North Carolina Community College System Brings the Classroom to the Learners
Thursday, January 30, 2025
Digital Beat
North Carolina Community College System Brings the Classroom to the Learners
Following up on the release of The Human Infrastructure of Broadband: Looking Back, Looking Around, and Looking Ahead, we are providing examples of core, complementary, and coalition models for digital equity work. This series of organizational profiles delves deeply into how these programs work, the problems they are best suited to solve, the populations they are best suited to reach, and the support they need to succeed. Learn more about the Human Infrastructure of Broadband Project.
Community colleges across the United States share the tradition of providing opportunities for people to pursue lifelong learning. In North Carolina, an ambitious pilot cohort is working to ensure that those opportunities reach everyone—especially those who live in areas with scarce resources or have life experiences that would normally impede their ability to access classroom instruction.
The North Carolina Community College system offers digital navigation services as a complementary program housed in 20 community colleges throughout the state, supported by a $1.3 million pilot grant administered by the State of North Carolina. The colleges in the pilot cohort, which were strategically selected to support individuals facing significant digital equity barriers, serve communities in economically distressed regions in the state. Several of them also serve one or more state prisons.
The pilot project draws inspiration from a successful initiative that supported adult learners during the COVID-19 pandemic when individuals transitioned to conducting important activities in virtual environments. The initial phases of the grant supported the development and implementation of new digital skills curricula. Later phases of the project supported the deployment of digital navigators in the participating colleges. The presence of digital navigators was a welcome addition to colleges, as students sought support to complete activities online that were required for their courses as well as to achieve personal goals that required navigating online systems.
The North Carolina Community College system’s approach to adult education has much to offer educational institutions as an example, as federal funding moves to states and community-based organizations are eager to make the most of the historic investment.
“One of the things that I told my staff was that … the way people look at education and learning has changed. You know it’s not all that you go to an institution … that sometimes, and in our case, the institution needs to go to you. And so, we need to offer those classes in an area—one where you’re comfortable ... and if we see pockets of interest at a library, at a senior center, at a church, wherever, then we will take those classes to them.”
—Penny Wacaster, Director of College & Career Readiness (CCR) and Human Resources Development (HRD), McDowell Technical Community College
Digital navigators in the pilot cohort of colleges work closely with course instructors in teaching digital skills courses on-site and at locations throughout the community. Digital skills courses are generally open to all individuals, with some requiring eligibility review for fee waivers. The colleges form partnerships to raise awareness of these learning opportunities among historically underserved populations. Through these partnerships, classes are taught at a variety of locations throughout the community surrounding a campus, such as local libraries, senior centers, family resource centers, and locations that offer day programs for adults.
Course curricula cover the essential digital skills needed for learners pursuing different goals; some learners are seeking digital skills related to employability, while others are more focused on obtaining a high school equivalency certification. Colleges in the pilot cohort have adopted Northstar digital literacy courses, which cover basic to more advanced digital skills, as a standard offering. Colleges in the pilot cohort aim to reach underserved populations, including English language learners, adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities, those with mental health challenges, individuals residing in homeless shelters, and justice-involved individuals.
Colleges in communities with large populations of Hispanic and Latino/a students have adopted strategies to mitigate language barriers to participating in digital skills courses. For example, some colleges have recruited bilingual students who have completed an associate’s degree to return to the college to teach courses. Other colleges have sought bilingual skills when recruiting digital navigators to support the course instructors. The college system is also developing a Spanish version of its “digital navigator essentials” training certification.
Digital navigators are key to retaining students throughout the instructional period, supporting those who might otherwise drop a course due to frustration, lack of access to a computer, or lack of consistent access to broadband. From the beginning of the student experience, digital navigators proactively identify potential barriers and work to mitigate them before students become discouraged and disengage. Digital navigators match students with skill-level-appropriate courses, compile resource materials to help students identify locations where they can access devices, find locations with free Wi-Fi, and provide guidance on how to find low-cost internet plans in their area. Digital navigator support allows instructors to focus on course content and instructional methods rather than dividing limited time and attention to address barriers to student participation.
Across the pilot cohort, digital navigator training is standardized, comprehensive, and hands-on, and it prepares individuals to effectively support learners throughout their educational journey. Designed to swiftly upskill anyone coming into the role, the training introduces the role of a digital navigator in modules, which include:
- a description of the problems caused by digital access disparities and an introduction to the vocabulary of digital inclusion;
- an overview of various contexts in which digital navigation can be useful;
- a description of common tech inquiries that clients may present, allowing digital navigators to self-assess their own level of proficiency with digital skills;
- a presentation of basic principles of customer service and effective communication with clients; and
- strategies for assessing clients’ digital skills proficiency, monitoring progress, and providing feedback.
The training also provides information about community assets. Homework assignments require navigators to develop an enhanced repository of resources in the areas where they will serve, providing a foundation they are able to build upon throughout their work. Although the training is required for those who will fill the digital navigator role, individuals in supporting or supervisory roles related to the pilot program can also go through the training to gain an in-depth understanding of digital navigator work.
What We Can Learn
Learners Benefit When the Classroom Comes to Them
Learning new skills often requires patience, vulnerability, and a nontrivial time commitment. Barriers to full participation in a course—like finding transportation options or childcare in order to attend classes—compound the challenges of learning new skills. Bringing the classroom to the community accommodates those for whom commuting is difficult or prohibitive and provides a level of comfort and familiarity conducive to learning. As Carla Dunston, dean of continuing education at Nash Community College, explains,
“It’s been in the community … we have realized that people enjoy learning in familiar places ... for some people, it is overwhelming coming to campus to attend classes due to barriers such as transportation, childcare, or whatever it may be. The Human Resources Development [HRD] program has always been set up as a community program. We welcome opportunities to partner with agencies and organizations to offer employability skills training, computer training, and pathway classes in the community.”
Community Partnerships Expand the Reach of Programs
Partnerships advance digital inclusion efforts in two important ways. First, partners are likely able to reach individuals outside an institution’s existing network through their communication channels, serving as a trusted communicator between the community and the institution seeking to make resources available. Further, partner organizations may offer their venues to host classes in communities where learning opportunities are scarce.
Silvia Martin del Campo Vargas, director of Latinx education at McDowell Technical Community College, describes the benefits of community partnerships with organizations that serve English language learners: “We are also partnering with the church that is hosting our English classes. And they’re also [spreading] the word about the computer classes. So we get a lot of attention from them, and I think that most of the community colleges are trying to do that.”
Commenting on the importance of being flexible and open to different strategies in reaching learners, Penny Wacaster offers some advice: “Just because you build it doesn’t mean they’ll come. You need to build it appropriately. Build a class appropriately where it’s needed.”
To Close the Digital Skills Gap, Address Other Digital Access Gaps
Even where no-cost digital skills courses are available to communities, options for affordable home broadband and device options still matter. Access to these resources is critical for full participation in courses, and individuals are best able to leverage new skills obtained through digital skills courses when these resources are abundant. Although some colleges are able to provide these resources onsite or at a partner location at no cost to students, the scarcity of these resources creates routine barriers for individuals to use technology to pursue their personal goals.
Wacaster describes the importance of increasing awareness of the tough trade-offs individuals sometimes face as “making sure that there’s an overall awareness of resources and the needs. People in our area just can’t afford internet … and people are not going to make the decision to pay for internet versus buying their groceries … nor can they buy devices. I mean, they’re just not going to be able to afford a tablet … or a laptop or something.”
Looking Ahead
Digital navigator work transcends any formal title or certification. Friends, family, educators, volunteers, health care workers, case workers, and a multitude of others have flexed their roles to help individuals navigate the digital world. But a simple aphorism applies to this work: if there’s important work to be done, it’s a good idea to make it someone’s job to do it. Dedicated funding for digital navigator work will help the colleges sustain the layered support digital navigators provide to the instructors as well as the learners; it also allows for the creation of dedicated digital navigator roles that align with specific goals and targeted outcomes. In the context of education, particularly when students seek learning opportunities after interruptions in education and employment, digital navigators prove to be an important layer of classroom support.
To continue the work, some of the colleges look optimistically to potential state funding opportunities for digital navigators and digital skills courses, as well as grant opportunities from the private sector to fund devices for students.
Although future funding plans are uncertain, Martin del Campo Vargas conveys the college’s optimism: “There's always going to be a way to find some grants or some way to keep those classes … So it’s just a matter of [keeping] that momentum going and [keeping] that spark in each one of us to see how students are being served and how they’re gaining those skills. And that should be our motivation to keep looking for funds.”
Written by: Tsion Tesfaye
More in this Series:
- At the Denver Public Library, People Skills are the Most Important Quality When Choosing Digital Navigators
- The Mercedes Library Exemplifies a Vital Effort to Promote Digital Independence
- How Everyone On Navigates Change to Deliver Digital Equity
- Free Geek, Devices, and Digital Equity
- Mass General Brigham Understands that Digital Equity Supports Health Equity
- Northwest Center Engages Community, Advances Digital Skills
- The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority Leans Into Collaboration
- North Carolina Community College System Brings the Classroom to the Learners
- Digital Connect Makes Digital Navigation Approachable
- Black Churches 4 Digital Equity: Community Anchors and Committed Advocates
- Seattle's Equity-Based Approach
- The Kūpuna Collective: A Public Health Coalition Advancing Digital Equity
- What We Know About the Human Infrastructure of Broadband
- The Human Infrastructure of Broadband: Looking Back, Looking Around, and Looking Ahead
The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all people in the U.S. have access to competitive, High-Performance Broadband regardless of where they live or who they are. We believe communication policy - rooted in the values of access, equity, and diversity - has the power to deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities.
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