Type of Presentation
Poster Session
Conference Strand
Diversity and Inclusion
Target Audience
Higher Education
Second Target Audience
Higher Education
Location
Common Area
Relevance
This project exposed Freshman Composition students to the process of creating a digital media product, which was designed and produced by the Digital Media students. It also provided an opportunity for Digital Media students to apply the skills of information technology to create a meaningful final product.
Proposal
Studies have shown that Learning Communities have many benefits, including “[f]ostering workforce skills, encouraging problem-solving skills, and increasing retention and success” for both faculty and students (Dodge and Kendall, College Teaching, 2004). In this project, we created an interdisciplinary Learning Community Project that allowed a Freshman Composition (FC) course to pair with a Digital Media (DM) course (Sophomore students) for students to work on a mini magazine. Students in FC were writers whose tasks focusing on writing and researching, whereas students in DM were copy editors whose tasks focusing on graphic design and layout. The goal was for students to collaborate in a learning community to improve student engagement and increase retention.
According to a study by Wenwen Cao and Zonggen Yu, “learning communities possess the capacity to enhance communication, motivation, and learning outcomes, while simultaneously alleviating learner anxiety.” (Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, 2023) Building the student learning communities can also “provide students with a structured way to solve problems, share insight, and help one another continually develop new skills and expertise (Fisher et. al, Student Learning Communities: A Springboard for Academic and Social-Emotional Development, 2021). This concept has been supported by our institute at Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC), from offering Block Schedule to incoming freshman to creating Learning Community Courses to students at large. However, there have been challenges. For example, students tend to change schedules during drop/add period, making it difficult to keep the same group of students in the same Block Schedule or Learning Communities. There are also challenges on faculty’s side, such as they were assigned in groups they had requested, they were left out, they were assigned to teach non-LC course, or they shared only a handful of students.
This project created flexibility to overcome these challenges but also provided a unique opportunity for freshmen students to interact with experienced students. While working on the project together, we hoped they could form an LC where the DM students would share their college experience with the freshman students and, therefore, socially and academically engage with each other. As a result, the LC could lead to a stronger bonding with the college for both groups and, therefore, further improve the retention rate.
Short Description
Creating a flexible Learning Community to engage first/second-year students in Freshman Composition and Digital Media courses could benefit not only students in their retention rate but also instructors in their challenges in interdisciplinary collaborations. It also cultivated creativity for students in both courses.
Keywords
Interdisciplinary Learning Community, Technology, Writing, Student Engagement
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Huang, Hsi-Ling and Xu, Xin, "Engaging Students with Interdisciplinary Learning Community Project for Freshman Composition and Digital Media Students" (2025). Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy. 16.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gaintlit/2025/2025/16
Included in
Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Information Literacy Commons, Other English Language and Literature Commons
Engaging Students with Interdisciplinary Learning Community Project for Freshman Composition and Digital Media Students
Common Area
Studies have shown that Learning Communities have many benefits, including “[f]ostering workforce skills, encouraging problem-solving skills, and increasing retention and success” for both faculty and students (Dodge and Kendall, College Teaching, 2004). In this project, we created an interdisciplinary Learning Community Project that allowed a Freshman Composition (FC) course to pair with a Digital Media (DM) course (Sophomore students) for students to work on a mini magazine. Students in FC were writers whose tasks focusing on writing and researching, whereas students in DM were copy editors whose tasks focusing on graphic design and layout. The goal was for students to collaborate in a learning community to improve student engagement and increase retention.
According to a study by Wenwen Cao and Zonggen Yu, “learning communities possess the capacity to enhance communication, motivation, and learning outcomes, while simultaneously alleviating learner anxiety.” (Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, 2023) Building the student learning communities can also “provide students with a structured way to solve problems, share insight, and help one another continually develop new skills and expertise (Fisher et. al, Student Learning Communities: A Springboard for Academic and Social-Emotional Development, 2021). This concept has been supported by our institute at Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC), from offering Block Schedule to incoming freshman to creating Learning Community Courses to students at large. However, there have been challenges. For example, students tend to change schedules during drop/add period, making it difficult to keep the same group of students in the same Block Schedule or Learning Communities. There are also challenges on faculty’s side, such as they were assigned in groups they had requested, they were left out, they were assigned to teach non-LC course, or they shared only a handful of students.
This project created flexibility to overcome these challenges but also provided a unique opportunity for freshmen students to interact with experienced students. While working on the project together, we hoped they could form an LC where the DM students would share their college experience with the freshman students and, therefore, socially and academically engage with each other. As a result, the LC could lead to a stronger bonding with the college for both groups and, therefore, further improve the retention rate.
