Two-Year Community: Community College Students Rise to the Challenge—Meeting the Time Demands of Highly Structured Courses

Abstract

High-structure course designs have reduced achievement gaps for low-income and underrepresented minority students at research universities. But do community college students have time to do the preclass preparation required for intensive active learning, given their work and family commitments? We asked introductory majors biology students at two community colleges, a regional comprehensive university, and a research university (R1) in two states to report the number of hours spent on various activities each week. Our sample included one low-structure and one high-structure course at each institution type. Community college students reported higher levels of nonacademic time commitments than students at the regional comprehensives and the R1s. The community college students in both states reported spending the same amount of time studying for their biology course as the students at the R1s; in one state, the community college students were spending more time studying than the students at the comprehensive university. Our data show that community college students commit as much time to biology as other students, demonstrating that they can readily meet the time demands of a high-structure course.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Scott Freeman

Scott Freeman ([email protected]) is lecturer emeritus in the Department of Biology at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington.

Pamela Pape-Lindstrom

Pamela PapeLindstrom is dean of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics at Harford Community College in Bel Air, Maryland.

Anne Casper

Anne Casper is professor in the Department of Biology at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Sarah Eddy

Sarah Eddy is assistant professor in biology and the STEM Transformation Institute at Florida International University in Miami, Florida.