A majority of community college students arrive unprepared for college-level work, are not successful in developmental or remedial coursework, and do not reach their educational goals. According to the National Student Clearinghouse, only 39 percent of community college students earn a certificate, associate degree or bachelor’s degree within six years.

How can architecture impact new and innovative approaches to education delivery? While Austin Community College Highland Campus is a powerful example of adaptive reuse and urban renewal, the real story is the impact the project is having on student success and student satisfaction and persistence.

At the community college level, encouraging persistence and nurturing success can benefit all students, but there is a particular focus on students that have historically performed below average in success and persistence – developmental and minority students.

To tackle the problem ACC began thinking big, very big – envisioning a variety of programs and services organized in a single room the size of a football field.

Working together with Austin Community College we began to study and research new architectural concepts and approaches that would support the Colleges intentions to shift pedagogy, focusing on the individual student coupled with immersive student services.

The result was a state-of-the-art, technology-enabled learning environment, named the ACCelerator.

ACC’s ACCelerator is a 32,000 square-foot lab which resides within a former shopping mall and offers more than 600 virtualized desktop workstations, classrooms and small group study rooms. The lab offers a support system of faculty members, academic coaches, advisors, counselors, and tutors available in real time.

From Instructor focused to a focus on the individual student coupled with immersive student services. Students work at an individualized pace with instructors and coaches, nearby helping students in real time. The ACCelerator model is hands-on and requires facetime. The “One-Stop-Shop”

Inspired by ACC’s bold vision, we began to see the project as an opportunity to redesign the student experience. Architecture arranged around this new educational pedagogical shift. We were guided by the ideas of a learning environment that was student-centric, welcoming, safe and comfortable, open, adaptive and engaging. A place to celebrate success and encourage interdepartmental collaboration. Carefully designed to integrate technology, lighting, acoustics and flexibility and a learning space you want to just be able to “hang out” in.

Overall, everyone feels a sense of camaraderie and teamwork they have not experienced on a traditional campus. As the President of the University, Dr. Richard Rhodes expressed to us, “I want you to design the coolest place on earth to learn”.

The ACCelerator was initially focused only on developmental math curriculum. With the success experienced in math, faculty members from across disciplines began experimenting with instruction. As a result, today ACCelerator instruction has expanded to include Visual Communications, Game Development, Intensive English Composition, Writing, Art, Accounting, Library Instruction, Drama Lab, Physical Geography, Early College High School, Continuing Education and others.

All students who visit ACCelerator show increase in both success and retention, most significantly minority and developmental students

Students who visit the ACCelerator one time see a 6% jump in persistence

Developmental Education students who visit the ACCelerator see a 12% jump in persistence

Students enrolled at ACC in the fall of 2014 for the first time who attended the ACCelerator were more successful in developmental courses (that is, they earned A’s, B’s or C’s) than non-ACCelerator students by 19 percentage points. The differences were more pronounced for African American females (27 percentage points) and males (23 percentage points)

Opened: Fall 2014

Location: Austin Community College Highland Campus

Size: 32,000 Square Feet with more than 600 seats

Features: A large open lab space filled with 115 clusters of technology enriched table pods with

Desktop computer stations and 14 computer bars surrounded by 3 transparent glassed classrooms and 15 small group rooms.

Equipment: 604 Dell computers powered by a desktop visualization solution; Apple MacBook Pros; Apple Mac Minis; Smartboards

Tours: Over 100 requested tours including, over 30 countries, over 35 colleges and universities, The U.S Department of State, the Obama Administration, The Gates Foundation, the Meadows and Communities Foundation to name a few.