Learning communities help students to make transition from secondary to postsecondary environment. Prevalent most among introductory writing, mathematics, and introductory survey courses. Learning communities help to change culture of an institution toward collaboration between academic and student affairs and among faculty in terms of shared teaching, syllabi, and student problems. Learning communities can in institutional partnerships, so the impact is not only on students but faculty, but also administrators and institutional culture. Student retention of content and institutional retention of students both improve within learning communities.
Students pursue group work and coordinated projects to develop skills beyond rote memorization.
Faculty learn more about students through extended interaction. Vincent Tinto, Pat Russo, Anne Goodsell, and Jean MacGregor have done several studies to illustrate the benefits of learning communities to student outcomes. Washington Center has a 1991 publication that outlines several assessment projects of learning communities. The National Center on Postsecondary Teaching Learning and Assessment performed a seris of studies on collaborative learning, including learning communities. Some faculty resist teaching classes in residence halls, team-teaching or working collaboratively.