The learner-centered innovations--along with the new research about learning, the breakthroughs in technology, the focus on outcome measures, and the application of business concepts such as Total Quality Management (TQM) and learning organizations--have created a crucible of opportunity that comes along about every two decades. Paul Privateer, a professor at Arizona State University who characterizes himself as "a new kind of teacher who can bring technology, management, and content into some new formations," has described this crucible of opportunity as follows: "American education in general is at a strategic anxiety moment in its evolution. We're at a very odd midpoint between the death of one kind of paradigm of learning and the yet-undefined formation of an entirely new way of learning" (Gales, 1994, p. 22).

A rich ferment of yeasty ideas is being put forward to define "an entirely new way of learning" for American education. In the latter half of the 1990s, unless there is some cataclysmic social change to redirect attention, there will be hundreds of commission reports, local and state plans, and individually authored books on what many will call a new paradigm for learning. The community college, because of its central role in American higher education, and because of its long history of commitment to teaching and learning, will be a key playing field for experimenting with and testing out models of new approaches to learning. Community colleges are often the first institutions to feel the impact of change because they are positioned so closely to mainstream values in American society. Through experience, they have become responsive to new needs and new opportunities, developing a well-deserved reputation for innovative and entrepreneurial solutions. Given these characteristics, it is not surprising to find community colleges in the vanguard of exploring new approaches to learning.

At the moment, most community colleges are struggling to operate, as Privateer has said, within an established paradigm that is dying. The response has been to bolt on new programs and activities, often at increased cost, to old structures. Community colleges have been national leaders in the efforts to improve the traditional system by applying information technology, developing collaborative learning models, and incorporating assessment and outcome measures. These innovative applications have improved teaching and learning in community colleges, and they should be encouraged; but there will be a limit on improving learning outcomes when these innovations are applied in the context of traditional practices.

The community college needs a new model of education, a model that incorporates the best practices and philosophies of its past with the expanding base of new knowledge about learning and technology. "The learning college" is a model tailor-made for the community college and one that holds great promise for helping students make passionate connections to learning.

"The learning college places learning first and provides educational experiences for learners anyway, anyplace, anytime" (O'Banion, 1995-96, p. 22, emphasis added). The model is based on the assumption that educational experiences are designed for the convenience of learners rather than for the convenience of institutions and their staffs. The term "the learning college" is used as a generic reference for all educational institutions.

The learning college is based on six key principles:

• The learning college creates substantive change in individual learners.
• The learning college engages learners as full partners in the learning process, with learners assuming primary responsibility for their own choices.
• The learning college creates and offers as many options for learning as possible.
• The learning college assists learners to form and participate in collaborative learning activities.
• The learning college defines the roles of learning facilitators by the needs of the learners.
• The learning college and its learning facilitators succeed only when improved and expanded learning can be documented for its learners.