GateWay Community College

The Maricopa Community Colleges consist of ten colleges in the Phoenix area dedicated to providing a skilled labor pool that meets the needs of business and industry. The district is one of the largest higher education systems in the country.

GateWay Community College (GCC), one of the 10 campuses, strives to provide a practical and comprehensive education. To help provide that education to the approximately 400 students that currently enroll annually in Machining and CNC courses, GCC turned to Tooling U. Of the 400 students:

• 300 (75%) are currently employed and are attending courses to retrain or upgrade their existing skills.
• 100 (25%) are first-time enrollees.

GCC faces the needs of an industry in which employers are looking for skill sets that can be quickly applied to a position without sacrificing quality. Tooling U offers the flexibility necessary to meet the needs of GCC's nontraditional 16-week semester, "open entry, open exit" policy:

• Hybrid instruction, consisting of both web and lab instruction, where students interface with instructors as needed, rather than on a constant 1-on-1 basis.
• Course flexibility where courses are aligned with a particular training track and competency assessments that focus on topics studied.
• The ability to adapt to changes in curriculum. CNC courses are now taught through Tooling U and are linked to classes with related topics.

GCC implements the Tooling U curriculum with carrels containing approximately 45 computers, available to students approximately 13 hours per day (8 am – 9 pm).

Overall feedback is positive. Students most often mentioned:

• Ease of use, even among those who were initially reluctant because they were not exceptionally computer literate.
• Ability to cover maximum content in minimum time.

Administrative feedback is also generally positive and points to the following:

• Ability to quickly access a variety of different information.
• Ability to monitor progress in order to address any student problems on a 1-on-1 basis.

GCC has made no direct effort to quantify Tooling U's training, but is encouraged by the versatility online classes add to the program. GCC students enjoy constant access to the presented information, which they can review as often as they feel necessary to increase their knowledge of a specific topic.