Johnson County Community College (JCCC) provides students with extensive academic support services that continue to develop to meet their needs. What follows is an overview of the services offered through JCCC’s Academic Support division, and how each program works toward a single goal of student success.

Academic Resource Center

The Academic Resource Center (ARC) offers academic support for all students in JCCC courses, including concurrent enrollment, as well as study spaces and a café. Located in a newly remodeled space in the library building since summer 2020 as part of the Facilities Master Plan (Johnson County Community College, 2016), the center includes five content-specific resource centers focused on subject areas taught at JCCC. For student experience consistency, the ARC uses common tutoring management systems across all the centers, which makes for easier cross-center referral. The guiding principle is the centralization of academic support services for students. The following centers are part of the ARC.

Academic Achievement Center

The Academic Achievement Center (AAC) provides study skills, time management, tutoring for all course subject areas not covered by the other academic resource centers, and Smart Start sessions—short academic orientations that teach students how to manage their study schedule and navigate JCCC. Subject areas include accounting, animation, art, art history, business and management, communications, computer desktop publishing, computer information systems, computer science, computer support specialist, drafting, economics, education, English for academic purposes, film and media studies, game development, history, industrial technology, information technology, law, music, process, psychology, sociology, theater, and web development. The AAC also manages the following initiatives to support specific groups of students:

1. Providing educational academic integrity remediation for students going through a student conduct process due to reported academic misconduct issues.
2. Coordinating the academic alerts process, which manages concerns related to a student’s academic performance and connects them to academic resources.
3. Facilitating the wraparound support program for academically at-risk students in concert with Academic Advising and Counseling and other support areas at JCCC.

Language Resource, Math Resource, Science Resource, and Writing Centers

The ARC’s Language Resource Center provides tutoring in American Sign Language and foreign languages. Subject areas covered include ASL, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish. The Math Resource Center provides math tutoring and calculator rentals for students in any JCCC course as well as math learning strategies coaching.

The Science Resource Center provides science and healthcare course tutoring, a lab space with resources to carry out simple experiments and demonstrations, anatomy and biology models for use in the center, and equipment (e.g., microscopes and slides, scientific calculators) for student checkout. Subject areas covered include anatomy and physiology, biology, chemistry and physical science, physics and physical science, geology and physical geography, world regional geography and human geography, nursing, and emergency medical science. The Science Resource Center also co-administers a National Science Foundation Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) grant program along with the Math department.

Finally, the Writing Center:

1. Provides writing tutoring focused on supporting students in any JCCC course at any point in the writing process;
2. Supports faculty through conversations about writing assignments and in-class workshops;
3. Has been involved in JCCC’s ChatGPT/Artificial Intelligence taskforces;
4. Co-hosts the annual Greater Kansas City Writing Center Project Conference at JCCC, together with several other area colleges and universities; and
5. Manages the shared study space in the ARC.

Many students have had notable success using the Academic Resource Center. One student became visually impaired in his 40s and returned to JCCC for an associate’s degree. He did an honors project that highlighted the lack of adaptive technology in local and national archives, and worked with ARC tutors throughout his JCCC journey. He has also worked as an assistive technology intern in the center. Another student was a truck driver who returned to JCCC and began Certified Nurse Aide coursework while completing her GED. She used every available resource in the ARC to help with general college skills and course-specific content. She was accepted into a practical nursing program. A third was an Ethiopian student who transferred to JCCC and became a leader in the Student Senate, JCCC Student Leadership program, Model United Nations, Black Student Union, and Phi Theta Kappa (PTK). She was an employee in the ARC and also used its services as a student. She has transferred to a four-year institution to pursue pre-medical education.

JCCC students study in the library

Library Services

Library Services provides resources ranging from recreational reading to traditional resources for research, such as academic databases, research guides, and academic books. The library also:

• Has course reserves, which are textbooks that professors allow students to check out for free.
• Supports faculty who develop and implement open education resources.
• Is involved in JCCC’s ChatGPT/Artificial Intelligence taskforces.
• Offers librarian-led lessons on research for classes, upon request from instructors.
• Has a satellite study space—Cav Central—located near the Student Center.

Many students attend library research workshops every year, building their research and source evaluation skills. In addition to workshop support, instructional videos, tutorials, and resource websites, students can request help from librarians on topic selection, library database support, and utilization of library tools. Finally, the college archives hold records and artifacts documenting JCCC’s organizational history. The archives are available to those who request or research official documents addressing past or ongoing institutional activities.

Collaboration Center

The Collaboration Center (CoLab) provides resources that help students, faculty, and community partners create collaborative, interdisciplinary, experiential learning opportunities. Students apply what they learn to develop strong interpersonal and communication skills. The CoLab has a self-service podcasting space, a professional photobooth, and a motion capture studio. The lab also encourages students and faculty to network with area businesses and community organizations through the JCCC Student Agency, which connects area small businesses and not-for-profit organizations with students who can provide creative services such as website design, videos, branding, and social media, along with grant writing, statistical analysis, and other work. With the guidance of faculty mentors, students work with clients to determine their needs and develop a final product. These clients receive professional deliverables and students gain real-world experience, build a portfolio, and make connections. The client fee pays the students and faculty for their work.

Credit Programs

Research shows that students who take learning strategies courses are more likely to succeed (Denton et al, 1988; Kimbark et al, 2017; Mann, 2018; Karp et al., 2017). In addition to support outside the classroom, JCCC’s academic support model includes credit courses dedicated to student success.

College Success

The College Success credit department offers career-focused courses, a college success course, and learning strategies courses as well as a Designing Your Life course and an Experiential Career Practicum. The department also provides Transition Into Postsecondary Studies courses for college-bound high school seniors with an IEP or 504 plan so that they can experience college with extra support and encouragement. In addition, the College Success Strategies course is offered as an alternative to academic suspension. Students may appeal for a Success Opportunity Semester; those who are approved will be allowed to enroll again at JCCC before the suspension period has ended.

Reading

The Reading department offers the following credit-bearing courses: Academic Reading, College Reading Skills, and Reading Effectively Across Disciplines. The Reading faculty also provide free reading specialist services for any JCCC student struggling to comprehend course materials, navigate technology such as Canvas, or understand course assignments. Examples of strategies and skills targeted include taking notes and annotating, strategic reading and studying, organizing textbook information, analyzing assignments, and using critical thinking skills while reading.

Honors

The Honors program supports academically motivated students across majors through a strong community, challenging coursework, and cocurricular experiences. Honors students are supported as they prepare for competitive scholarships and aspirational transfer schools in a manner that takes the whole student into consideration. The program also houses High Impact Practices office, which focuses on service learning and supporting faculty and students participating in the experience. Additionally, the Honors program facilitates the PTK honor society, which offers student opportunities for service, leadership, transfer scholarships, career readiness, networking, and building connections with peers, and helps students transfer to a four-year school.

International Education

The International Education office provides resources to internationalize the campus and courses. Internationalization includes embedding content—assignments, guest speakers, course modules, events, and activities that are intentionally designed, and virtual exchanges developed with international partner institutions—into courses. International Education also offers the Global Awareness program, which leverages students' learning of cultural and societal issues, improves their ability to work with people from other cultures, and helps them gain a greater intercultural competency. Additionally, study abroad opportunities—both shorter term faculty-led experiences and longer term programs—provide students with international experiences. There is an annual Intercultural Retreat for students as well. Finally, the office oversees federal grant opportunities such as the Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language program, in concert with Grants Development and Foreign Languages, to strengthen internationalization of the curriculum.

Kansas Studies Institute

The Kansas Studies Institute (KSI) promotes research and teaching on the culture, history, economics, and natural environment of Kansas. KSI fulfills this mission through educating the JCCC community about Kansas studies with programming and collaborations, and by engaging in community partnerships to advance related research and teaching. One example of this work is the collaboration with JCCC's Veterans and Military Services to record veterans' oral histories. This project creates sources that can be used in courses and by researchers. Annual panel discussions with veterans also enhance student learning and engagement with our veteran community. Another example is KSI's collaboration with Kansas State University's Chapman Center for Rural Studies' Kansas Land Treaties Project, which annotates all of the federal treaties with the Kaw Nation, the people for whom our state is named. This project was awarded a 2024 National Endowment for the Humanities grant and will develop open access resources for faculty to use in courses.

Educational Technology Center

To support student success in digital and in-person learning environments, the Educational Technology Center (ETC) assists faculty in developing and incorporating instructional technologies into curricula. Educational Technology and Distance Learning provides faculty support for instructional technologies including the Canvas learning management system and the YuJa media management system; a lightboard recording studio for instructors; and a MakerLab for instruction-related projects and fabrication used by students, faculty, and staff. The center offers training and workshops for faculty along with access to a variety of instructional equipment. The ETC also supports initiatives such as managing the process to assess Regular and Substantive Interaction in distance learning.

Students gain experience via a medical simulation

Video Services

Video Services supports learning through instructional videos, live streams/feeds, healthcare simulations, location and studio recordings, classroom lectures, presentations, events, and assisting Journalism program students working in the video production studios. Their efforts support the entire campus and provide critical hands-on experience for student learning.

Academic Support Services Model Summary

Johnson County Community College provides students with a wide range of academic support services managed by a centralized division. This model allows for oversight of support resources while empowering each program to uniquely serve students as they work toward their educational goals.

References

Denton, P. H., Seybert, J. A., & Franklin, E. L. (1988). Ideas in practice: A content-based learning strategies program. Journal of Developmental Education, 11(3), 20-24.

Johnson County Community College. (2016). Facilities Master Plan. https://www.jccc.edu/about/leadership-governance/administration/_files/jccc-facilities-master-plan-report.pdf

Karp, M. M., Raufman, J., Efthimiou, C., & Ritze, N. (2017). Revising a college 101 course for sustained impact: Early outcomes. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 41(1), 42-55.

Kimbark, K., Peters, M. L., & Richardson, T. (2017). Effectiveness of the student success course on persistence, retention, academic achievement, and student engagement. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 41(2), 124138.

Mann, V. S. K. (2018). The effect of a learning strategies success course on community college student academic success (Order No. 11017765). [Doctoral dissertation, Baker University]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.

Lead image: Students working with a tutor in the Academic Resource Center

Vincent Miller is Dean, Academic Support, at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas.