A $50 Million Investment in Academic Innovation | Digital Learning - Inside Higher Ed

Lilah Burke, Reporter at Inside Higher Ed inform, The University of Michigan will create a new center to develop tools that can improve learning both online and in the classroom.

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The University of Michigan has allocated $50 million to establish a Center for Academic Innovation. The new unit is an upgrade for what was previously the Academic Innovation Initiative and even earlier the Office of Academic Innovation. Academic innovation programs at the university have focused on technology for both online and on-campus learning.

“The University of Michigan was not a first mover in the online degree space,” said James DeVaney, the center’s founding executive director. “When we created the team that ultimately became the Center for Academic Innovation, our charge was very much to look at what tools and research and pedagogies and design principles might help us to reach learners well beyond U of M, but in doing so to determine how these new instruments in technology and design would impact the residential learning experience.”

The center’s three focus areas, DeVaney said, are curricular innovation, educational data and tools for learning...

Much of the other software also focuses on personalized learning. GradeCraft, a platform to support “gameful instruction,” can help students predict their grades and decide what assignments to complete.

DeVaney says that developing educational software in-house allows designers to zero in on faculty and student needs. “[We put] these users of tools in the driver’s seat to determine best use cases and best user experiences,” he said, “and to make sure that along the way we’re addressing any concerns about privacy or thinking about how to take advantage of the social learning experience in ways that learners and faculty will enjoy.”
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Source: Inside Higher Ed