WELCOME TO THE FIRST YEAR
First-Year Learning Communities
Learning Communities: Committed to Education
From the DUGS website: By definition, learning communities involve the linking of "two or more courses, often around an interdisciplinary theme or problem, and enroll a common cohort of students” (Smith, MacGregor, Matthews, & Gabelnick, 2004, p. 67). All full-time first-year students are required to take a learning community during their first two semesters to ease the transition to the university.
Each learning community at TAMUCC has at its core a small First-Year Seminar (UCCP 1101 or 1102) class and at least one other course that typically is a large lecture course, but the structure and courses can vary widely due to students' needs. Classes in the community are restricted to first-year students and are made co-requisites, so all students in the learning community are at the same place in their college experience. The smaller courses are limited to 20-25 students, and the same 20-25 students attend all these classes together, forming a social and intellectual learning community. These cohorts form close relationships that frequently last far beyond the first year of college.
