Innovative Instruction Transformation Team Report

Innovative Instruction Transformation Team Report

The Innovative Instruction Team explored ways in which SUNY might leverage the depth and breadth of its enterprise to support academic excellence and student success. The team considered potentially promising approaches to coordinating and integrating the vast array of campus and System efforts to support highly effective teaching and learning, including enhanced opportunities for smooth transfer and degree attainment, forums for discussion and scholarly exchange, and a general integration of technology and teaching through research.

We followed a four-stage planning process that included: Assessment of the University’s current status with respect to innovative instruction; visioning where SUNY could/should be; a gap analysis; and a proposal for a transformed SUNY Learning Network to support innovative teaching and learning across the System. In more detail, these included:

Assessment: We learned that there are pockets of excellence — truly innovative approaches to teaching and learning — scattered across the System. We also learned more about some of the obstacles that the System faces in enhancing its coordination and coherence (including barriers to communication, restrictive policies and financial disincentives), and thus be able to realize “the power of SUNY.”

Vision: We envision SUNY as a collaborative network of campuses, departments, programs and individuals committed to all aspects of innovation in teaching and learning, harnessing their collective power to increase the richness, reach and impact of all that SUNY does. This network will support campuses as they:

·  Enhance teaching and learning by providing affordable, innovative, and flexible education in a full range of instructional formats (i.e., face-to-face, fully online, blended, and Web-enhanced);

·  Develop instructional talent by creating and supporting communities of practice across disciplines and institutions;

·  Support, monitor and embrace research on pedagogical practices to continually improve the instructional practices of SUNY faculty; and

·  Extend teaching and learning environments to provide new avenues for development and delivery of collaborative content, courses, and programs in New York and across the globe.

Gap Analysis: Our review pointed out clearly that SUNY possesses a huge proportion of the resources and skills needed to implement our Innovative Instruction-related plans and programs. However, we do not have vehicles for communication across the system or for connecting individuals, institutions, and communities of practice in ways that allow us to effectively utilize and leverage resources and skills we possess. Additionally, we lack meaningful knowledge bases for innovations and for learning objects that can be accessed and shared across the system and referenced to elevate the profile for SUNY as a source of innovative instruction.Thus, the primary pathway will involve the development of our future schema upon the base of our current assets. The Team determined the foundation should be a re-cast SUNY Learning Network.

Our Proposal: A re-cast SUNY Learning Network (SLN) will provide the infrastructure, leadership and governance to support world-class innovative teaching and learning through the SUNY Learning Commons — a network of networks and campuses that provides integration, information and communication, accompanied by a SUNY Digital Concierge; an enhanced Center for Professional Development; and a SUNY Center for Applied Research in LEarning and Teaching (SCARLET).

The SUNY Learning Commons is a virtual support network that will allow SUNY students, faculty and staff to develop and maintain connections with people, resources, scholarly and instructional materials, and communities in such a way as to promote one another’s learning. It will foster innovative teaching and learning practices and build on activities already taking place on SUNY campuses. The enhanced, ongoing communication and continuous improvement enabled by the SUNY Learning Commons will elevate the quality of teaching, learning and professional development throughout the System. The SUNY Learning Commons is expected to grow in a flexible manner based on the changing social, cultural, and technical environments of the University. It will allow SUNY learners and educators to:

·  Find learning opportunities that are available across campuses through a series of course and program catalogs;

·  Easily access information needed to establish a plan for degree completion;

·  Track learning activities and progress toward degree completion;

·  Form and join communities of interest and communities of practice;

·  Connect with other learners and educators throughout the System;

·  Share and access scholarly and instructional materials through a Learning Object Repository;

·  Share and access resources, standards, policies, and best practices within a community of practice;

·  Operate collaborative tools that allow learners and educators to work together actively at a distance; and

·  Experiment with new communication tools to enhance teaching and learning.

The SUNY Digital Concierge will augment the Learning Commons by providing a personalized user interface. It will compile and utilize an extensive knowledgebase of University contacts, policies, procedures and web sites, and provide mechanisms to assist users of the Commons in discovering the information they need. This knowledgebase will be available to assist learners 24/7/365. The Digital Concierge will also provide direct access to customer service representatives for additional assistance when necessary.

An enhanced SUNY Center for Professional Development (CPD) will permit all faculty and professional instructional staff to participate in training and development activities that support innovative teaching and learning, leadership, scholarly exchange, assessment, accreditation support, and academic initiatives. More specifically, enabled by the SUNY Learning Commons and through the coordinated efforts of SUNY’s campuses, System Administration, and University-wide programs and initiatives, the CPD will:

·  Deliver a comprehensive program of professional development in a range of formats linked as appropriate to graduate studies in all aspects of education and informed by research and scholarship in teaching and learning;

·  Provide a catalog of professional development opportunities available across the SUNY System;

·  Serve as a central resource for the campuses to find information about professional development resources and opportunities that exist on the campuses, through System Administration, through University-wide programs and initiatives, and outside of SUNY;

·  Support teaching and learning communities of practice;

·  Foster and support networking and collaboration for the academic community to address teaching and learning challenges by leveraging the existing resources in the System;

·  Provide an observatory of teaching and learning innovations that are occurring globally; and

·  Facilitate annual conferences and other face-to-face and virtual events to share ideas, best practices, and innovations in teaching and learning.

A SUNY Center for Applied Research in LEarning and Teaching (“SCARLET”) – through this center the University will:

·  Help ensure that relevant research and scholarship inform all aspects of teaching and learning;

·  Support, monitor and produce research on innovative approaches to teaching and learning;

·  Provide a forum for scholarly exchange and collaborative research;

·  Act as an observatory on research and scholarship, and key developments throughout the world, including research breakthroughs, policy issues, conferences, research funding;

·  Host an institute for world-class scholars (Innovation Fellows); awards/recognition for innovation;

·  Convene an annual international conference;

·  Provide infrastructure to support competitive grantsmanship, including processes for IRB approval of SUNY-wide grant activities, contract support for grant submissions, etc.; and

·  Produce an online journal focusing on Research and Scholarship in Innovative Teaching and Learning.

An Illustration

The SUNY Digital Concierge might help users navigate the SUNY Learning Commons to find, for example, Open SUNY at Empire State College.

Next Steps (for example)

·  Assess viability of concept and level of commitment

·  Identify leadership, organization, and governance of the re-cast SLN

–  Take stock of existing resources, including extant advisory groups

·  Determine scope of services and business model (e.g., service to all vs. opt in/opt out model)

·  SCARLET – fleshing out how all of this would be implemented

·  Begin to recognize innovation!

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