Waubonsee CC Supporting Latinx and Adult Learners with Coaching, Credit for Prior Learning

In an effort to increase Latinx and adult learner enrollment and completion rates, Waubonsee Community College in Illinois is working with nonprofits InsideTrack and the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) to revamp its degree pathways and improve coaching and advising support for students. The five-year initiative is funded by a $3 million grant from the United States Department of Education.

The project will begin with "student journey mapping" sessions exploring the barriers to college access and success for Latinx students and working adults. InsideTrack's success coaches will help the college pinpoint the stages in the student journey where learners might go off-track and fine-tune its approaches to better engage and retain those students.

In addition, InsideTrack and CAEL will provide training for Waubonsee's advisers and staff to help them integrate student success coaching into their work, build and maintain a coaching program, and develop tools and processes to assess students' prior learning so that students can receive course credit, shorten their time to completion and save money. Advisers and admissions staff who complete the training will receive an InsideTrack-CAEL certification in best practices for supporting working adults and Latinx students.

"As the demographics of our communities and higher education continue to shift, it's critical that student support adapts to meet the needs of fast-growing student populations, including working adults and Latinx students," said Christine Sobek, president of Waubonsee Community College, in a statement. "This work is about better understanding the student journey — as adults, Latinx, and other historically excluded populations experience it — and transforming our approach to coaching, advising, and creating streamlined pathways to a degree or credential."

About the Author

Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • close-up illustration of a hand signing a legislative document

    California Passes AI Safety Legislation, Awaits Governor's Signature

    California lawmakers have overwhelmingly approved a bill that would impose new restrictions on AI technologies, potentially setting a national precedent for regulating the rapidly evolving field. The legislation, known as S.B. 1047, now heads to Governor Gavin Newsom's desk. He has until the end of September to decide whether to sign it into law.

  • Copilot Propels Microsoft to Lead Position in Analytics/BI Market

    A new Gartner report on the analytics/business intelligence market places Microsoft in the lead position of the field. The Redmond cloud giant stands apart and alone atop the axes for both the ability to execute and completeness of vision in Gartner's latest "Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms."

  • a stylized magnifying glass and a neural network pattern with interconnected nodes, symbolizing search and AI processes

    OpenAI Unveils SearchGPT AI-Powered Search Engine

    OpenAI has introduced SearchGPT, a new AI-powered search engine designed to access information from across the internet in real time. The much-anticipated prototype will provide more organized and meaningful search results by summarizing and contextualizing information rather than returning lists of links.

  • UMGC Officially Adopts InScribe's Student Community Platform

    The University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC), an offshoot of the University System of Maryland that focuses on hybrid and virtual courses for adult and military students, is officially committing to a university-wide rollout of InScribe's student networking platform.