Empirical studies of instructional innovations at the undergraduate level have repeatedly emphasized the strong connection existent between faculty success and student engagement, learning, and achievement (e.g., Condon et al., 2016, Wright et al., 2018). In this context, faculty success entails providing the resources and capital necessary to enhance instructional capacity – the ability for an educator to facilitate high-quality instructional experiences in their learning environments (Cohen & Ball, 1999). One mechanism to promote this outcome is for faculty and other key stakeholders (e.g., laboratory course coordinators) to establish on-campus partnerships with divisions and centers responsible for promoting faculty and student success. This might include Centers for Teaching & Learning and Instructional Design, the college/university library, student support centers (e.g., for writing, supplemental instruction), and makerspaces. Regardless, beyond their ability to effect change in single contexts, these partnerships ideally ensure that those impacts advance the institution as a whole.
In this interactive symposium, we will first describe how a unique unit – Creative Studios – integrated within our university's Institute for Scholarship, Pedagogy, Innovation, and Research Excellence (INSPIRE) has not only revolutionized how instructors teach using technology, but also transformed the types of networking occurring between centers and departments on campus. We will then describe how our current effort to redesign the core curriculum at our institution, including the successes achieved from that process, was actualized, in part, due to the on-campus partnerships and faculty-center connections that were fostered. Throughout this conversation, attendees will have an opportunity to reflect on the benefits and challenges of engaging in such partnerships as well as strategize about new avenues for promoting student and faculty success on their own campuses.