Collaborative leadership is becoming more common in community colleges and other organizations, replacing traditional top-down approaches to management—and for good reasons. In leveraging the ideas of a broad range of people, collaborative leadership often leads to innovative methods. It also boosts employee morale, as team members feel a greater sense of satisfaction when they have […]

When I began my career in 1978 as an adjunct faculty member and counselor at Cedar Valley College in southern Dallas County, Texas, higher education was profoundly different than it is today, but it was beginning a period of immense change and transformation. Fall enrollment at colleges and universities nationwide was about 11.3 million students, compared to […]

You are not alone!  Spoken in a sinister whisper these words could strike fear into the hearts of horror movie characters.  But spoken by a colleague they are an assurance that help is forthcoming. Connecting practitioners to share best practices is central to the mission of the Instructional Technology Council (ITC).  However, these connections can […]

Twenty months ago, Covid-19 flipped our worlds and drove us to rely even more on digital technologies to communicate, learn, work, shop and stay connected. During the early months of the pandemic, higher education moved to mostly remote learning, making digital tools and technology more critical than ever. Now, even as college campuses open more […]

Predicting the future doesn’t require a crystal ball. By looking for signals and disruptors – and using some creative thinking – MiraCosta College is building a futures framework to shape the next 15 years and beyond. The California college is working to train staff, students and board members to think like futurists. The college’s core […]

There is no doubt that the Covid pandemic has resulted in a myriad of leadership lessons for community college presidents and governing boards across the nation. At Rogue Community College (RCC), located in southern Oregon, the lessons we learned from our facilities master planning provided college leadership with critical tools for coping with budgetary challenges […]

Culture is one of the most critical, and often least clearly communicated, forces in achieving institutional priorities. Organizational culture is commonly understood as the way people in an organization go about their daily activities and interpersonal interactions. These seemingly benign daily moments ultimately become the shared norm and determine to the organization’s success. What often […]

Maryland’s Hagerstown Community College (HCC) moved to distance learning last spring while already midway through a learning management system transfer. The college has invested heavily in training around the technical elements of teaching online, says Linda Cornwell, coordinator of the Fletcher Faculty Development Center. “That was absolutely necessary to help people understand that online is […]