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SuccessNow
Forum
and
Online Magazine of Ideas
Success in 1st 15
Credit Hours
SuccessNow:
A Component of NEXUS
The purpose of the SuccessNow
Forum, an online magazine of ideas about how we can help students be successful
in their first 15 credit hours at Jefferson, exists to provide a forum for submitting,
sharing, and learning about the courses, forms of deliver of instruction,
student engaging pedagogies, student and academic support, policies,
teaching/learning opportunities, and successful partnerships. It is also a
forum for sharing what we would like to see or want to do to encourage student
success at
The intent of the magazine is to create a Faculty/Staff Community* of Learners who are
interested in the success of students within their first 15 credit hours.
The intent is also to create a means of communication for
those who want a place to have a voice in suggesting ideas.**
* Community: “Shaffer and Anundsen define community as a dynamic whole that emerges
when a group of people share common practices, are interdependent, make
decisions jointly, identify themselves with something larger than the sum of
their individual relationships, and make a long-term commitment to well-being
(their own, one another's, and the group's).”
** Avoiding the
Dialectic Dialogue of Dogmatic Diatribes
“WE HAVE LONG BEEN proponents of thoughtful dialogue on campuses
about key technology and education trends. Especially when it comes to doing
the hard work of targeting programs, practices and policies toward improving
learning, leaders should not only allow, but also engage these
conversations.
Left unchecked,
these conversations are too often dominated by loud voices. One set: the
"caustic cynics" -- fellow educators almost always against change, no
matter the issue or innovation, often to the point of irrationality. You can
probably trip the names of the caustic cynics off your tongue with little
effort. Another set of equally loud voices: the "true believers."
Zestfully supporting their cause, they'll scream from roof- tops to all who'll
give them audience, but most over-promise and under- deliver, cutting the
credibility of change initiatives.
To avoid this
all-too-common dialectic dialogue of dogmatic diatribes, leaders should create
meaningful conversation venues for the less-angry or innovation-enamored
educators who are just as concerned about the institution's welfare. This
develops a thoughtful and nimble college culture ready to take on key
challenges and new trends.” - By Mark David Milliron
and Dr. Steven Lee Johnson – June 2002