Faculty
Want to know what the UM of the future could be like for you as a faculty member? Read on!
While higher education is facing unprecedented disruption (accentuated by COVID-19), there is no doubt that higher education is more critical than ever to our society. People are eager to learn, to develop new skills, to make sense of the world and to build better lives for themselves, their families and their communities. In this environment, as a faculty member you have tremendous opportunity to share your knowledge and insights with new learners, and to pursue research or creative scholarship that can contribute to student learning and positively impact our community and the world.
Below we have outlined some initiatives and aspects of the UM of the future and highlighted where and how you might engage with or experience that future.
We also encourage you to read the other sections of this website that will help you understand how the UM of the future will look for students, employees, and the community, and how your role can contribute to realizing that future.
Not all of these may be relevant or appropriate for you in your teaching, research or service. Nevertheless, we believe that the UM of the future that has many faculty engaged in these kinds of opportunities heralds the potential for growing enrollment, enhanced student learning outcomes, increased collaboration and greater impact on the community and world.
Designing the Future for Faculty
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Higher education is seeing rapid emergence of “non-traditional” learners, a trend accelerated by the impacts of COVID-19. These learners are not just reflective of different demographics, but also individuals with different learning objectives and interests. For example, a recent survey found that 2 in 3 (68%) adults considering enrolling in education prefer nondegree pathways, up from 1 in 2 (50%) a year ago. UM is responding with a range of different initiatives to provide access to learning and faculty expertise. These include micro-credentials, workforce development training initiatives with industry associations and employers, and the opportunity for non-credit seeking students to concurrently take for-credit courses. This creates tremendous opportunities for faculty to reach new learners, inspiring and motivating them to further their studies and pursue new academic paths and credentials.
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COVID has forced higher education into a rapid transition to online and asynchronous teaching modes. It is largely an acceleration of an existing trend to meet the needs of learners (particularly non-traditional learners) that are seeking more flexible learning options that can work with existing work, family or other commitments. While this has been challenging for faculty and students alike, it can also create opportunity.
Online, flex and asynchronous modes, when carefully designed, can expand reach, offer better learning outcomes and deliver greater faculty schedule flexibility, often with lower administrative or assessment burden (i.e. more time to engage in the discipline). Other trends toward interdisciplinary and experiential learning can create exciting and innovative teaching opportunities working in concert with other campus initiatives such as ElevateU, the Innovation Factory or the Blackstone LaunchPad.
Read UM’s Draft Design Principle: Innovation
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UM’s faculty, students and staff engage in wide range of activities including research, economic development and civic engagement that focus on solving complex challenges in today’s world and society. Whether it’s with respect to a local community challenge such as homelessness or hunger or with respect to a global issue such as climate change or refugees, faculty are at the forefront of research and creative scholarship that furthers our understanding or ability to solve these complex issues. Engaging students in this work will also equip students with the skills and experience to change their own world and also to make a dent in the world around them.
The path to solving these grand and complex global challenges is increasingly characterized by the interaction of different disciplines and fields. UM encourages faculty to explore opportunities for research or teaching at the intersection of their primary field of study with others or that explicitly seeks to integrate different disciplines. UM’s Communities of Excellence in Business and Entrepreneurship; Communication and Artistic Expression; Environment and Sustainability; Health and Human Development; Justice, Policy, and Public Service; and Science and Technology will continue to provide a forum for these ideas, opportunities and collaborations.
Read UM's Draft Design Principles: Interdisciplinary, Impact, Inquiry & Internationalization
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