Over the past fifteen years learning communities have become widespread in higher education. The term learning community refers to a variety of ways of intentionally redesigning the curriculum by clustering or linking two or more courses, often around an interdisciplinary theme or problem. The growth of the learning community movement can be attributed to an increasing body of evidence suggesting that learning communities can effectively address a variety of issues at many different types of colleges and universities.

Learning communities are frequently built around partnerships between academic and student affairs, creating a venue where faculty and student affairs educators can collaborate, coordinate, and ultimately create new common ground for learning.

This publication explores learning communities and their potential through the lens of student affairs. Common points of involvement in learning communities by student affairs are examined and successful collaborative efforts at a variety of institutions are described in detail. These examples include several compelling stories of programs that have responded effectively to some of higher education’s most challenging populations: first generation students, non-traditional students and distance-learning students.