Rewriting First-Year College Success for Nearly 500 Students
474
Students taught in ACA-122 during Fall 2025
21
Sections of Transfer and College Success used Top Hat in Fall 2025
$14K+
Saved on course materials in ACA-122 by using Top Hat during Fall 2025
The Challenge
Letting go of a one-size-fits-all textbook in a large Transfer and College Success course
Dr. Jenny Billings oversees one of the most demanding instructional portfolios at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. Billings serves as the Program Chair of Associate in Arts and the Division Chair of Study Skills (ACA) and English (ENG). In addition to teaching five courses herself, she is responsible for 21 sections that served 474 students across ACA-122: Transfer and College Success, during Fall 2025. Her work is driven by a deep commitment to student success, especially for first-year students who are juggling academic pressure, financial stress and unfamiliar college systems—often without clear guidance on how to advocate for themselves or find support.
Before adopting Top Hat, Billings relied on textbook materials from traditional publishers for her classes, but she consistently encountered the same challenges. The materials were overly generic, slow to reflect institutional and policy changes in the state of North Carolina and offered little room for customization. It meant students often struggled to see themselves, their campus, or their pathways reflected in the content. As a result, students would quickly tune out, engaging with the material only superficially, while costs continued to climb and required frequent renegotiation. “The materials we previously used weren’t ones that I could truly cater to Rowan-Cabarrus…my students would check out because it didn’t connect to their daily lives,” she said. For Billings, the growing disconnect between publisher content and student experience underscored the need for a more flexible, student-centered solution. It’s what led her to Top Hat in 2025.
School background
Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, founded in 1963, is a public institution serving students across Rowan and Cabarrus counties in North Carolina. As part of the North Carolina Community College System, the school offers a broad array of academic pathways—including more than 40 associate degree programs, dozens of diplomas and more than 100 certificates—across fields such as health sciences, business, engineering technologies, education and liberal arts. Committed to improving lives and building community through education and workforce development, Rowan-Cabarrus emphasizes accessibility, innovation and lifelong learning.
About the professor
Jenny Billings is the Program Chair of Associate in Arts and the Division Chair of Study Skills (ACA) and English (ENG) at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College in Concord and Salisbury, North Carolina. She has taught at Rowan-Cabarrus since 2011 and holds extensive experience in first-year success, English composition, and developmental education, along with a strong focus on curriculum and master course development. Known for her versatility with digital learning solutions, Billings is passionate about using technology to create accessible, student-centered learning experiences that support success at scale.
Jenny Billings Program Chair of Associate in Arts and the Division Chair of Study Skills (ACA) and English (ENG) at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College
The Solution
Creating a custom Top Hat textbook that reflects Rowan-Cabarrus students and state policies
Billings began exploring Top Hat as a way to regain control over both content and cost, and quickly found a level of partnership she hadn’t experienced with traditional publishers. Working closely with Top Hat’s Custom Publishing team, she was able to pull chapters from multiple texts—including Composing a College Career by Jeffrey Klausman—and could easily reshape the material word by word to reflect Rowan-Cabarrus’ policies, language and student experience. What once felt like an overwhelming lift became a focused, collaborative process—allowing Billings to co-author a full textbook and course structure in just 18 days, then adapt that foundation for additional study skills courses in a matter of days. The platform’s flexibility also meant that content could evolve in real-time. “One student that I’m featuring as a success story gave a talk in front of 300 faculty and staff at our college welcome back meeting. I have a picture and video that’s going in our book today, and then I’ll sync changes across all sections,” she says.
Beyond the initial build, Top Hat gave Billings the ability to treat her textbook as a living resource rather than a fixed product. She can edit content directly—updating language, swapping readings, or adding new examples—and sync those changes across dozens of course sections in minutes. “As policies and advancements change rapidly, I can go directly into my base content, update it and sync it within eight minutes across all sections—I’ve timed it multiple times,” she shares. By creating a strong base textbook for ACA-122, Billings was able to reuse material for additional study skills courses and could tailor chapters as needed without starting from scratch. This flexibility allows the material to stay current, institution-specific, and consistent at scale, even as policies, programs, and student needs continue to evolve.
“As policies and advancements change rapidly, I can go directly into my base content, update it and sync it within eight minutes across all sections—I’ve timed it multiple times.”
The Results
Tracking measurable gains in enrollment, confidence and affordability
Since moving to Top Hat, Billings has seen measurable improvements in student confidence, understanding and enrollment. She recently ran a survey at the start and end of the Fall 2025 semester that asked students to rate their confidence across 20 curriculum-based topics. By the end of the semester—and after students used Billings’ new Top Hat textbook—she noted statistically significant improvements across 18 areas. She also tracked a spike in enrollment numbers for Spring 2026. “We have increased the number of students in ACA-122 by 94 students from last spring to now. That’s unheard of,” Billings says. Another benefit of authoring Top Hat content is the more affordable price point. Each student now saves $30 compared to what their last textbook cost. In her class of 474 students in Fall 2025, that equates to more than $14,200 in savings.
Just as meaningful has been the change in how students talk about the course itself. Her course evaluations from Fall 2025 included unsolicited, positive feedback about the Top Hat textbook and engagement platform—something Billings had never seen in these courses before. More than 60 students cited Top Hat as a key part of their success in her course. “Our resources, such as Top Hat and Blackboard, are very user-friendly,” one anonymous student shared. Another student wrote, “I liked that the textbook talked to me, not at me.” Given the overwhelmingly positive response from students in her Transfer and College Success courses, Billings plans to use Top Hat in her large English classes in Fall 2026. At scale, Billings’ work shows how flexible, faculty-authored content can turn complexity into clarity—and thousands of students into confident learners.
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