Getting Started
Implementing these courses depends on strong coordination within the college and equally strong collaboration with K-12 partners.
Steps for a strong start include:
- Building on a college’s existing dual enrollment infrastructure. Colleges can leverage current agreements, instructors, and learning management systems to pilot the model at a manageable scale.
- Identifying an internal implementation champion with authority and influence to lead the planning and implementation of this course model across departments, and serve as a liaison with K-12 partners. Colleges might tap roles such as a director of K-12 partnerships, dual enrollment coordinator or manager, or director of dual enrollment.
- Coordinating instructor training and support, aligning institutional practices and resources, coordinating access and success strategies with high school partners, and overseeing monitoring and evaluation activities.
Identify, Train, and Support Instructors
Identify instructors
Experience, capacity, and interest are critical for the program’s success. In addition, instructors should have:
- At least one year of college-level teaching experience
- An interest in providing additional supports that help high school students thrive in dual enrollment courses
- An understanding of social-emotional development and an interest in continuously improving their instructional practice
When possible, identify two or more instructors in the same subject area to integrate the strategies into their courses. This team-based approach allows instructors to work together on course design, encourages shared problem-solving, and accelerates continuous improvement across course sections.
Coordinate enabling conditions
Instructors need the time, flexibility, and institutional backing to implement this model with rigor. Course design, providing academic support, data collection, and training and professional learning activities should be included in workload expectations and contracts.
Colleges should identify funding sources, such as state or institutional professional development funds or dual enrollment grants, to compensate instructors for the additional hours required. Stipends or other incentives help ensure that instructors have the capacity to engage fully in course planning, training, and improvement.
Provide training and additional planning time
Effective course design and delivery require structured preparation. Instructors should plan to spend approximately 10 hours reviewing the SEL playbook and associated resources.
As more instructors are added, the colleges can build live training sessions that leverage the existing content and experience of early adopters.
Following training, instructors need protected time to review and refine syllabi and align lesson plans to effectively braid SEL strategies into course materials and assignments.
Offer structured support and space for ongoing collaboration
A strong network ensures that instructors have the knowledge, skills, and capacity to integrate SEL strategies, assess progress, and continuously improve their practices. Establishing an ongoing learning community provides a space to exchange strategies, troubleshoot challenges, and share materials, thereby promoting efficiency and improving student outcomes.
As instructors teach their courses, an ongoing reflective practice helps them assess progress and challenges, informing real-time adaptations. The implementation champion checks in regularly to understand progress, identify challenges, and highlight growth.
Continued professional development on topics such as social-emotional learning, self-directed learning, and best practices for virtual instruction will help instructors refine and strengthen the implementation of SEL strategies.
JFF’s partner in piloting the ICAN model, FullScale, designed a comprehensive SEL Playbook that provides an in-depth overview of the model and guidance and resources to help instructors with course design and implementation.
How to help when students share personal information: resources and support
As students engage with various SEL strategies during the ICAN project, they may develop a level of comfort with their instructors that empowers them to share personal experiences with mental health, relationship struggles, and home life.
Administrators can support instructors and students in navigating these conversations by providing resources and contact information for school counselors, campus mental health services, and related community organizations.
It’s critical for institutions to fully map the services available to students and circulate information about this web of support to instructors.
Providing instructors with the information they need to connect students to the appropriate resources holds them accountable to respond to what students share without the unrealistic expectation that they themselves can solve major personal struggles.
Coordinate Student Access and Success with High School Partners
Student success in online dual enrollment courses requires strategic collaboration between colleges and their K-12 partners. Strong partnerships:
- Define shared goals
- Establish clear roles and responsibilities
- Put predictable processes in place so students experience consistent support, from awareness through completion
Codesign recruitment strategies
When colleges and K-12 partners collaborate on strategies, recruitment and enrollment techniques reflect the needs of their local communities. Partnerships with rural schools are especially important when geographic distance or lack of a credentialed high school teacher limit access to early college courses.
Recruitment efforts build early awareness by engaging students and families as early as middle school, with multiple opportunities to learn about options and dual enrollment guidance incorporated into individualized career planning.
Partners also have strategies for reaching student groups that traditionally participated at lower rates, including students outside the traditional high school environment, such as those who are home-schooled. Educators should leverage partnerships with local or state intermediaries to amplify outreach and awareness efforts with students and families.
Remove financial barriers for student participation
Funding for dual enrollment courses varies by state. Partners should establish agreements about funding and cost-saving strategies (discounts on equipment, access to loaner items, cost-sharing arrangements) and other matters to ensure that students have textbooks, instructional materials, and technology such as broadband access, apps, and devices that enables them to consistently participate in online courses.
Coordinate academic and non-academic supports to ensure successful completion
Students in online dual enrollment courses need accessible, well-coordinated, no-cost support from both systems. Together, partners should map and coordinate the support services available, whether offered by the institution or a community partner, including tutoring and mental health services.
High schools should provide a dedicated location where students can complete their online dual enrollment coursework. When feasible, a dual enrollment coordinator, teacher, or instructional aide should be available to supervise students and offer them guidance as they complete their online coursework.
Dual enrollment coordinators should also work with college admissions counselors and high school counselors to offer clear guidance and information about postsecondary planning, including credit transferability and enrollment processes.
Facilitate logistics and communications
Specific communication processes between the college’s implementation champion, the high school’s dedicated dual enrollment liaison, and instructors should be defined across points in time before, during, and after a course. These should include:
- Regular check-ins
- Access to shared data systems to check enrollment status and course grades
- Established processes to ensure students’ academic and non-academic needs are being met and barriers are addressed quickly
Establish an MOU with clear roles and responsibilities
A well-structured Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) formalizes expectations and commitments, including how to work together to accomplish shared goals. The MOU outlines goals, roles and responsibilities, communication and collaboration practices, resource coordination, and data-sharing agreements.
For online dual enrollment courses, it is especially important that agreements are explicit about when, where, and how student supports are delivered and coordinated between key personnel at the college and high school.
Key stakeholders can utilize these action step checklists (PDF) by role to guide their planning and implementation of this course model.