women and 1040 men), these programs serve 40% of the women and about 17% of the men. This paper presents our experience with engineering students who choose this type of on-campus living arrangement, including our findings on residents’ academic performance and persistence as compared to non-participating matching cohorts. We will also provide demographics of the residents, details on the required fall companion seminar course and the optional spring programming activities, and an overview of the challenges and successes of implementing a rather large living-learning community (Galileo) in the residence halls of a large university. Survey results on motivations to participate and on program satisfaction will be provided. Presented results will be offered in terms of the separate male and female communities, and in combined form when appropriate, so that distinctions between the communities can be noted and preserved.

Introduction

Learning Communities have long been part of higher education’s approaches to academic enrichment, and they have taken on many forms and versions as the years have passed.1-5 Such programs that have a residential component are typically called Living-Learning Communities, or LLCs, and usually involve housing the participants in the same residence hall or portion of a residence hall. The Experimental College, established at the University of Wisconsin in1927 by Alexander Meiklejohn and the first formally established learning community in higher education, was, in fact, a living-learning community that occupied a portion of Adams Hall for men.1 Today, the structure of learning communities, and the influence of structure on expected outcomes, is of great interest.2, 3 And, the flexibility in that structure to adapt to different implementations is recognized as a great strength of learning communities,5 allowing design for specific expected outcomes (e.g., diversity6). Perhaps one of the best testimonies to the formidable hold that learning communities, and living-learning communities in particular, have established in the reform of higher education is the Academic Village which is slated to open in fall 2007 at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado. The Village is a new facility that is to function as residential space for engineering students (~250) and faculty, and also is to contain College of Engineering faculty offices, classrooms, and laboratory space, and university dining facilities.7, 8 The current prevalence of “living learning communities” is easily made evident with a Google search on that combination of words, which pulls up a huge number of links to college campus initiatives across the United States and beyond. With such a web search,

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Kampe, J., & Edmister, W., & Stimpson, M., & Matanin, B., & Martin, A., & Brozina, C., & Watford, B. (2007, June), Freshman Engineering Living Learning Communities At Virginia Tech Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--2769