1. Accelerating Systemic Change Network Inaugural Workshop
July 6-8, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)

2. Agenda Welcome from Susan Musante
Introduction to ASCN (why, what, who, how)
Goals for this inaugural meeting
Overview of working group topics
Get to know your working group

3. ASCN – Why?
Rationale
There are a lot of good people doing a lot of good things to improve higher education. Lack of coordination limits the ability to learn and improve.
Official Language: “There is a need to accelerate development of research- based knowledge about how to scale and sustain changes in STEM higher education. The research-based knowledge that does exist is scattered throughout many unconnected research communities, such as the various STEM disciplines, education, faculty development, management, and sociology. Many of the same change initiatives and related research questions are being pursued in different disciplines. Yet, the lack of a venue for sharing and improving this work severely limits the development of knowledge.”

4. ASCN – What?
Vision
ASCN will be the professional home for change researchers and change agents working in higher education.
Official Language: “The Accelerating Systemic Change Network (ASCN) will serve as an open, interdisciplinary, professional network and intellectual home for individuals and groups in a broad range of disciplines who are engaged in creating and/or studying change in STEM higher education in the full range of institutional settings. ASCN will help capture what is known and soon to be discovered about leading and evaluating change efforts in undergraduate and graduate STEM education, which will help maximize the individual and collective efforts of network members.”

5. ASCN – What?
Overarching Principles 
Systems thinking. Higher education is a complex system. Creating successful change requires an understanding of and strategic work at multiple parts of the entire system
Breadth of perspective. Complex problems can only be solved through collaborative work of stakeholders with a broad diversity of backgrounds, experiences, and disciplinary perspectives.
Serving all students. National-level strategies to improve undergraduate STEM education need to purposefully include all types of institutions that serve all types of students.

6. ASCN – How?

7. ASCN – Who? Steering Committee – PrincipAL Investigators
Charles Henderson, Western Michigan University
Andrea Beach, Western Michigan University
Maura Borrego, University of Texas, Austin
Susan Elrod, University of Wisconsin, Whitewater
Linda Slakey, Association of American Universities, and Association of American Colleges and Universities
Steering Committee – Other Members
Cathryn Manduca, Science Education Research Center, Carleton College
Marilyn Amey, Michigan State University
Emily Miller, Undergraduate STEM Initiative, Association of American Universities
David Bressoud, Macalester College
Mark Connolly, Wisconsin Center for Education Research
Karen Paulson, Penn State University
Scott Simkins, Academy for Teaching and Learning, North Carolina A&T
Anthony DePass, Long Island University
Karl Smith, University of Minnesota
Noah Finkelstein, University of Colorado Boulder
Gabriela Weaver, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Adrianna Kezar, University of Southern California
Lorne Whitehead, University of British Columbia
Kelly Mack, Project Kaleidoscope, Association of American Colleges and Universities
Julia Williams, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

8. ASCN – Who?
If you are having difficulties logging onto SERC site, see Rory tonight.
Stephanie Chasteen
University of Colorado at Boulder
Rory McFadden
Science Education Resource Center (SERC)

9. ASCN – Who?

10. Project Manager Position / Post Doc Position
Full time, based at Western Michigan University
Assist/support working groups
Manage all aspects of the project

11. This Inaugural Meeting
Primary Goal
To build a strong foundation that will support the network as it grows and attract others to join.
Source: gettyimages.com

12. Four Working Groups
Mission Statement that describes why the topic is important and establishes the conceptual range of the group
Knowledge Claims and established Ideas that the group can build on
Key Questions for the group to focus on
Potential Outcomes or products
Action Plan for moving forward

13. This Inaugural Meeting
Tonight
Introduction to working group topics
Get to know your working group (drinks available starting at 8:30)

14. This Inaugural Meeting
Tomorrow
Introduction to the SERC web platform – where ASCN work will be done
Working groups work
11am – Each Group makes 5 min presentation
Within Groups: Provide feedback, Do you want to be in a different group?
Across Groups: Is there too much overlap? What is missing?
Large Group (4-5pm) – building and supporting network momentum
Dinner
Drinks available

15. This Inaugural Meeting
Friday
Working groups work
10am – Poster Session
Topic TBD: What feedback does your group need from the larger group?
Lunch

16. Four Working Groups
Working Group 1: What theories and models should be used to guide change efforts?
led by Mark Connolly and Susan Shadle
Working Group 2: What are the costs and benefits of change?
led by Scott Simkins and Lorne Whitehead
Working Group 3: Who leads change and how?
led by Robert Hilborn and Julia Williams
Working Group 4: How can measurement and communication be used to promote change?
led by David Bressoud and Archie Holmes

17. Working Group 1: What theories and models should be used to guide change efforts?
Are we making good use of what is known from management and organizational change?
Are practitioners explicit about their change model?
What models are most promising for higher education?
Where are the gaps?
Are we thinking about all types of institutions?

18. Working Group 2: What are the costs and benefits of change?
There is a literature on the business of higher education but it tends not to address the issues that impact how teaching is done.
The costs of working to improve student success tend to be known but not the benefits
For the department
For the college
For the whole institution
How do the faculty experience the work of teaching after they know new methods?

19. Working Group 3: Who leads change and how?
What is already known here is a mixed bag.
There is a huge literature on effective leadership, much of it at the popular level, but
Few department heads get any formal training. Deans and Provosts learn by coming up the ranks.
Our own tradition, via PKAL, has an interesting history of preparing people to lead from below.
So, what kind of training would be useful?
What are the career paths for those who want to lead?
How can we use systems thinking, group dynamics, and succession planning more effectively?

20. Working Group 4: How can measurement and communication be used to promote change?
There are mountains of data about higher education – how much of it serves the purpose of aligning teaching with what we know about how people learn?
Tools are changing fast – how can we take advantage of this?
How do we balance concerns about privacy and proprietary information with growing our understanding of what works?
What measures best serve each institutional context?

21. Working Group Locations
[D115] Working Group 1: What theories and models should be used to guide change efforts?
led by Mark Connolly and Susan Shadle
[D124] Working Group 2: What are the costs and benefits of change?
led by Scott Simkins and Lorne Whitehead
[D125] Working Group 3: Who leads change and how?
led by Robert Hilborn and Julia Williams
[Auditorium] Working Group 4: How can measurement and communication be used to promote change?
led by David Bressoud and Archie Holmes

22. Working Group Locations
Working Group Locations
[D115] Working Group 1
[D124] Working Group 2
[D125] Working Group 3
[Auditorium] Working Group 4