For a little over four months, I returned to advocating for the area of my doctoral research, which focused on making frontend admissions processes and applications easy to use for everyone who wants to develop their knowledge and skills via community colleges.
As context, in 2024 and 2025, I was coaching and teaching adult learners, some of whom were seeking access to community colleges to switch careers and, frankly, improve their lives through economic mobility. When I noticed the same friction I had explored some eight years earlier, I knew I had to do more with my study. So, I published a book. A few months later, I created an actionable toolkit. A few months after that, I wrote an article for submission to a refereed journal. To be honest, I had already written much of this years earlier, as it was just awaiting submission and publication.
Having left full-time community college work in January 2019, I had hoped the mantle had been picked up by others who would study the usability of admissions systems in community colleges. It had not. I saw a few more papers and small studies on the usability of community college websites, as well as one short peer-reviewed article on website usability. That’s it. The problem remained largely invisible, but that doesn’t make it any less real. Even for those who get past friction-filled digital experiences, what view do they now have of your institution from the very first click? How does it set the tone for the rest of the experience?
Community colleges may not miss what they can’t see, but it impacts the colleges, the people who lost or delayed the opportunity, and the workforce writ large.
While my book and toolkit remain available for purchase on Amazon and my website, and my research may appear in journals or other sources, I’m gearing up to return to the path I was on just before this ongoing need surfaced, going deeper into organizational development.
As a result, I’ll be in an intense program for the next six months, so you may not hear from me on this topic as much, but I rest well knowing that I worked to put it out there and gave voice to the voices that fell silent at the front door.
🚪The book and toolkit are always here → https://drtrecabourne.com/books.