The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), a Carnegie R1, urban-serving, and Hispanic-Serving Institution, has implemented a transformative Data-Informed Learning Innovation Initiative to enhance student success through collaborative, data-driven practices. With nearly 37,000 students many of whom are underrepresented minorities, first-generation, and high financial need UTSA prioritizes evidence-based strategies that integrate faculty development, curricular innovation, and learning analytics.
This initiative includes multiple projects such as the ACUE Fellow Cohort Program, Exemplary Student Pathways, Connect & Thrive Faculty Mini-Grants, Course Transformations/Curricular Analytics, and the Student Experience Project. These efforts focus on faculty professional development, faculty mentoring programs, course redesign, and fostering equitable learning environments, resulting in significant reductions in DFW rates and increased student engagement. Additionally, a university-wide task force is assessing and expanding Open Educational Resources (OER) in high-impact courses, leveraging data to evaluate OER’s impact on student learning and affordability.
What sets this initiative apart is its deeply collaborative approach. At UTSA, student success is an institutional priority, not the responsibility of a single office or division. Senior leadership - including academic deans and vice provosts meets regularly to align efforts that drive student thriving, foster a culture of data-informed decision-making, and bridge faculty and student success. Leadership within academic support divisions Academic Innovation, Institutional Research, Student Success, Faculty Success, and Undergraduate Studies meets weekly to assess project outcomes and strategize for continuous improvement.
This session will share key strategies, implementation practices, and measurable outcomes from UTSA's Data-Informed Learning Innovation Initiative, demonstrating how intentional collaboration and data-driven decision-making drive student success at scale.[end hidden
1:30-2:15pm - Workshop: Roadmapping Resources from the Propagating Research ethIcs around Sexual Marginalization and Transgender Issues Conference (PRISMATIC); 90-minute Workshop
1:30-2:30pm 15-minute Oral Session
- From Catalyzing to Institutionalizing Change in 2- to 4-year STEM Transfer in Wisconsin
- Transforming Classroom Practices Through Data-Driven Communities of Practice: The Ascend Initiative
2:15-2:30pm - Transition
2:30-3:15pm 45-minute Oral Session
- Building Institutional Alignment through High-Impact Relationships
- Teaching TRIOS: Lessons Learned through A Strength-Based Approach to Peer Observation
- Leveraging Networked Improvement Community Tools and Processes as Boundary Objects in Collaborations for Systemic Change
2:30-3:15pm 15-minute Oral Session
- Hang together or Hang Separately? Organizing for the Future of STEM Reform
- Sharing the Work of the Roundtable on Systemic Change in Undergraduate STEM Education of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
- Creating an Equitable Leadership for Change
3:15pm-3:30pm - Transition
3:30pm-6:45pm
- 3:30-4:15pm - Lightning Round/Roundtable Pitches
- 4:15-5:00pm - Roundtable Discussions: Small Breakout Groups
- Table 1. Running a Center of Teaching and Learning or STEM Education Center - Dea Greenhoot/Gregory Rushton
- Table 2. How can Minority-Serving Institutions design and implement structured academic advising systems to improve retention and equity in STEM education - Belinda Rosario
- Table 3. Sustaining commitment to our work - Eliza Jane Reilly
- Table 4. Educational impacts of emerging technology and AI - Sara Wilson/Doug Ward
- Table 5. Building promotion and compensation structures to support faculty pedagogical development and course transformation - Christopher Hass
- Table 6. Balancing metrics for success for administrators and the need to engage all faculty in the change - Kathey Quardokus Fisher
- Table 7. Sustaining change efforts through turnover - Wendy Smith
- Table 8. Establishing and sustaining communities of practice - Brittany Peterson
- Table 9. The Culture of Chemistry Project: an initial analysis of values and assumptions in the discipline of chemistry - Courtney Ngai
- Table 10. Departmental Change Network - Joel Corbo -
- Table 11:. "Mentoring at Scale" to Expand the STEMM Community - Tekla Nicholas
- Table 12. Change Insight through the SEER process - Lucas Hill
- 5:15-5:55pm - Poster Session 2A and Networking Break
- 5:55-6:05pm - Flip Posters
- 6:05-6:45pm - Poster Session 2B and Networking Break
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
7:30am-8:45am
- 7:30-8:00am - Silence in Community (morning meditation practice)
- 7:30-8:45am - Breakfast
8:45-9:00am - Transition
9:00am-9:45am
- 9:00-10:45am - Community-Gathering: Leveraging networks for sustained systemic change: what to do when the funding ends; 90-minute Workshop
- 9:00-9:45am 45-minute Oral Session
- Driving Evidence-Informed Educational Improvement through Collaborative Inquiry
- Advancing STEM teaching nationwide through 500+ trained local learning community facilitators;
- 9:00-9:45am -Sustaining Joy (in life/in higher education)
Attendees are invited to engage in a creative foresight activity. Oh, and there are prizes too.
- 9:00-9:45am - Inclusive Excellence@OSU: Sharing the impacts of 5 years of faculty development (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 20.7MB Dec23 25) - olly Cho, Victoria Sellers, Martin Storksdieck, Devon Quick, Lori Kayes, Carmen Harjoe, Mary Beisiegel, Oregon State University
This session will reflect on five years of institutional change efforts conducted by fellows and the leadership team from Oregon State University’s Inclusive Excellence initiative. Inclusive Excellence at OSU (IE@OSU) was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute-funded initiative designed as a year-long fellowship for STEM faculty. IE@OSU supported 80 faculty from three undergraduate-serving institutions (OSU, Linn Benton Community College, and Lane Community College) to shift their pedagogical practices and generate a sense of responsibility for social justice in their spheres of influence. IE@OSU is built on a three-pronged theory of change emphasizing faculty learning, action research, and a community of practice. IE@OSU trained fellows in a week-long Academy and supported them as they developed personalized Action Plans for increasing equity and inclusion within their spheres of influence.
We will share evaluation findings from the 5-year period, namely, 1) aspects of the program that had the greatest impact on faculty, 2) evidence for persistent pedagogical and cultural change, 3) notable challenges identified, and 4) potential pathways to sustain the work beyond the life of the grant.
In particular, the presentation will highlight how the most impactful aspect of the program, the Action Plan, scaffolded change-work in an accessible way for fellows and empowered them with the knowledge and self-efficacy to see themselves as the “right person†to do inclusion and equity work. We will offer vignettes from individual fellows that illustrate their trajectories as change makers.
9:45am-10:00am - Transition
10:00am-10:45am
- 10:00-10:45am 45-minute Oral Session
- Strengthening Systemic Change Initiatives through Scaffolding Processes: Insights for Change Leadership Teams
- Empowering change: Exploring multiple perspectives on benefits and challenges of an instructional change initiative that engages faculty and undergraduate students in improving STEM courses together
- 10:00-10:45am - Sustaining Joy (in life/in higher education)
Attendees are invited to engage in a creative foresight activity. Oh, and there are prizes too.
- 10:00-10:45am - Change can happen quickly: An engaging physical sciences faculty learning community (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 8.3MB Dec23 25) - Shanna Shaked, Rachel Kennison, Albert Courey, K. Supriya, Harrison Parker, UCLA
Research on effectively supporting faculty to adapt more inclusive teaching practices emphasizes the importance of identifying barriers and drivers, finding ways to compensate faculty for time spent learning and implementing new practices, and having a community of practice facilitated by pedagogy experts as a space to discuss and reflect on implementation (Shadle et al. 2017, Int. J. STEM Ed.). A faculty learning community (Beach et al. 2012, Change) is one evidence-based approach for supporting reflective practitioners of more inclusive and research-based teaching.
The aim of the Physical Sciences Faculty in Inclusive Teaching (PS FIT) Fellows Program is to empower PS FIT Fellows to become inclusive change agents within their departments and institutions. Facilitated by UCLA's Center for Education Innovation and Learning in the Sciences, the program supports faculty in making evidence-based, sustainable, and iterative changes, creating more inclusive and effective courses while also fostering a sense of community.
In Fall 2024, a group of 12 selected faculty (most of whom taught more than 150 students per year) attended a 6-hour introduction to inclusive teaching workshop, followed by four 2-hour lunch sessions every 2-3 weeks, doing work between sessions to prepare and to integrate what they learned. Each 2-hour lunch consisted of 4-6 sets of discussion questions, allowing for a range of discussion topics. We provided $1000 in research funds to any fellow who completed the program and made concrete changes (i.e. a more inclusive syllabus, a substantial teaching intervention, and a mid-quarter feedback student survey in their course to support faculty in reflecting on and assessing their intervention).
Initial assessment of the broad range of faculty (two vice chairs; more than half of the group new to engaging with CEILS) suggests sustained engagement, shifts in faculty sense of belonging, and even success in building community in only four lunch sessions.
10:45am-11:00am - Transition
11:00am-3:00pm
- 11:00-11:45am 45-minute Oral Session
- Building Lasting Momentum: Engaging Faculty in Evidence-Based Teaching Through MoSI, CoPs, and local Communities of Transformation
- A CIRTL Change Leadership Development Program for Early Career Educators to Advance Inclusive STEM Teaching and Learning: Lessons Learned from an NSF-Funded Pilot
- 11:00-11:45am - Resource Analysis & Planning: Leveraging Strategic Financial Practices for Student Centered Transformation (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 9.1MB Dec23 25) - Terri Dautcher, NACUBO and Michael Dennin, UC Irvine
When institutions identify and address structural barriers to student success, the resources required to effect and sustain change - money, time, and expertise - should be considered. Workshop attendees will learn about an effort at UC Irving to identify structural barriers to student success, and gain access to a suite of free tools and guides that can be used to facilitate resource analysis and planning to sustain improved student outcomes.
UC Irvine carried out a study of the impact of change in major policies and identified a requirement for an overall GPA of greater than or equal to 2.0 as an example of such a barrier. The outcomes of the study were used to work with Academic Advisors and the Academic Senate to achieve a policy change. Those involved in the effort realized that a better understanding of budgetary impacts would have helped the process. That recognition led to an interest in learning more about the NACUBO Student Success Hub, a suite of publicly available tools and resources that aid institutions to leverage strategic financial practices when developing models to improve student outcomes.
Attendees of this engaging session will gain access to the NACUBO (National Association of College and University Business Officers) Student Success HUB tools and resources. Workshop materials shared in this session were developed over a 3-year period, in collaboration with 26 institutional teams comprised of CFOs, CAOs, and subject matter experts in student advising.
Materials shared in the workshop can be leveraged by anyone interested in building capacity for improved and sustainable student outcomes. Resources underpin the work of transformation. This workshop offers attendees an opportunity to build their individual capacity to champion resource allocation practices at their institutions, in support of improved outcomes for students.
- 11:45am-12:45pm - Lunch and Sustaining Joy (in life/in higher education) (optional activity)
- 1:00-1:15pm Regency Ballroom - Plenary: Transforming Undergraduate STEM Education: Supporting Equitable and Effective Teaching
- 1:20-3:00pm - Closing Keynote: Happiness 101 (Acrobat (PDF) 2.3MB Dec21 25) - Dr. Timothy Bono, Lecturer in Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis
Dr. Tim Bono is a faculty member in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis where his teaching and research focus on positive psychology and college student development. His work has been featured in a number of national media outlets including NBC News, CNN, Fast Company, and the Associated Press. Over the last decade, thousands of students have taken his popular courses on the Psychology of Young Adulthood and the Science of Happiness. He summarizes the research from those courses, along with how his students have put that information into practice in their own lives, in his book, Happiness 101: Simple Secrets to Smart Living & Well-Being.
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