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.
Learning communities evolved out of the concept of living and learning environments. Learning contracts took the place of grades, allowing students to make an agreement of what they would pursue through a course, and instructors the opportunity to provide more in-depth evaluation of student work at the end of the course. A Dream Falls on Hard Times. Building Connections among Disciplines, Students and Faculty. New Directions in Teaching and Learning, 41.