Task Force Members
- Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko, Graduate College, Co-chair
- Tracy Sulkin, College of Media, Co-chair
- Stephen Downie, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- Kevin Jackson, Office of the Provost
- Jonathan Makela, Grainger College of Engineering
- Kathy Martensen, Office of the Provost
- Nolan Miller, Senate Committee on Education Policy and Gies College of Business
- Nicole Turner, College of Fine and Applied Arts
- Ingrid Fulmer, Office of the Provost, ex officio
- Jamie Hackett, Office of the Provost, ex officio
Charge Letter
Dear Colleagues,
Among our many strengths at the University of Illinois, we are especially proud of the world-class transformative learning experiences that enhance the knowledge of individuals, meet workforce demands, and support a thriving society. A goal set forth in Boldly Illinois 2030 is to continue to deliver with excellence at scale on these fundamental promises as we teach students and pioneer the science and the art of learning.
To develop the learning experiences of the future, we must streamline administrative processes, policies, and incentives that guide our community to create and deliver new and innovative content (i.e., programs, credentials, etc.) and expand access to new student populations here in the United States and elsewhere.
Authority for the content of our curriculum, including new innovative content, rests with the faculty and the Senate. Our campus-level central systems and processes also play an important role in advancing curricular innovation by: (1) specifying the financial parameters and impact of proposed new content on individual or collaborating academic units; (2) providing support as new content proceeds through the shared governance and other approval processes; (3) ensuring that new content meets the quality standards to be compliant with IBHE, HLC and other regulatory expectations; and (4) ensuring that approved new programs, credentials, and courses are available for student registration and enrollment.
We are taking this opportunity with the recent launch of our campus strategic framework to examine certain features of our central systems and processes to ensure that they are well-aligned to support and encourage the timely development of truly bold and innovative educational experiences in the future.
Toward that end, I am pleased to appoint and charge each of you as members of the Boldly Illinois Curriculum Innovation Process Task Force. We anticipate that the group will produce a report with your recommendations on or before October 31, 2025. This committee’s work will help lay the groundwork to ensure that we are as nimble as possible as we create and deliver the new learning experiences that will be needed to anticipate and meet the demands of the future. Importantly, we want to ensure that our processes encourage and do not deter innovation. In addition, this committee’s work will inform the work of a related future Boldly Illinois task force focused more directly on innovations in educational content (e.g., new credentials, alternative formats, short courses, non-credit offerings, etc.). Thank you for agreeing to serve.
This task force is asked to provide input and guidance to the university in the following areas:
- Review and make recommendations about current (and potential new) processes intended to expedite innovation through allowing us to try out/pilot new ideas. For example, would our current systems and policies accommodate a more expedited approval workflow for temporary approval of certain new offerings?
- Identify and recommend solutions for some already-identified process/system barriers or disincentives that may discourage academic units from initiating bold new innovative programs, credentials, etc., and that may also disadvantage students. A preliminary working group identified several examples (listed in Appendix A); your committee may know of or identify others. Your task force need not offer separate recommendations for addressing each of these examples, but to the degree that there are some common themes/foundational issues that could be distilled and form a basis for 2-3 priority recommendations that will have the greatest impact on encouraging academic units to develop and implement new ideas, that would be helpful.
- More generally, what could be done to further streamline central administrative processes, financial models, and policies related to: (1) initiating new degree/credential types and new academic programs, and (2) initiating new collaborations and partnerships intended to reach new students with a particular educational offering (i.e., these collaborations can be internal among multiple academic units, as well as external, with other universities, industry partners, etc.)? Examine the central processes’ workflow around both of these challenges to identify recommendations for increasing efficiency and areas where flexibility could be afforded while continuing to meet quality standards as they relate to shared governance, IBHE, and HLC expectations.
- What is working well and should continue as is? Where are there actual or perceived bottlenecks, barriers and/or disincentives that could limit our ability to anticipate and be ready to meet future changes in demand for University of Illinois educational offerings?
- In cases where perceived issues are misperceptions, what communication strategies are needed to correct these misperceptions?
- While there may be many recommendations that you include in your final report, please prioritize the top 3-5 that will likely have the most impact on our ability to innovate rapidly in this area.
- Our ability to be nimble is enhanced by our ability to pivot our resources away from some programs that are costly and no longer in high demand to free up resources to innovate in other areas. The committee is asked to make recommendations for improving our central processes in support of units wishing to evaluate and sunset credentials, programs, etc., that are no longer meeting student or workforce needs. There is an APEER process through IBHE that is used to examine low-enrollment programs (Staci Provezis in the Provost’s office can share more about this process). Besides enrollments, what other data would be useful to consider or develop and what sort of evaluation process would be useful for programs to go through? Could APEER be something to consider using or adapting to use more broadly as a template/model for academic units that wish to do so?
- The task force is invited to examine and highlight what you see as the most promising new or expanded types of learning experiences that we should explore further and that could potentially be included for consideration by a future Boldly Illinois Curricular Innovation Content Committee that will be charged for the 2025-26 academic year. Please consider these new types of learning experiences in general terms, not necessarily specific to any individual unit or department.
- Some examples that have been discussed in the higher education industry and elsewhere recently include smaller “bites” of coursework, such as short-length courses, and 1 and 2 credit courses. Might there be more space for expanding innovations like the +X and X+ degrees we have had good success with? Other examples include 3-year bachelor’s degrees, tailored/custom educational opportunities created for industry partners, minors that cross departments/colleges, and programs that are designed around non-traditional units of instruction (e.g., microcredentials). You are welcome to identify others. These areas can also be thought of as “test cases” that inform your work on processes in this committee (i.e., What would we need to strengthen and streamline about our processes and policies now in order to be ready to pursue these initiatives aggressively within the 2-3 years if we chose to?).
In the course of your work, you may wish to review the reports and recommendations of relevant offices, task forces, and committees, as well as current written processes and policies. Several of these documents and other materials will be included in a central location (e.g., a Box folder) for your task force, including:
- University of Illinois Credentials Working Group Memo and Appendices (April 2024)
- Transforming Higher Education Task Force Report (June 2023)
- International Online Education Workgroup Report (September 2024)
- UI System Task Group on Online Strategy Report (May 2024)
- The Office for Professional Education has prepared An Initial Opportunity Analysis for Professional Education Programs at UIUC (Aug 2024)
- Handbook 2024-2025 (Grad College)
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Program Approval Process (visual/overview of the program approval process)
- Senate Committee on Educational Policy Levels of Governance Document
- 2024-2025 Academic Proposal Meeting Dates and Submission Deadlines
Thank you for accepting this responsibility. I look forward to the positive impact that the Boldly Illinois Curriculum Innovation Process Task Force will have on our commitment to academic excellence now, into 2030, and beyond.
Sincerely,
John Coleman
Provost