The Boldly Illinois Curriculum Innovation Process Task Force’s work will help lay the groundwork to ensure the university is as nimble as possible in creating and delivering new learning experiences that anticipate and meet the demands of the future. 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.
The task force, charged in April 2025, will review and make recommendations about current, and potential new, processes intended to expedite innovation through piloting of new ideas; identify and recommend solutions for 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; and identify 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.
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.).