Living-learning Communities Research Articles

An identity-based learning community intervention enhances the lived experience and success of first-generation college students in the biological sciences

Working-class first-generation (FG) college students are underrepresented in higher education and STEM. Using a longitudinal quasi-experiment, we tested the impacts of a living learning community (LLC) in the biological sciences on FG students in their first year of college (Semester 1: N = 243; Semester 2: N = 199), across three cohorts (2018–2019, 2019–2020 and 2020–2021). Participation in the LLC enhanced FG students’ belonging, confidence, motivation, grades, knowledge of the social relevance of biology, and reduced STEM anxiety compared to a control group of FG students not in an LLC. LLC participation also increased retention in biological science majors one-year post-intervention compared to the control FG group. Moreover, LLC participation closed the academic gap between FG students in the LLC and honors students from college-educated families in a separate honors LLC. Benefits of the LLC intervention remained stable despite the COVID-19 pandemic, when living together became impossible, producing positive effects across cohorts from pre-pandemic to in-pandemic. Our results suggest that affinity-based learning communities—with or without shared housing—in the transition to college enhance academic thriving, persistence, and reduce social class driven achievement gaps in STEM.

“Pieces of My Soul”: A Humanistic Approach to Teaching Black-Identified Students about Race and Anti-Blackness

This teaching note reviews a four-part discussion post assignment that asks Black-identified students enrolled in a class connected to a Black living-learning community to make sociological and personal connections to concepts related to race, anti-Blackness, and institutional racism in Yaa Gyasi’s novel Homegoing. Reflecting on their posts, I share how using literary fiction in the classroom can support students’ development of a sociological imagination grounded in history’s missing voices and an intersectional and structural understanding of race and racism. Moreover, by making connections between the characters, their peers, and their own lives and sharing these connections via their discussion posts, students create a space of collective vulnerability where they can reflect simultaneously upon the dehumanizing aspects of anti-Blackness and assert their individual and collective humanity in the face of this oppressive force.

Dorm-preneurship as Entrepreneurial Living and Learning: An Educational Design Ethnography

Entrepreneurship residence halls/dorms have been appearing on more and more campuses, especially in the United States and Canada. However, there is a very thin knowledge base on which to construct and design these expensive campus facilities/programs. Sometimes called “dormcubators,” these facilities/programs are linked to both the university business incubation (UBI) and living-learning communities (LLC) movements. As a result, the design and delivery of these hybrid spaces/programs can be oriented toward achieving economic (i.e., starting companies), social (i.e., building communities), and/or educational (i.e., entrepreneurial learning) outcomes. Prior research on other kinds of post-secondary LLCs suggests that the intended outcomes are also likely accompanied by unintended negative consequences for students and faculty. To understand how various dorm-preneurship program designs have worked in practice, this paper applies an ‘educational design ethnography’ approach to four different residential entrepreneurship programs at the University of Waterloo, Canada. The key finding is that problems arise when dorm-preneurship programs lack any link to educational/curricular outcomes and focus only on economic objectives or social ones. Four design principles are developed to guide research and development of similar programs in other contexts.

Why Living in a Sport Management Learning Community Matters

Living learning communities (LLCs) improve students’ social connection and involvement through intentional planning and relationships with faculty and peers. This case study explored student experiences in a living learning community known as the Sport Management and Media Living Learning Community (SMM LLC) at Elon University. Informed by the research about best practice for living learning communities (Inkelas, et al., 2018) and the mattering of relationships (Felton & Lambert, 2020), the study explored students’ perceptions of living in the SMM LLC. The focus group and interviews revealed students’ experiences focused on the importance of relationships with faculty and peers that matter. The findings revealed two themes - the SMM LLC as a place to develop community and friendships and catalyst for involvement. The study offers implications and opportunities for future research and practice for why sport management faculty should implement LLCs at their university to enhance the student experience through an intentional engaged learning design.

Promoting student persistence and academic success: Implications for higher education institutions

There are numerous factors which have a role in impacting students' experiences at higher education institutions. The study's main objectives are to determine which support structures at institutions of higher learning promote a conducive environment for student success. Secondly, to explore activities that institutions of higher learning can consider when addressing the issue of academic success. The paper focuses on the Honors Living-Learning Community (HLLC) at Rutgers University – Newark (RU-N), New Jersey as a case study to examine how it successfully ensures its students' academic success. A self-report survey was conducted to examine the experiences of HLLC alumni to identify factors impacting students’ academic success. The 2018 to 2021 alumni at the Honors Living-Learning Community (HLLC) at Rutgers University – Newark (RU-N) were the population for this study. The study opted for the theoretical framework of Tinto and Pusser; two noted theorists on student success and persistence. The study's findings suggest that maintaining institutional commitment, enhancing academic and social support, diversifying the curriculum, implementing longitudinal assessments, investing in faculty development, and promoting alumni engagement as ways to improve the HLLC's impact on student success. By implementing the proposed recommendations, the HLLC can allow students to achieve academic success, grow personally, and positively impact their communities. The HLLC is a beacon of hope for higher education because it continues to shape students’ lives and ensure that students can attain their undergrade education within four years to help reduce the financial burden on all stakeholders in higher education.

Exploring the curriculum of the Honors Living-Learning Community at Rutgers university in Newark, New Jersey, and the perceived experiences of students as change agents

Higher education institutions are positioned to meet the rising need for students to become positive change agents. Change agents does not only benefit an individual but his/her community at large. The quality of a curriculum and it’s delivery to build and nurture skills are critical drivers of becoming a positive change agent. The 2016 and 2017 Honors Living-Learning Community (HLLC) at Rutgers University – Newark (RU-N), in Newark, New Jersey, was the population for this study. This is the first comprehensive study aimed to obtain the perceived experience of graduates since the origin of the program in 2015. A survey was conducted to evaluate the extent the curriculum contributes to skill enhancement to become change agents, and provide recommendations for the HLLC curriculum enhancement to prepare students to become change agents. A 5-point Likert scale ranking from not at all important to extremely important was included to determine the importance of the skills needed to be a change agent. The Cronbach alph of the survey was .87, revealing an excellent level of internal consistency among indicators of change agents outcome. The study findings revealed that the HLLC curriculum and resources prepared its students to become positive change agents. Students provided recommendations to enhance the HLLC curriculum. Other higher learning institutions may consider either creating or adopting similar curriculum structures and provide resources to equip students with the necessary skills or competencies to promote students’ perceptions to become change agents.

Estimating Differences in the Effects of Living–Learning Community Participation on Black Students' Sense of Belonging at Predominantly White and Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Estimating Differences in the Effects of Living–Learning Community Participation on Black Students' Sense of Belonging at Predominantly White and Historically Black Colleges and Universities

The perceived experience of students becoming positive change agents: A case of the Honors Living-Learning community program at Rutgers University - Newark

Studies have found that in higher education institutions in the United States of America, a variety of resources, student engagement, institutional practices, and other stakeholders contribute to students’ perceptions of becoming positive change agents. This project explores how the Honors Living-Learning Community (HLLC) program at Rutgers University-Newark (RUN), New Jersey capitalizes on resources, leadership, curriculum, and other strategies to promote students' perception to become positive change agents. Secondary research from a survey completed by the HLLC graduates was utilized for this project. As a descriptive study, survey responses were coded and evaluated to determine the HLLC’s impact on students’ perception on becoming positive change agents. The study found that the HLLC program at RUN successfully promotes students' perception to become positive change agents. The HLLC program achieves this through its curricular structure, which integrates academic rigor with community engagement, and a strong emphasis on leadership development. The HLLC’s success in developing positive change agents has practical implications for institutions of higher education. Other universities could consider replicating the HLLC 's unique curricular structure and community engagement strategies to promote leadership development and cultivate positive change agents among their graduates.

Libraries and Living Learning Communities: Exploring strategies for outreach and programming

Living Learning Communities (LLCs) are first-year student residence groups based on a shared academic focus, interest, or social identity. Key to LLC success is co-curricular engagement, which can be greatly aided by library involvement. Because much of the literature on library outreach to LLCs was published two decades ago, the authors conducted a survey of academic librarians in North America to learn about the prevalence of library/LLC partnerships today. The authors learned that at many institutions with LLCs, the library is involved or is planning to be involved in offering outreach or programing to LLCs. Outreach to LLCs is primarily instruction- and library services- based, and the mechanism for delivering outreach varies widely across institutions. Survey results show that most libraries who target LLCs for outreach believe their efforts are successful and that the greatest challenge in sustaining these efforts is staffing.

Living-Learning Communities in the First-year Engineering Experience

This exploratory study investigates the design and impacts of a curated Living-Learning Community (LLC) piloted at a large student residence for a large (1000+ student) first-year engineering design course. Alongside the live-in Faculty-in-Residence (FiR), the research includes surveying first-year engineering students participating in this program and understanding the impacts on the lived student experience, and student motivation. The first-year engineering design, teamwork, and communication course is central to engineering education at this large institution. The course offers opportunities for students to work in multidisciplinary teams, applying term knowledge to authentic engineering applications, in a problem-based learning environment. The goal of the LLC is to create opportunities for interaction and scaffolded connection between like-minded students taking similar courses and inspire learning within the students living environment; an entire floor of the Residence is assigned to be an LLC for the 2022 academic year, with support from the Don, ResLife Office, and the Faculty-in-Residence (an engineering faculty member). The purpose of this study is to observe and report on the student experience throughout the duration of the course. We aim to learn how participating in the Living-Learning community can affect the perception of confidence in students’ learning of course concepts, and inter-team relations. In order to do so, students will be surveyed at multiple check points throughout the semester. Furthermore, additional relevant information will be gathered from the Living-Learning Community Don, teaching assistants, and the course instructors. The outcome of this analysis has the potential to educate us on the positive and negative connotations that come along with close-quarters learning. The applications of the results found with this study can be vast, from influencing future residence programs and the first-year engineering education experience. This study focuses on the student’s perception of their experience. Understanding how the perception of manageability of workload [1] can affect student mental health leads the curiosity of how close-quarters learning can affect the student experience, to what degree, and how this understanding can help influence future programming. A positive experience that improves student confidence of understanding and course material has the potential to positively improve mental health and engagement in education; we hope that this research brings together the academic and lived-experiences of students through this work.

Living Learning Communities as Climate Change Pedagogy: Understanding the Impact of the Sustainable Living Experience on Climate Change Leadership among First Year Students

This study sought to understand the relationship of environmentally-themed Residential Learning Communities (RLCs) with aspects of Climate Change Leadership (CCL) among first-year college students. Two years of survey data were used to assess changes in CCL among students at the University of Michigan, including participants in an RLC known as the Sustainable Living Experience (SLE), neighboring residents, and students in other residence halls. Results showed greater increases in likelihood of reporting positive CCL outcomes for SLE participants, and in many cases also for neighboring students. These effects were often greater for SLE participants who are also underrepresented minority students. Findings indicated that the presence of an environmentally-themed RLC may be related to the development of CCL for neighboring students in addition to program participants. The study also observed campus-wide positive effects on several CCL outcomes after the first year of college, indicating that the campus environment and infrastructure itself can also be leveraged in support of student CCL outcomes.

Studying Abroad in Shanghai: Exploring How a Living-Learning Community Impacts Students’ Sociocultural Understandings of China

This is a qualitative case study that explored how a study abroad program based in Shanghai impacted five undergraduates’ sociocultural understandings of China. The purpose of this study was to analyze how the different elements of a living-learning community (LLC) influenced students’ preconceptions about their host country. One university’s international program seamlessly blended coursework, discussion, and travel experiences in order to encourage students to make deep connections between them. Results found that the immersive nature of the LLC led to a transformative and high-impact experience, in which students were able to develop and document their cognitive and behavioral growth over time and change their previously held biases about their host country.

A Model for Engaging Students, Faculty, and Communities in Social Action through a Community-Based Curriculum and Admissions Process—A Case Study of the Honors Living-Learning Community at Rutgers University—Newark

The Honors Living-Learning Community (HLLC) at Rutgers University–Newark (RU-N) pushes the boundaries of academia’s possibilities by placing community-engaged scholarship as a critical pillar of student success. Established in 2015, the HLLC is pursuing its triumvirate rallying call—“revolutionizing honors, cultivating talent, and engaging communities”. The HLLC brings together dynamic students passionate about social justice issues, Rutgers University-Newark faculty and staff, and community partners aiming to tackle some of the nation’s most urgent social issues. Pivoting on a curriculum structured around what it means to be a local citizen in a global world, the HLLC brings students and faculty members from every school and college at Rutgers-Newark together with community-based partners to operationalize authentic experiential learning. With its emphasis on social action and issues of inequality, the HLLC brings together the academic sphere and community-based organizations to design and implement projects and courses that promote social justice in the community and enact ameliorative changes based on shared passions and mutual interests. Through a multimodal approach grounded in literature and best practices, the HLLC is built intentionally from the ground up on high-impact practices for student success and the principles of full participation. This paper highlights the HLLC’s efforts to engage students and community members through community-engaged courses and programs to address issues such as inequity. Furthermore, the authors offer a model that actively moves beyond theory to practice-based initiatives within an honor’s academic context. Examples of the HLLC’s initiatives are presented to enhance the discourse around collective knowledge building and community-engaged research by highlighting student and community partner-led initiatives. Given the HLLC’s resolve to develop a national model, the paper dedicates special attention to pedagogy and programs.

Reframing Assumptions: Collegiate Peer Mentors’ Motivation to Lead

This study explored what motivated undergraduates to serve as peer mentors in a leadership-themed living-learning community. Using McClelland’s Acquired Needs Theory (1961) as the theoretical framework, we conducted a deductive content analysis to describe peer mentors’ motivation to lead. We found evidence of all three of McClelland’s identified needs categories, but noted the need for power as the most prevalent need behind the peer mentors’ motivation to lead. Peer mentors were struggling to reframe their conceptualization of power as something not solely viewed as a negative. The findings improve our understanding of peer mentors’ motivation to lead as part of their development as leaders.

Library outreach to Living Learning Communities: A case study

Living Learning Communities (LLCs), defined as “group[s] of students who live together in the same on-campus building and share similar academic interests,” have been proven to be successful in terms of increasing retention, improving GPAs, easing the transition to college, fostering a sense of community and belonging, and improving the student experience in general. In addition to grouping students in a residence hall and offering a shared learning experience, LLCs provide cocurricular learning activities for engagement with peers. Cocurricular learning activities take place outside of the classroom but complement what is learned within it. On campus, university libraries have long been thought of as key providers of cocurricular opportunities, offering programming such as faculty lectures, film screenings, game nights, and other research-based events.

The story circle as a practice of democratic, critical inquiry

The authors of this essay have been committed practitioners and teachers of Philosophy for Children in a variety of educational settings, from pre-schools through university doctoral programs and in adult community and religious education programs. The promotion of critical thinking has always been a primary goal of this movement. But communal practices of critical thinking need to include other kinds of democratic conversation that prompt us to see others as full-fledged persons and to be curious about how our being in community with them makes growth and self-correction possible. As we continue to experiment and innovate in new contexts we see ourselves continuing the inquiry around expanding the inclusivity of conversations about basic human concerns. In this essay we describe an inclusive strategy called the story circle, that was first developed as a method of popular education in Denmark and was then adapted as a tool of social change among poor and dis-empowered American citizens in Appalachia. Story circles were later utilized in a philosophical living-learning community and most recently coupled with Lipman and Sharp’s dialogue method of the community of philosophical inquiry (CPI). The authors of this paper have combined story circles with the community of philosophical inquiry in a variety of contexts. In each iteration, telling one’s own story and listening carefully to the stories of others can be equally revelatory actions.

Community is key: estimating the impact of living learning communities on college retention and GPA

ABSTRACT The retention of students is a challenge faced by many universities in countries where participation rates are high. Living learning communities (LLCs) have been adopted by college administrators to increase retention, even though evidence of their effectiveness is largely anecdotal. This paper uses propensity score matching to address selection bias and identify the causal effect of an LLC program on GPA and retention. Survival analysis (of the matched sample) is used to estimate retention over time. Results suggest that the LLC program has a positive and lasting effect on retention and a positive impact on GPA in the earlier college years.

Creating equitable access and opportunity: predictors of success for college freshmen who participate in a Living Learning Community

Abstract This study examines the relationship between student success measures on student achievement to inform our approach to mediating against potential barriers on persistence and retention for first generation and traditionally marginalized populations for students enrolled in a new Living Learning Community. Success measures examine those beyond the control of the university, including, but not limited to, High School GPA and ACT scores to determine where we should intervene and where we should build upon the strengths of our students. The theme of the PH LLC is Leadership Development and Career Exploration, a program that seeks to empower students by harnessing their individual strengths and capitalizing on them to be successful in college and beyond. The design of this program and its future prospects are also discussed.

All Are Welcome, Except You: Isolation in a Social Justice Community

All Are Welcome, Except You:Isolation in a Social Justice Community Jody E. Jessup-Anger (bio) and Courtney Howell (bio) Once considered by researchers to be an innovation in undergraduate education, living–learning communities (LLCs) exist today on many campuses throughout the US (Inkelas et al., 2018). In these communities, students live together, take part in shared academic experiences, and engage in cocurricular programming designed to enhance their learning (Inkelas & Soldner, 2011). A growing body of research (Inkelas et al., 2018) illustrates academic and involvement advances for students in LLCs. Overwhelmingly, the published research on LLCs illustrates positive gains, as evidenced by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U, 2007) naming learning communities a research-based high-impact practice. Despite the positive rhetoric about LLCs, Talburt and Boyles (2005) encouraged researchers to explore the potential of learning communities to alienate students. Drawing on their experience advising a learning community, the authors posited that the normative ideals of these communities may "take on a coercive, prescriptive tone rather than one that describes emerging identifications and purposes" (p. 216), and they encouraged researchers to examine the communities more critically. We address Talburt and Boyle's (2005) call for critical analysis empirically, through an in-depth exploration of one student, Sandra, who provided evidence contradict the notion that LLCs improve student engagement and outcomes. Sandra, who self-identified as an out-cast in a social justice–focused LLC, described painful feelings and experiences of isolation. Through our analysis, we learned about the ways in which she felt isolated within a community intentionally designed to support her. [End Page 242] METHOD Theoretical Framework For our larger study, we used a qualitative multiple-case study approach (Yin, 1984) and a constructivist epistemology (Broido & Manning, 2002). To focus on and make meaning of Sandra's experiences as an outlier case, and because of our desire to reexamine the conventional wisdom regarding LLCs as spaces where students thrive, we used frame analysis. Brandwein (2014) explained that a frame "refers to taken-for-granted assumptions and beliefs" that shape an individual's understanding of reality (p. 285). With a frame analysis researchers reconsider the dominant interpretation of reality in the face of new evidence. Data Sources The data for this article were drawn from a larger dataset exploring 36 students' understandings of social justice and LLC involvement across three social justice communities at three private, Catholic institutions (for details, see Jessup-Anger et al., 2020). We interviewed 11 students from the City University (CU) Social Justice Living–Learning Community (SJLLC). We chose to highlight Sandra's experiences, because her story stood in stark contrast to other students' positive experiences and troubled the prevailing assumptions about LLC environments as high impact. She was the only (self-described) outcast in our sample, so we were curious about her experience and wanted to delve further. Jessup-Anger conducted three 45-to-90-minute interviews with Sandra: the first and second at the end of the Fall and Spring semesters while she lived in the community and the third in the spring a year after she left the community. We also obtained Sandra's application to join the community, which included her expectations for the community and her rationale for joining. Finally, we examined the transcripts from the other 10 SJLLC students in our sample to see if their perspectives might shed any further light on Sandra's experiences. Setting SJLLC was a sophomore community dedicated to examining issues of social justice at CU, a large, highly residential, private, Catholic university in the Midwest. Students lived on two floors in a residence hall (one all-male and one all-female) and took two 3-credit courses together (a philosophy course in the fall and a theology course in the spring). They also participated in 3 hours of service-learning each week as part of their coursework. Their service-learning placements were self-chosen from a list of agencies provided by the office of service-learning. The assignments varied, but all LLC participants were placed in agencies working with adults, including recent immigrants, seniors, and those living with AIDS. Finally, students self-selected into peer interest groups to raise awareness about...

Impact of Providing a Living Learning Community for First-Year Pre-Pharmacy Students

Objective. To conduct a retrospective cohort pilot study to evaluate the impact of a living learning community (LLC) designed for undergraduate pre-pharmacy students interested in pursuing a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree program.Methods. Persistence, retention, and progression within the pre-pharmacy program, as well as grade point average (GPA) were measured for LLC students and their pre-pharmacy peers who did not participate in the LLC. Information was obtained from the university's data system and analyzed. Persistence was defined as the student continuing at the university from the fall to spring academic terms. Retention was defined as the student being enrolled at the university during a subsequent fall term. Progression was determined by whether the student had successfully completed the pre-pharmacy curriculum and began pharmacy school within two or three years of initial enrollment in the pre-pharmacy program.Results. Despite having admissions characteristics comparable to other pre-pharmacy students, students who participated in the LLC demonstrated significantly higher grade-point averages and retention than their peers who did not participate.Conclusion. Living learning community programs may be a valuable contributor to pre-pharmacy student success in terms of students' persistence, retention, and progression in a pre-pharmacy program.