Leading Innovation in a Complex World

Concurrent Session 9
Blended

Session Materials

Brief Abstract

Join this dynamic discussion of strategies and barriers to leading innovation at scale within diverse and complex institutions.  We’ll bring our best tips and share the places where our ideals didn’t quite match reality. You bring your burning questions and your own stories to share as we all build our toolset for leading innovation on our home campuses.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Whitney Kilgore, iDesign

Whitney Kilgore, Ph.D. is co-founder and chief academic officer of iDesign, a partner to universities who wish to build, grow, and support online and blended course and program offerings. iDesign provides concierge, white-glove instructional design support to faculty partners. Their designers bring expertise, service, and project structure to bear and ensuring that faculty feel comfortable, informed, and in control throughout the process of creating online learning experiences for their students. Dr. Kilgore has led the development of programs across the U.S., Spain, the Philippines, China, Australia, Latin America, and the U.K. As an academic, Dr. Kilgore has received recognitions for her work, including a research award from UNT and inclusion in the Top 10 Research Articles (co-authored with Aras Bozkurt of Turkey and Matt Crosslin from UTA) for 2017 list produced by Dublin City University for their work on Bot-Teachers in Hybrid Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): A Post-Humanist Experience. Whitney has been a part of the EdTech efficacy research project conducted in conjunction with Columbia University and the University of Virginia on EdTech Decision Making in Higher Education. She is currently working on research related to care theory in online learning and the impact to practice of humanizing online teaching and learning. She edited and published the book Humanizing Online Teaching and Learning and Connecting the Dots: Book: Improving Student Outcomes with Exceptional Instructional Design.

Co-presenter: Mary Niemiec, University of Nebraska | University of Nebraska Online

Mary Niemiec is the Associate Vice President for Digital Education and Director of the University of Nebraska Online. In her role at the University of Nebraska, she coordinates the system-wide collaborative initiative that pulls together the 150 plus online programs offered by the four campuses of the NU system. She has worked in the areas of higher education continuing, online, and blended learning for more than twenty years. In addition to her University responsibilities, she represents and serves the University within the state of Nebraska and nationally by serving in leadership roles in various professional organizations. She currently serves as President for the Board of Directors of the Online Learning Consortium. She also serves as a member of the Nebraska Information Technology Commission’s Education Council and a member of the Policy Committee for UPCEA. She was named an OLC Fellow in 2011.

Co-presenter: Cali Morrison , American Public University System

Cali M.K. Morrison, Ed.D. is associate dean, alternative learning at American Public University System. Previously Cali was the assistant director, communications and analysis at the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET) and project director of Transparency by Design at WCET, where she became interested in studying adult learners and accountability. Current research interests include competency-based education and the future of credentials. Cali lives near Bozeman, MT with her husband, two daughters, and dogs where she is active in the community, especially with the Girls for a Change and CAP mentoring programs.

Additional Authors

Tina Parscal, Colorado Community Colleges Online

Dr. Tina Parscal is the Executive Director of Colorado Community Colleges Online (CCCOnline), the online consortium of thirteen community colleges that comprise the Colorado Community College System. In this role, she provides strategic leadership and administrative direction for CCCOnline’s operational, academic, educational, and technical activities. She also chairs the Learning Technology Council for the Colorado Community College System. Dr. Parscal has more than 25 years of experience providing academic and administrative leadership in higher education and has served in such roles as provost/chief academic officer, dean, program director, and faculty. Tina has published and presented in the areas of educational leadership and online learning as well as served as the Executive Editor of an award-winning peer-reviewed journal. She was honored as a “2014 Women Worth Watching” by Profiles in Diversity Magazine for her leadership in creating inclusive learning environments. Tina brings a breadth of experience that supports CCCOnline’s strategic priorities including online teaching and learning, instructional design and innovation, open educational resources, accreditation, strategies for assessing learning outcomes, and models for enhancing the student learning experience. Tina and her husband live in Highlands Ranch. They are wine enthusiasts who love travel and photography.

Extended Abstract

Session Description:

 

Join this dynamic discussion of strategies and barriers to leading innovation at scale within diverse and complex institutions.  We’ll bring our best tips and share the places where our ideals didn’t quite match reality. You bring your burning questions and your own stories to share as we all build our toolset for leading innovation on our home campuses.

 

The presenters will begin with introductions and share the five stages with the participants by printing the following article for participants to review: http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-five-stages-of-successful-innovation/

 

Using the “Five Stages of Successful Innovation” from MIT, we will work in teams using a jigsaw approach in order to allow smaller groups of participants to discuss in great detail their assigned stage. Once each group has an opportunity to work through the essential questions for their stage we will bring the teams back together to present their findings from their conversations and come up with our own approach to leading innovation in higher education together.

 

Possible Group Discussion Questions:

  1. There are two elements of leading innovation - leading projects and leading people.  Let’s start with people, what are your key tactics to leading people? Does gender matter in leading innovation?

  2. Now projects, what is your preferred method for leading projects?

  3. What are the greatest barriers  you face in leading innovation?

  4. What is a time you struggled but were successful in implementing innovation? What elements in your organizational culture advance innovation and breakthrough thinking and what shuts it down?

  5. How do prioritize efforts for yourself and your team?