Here’s how MIT and several partners are developing a Fly-by-Wire system to provide high-quality, differentiated instruction at scale and to better equip graduates to enter the workforce. SPOTLIGHT ON INNOVATION SERIES The US Department of Education has awarded multi-million dollar “First in the World” grants to 18 colleges and universities that are innovating to solve critical challenges with access, recruitment, retention, and student success. At AI, we have interviewed each of the recipients to learn more about the projects these institutions are pursuing, how their approaches are unique, and what other colleges and universities can learn from these new efforts. This was the second year of the First in the World grants. You can read our interviews with the 24 institutions that received 2014 grants here. MIT, partnering with edX and Arapahoe and Quinsigamond Community Colleges, is developing a Fly-by-Wire system to provide high-quality, differentiated instruction at scale and to better equip graduates entering the workforce with skills valued by employers and industry. Funded by a $2.9 million FIPSE First in the World grant, the Fly-by-Wire system is a digitally-enabled, differentiated blended-instruction intervention that is both scalable and cost-effective enough to meet the needs of learners at a range of institutions. […]
MORE RESOURCES FROM THIS AUTHOR Jessica Cloud, CFRE, is the author of Successful Fundraising Calls: A Phonathon Scripting Workshop, in which she critiques and revises 6 real phonathon scripts submitted by institutions across North America. In this book, you will learn the pillars of writing effective scripts; review sample LYBUNT, SYBUNT, young alumni, and future donor scripts; explore Cloud’s in-depth critique of the samples; and view revisions of the sample scripts. You can also read more of Cloud’s advice for phonathon managers in these complimentary articles: A Quick Assessment for Your Phonathon ScriptsHow Data Mining Can Increase Direct Mail AcquisitionHow Data Mining Can Increase Phonathon AcquisitionScripting for Acquisition Calls Here are 11 things you can do right now to set your phonathon up for success this fiscal year: 1. Cultivate your relationship with Advancement Services. The database folks are crucial allies for any fundraising professionals, but as a phonathon manager you are even more dependent than most other fundraisers upon the cooperation of this group for your success. Good data gives you a head start in phonathon. Bad data can hold you back all year. I recommend reaching out to gift processing and other advancement services staff now. Start by asking them […]
Leadership is hard Let’s face it, leadership is hard and exhausting. Leadership was hard before the Covid-19 pandemic, and the additional complexities that leaders have been facing over the past year have been significant. Leaders at all levels are increasingly finding themselves making more decisions more quickly, with more significance, and with less information. The risks we are managing have increased. Our teams are looking to us for vision and guidance while we manage all of this new complexity and challenge. And we are doing all of this while working at our kitchen tables and in virtual meetings. We have had to acquire a whole new set of skills to lead in a remote or hybrid environment literally overnight. Leading teams and managing ourselves during these conditions is not for the faint hearted and it necessitates that we build our toolkit to tackle leadership in new ways. Now we are starting to look to the future with hope and optimism, knowing that some things will never return to the way they were before the pandemic. They can’t, and in many ways, they shouldn’t. Acknowledging and validating that the work of leading is hard right now (and really always was) is […]
Ashlyn Sowell: During my recent leave from Gettysburg College, I travelled to Christchurch to speak to the Educate Plus New Zealand local chapter. I was quite moved by the challenges that my international colleagues face in fundraising after the devastating 2010 and 2011 earthquakes. One woman said to me, “I know we are supposed to have 50% of the money in hand before we start construction on a new building, but we don’t have any buildings!” I followed up with Naomi Wilde, the Community Relations and Development Coordinator at St. Andrew’s College, an independent school, with one question. Her response led to a great deal of valuable information for all of us, and her responses are very worth considering as you look at crisis planning and post-crisis fundraising at your own institution. When I asked her, “What has been the biggest challenge in fundraising since the earthquakes?” she answered: “The biggest challenge is probably building the case for support for your own institution, because of course you’re not the only institution affected, and your donors, especially those that live locally, are deeply affected too, and there are so many unanswered financial questions. The Case for Support needs to clearly mark your […]
Supporting mid-level and senior leaders as they prepare for the future of higher education and the next steps in their careers. Jennifer is an executive coach and trusted advisor who helps higher education leaders and their teams cultivate the mindset and skill set needed to thrive in an ever-changing world. Drawing from nearly 20 years of progressive leadership experience in higher education, she brings deep institutional knowledge to her coaching practice, specializing in cultivating the critical competencies that enable leaders to break down institutional silos, forge powerful collaborations, and create flourishing organizational cultures. Jennifer has held a variety of leadership positions in academic and student affairs throughout her career, including program director, department chair, and assistant dean. She currently serves as a director of strategic initiatives where she works closely with the provost on developing and coordinating high-priority strategic planning initiatives. Her coaching practice focuses primarily on chairs, deans, provosts, and vice presidents who are leading institutional change while advancing their own career trajectories. Jennifer’s approach combines evidence-based frameworks with practical communication strategies, ensuring leaders can effectively navigate complex challenges while building sustainable success. Jennifer has coached hundreds of leaders across institutional types, from R1 universities to community colleges, including […]
Is it time to launch that new academic program? Here is the ‘art’ and ‘science’ of answering that question.
Academic Entrepreneurship walks you through strategies for identifying, creating, and growing the right academic programs – both the mindset needed and the practical steps. Included in the book are templates, samples, worksheets, and case studies.
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Over the past two decades, I’ve had the privilege of designing and delivering more than 100 leadership development programs in higher education and supporting institutions as they launched dozens more. These programs have ranged from single, cohort-based initiatives to multi-layered efforts designed to shape institutional culture over time. At Academic Impressions, we’ve worked with first-time department chairs as well as with presidents rebuilding senior cabinets. We’ve partnered with well-resourced research universities as well as with small and mid-sized institutions doing the best they can with very limited capacity. The good news is that during this time, I’ve seen a growing recognition that leadership development is mission critical. More institutions are investing in helping leaders to build emotional intelligence, resolve conflict more productively, lead teams effectively, and navigate change with greater confidence. Many are also working intentionally to build pipelines for future leaders who will be ready when the moment calls. And yet, because many institutions have limited experience designing leadership development programs, a predictable set of mistakes shows up again and again. Ironically, these missteps are usually rooted in good intentions—but they ultimately undermine the very outcomes these programs are meant to achieve. Following are the five most common mistakes I see when institutions launch or attempt to sustain leadership programming. 1. Trying to Do Too Much In an effort to be comprehensive, institutions often try to cover as much […]
EARLIER ARTICLES IN THIS SERIES 4 Things Academic Deans Can Do to Help Students Succeed after Graduation4 Things Academic Deans Can Do to Connect Majors and Minors with Careers This is the third in my Academic Impressions series on “Things Deans Can Do to Help our Students after they Graduate.” This time, my focus is on how deans can use career development to enhance general education. Academic Impressions’ 2013 report, General Education Reform: Unseen Opportunities, reviews several exemplary general education programs that are driving increases in student retention and, to a somewhat lesser extent, graduates’ employability. In this article, I will consider more fully how infusing career and life preparation development into general education can support these important measures. The Tragedy of the Commons Since the general education core is not owned by any one discipline, it often finds itself without the required faculty champion. General education usually represents about 40% of a Baccalaureate curriculum that is up for grabs. As such it becomes an academic example of The Tragedy of the Commons, where individual departments compete in a zero sum game. Disciplines capture curricular acreage that can lead to a degradation of the overall quality of educational grazing land. The […]
Higher education is still “a man’s world,” though it doesn’t have to be. But equipping women with tips and tools for getting ahead isn’t enough to level the playing field; deep change requires a shift in organizational culture. This is the first in a series of articles looking at how college and universities can navigate that shift. by Rosalind Spigel, Organizational Development Consultant and Leadership Coach, Spigel Consulting Recent studies have documented persistent gender inequities in higher education, including gender gaps in faculty salaries and only slow increases in the percentage of women in leadership positions. Women in higher education (and across sectors) face formidable barriers to advancement not only because gender bias exists on a personal level, but also because these biases are built into our organizational structures. Equipping women with tips and tools for getting ahead isn’t enough to level the playing field; deep change requires a shift in organizational culture. This is the first of a series of articles in which I will be looking at how men and women practice leadership traits, how these traits are often interpreted, and how biases held by both women and men keep women on the margins and impede their advancement […]
Why is it so difficult to nurture innovation and academic entrepreneurship at a college or university? My keen and longstanding interest in innovation was first fueled by my doctoral dissertation research, conducted in the early 1990s with a focus on small college resiliency. I studied the financial performance and management strategies of 100 small resource constrained institutions over a ten-year period to account for why some colleges thrived while others declined. I found that the most resilient colleges employed several strategies that, when taken together, helped explain their success. Most significantly, each of these schools exhibited an innovative institutional mindset, something that has been touted recently by prominent higher education thinkers as a critical prerequisite for thriving in these disruptive times. In fact, my research suggests that at the end of the day, institutional resiliency may depend more on mindset than skill set. Having been in the trenches for more than thirty years, I also know that this is not easy, especially for academic institutions. As legendary management consultant Peter Drucker concludes in his classic article The Discipline of Innovation: “In innovation, there is talent, there is ingenuity, and there is knowledge. But when it is said and done, what innovation requires is hard, […]
