Innovation Journal Authors are authors from the Montgomery College Community (Faculty, Staff, Students, or Community Members) who are passionate about innovation in higher education.
Dr. Pollard and Montgomery College Innovation Works (MCIW) will host a forum on the link between diversity and innovation on February 16, 2016. The forum will be an engaging discussion of how diversity makes us smarter, more capable, and more cognitively complex. Dr. Pollard will welcome “Unlocking the Potential of Diversity” – Dr. Oscar Holmes, IV, Assistant Professor […]
By Professor Elizabeth M. Benton, Chair, Rockville English Department and Professor Rebecca Eggenschwiler, Collegewide Coordinator, PACE Program The Montgomery College English and Reading Department launched an innovative pilot program in spring 2012, called Program for the Advancement to College English (PACE), to change the trajectory of developmental student completion in college-level English courses. Since the program’s […]
By Dr. Michael Mills, Vice President of E-Learning, Innovation and Teaching Excellence, Montgomery College Researchers at the University of California-Davis recently released a study that revealed community college students throughout California were 11 percent less likely to pass an online course than a face-to-face version of the same class. At Montgomery College, we see a […]
By Dr. DeRionne P. Pollard, President, Montgomery College Almost eight years, ago The New York Times published a piece on a “new destination” for high-achievers: community colleges. The irony was not lost of those of us who have known about community colleges for decades, but Montgomery College was proud to be among 11 institutions profiled […]
Call for Submissions During the Spring 2015 President’s Innovation Forum, Dr. MJ Bishop, Director of the Center for Academic Innovation at the University of Maryland System, explained that there are changing priorities ahead for higher education. She introduced us to the iron triangle of access, affordability, and outcomes, and she challenged us to consider how […]
By Emily Rosado Why a MOOC? In the Fall 2013 semester, I had the privilege of teaching Montgomery College’s first ever Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), Get Ready for College English. It was the first MOOC offered by a community college in the state of Maryland. The idea for this project was born out of […]
By Cindy McCormack When identifying some of the forces shaping higher education now and in coming years, Montgomery College need look only as far as its own backyard to discover a megatrend with implications for almost every aspect of the College’s operations. The changing demographics of the community it serves – or, perhaps more precisely, […]
What should we be keeping our eyes on? The following series of infographics, developed in the Spring 2014 all administrators’ retreat, points to the long term view of Montgomery College and higher education. Where might Montgomery College be in 2030? How do we plan for tomorrow when it will be significantly different from today? How […]
Dr. DeRionne P. Pollard invites you to join her for the second in a series of engaging discussions about change and innovation in higher education. Moderator: Mr. Dan Hoffman, Chief Innovation Officer, Montgomery County Panelists: Dr. MJ Bishop, Director, Center for Academic Innovation, University System of Maryland Dr. Shelli Fowler, Senior Director, Networked Pedagogies and […]
Montgomery College Foundation’s Innovation Fund Grants Created by President DeRionne Pollard, and made possible through the generosity of the Webber Family Foundation, the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, and private donations, the Montgomery College Foundation’s Innovation Fund provides funding for innovative projects at Montgomery College. Priority will be given to larger initiatives that focus on […]
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Ground Up Interdisciplinarity: A Multifaceted Pedagogical Approach to Business Studies for College Freshmen
By Professor Ali Alavi The integration of interdisciplinarity in learning continues to generate a great deal of interest in academia. Educators are innovating experiential learning activities for their students to explore topics in their programs of study in larger, richer, and multifaceted contexts, thereby accomplishing the learning outcomes of their courses more effectively while allowing […]
“The Flap of a Butterfly Wing”: From Incarceration to College Access
By Sharon Anthony, Elizabeth Benton, Schai Schairer, Jarvis Slacks In August 2021, then-president of Montgomery College, Dr. DeRionne Pollard recommended that several deans meet with Ms. Schai Schairer, a graduate of Montgomery College who had started a nonprofit organization that focused on working with incarcerated women at the Maryland Correctional Institute for Women (MCIW). By […]
Math and Art in Islamic Geometric Patterns: Creating and Teaching in Collaboration
By Rebin Muhammad, Ph.D. In first grade when I was in Iraq, I took my first art class. Given that my parents weren’t well-educated, and my dad was embroiled in the Iran-Iraq war, art had never been a part of our home life. I do not recall that we ever had colored pencils while I […]
With Time to Listen, a Montgomery College Professor Finds New Voice
By Esther Schwartz-McKinzie, Ph.D. I offer this advice for my colleagues who are eligible to apply for a sabbatical project at Montgomery College but have not done so yet: Ask yourself where you need to grow and do it. Sabbaticals create opportunities for personal expansion and self-challenge that are unique among the professions. I have […]
Some Departing Thoughts: On the Privilege and Responsibility of Inclusive Teaching
By Professor Tuere Marshall, Professor of English, retired As I retire this summer from my faculty position in the English department, reflections on my teaching career are flooding in. The seed for teaching was first planted during those twelve years of my early education when my teachers up through high school were nuns of the […]
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
Robert L. Giron
Elizabeth Benton
Deborah A Dessaso
Beverly Stryker
Tuere Marshall
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