Strategic Plan

Update and Progress to Date

You may have been wondering what has been happening with our Strategic Plan since the State of the Organization address. There has been lots of action but it has mostly been taking place "behind the scenes" up until this point. As noted on the Daily Journal this week, a new Strategic Plan 2021-24 document has been created and shared with the community. You can find this on the home page on theROCK under the Strategic Initiatives section. This document highlights several important aspects of our plan:

1. The collaborative process that was used to identify the eight initiatives approved by the SLT;
2. A description and purpose state for each initiative along with identifying who the Executive Sponsor is;
3. The An anticipated timeline for the upcoming three years.

Working with the Project Management Office, our plan is to create and build out a space in Confluence that provides more frequent updates and progress indicators in the weeks ahead.  Stay tuned for updates on that.

Grow Theme Initiatives

In addition to the overall plan, I want would like to draw your attention to the three initiatives under the Grow Theme. The initiatives are listed here along with their Project Lead.

• Academic Programs - Cheryl Norman
• Global Online - Dale Lemke
• Unifying Modalities - Jessa Nelson

Each of these initiatives will have significant impact on the trajectory of Academic Affairs, other support offices, and the ways students experience a Northwestern educationprogram offerings available to students in the future. Along with the individuals listed above, each initiative will have a Core Team created with faculty and staff representation to move these initiatives forward. As you will can see in the Strategic Plan document, the goal is to have these teams identified and begin engaging with their initiative and projects in the weeks ahead. More information will be shared at next Tuesday's Faculty Meeting. 

Professional Development

Teaching in a Hybrid classroom can be really challenging. Here are a few tips that you might want to try the next time you have students remotely attending.

1. "When calling on students, strive for a balance that is roughly proportionate to the percentage of remote students."
2. Make use of the hand raising and/or chat tools in Zoom.
3. For breakout rooms, try mixing in person and remote students by having students share a laptop to bring the remote students into the group discussion.
4. Encourage remote students to keep their microphones turned on, so they can participate spontaneously with their laughter and interactions during the class time. You may want to refer to Tip #2 for questions.

For more insights and tips, check out Making the Most of the Hybrid Classroom (from HBP). Don't forget, you can also access other on-demand professional development and training resources to help meet your needs.

Continue to Share Your Feedback 

I have greatly appreciated reading your comments and feedback over the past weeks. Please continue to share any thoughts, praises, or concerns you have through this anonymous form (feel free to include your name if you'd like). I read every comment that comes through this form. Thank you, colleagues, for sharing what is on your hearts and minds.