Isothermal Community College (ICC) is a rural institution serving students in Rutherford and Polk Counties, North Carolina. Recognizing that many students — especially working adults and part-time learners — struggled to complete their degrees under a traditional 16-week model, ICC implemented Be Great in 8, an eight-week course model designed to improve retention, increase student success, and provide more flexibility. The transition to this model has reshaped the student experience, enabling learners to focus on fewer courses at a time while making steady progress toward their credentials.
Spotlight Feature
ICC’s Be Great in 8 transitions succeeded through faculty training, data-driven student support, and institution-wide collaboration. The 8-Week Academy prepared faculty to teach in a compressed format, real-time dashboards allowed advisors to track progress and intervene early, and a campus-wide Pulse Team was implemented to gather constituent feedback along the way. Cross-departmental coordination ensured financial aid, advising, and course offerings aligned with the new model. These efforts led to higher retention, reduced withdrawals, and improved student success across all demographics.
Lessons Learned
- Shorter terms keep students engaged by sustaining momentum and allowing students to focus on fewer courses at a time.
- Early and frequent faculty collaboration is essential to refining course pacing and instructional strategies.
- Flexible scheduling makes it easier for students to balance school with work and family responsibilities.
- Opportunity gaps can be addressed through intentional design. Historically underserved students, particularly Pell-eligible and part-time learners, benefited from the model at higher rates than the general student population.
Implementation Tips
Colleges should view the transition as an iterative process. Emphasizing collaboration, flexibility, and continuous feedback will help ensure that accelerated course formats meet both institutional goals and student needs.
Use real-time dashboards to track trends, like drop/add rates, and implement refinements, such as staggering start dates or embedding tutoring.
Actively gather feedback and adjust scheduling, student services, and instructional approaches based on those insights.
Coordinate all areas of college operations to support a faster-paced academic structure, such as shifting financial aid disbursements to match shorter terms.
Outcomes
Example:
- 5%
- Increase in overall course success rates, rising from 80.9% to 86.1% over the five-year average
- 33%
- Reduction in withdrawal rates, dropping from a five-year average of 9.3% to 6.2%
- 14.8%
- Increase in developmental course success rates, with notable improvements among Pell-eligible students (+20%) and Black students (+40%)
- 1.9%
- Year-to-year increase in overall student headcount and an 8.0% increase in full-time equivalent enrollment, signaling stronger student engagement and persistence
Next Steps
- Regularly review and improve how eight-week courses are scheduled, identifying and avoiding course combinations that create unmanageable workloads for students.
- Connect to long-term student success initiatives, including ICC’s Patriot Pathways initiative, focusing on implementing Guided Pathways.
- Continue to close equity gaps, using disaggregated data to track student outcomes and refine interventions that support historically underserved students.
Resources
This resource includes a comprehensive guide, workbook, and a series of college spotlights dedicated to preparing for and implementing shortened academic terms. It provides literature, best practices, case studies, and practical tools for institutions aiming to reconfigure academic schedules. The guide details step‑by‑step instructions, highlights successful strategies like those implemented at Isothermal Community College, and offers templates to support policy revisions and program design. It is an essential toolkit for colleges looking to modernize their academic calendars and better support nontraditional learners.
View the resource
