School of Communications faculty members Cara Lucia, Shaina Dabbs and Mark Cryan co-published a manuscript, titled “Why Living in a Sport Management Learning Community Matters,” in the Sports Innovation Journal.
For six years, Elon University has supported the Sport Management and Media Living Learning Community, affording first-year students the opportunity to seamlessly integrate their academic endeavors with their passions for sports and the media industry.
According to a recent manuscript published in the Sports Innovation Journal, titled “Why Living in a Sport Management Learning Community Matters,” three Elon University faculty members identified how such sports-centric housing options are worthwhile to residents and the larger Elon University community.
Cara Lucia, Shaina Dabbs and Mark Cryan, faculty members in the Department of Sport Management, collaborated with Mimi Benjamin of Indiana University of Pennsylvania to research the topic, exploring the student experiences and perceptions of living in the Sport Management and Media Living Learning Community at Elon. Through interviews the researchers discovered that the students and their experiences highlighted the importance of relationships with faculty and peers that matter.
According to the manuscript’s abstract, the findings revealed two themes – the LLC emerged as a space encouraging community and friendships, and it played a pivotal role in promoting increased campus participation. Additionally, the researchers offered implications and opportunities for future research and practice for why sport management faculty should implement LLCs at their university to enhance the student experience through an intentional engaged learning design.
“Living in a themed sport management learning community during the first year of college provides students with a unique environment where academic passion intersects with fostering a sense of community, and real-world application of sport management,” Lucia said. “Students have opportunities to interact with faculty at dinners, attend site visits at sport venues while meeting with professionals in the industry, and learn together by taking a linked course their first semester at the university. Our research findings indicated the SMM LLC as a place to develop community and friendships, and catalyst for involvement at the university.”
Lucia and Benjamin have collaborated previously on similar topics. In fact, both researchers participated in Elon’s Center for Engaged Learning research seminar on Residential Learning Communities (RLCs) as a High Impact Practice from 2017-2019.
The Sports Innovation Journal is dedicated to exchanging the latest academic research and practical findings on all aspects of sport innovation. Sport is an increasing area of interest to innovation researchers due to the growth of the sports industry and its impact on other sectors of the economy. Sport is viewed as a multidisciplinary field that includes various sub-disciplines such as sport science, engineering, business, management, technology, tourism, informatics, computer science, art and design, sport for development, sociology, psychology, and philanthropy, among others.