Learning Communities

What are they?

We’ve got all sorts of combos to choose from. We’ve got LCs paired with College Success, LCs with First Year Seminars, LCs with cool Core classes, LCs for Criminal Justice majors, and one just for Engineering students!

Need more details? Check out our Fall 2024 guide! 

Why should you join one?

Learning Communities are identified as high impact practices that are designed to increase student success and persistence in college. CU Denver LCs have five goals.

• Maximize academic success of student participants
• Foster a sense of community and connection among students, peer mentors, faculty, and staff
• Provide an opportunity for students to meaningfully engage with faculty
• Offer support to students during key transitional moments, including starting college for the first time, transferring to CU Denver, and choosing new majors
• Boost both engagement on campus and satisfaction with the CU Denver student experience


How do you sign up?

Registration for Learning Communities occurs during New Student Orientation. After the academic advising session is complete, you will visit the registration labs. Simply choose both courses for your selected learning community and register for them at the same time.​

Fall 2024 Learning Community Options

Please review the Fall 2024 course options below to understand the types of learning communities we traditionally offer.

Open to All Majors

AANAPISI Learning Community

Celebrating the University of Colorado Denver's designation as an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI), this community is open to anyone who identifies as part of the Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander community and/or is interested in learning more about the community. Students are recommended to take the two courses below together. 

As a reminder, UNIV courses are tuition-free courses that count as one-credit hour towards students' General Elective degree requirements. The ETST 1111 course will satisfy a three-credit hour Social Sciences class that counts towards students' Social Sciences Core Area degree requirement. 

LDAR 1100 "Be The Change"

This class is for people who want to make the world a better place and have questions such as: Does my voice matter? Can I make the world a better place? Is it possible to have a joyful career that pays me enough and supports positive change at the same time? We will explore how each of us can answer all these questions for ourselves with a resounding “Yes!” by looking at how the tools of ecological design can be applied to all areas of life.  Over the course of the semester we will approach making change at all levels from our inner selves to our personal relationships to our social systems by looking to patterns from the natural world.  Along the way, we’ll be applying these frameworks to real-world projects while building deep and meaningful connections with our fellow students.  Throughout the course we will focus on supporting each other as  we develop answers and ideas that are meaningful to our own lives. This learning community is open to all majors.

Major Based

Criminal Justice

Calling all Criminal Justice majors! This LC offers many opportunities to connect to your classmates, professors, and professionals in the community. In your CRJU course, you will explore the world of criminology and criminal justice. You will also have the opportunity to connect with your classmates through the UNIV course, where you will learn together about how to engage and succeed in college. Workshops will boost your study skills, connect you to campus and offer guidance for getting along with faculty.

The Curious Teacher

Curiosity is the heart of great teaching and that's the focus of this major-based Learning Community. See the world through the eyes of a learner and nurture a curiosity about children, adolescents, families and communities. This learning community is for EDHD majors.

Business Learning Community 

First-year business majors are required to take a UNIV 1110 Business section in their first fall semester. Many of our first-year business majors also tend to still need their MATH 1060 class requirement. We recommend this Learning Community to anyone  This learning community is for Business majors. 

Biology and Pre-Health

Open to Biology and Pre-Health majors, these communities allow you to take a paired Biology lab, lecture, and UNIV 1110 course with the same group of students. This is a great way to get some required courses completed while getting to know more folks in your major! Please note some communities are only open to Biology majors and others are only open to Pre-Health majors. 

Entering Biology Learning Community (1) Open to Biology Majors only.

Entering Biology Learning Community (2) Open to Pre-Health Majors only.

Entering Biology Learning Community (3) Open to Pre-Health Majors only.