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equired to work with academic departments to reserve seats or sections specifically for ASAPstudents. These seats and sections remained reserved for ASAP students until the end ofregistration. The main purposes of the blocked and linked classes were to ensure that ASAPstudents could take some of their classes with other ASAP students, fostering a sense ofcommunity, and to give students convenient, consolidated schedules so they could make themost of their time on campus. Unlike classical learning communities, these courses did notinclude integrated curricula or interaction among faculty. However, they did give students thechance to have a community-like experience by sharing courses with other ASAP students.During the study, each school created a blocked or linked class arrangement that typicallyincluded a core course, such as English, blocked or linked with one or more other coursesapplicable to a great number of students, such as a speech course and the ASAP seminar.Blocked and linked courses were created with both developmental and college-level courses atthe core, so that students at either level could participate. The other courses were all collegelevelcourses. Advisers consistently encouraged ASAP students to take blocked or linkedcourses, although enrollment was not required. Additionally, students were not required to takeall courses in a block; if they were only able to fit one course into their schedule, they were stillencouraged to do so.The implementation of blocked and linked courses varied by campus. At one school,students were offered blocked classes in their first two semesters, typically a speech, socialscience, or history class (a college-level course applicable to all majors) blocked with eithercollege-level English or math (since the program’s launch in 2007) or remedial English or math(starting in spring 2011). Advisers encouraged students to take both classes in a block, butenrollment depended on how the courses fit into students’ schedules. When students could notattend both courses in the block, advisers suggested taking at least one of the courses. Theadvisers stressed the benefits, which included being in a course with only ASAP students andtaking a course that is slightly smaller than the average class size. In addition, ASAP adviserskept in contact with the professors of blocked courses to make sure students were staying ontrack. This connection provided students with additional support and gave advisers an earlywarning system if their students began struggling academically.At the second school, most ASAP students enrolled in preexisting learning communitiesin the first semester. These learning communities consisted of three or four courses, typicallybuilt around a developmental or college-level English course, and included a student successcourse, replacing the ASAP seminar, in which only ASAP students enrolled. The curricula ofthese courses were often linked, with professors collaborating and reviewing students’ progress.In the second semester, students were able to enroll in an ASAP-designated English courseblocked with the ASAP seminar, which were linked only in terms of scheduling, not curricula.These classes appeared first on students’ schedules: they picked the English and seminar link36