Flexible Learning Environments for Improved Students Success

Student demand for flexible and diverse learning environments is increasingly significant. Institutions seeking to prioritize engaging student experiences must commit to providing students with well-designed learning environments that maximize the use of high-quality digital learning technologies and evidence-based teaching practices across all modality types. Furthermore, disruptions to learning are more commonplace as colleges and universities shift to modified operations in the face of inclement weather, technology interruptions, or public health emergencies. Colleges and universities understand the critical need to develop high-quality teaching and learning environments that can seamlessly switch back and forth between in-person and online education. This service engages institutional teams to use change management and continuous improvement approaches to create more strategic learning environments in online, hybrid, and face-to-face introductory courses or programs.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this service, participants will be able to:

• Recognize the institutional investments needed to provide students with learning opportunities that effectively integrate digital learning applications and evidence-based instruction across all learning modalities (online, hybrid, and face-to-face)
• Examine the varied impact of potential learning disruptions for students
• Through an assessment of institutional, programmatic, and departmental needs and capacities, identify critical areas for investment and improvement
• Learn about and prioritize the adoption and implementation of digital learning tools and instructional methods that center on student needs and enable student success in introductory courses
• Prepare your institution to support the implementation of an academic change management process that creates intentional learning environments in online, hybrid, and face-to-face introductory courses and/or academic programs

Service Deliverables

1. Complete a presentation with your institutional team’s takeaways from the course
2. With your cross-functional university team and guidance from APLU’s facilitators and institutional coaches, you will develop a comprehensive, strategic action plan that establishes a change management process to integrate high-quality digital learning technologies and evidence-based instructional methods across multiple learning environments (online, hybrid, face-to-face) at your institution

Service Duration

This service is designed as a 12-week 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.

Contact Hours

Five 90-minute synchronous, online workshops for the institutional team and four total 60-minute coaching sessions

Time on Task

22 total hours for team members and 34 total hours for project lead

Capacity

As designed, this service can accommodate up to five teams simultaneously. For each institutional team, there should be a minimum of four participants. We recommend no more than 8 participants per team. Intermediaries interested in serving more than five institutions may inquire.

Assumptions

If institutions have an initiative related to introductory course reform that they’d like to focus on for this course, we can support specific strategies to drive the initiative forward. However, this service can support an array of change management and strategic planning activities related to flexible learning reform efforts depending on institutional needs.