Strategic Imperative 2

To solve the complex challenges of our time, we will design interdisciplinary, problem-based, solution-generating academic programs, prioritizing processes and behaviors that facilitate interdisciplinary teaching and research across schools, colleges and campuses. We will reward creativity and cross-disciplinary collaborations, and build on our strengths to create an environment where students learn and researchers collaborate, so that we become a destination for students and researchers committed to tackling the world’s most significant problems. 

Key early actions:

• Identify and address financial and other organizational barriers so that interdisciplinary learning and teaching are facilitated and incentivized across schools, colleges and campuses. 

• Identify critical societal and community problems and co-design novel interdisciplinary academic programs and classes so learners understand and contribute to solutions. 

• Identify and respond to community needs by using spatial expertise to map where they overlap with interdisciplinary opportunities.

The demographics of higher education are changing. Future students will need to be lifelong learners with the ability to upskill and acquire new credentials (certificates, stackable credentials, etc.) throughout their careers. Meanwhile, online and just-in-time learning present opportunities to meet learners wherever they are, both geographically and in life stage, while taking into consideration changing technology and other demands on their lives. We will meet our learners where they are with flexibility and personalized learning. 

Key early actions:

• Develop and implement a university-wide online strategy for undergraduate, graduate and professional programs and courses that personalize learning to meet the needs of a wide variety of learners and prepare our future workforce. 

• Create and launch new educational programs that result in credentials and just-in-time upskilling for lifelong learners to advance their careers.

AI is transforming learning and teaching, and the University of Minnesota will accelerate to meet the moment for students across all campuses and degree types. We commit to embracing and developing AI teaching and learning support infrastructure as well as policies and guidelines that allow us to excel and meet the needs of students, faculty and staff in learning, teaching and research. 

Key early actions:

• Develop and provide fundamental AI literacy for students, faculty and instructional staff, utilizing appropriate incentives and accountability measures to increase knowledge, competency and use of tools. 

• Support and incentivize the incorporation of discipline-specific AI competencies into the educational experience to enhance students’ understanding and learning. 

• Advance and grow leading practices in the integration of AI in teaching and learning in professional programs to prepare students for professional practice. 

The University of Minnesota’s five distinct campuses offer exceptional opportunities for faculty and staff to innovate in a way that uses evidence to design creative solutions, explore emerging opportunities, pilot and adopt new practices to enhance outcomes and generate and scale new modes/methods of learning at the classroom, school, campus and cross-campus level. We have led the nation in the development of College-in-3 designs and the International Active Learning conference, and we have many active scholars in the scholarship of teaching and learning across campuses, colleges and departments. We will continue to distinguish ourselves as a research institution with a research-based focus to our work on the future of learning, and we will prioritize the application of educational research results in the design of new models for public higher education. We will be more agile in establishing new educational programs that meet the emerging demands of society. And we will create and/or develop new learning models based on lessons learned on our campuses and from researchers who focus on the scholarship of teaching and learning. 

Key early actions:

• Develop an initiative that engages students in the co-design of how, where and when they learn, using pedagogical research that is formulated, tested, assessed and reported for scaling and adoption. 

• Pilot residential and virtual programs using evidence-based practices to achieve exceptional learner outcomes and test financial viability. 

• Launch a one-of-a-kind collaborative to create and disseminate new models that apply research results to practice in higher education and that provide solutions to current learning-related challenges.