Session IV

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.

Effective and equitable policies and practices are critical for cultivating an institutional culture in which efforts to improve undergraduate STEM education can thrive. In this symposium, participants will explore key institutional types, levels, stakeholders, and mechanisms being used to support equitable learning for all members of the campus community, and consider how these campus-based efforts align with and contribute to a landscape of national work.

Since 2011, The Coalition for the Reform of Undergraduate STEM Education (CRUSE) has worked to align and coordinate national associations and societies efforts to support the widespread and sustained adoption of high-structured evidence-based teaching practices in undergraduate STEM courses that are known to be especially powerful for increasing the learning and success of students historically marginalized (e.g., women, students from racial or ethnic minority groups, first-generation college students, and students from low-income backgrounds) in higher education. The members of CRUSE have also focused on creating more student-centered educational environments by identifying and dismantling inequitable structures and practices in academia. Representatives from CRUSE will draw from our experiences working in multiple academic and administrative roles, institution types, and higher education associations to facilitate the workshop session.

Community colleges are playing an increasing role in, and thus have a growing focus on, bachelor's degree attainment. Nationally, community colleges serve more than a third of all undergraduate students. Nearly half of all students who complete a bachelor's degree have previously enrolled in a community college. Additionally, the students served by open-access community colleges are some of the most diverse in the nation – they tend to be older and more racially diverse than their university student peers. They are also more likely to be parents and to work while attending school. This session will highlight initiatives currently underway at community colleges to increase bachelor's degree completion in two states, Washington and Michigan, with a specific focus on the change process and partnerships necessary for successful implementation. Presenters will draw on representative examples of initiatives in STEM areas of study.

Workshop presenters represent two varying models of education. In Washington, the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges represents the thirty-four public community and technical colleges of the state and serves as a liaison with K-12 and university partners that make up the full landscape of education in Washington State. In Michigan, the community colleges are loosely affiliated, but do not have a coordinating board leading statewide work. The challenges of implementing change process within these two types of systems will be explored using examples of initiatives focused on increasing bachelor's degree attainment. Presenters will highlight how each initiative required the engagement of faculty, staff, administrators, students, and community members from across the education system. They will also share learning about how initial implementation required substantial change leadership, as does the ongoing work that assures these efforts are sustained in a relevant fashion over time.