Give your vital academic change projects the focused attention, expert consulting, and fresh perspective they need for maximum results, while saving precious institutional resources.

At The Collaboration’s Institute for Academic Innovation, your campus team will engage in a unique process designed to jump start stronger programs on a more efficient timeline while fostering collaborative leadership and building greater campus buy-in.

Join the dozens of college and university teams that have already experienced the value and impact of The Collaboration’s Institute, whether designing core programs, strengthening assessment efforts, or building momentum on a wide range of other key initiatives to strengthen teaching and enhance student success.

Bringing about real educational advancement is tough. Whatever your current priorities—raising student retention and achievement, using assessment data to promote student learning outcomes, strengthening general education or an academic major, building support for first-generation students, revitalizing mid-career faculty, or another project—finding the time and resources to put a collaborative effort on the fast track is challenging, ensuring that the plan is solid and securing broad campus support even more so. Since 1990, however, numerous campus teams have built valuable momentum and success for their educational change projects at The Collaboration’s Institute for Academic Innovation.

In an intensive and collegial learning environment, a team from your institution can engage in a unique creative process designed to help it produce a winning project plan by week’s end. Guided and enhanced by a skilled and knowledgeable core faculty, team members will progress in four short days through a carefully integrated immersion experience of practical, hands-on learning sessions; focused and productive team meeting time; and expert consulting—opportunities organized to help them systematically broaden perspectives, identify and weigh alternatives, develop a communications plan, and try out ideas in a supportive community of peers. And unlike other summer institutes, activities are designed to support the specific projects of participating teams, providing a customized learning program that will achieve the greatest results in the shortest amount of time—measurable, sustainable results critical to your institution.

For more information on this event, please download a pdf version of the full brochure.

Examples of Previous Team Projects

Asuza Pacific University

Designed mentoring system linking members of the university’s assessment committee with department chairs

Johnson C. Smith University

Refined plans for the Learning Communities Program, including a vision, communications, and leadership coalition of academic and student affairs

Minneapolis Community & Technical College

Revised the Ethnic America class to reflect ethnic and immigrant populations, incorporate active learning, and align education programs

Morningside College

Developed outcomes and assessment strategies for writing, technology, and information literacy “across the curriculum” programs

St. Olaf College

Created plan to engage faculty in clarifying general education learning outcomes and implementing demonstration projects in assessment

University of Minnesota

Planned a multi-faceted, flexible program of civic learning experiences to
serve a diverse student population within a major research university

University of Minnesota, Crookston

Developed a comprehensive strategy to increase student retention focused on the first-year experience

New Mexico Institute

Planned a strategy for transforming institutional culture through
of Mining and Technology faculty development to increase faculty value for teaching and learning

Century College/Inver Hills Community College

Formulated a plan to increase the retention, graduation rates, and success of underrepresented students through K-16 partnerships