The survey was designed to take a snapshot of the PLCs along two particular aspects. First, we were interested in finding out how a PLC was facilitated, such as its interaction modalities, its shared goals and objectives, the makeup of its members, and how it supported and helped the members learn and grow. Second, we were interested in finding out how specifically 2YC/4YC partnerships were maintained and strengthened as part of the PLCs, such as the intervention strategies, support mechanisms, best practices, and barriers.
From these responses, we see opportunities for forming cross-institution, project-wide PLCs on the following topics:
1. Help our partnering institutions without a PLC start one and produce a how-to guide on how to start a PLC
2. Investigate how goals of our existing PLCs translate into institutional or sustainable changes in our curricula, instructions, student learning, degree programs, and administration
3. Investigate how mentoring programs and cohort-building efforts have impacted the recruitment and retention of our students at our institutions
4. Investigate how articulation agreements have facilitated the student pipelines from 2YC to 4YC and produce a how-to guide for coming up with an articulation agreement
5. Investigate staffing issues and their impact on institutionalization of best practices
6. Investigate best practices in strengthening 2YC/4YC partnerships and produce a how-to guide on how to maintain an active and impactful partnership
7. Investigate barriers and issues when building and maintaining 2YC/4YC partnerships and produce a lessons-learned document on how to address them