listening to the future

Listening to the Future

Presented by

Larry Johnson and Kristi Nelson

Transforming Lives, Education, and Knowledge

Listening to the Future Transforming Lives, Education & Knowledge

Overview• During Spring ’13, the Provost Office facilitated 17

listening sessions across campus

• Purpose was to identify cross-cutting themes to guide the university’s future program development and research foci

• Faculty, Deans, Students and Alumni participated in listening exercises

• An electronic form was created to further encourage participation


Responses

• There were over 400 responses aggregated

• Faculty submitted more than 80% of these responses

• 61% of the total responses centered on UC’s students


What did we Hear?• 5 cross-cutting themes were identified during the

listening sessions:


What did we Hear?• Environment

• Build on existing strengths—the Office of Sustainability, green campus awards, recycling efforts, and LEED building certifications

• Increase course offerings and programs that educate on sustainability

• Partner with the Greater Cincinnati Water Works and the EPA on advances in sustainable use of water in our region

• Technology • Engage local businesses and agencies to address workforce and economic

development in the areas of IT, Computing, Cybersecurity, and Informatics

• Develop academic programs in Big Data, Cybersecurity, Informatics, and Advanced Manufacturing


What did we Hear? • Equality

• Discussions of equality focused on 3 major areas: Access to Higher Education

– Continue focus on first generation students– Expand reach to inner-city youth in Greater Cincinnati– Leverage open access opportunities at the branch campuses

Diversity/Cultural Awareness– Increase diversity through mentoring programs

Human Rights/Social Justice– Create programs that address social issues such as poverty, access to

healthcare and education


What did we Hear? • Leadership

• Instill strong collaborative, communication, and professional skills within our students

• Critical thinking and problem solving should cut across all disciplines

• Prepare our students to be global leaders

• Urban Health• Increase access to and affordability of healthcare

• Utilize UC’s location to be the region’s leader in urban health

• Develop a strategic plan that addresses the issues of access and affordability


Enriching the UC Experience• Participants identified 12 major areas to consider

when seeking to enrich the UC experience:


Enriching the UC Experience• Experiential learning, international study, interdisciplinary collaboration,

effective teaching, and faculty development were cited as areas that will have the greatest impact on enriching the UC experience

• Experiential Learning • Build upon UC’s existing strength and reputation to reach a larger market• Actively cultivate relationships with local, national, and international partners to

broaden experiential learning opportunities

• International Study• Expand UC’s population of international students through online learning and

collaboration with international institutions• Use our 2+2 program offerings to create pathways to degrees for international

students


Enriching the UC Experience• Interdisciplinary Collaboration

• Support the need for more interdisciplinary collaboration and collaborative research• Exploit UC’s wide range of academic areas of expertise among its faculty• Encourage and reward collaboration between academic units

• Effective Teaching• Provide more blended pedagogical approaches, combining online learning with

traditional classroom instruction• Expand assessment in order to identify effective pedagogies, or areas in need of

improvement

• Faculty Development• Increase professional development opportunities• Provide more training on how to obtain funded research


Extended Dialogue• The Listening to the Future Initiative led to additional

conversations in IT and Sustainability • IT Summit

• Efforts led by Chief Information Officer• UC engaged more than 90 business and government partners • 50-member IT & Computing Task Force was assembled

Address workforce and economic development in the areas of IT

• Sustainability and Environmental Literacy Summit• Efforts led by Dean of DAAP• Set to launch Fall 2014• Feature internationally recognized experts in sustainability


Recommendations1) Engage in a process to vet this report to shape curricula,

teaching and learning, research, and other mission-based activities

• Share key findings of this report with the appropriate university constituents

• Work with VP of Research to identify potential research foci based on data of report


Recommendations2) Engage the university community in the implementation of

the 5 cross-cutting themes:

• Environment • Develop programs that focus on sustainability and environmental literacy

• Follow through on the Sustainability Summit

• Equality• Develop initiatives that distinguish UC by creating access to higher

education, diversity/cultural awareness, and human rights/social justice


Recommendations• Urban Health

• Develop programs and initiatives that address issues in urban healthcare, such as access, affordability, poverty, and aging

• Leadership• Develop leadership qualities such as collaborative skills, ethics, critical

thinking, global thinking, and innovation in our faculty, students, and staff

• Technology• Explore the development of programs in the areas of advanced

manufacturing, big data, commercialization, and cybersecurity

• Consider digital scholarship as a general education skill• Build upon the work of the UC Institute for Computing and Data Sciences


Recommendations3) Utilize the information obtained in the “Enriching the UC

Experience” and the “Extended Dialogue” sections to make a meaningful impact in the UC community

•Experiential Learning • Efforts to market UC’s emphasis on experiential learning should be

expanded to include students in programs that do not require a co-op

•International • The Provost, the Vice Provost of International, and Deans should work

in concert to develop optimal ways to expand international offerings


Recommendations• Interdisciplinary

• The Provost Office should work with Deans to develop collaborations in order to accomplish interdisciplinary teaching and research

• Pedagogy• Continue to develop innovative pedagogical approaches to improve

student learning and advance the scholarship of teaching and learning, while incorporating the use of eLearning and hybrid models

• Assessment• Continue to develop innovative ways to assess the quality of academic

programs and effectiveness of instructional approaches


Questions?

listening to the future

Documents