| Abstract: |
After two years of operation, North Carolina's Teaching and Learning Hubs have grown substantially, broadening participation by faculty in particular, and demonstrating improvements in course success rates. By implementing the Hubs as a statewide model for delivering professional learning (PL) to faculty and building regional capacity, it is expected that faculty will apply what they have learned to their course content and delivery methods, resulting in improved academic outcomes for students. To understand this theory of change, evaluation and learning partners at DVP-PRAXIS LTD are conducting a multi-year mixed methods study of the Hubs. This second-year report of the Teaching and Learning Hubs documents the growth of the Hubs, in terms of geographic reach, participation by faculty and staff, and the diversity of sessions and participants. In addition, this report shares the emergent evidence on the relationship between faculty participation in PL and course success rates, as a preliminary investigation into the effect of the Hubs on equitable student outcomes in North Carolina. This report uses registration data from PL sessions and administrative data on faculty, courses, and students provided by the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) to reveal that the number of individuals engaging in Hub-offered PL has nearly tripled, resulting in Hub-trained instructors teaching more than 8,500 courses and reaching more than 74,000 students--many of whom are low income, first-time, adult learners, and students of color. Preliminary evidence points to the positive and statistically significant relationship between engagement in Hub-offered PL and increased course pass rates, on average. [This document was created in partnership with the North Carolina Student Success Center.] |