Presentation from the Academic Innovation and Excellence Committee on December 6, 2017

1. Academic Innovation &
Excellence
ROB HALE & HAROLD LITTLE, CO-CHAIRS; GREG ARBUCKLE, MARKO
DUMANCIC, FRED GIBSON, BETH LAVES, ALICIA PENNINGTON, SALLY
RAY, JOHN RIDLEY, TAMELA SMITH, BELINDA WAMALA, QIN ZHAO

2. Academic Innovation and Excellence
Our vision is to engage every student and excite them to
learn, benchmarking against standards for providing
quality in learning with greater relevance to our world
and external constituents. WKU will become a leader in
innovative pedagogy, and other institutions will follow
our lead. We will aspire to be the best teachers in the
Commonwealth and set standards for excellence in
teaching diverse student populations. WKU will become
students’ academic first choice.

3. Becoming the Tesla
of the Commonwealth

4. Potential Strategies
1. Provide innovative pedagogical training to include engagement strategies, challenging
experiences, relevant and current, to educate current and future learners
2. Help students learn how to learn, building growth mindsets, problem-solving skills,
communication skills, and cognitive flexibility so they continue to learn and flourish after
graduation
3. Apply new and innovative learning environments and methods to meet evolving student
needs
4. Explore alternative scheduling to maximize student learning and to meet new student
demands (i.e., an alternating Friday schedule)
5. Utilize high impact practices to distinguish academic programs

5. Potential Strategies
6. Make student preparedness a priority to ensure success by aligning WKU academic programs
with P12 and community college programs to ensure student success and improve faculty
morale
7. Allow faculty to define academic excellence for their programs based on strategically
determined outcomes, rigorous academic reviews, and specific and unique performance-
based metrics
8. Create, develop, and resource seven programs of national distinction
9. Make Colonnade a program of distinction and align all academic programs with Colonnade.
[Note: Provide a transcript/certificate for completing Colonnade. Encourage programs to
develop a map of an ideal Colonnade program to create the best program for that major.]

6. Potential Strategies
10.Integrate programs across disciplines with shared, developmentally appropriate learning
outcomes
11.Develop an innovative system that “stacks” graduate certificates, which can be used toward
program degree acquisition. This system should encourage interdisciplinary programs and
eliminate disincentives to cross-disciplinary teaching and research collaborations.
12.Provide pathways that support adult learners. These pathways should include PLA, alternative
learning environments, flexibility in delivery, and support transfers from other colleges,
universities, and post-secondary institutions.
13.Reorganize academic and administrative units to eliminate duplication, facilitate opportunities
for learning, and encourage collaboration across all programs.
14.Leverage bureaucracy (i.e., administrative policies, procedures, and processes) to facilitate
student learning instead of being an obstacle to student learning.