Leveraging Digital Courseware to Support Collaborative Course Redesign (Part I, Digital Courseware Track—Administrator Focus)

Educational technologies such as digital courseware serve as driver to support collaborative team-based course redesign initiatives within and across academic departments. When implemented well and in tandem with quality pedagogy and instructional design practices, digital courseware provides faculty with meaningful data about student learning that can drive instructional practices and student interventions. Digital courseware can also enable student engagement and support faculty and institutions in creating personalized learning experiences for their students. During this three-to-five-month service engagement, APLU will prepare cross-functional teams of academic leadership and key institutional stakeholders to:

1. build critical relationships and allocate the resources required to effectively support faculty and students involved in redesigned courses leveraging digital courseware and evidence-based instructional practices
2. identify and reach out to target faculty and programs at their institution for participation in a course redesign initiative
3. establish a clear plan for initiating and carrying out a course redesign initiative at their institution that combines the use of digital courseware, evidence-based instructional practices, and continuous use of student data and learning analytics to improve student learning outcomes

For additional support to effectively onboard and prepare faculty to engage in digital courseware redesign initiatives, institutions may sign up for Part II of this service track.

Learning Objectives

• Understand how digital courseware, evidence-based instructional practices, and applications of student data can be combined to improve the quality of teaching and learning and increase student success outcomes in gateway courses
• Build institutional capacity to develop, implement, assess, refine, and scale collaborative course redesign initiatives that can be employed across departments and programs in any course modality (face-to-face, hybrid, online)
• Identify and use key data points to target opportunities for improving equitable student outcomes in gateway and high priority courses at your institution
• Learn how to support the creation and use of data collection tools and processes that will enable faculty to use student and course level data analytics for personalized instruction and continuous improvement of gateway courses
• Academic leadership feels prepared to effectively reach out to and support faculty or departmental teams for course redesign initiatives

Service Deliverables

• Establish a collaborative, cross-functional institutional team that is ready to support a faculty team or academic department to adopt digital courseware and implement a course redesign initiative
• Identify target courses, faculty, or programs to include in a course redesign initiative
• Develop a detailed action plan for initiating and comprehensively supporting a course redesign project that integrates digital courseware, evidence-based instructional practices, and use of student learning data

Intended Audience

This service is for institutional teams consisting of academic administrators and leaders, teaching and learning leadership, student success leaders, and instructional technology experts. Faculty leadership and course coordinators are encouraged to participate.

Note: APLU will support participating institutions in identifying ideal candidates based on institutional contexts, need, and capacities.

Service Format

Combination synchronous and asynchronous activities, facilitated workshops with institutional coaching support. The service may be delivered to a single institution or to a cohort of institutions. This service includes:

• a series of five, 1-hr long, interactive workshops, delivered synchronously, and facilitated by experts from APLU and exemplar colleges and universities
• a set of guided coaching sessions with higher education, digital learning, and data analytics experts from APLU and exemplar colleges and universities
• asynchronous course content, educational resources, and activities that help cross-functional teams plan for and initiate a course redesign project that leverages digital courseware and evidence-based instructional practices

Service Length

This service is designed as a three-to-five-month engagement, depending on institutional or cohort needs and capacities. This service may also be offered as an intensive, two-day, in-person “boot-camp” for institutions or cohorts.

Facilitated Workshops Include

1. Preparing for Academic Course Change to achieve more Equitable Student Success
2. The Case for Digital Courseware as a Driver for Improved Academic Success
3. Exploring your Institutional Context and Identifying Opportunities for Transformation
4. Building Institutional Capacities to Support Collaborative Course Redesign and Digital Courseware Implementation
5. Assessing and Refining your Project to Scale Best Practices at Your Institution