2021-2022
Annual Report
From the Director
This year marks our 5 year anniversary as Duke Learning Innovation. At that point in time (2017), we asked: how can Duke take the great faculty development and educational technology efforts of the Center for Instructional Technology (CIT) and better align them with the goals of our emerging Online Duke team? The answer was clear to those of us working with both units: learning had to be at the center. While faculty development and teaching innovation would continue to be an essential component of what we would do, we realized that to impact learning at Duke (and beyond), we had to more fully engage with all of the ‘levers’ available to us: online learning and learning experience design, emerging and enterprise educational technologies, and increasing research, evaluation and development of new pedagogical and technological learning innovations. You’ll find all of those aspects of Learning Innovation’s work highlighted in this year’s report, including:
- Supporting Duke faculty and students throughout the pandemic
- Curating and producing the second Pandemic Pedagogy Research Symposium
- Engaging more learners beyond Duke through our efforts with Coursera and new non-credit offerings like UAS Applications and Operations in Environmental Science
- New technologies to support collaboration and discussion
- Increasing graduate student development efforts
- Providing new resources to support alternate and more equitable, assessment strategies
Shawn Miller
Director of Duke Learning Innovation
As we put this report together, we also welcomed Yakut Gazi, Duke’s first Vice Provost for Learning Innovation and Digital Education. With Yakut’s new appointment, we have formally moved out of Duke University Libraries (our physical and administrative home as both CIT and Learning Innovation for many years) and will now be part of a new unit under Yakut that also includes Duke Continuing Studies. Under Yakut’s leadership, Learning Innovation and Continuing Studies will partner with the Duke community to make Duke’s vision for lifetime learning a reality.
A Note from Yakut Gazi, Duke's First Vice Provost for Learning Innovation and Digital Education
As I am completing my first 90 days as Duke’s Vice Provost for Learning Innovation and Digital Education, I am in awe of the talent of my team and the energy around learning innovation that I feel from the students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of Duke. While we celebrate the past five years of our organization with pride, we know the next five years will be all about growth to engage more Duke learners from pre-K through gray, through programs and services powered by digital education. We are here to put Duke on the map as a powerhouse for lifetime education and learning innovation.
Recognized for Our Dedication to Duke
On April 27, 2022, Learning Innovation was honored as one of the six teams selected as Duke Presidential Award recipients for the 2021-2022 academic year. The award is bestowed upon individuals and teams from the University and Health System who best demonstrate the values of respect, trust, inclusion, discovery, and excellence, which define and shape Duke as an institution. Learning Innovation was chosen for our commitment to supporting both Duke and Duke Kunshan University transition to emergency remote learning, and our Flexible Teaching efforts throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Faced with a drastically increased need for our services and expertise, in the words of director Shawn Miller in his nomination letter: “We remained gracious and dare I say, loving, to each other – and others beyond our own team, even under pressure.”
Back by Popular Demand
Though many students returned to physical classrooms this year, the pandemic continues to have transformative effects on teaching and learning. Driven by a desire to continue exploring and discussing these challenges and opportunities, the Pandemic Pedagogy Research Symposium returned in May to a crowd of 904 online attendees from around the world. Keynoted by Sharon
PANDEMIC PEDAGOGY RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM
THE 2022
From Innovation to Transformation
Lauricella (aka @AcademicBatgirl on Twitter), an advocate of alternative grading strategies, and co-sponsored by six universities, the Symposium explored how we can move from innovation to real transformation.
Though most of the participant feedback was positive, it is important to recognize when we misstep and learn from our mistakes. Our blind review process for accepting presentation proposals failed to account for institutions with discriminatory policies against LGBTQ+ people, which resulted in the Symposium giving such universities a platform to speak, hurting many of the Symposium's participants. In response, the Symposium's organizer Kim Manturuk wrote an editorial published in Inside Higher Ed reflecting on how this happened and providing suggestions for how other conference organizers and publishers can avoid making the same error in the future.
Advocating for Alternative Assessment
Observing both instructors’ growing desire to explore alternative assessment practices as well as the overwhelming number of ways to do so, we developed a new resource that provides an overview of many of the ways alternative assessments can be implemented, organized by anticipated time commitment to enact them. When we shared this new page on Twitter, the response was overwhelming: 115 likes and 73 quote / retweets illustrated that the need for this type of resource is growing. The page has since been viewed over 3,187 times, and we have written multiple blog posts exploring instructors’ use of alternative assessments at Duke.
Engaging Learners Beyond Duke’s Walls:
Continued Growth in Coursera
Our Coursera catalog grew by 11 courses across three specializations, addressing increasingly relevant issues including machine learning, decentralized finance and data engineering. Since launching in 2021-22, over 24,880 participating learners have enrolled in these three specializations to gain practical knowledge that can help them advance their careers or transition into these growing fields.
The realm of non-credit learning is growing beyond courses and specializations; Duke is now issuing certificates that not only give learners something tangible to present to their current or future employers, but also open the door for learners to pursue a degree with Duke. Duke’s Blockchain Applications Certificate is a three-course certificate on Coursera providing those who earn the certificate eligibility for a scholarship and fast-tracked application process to Duke University's Master of Engineering in FinTech. Due in large part to the success of the Blockchain Applications Certificate, the Master’s program has received a record high number of applications and admitted its largest cohort to date.
The first NFT-based certificated for the Blockchain Applications course was earned by Lauren Davis and distributed via OpenSea.
Many Happy Returns
The past academic year was one of returns - to campus dorms, to classrooms and to in-person gatherings for Learning Innovation’s summer Fellowships and Institutes. We found being together rejuvenating and even though virtual workshops will still be an option, we are eager to offer more safe and meaningful face-to-face opportunities moving forward.
Question: What’s a good alternative to Piazza?
Answer: Conversations
Piazza is a popular tool for creating and hosting Q&A forums for courses. However, when the platform transitioned to a new business model and strategy, it was no longer a feasible option for many instructors. Recognizing the need for a new tool, Learning Innovation collaborated with Duke’s Creative & User Experience team and Longsight (the hosting provider for Duke’s Sakai platform) to develop and launch the new Sakai discussion tool, Conversations. Built with input from Duke instructors and students, this tool is now available to the entire Sakai user community.
Exploring New Frontiers in Online Learning with Drones
Learning Innovation worked closely with David Johnston, Professor of the Practice of Marine Conservation Ecology, to develop UAS Applications and Operations in Environmental Science, a fully online, non-credit three-course sequence with both asynchronous and synchronous components, providing significant flexibility for professionals seeking to learn more about the application of drones in environmental science. Check out these three blog posts to learn more about how we worked with Johnston to develop this unique program and two of its defining features - using Twine to create interactive, asynchronous experiences and Discord to facilitate community:
Supporting the Next Generation of Educators
In addition to supporting current Duke instructors, we work to ensure future educators are prepared to teach at or after Duke. Learning Innovation provides many programs and opportunities for graduate students developing their teaching and learning skills, such as our Bass Digital Education Fellowship, the Teaching Assistant Training Workshops (offered in partnership with Duke Graduate School), and teaching GS990 - a summer Grad Academy course on inclusive online college teaching - and GS762 course on Digital Pedagogy.
We also partnered with the Office of Undergraduate Education and Duke Interdisciplinary Studies to offer a new program in Summer 2022: Summer Course Development Grants (SCDG). The SCDG provided 10 Ph.D. students with opportunities to receive summer funding and gain experience as teachers, while working with a faculty mentor and DLI to design courses filling critical curricular niches in Duke’s summer course catalog.
The 2022 Summer Course Development Grant Cohort
Inspiring Instructors
We are grateful for every Duke and Duke Kunshan instructor who shares their story with us. Here are just a few from this year:
Using a Throwable Mic in the Classroom
Maria Tackett
Embracing Universal Design for Learning
Rebecca Ewing
Leaving Flexibility for Adult Learners
Kisha N. Daniels
Hyun Jeong Ha
Taking Action on DEIA Initiatives
In 2020, a group of passionate Learning Innovation staff committed to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) began holding informal meetings to share their thoughts and reactions to the racially-motivated events that spurred many protests that summer. This informal gathering was so valuable to its participants that DLI established the DEIA Action Group to ensure these important internal discussions continued. In Fall 2021, the group’s first co-chairs, Hannah Rogers and Blythe Tyrone, led discussions and activities that have resulted in the following:
- Offering a series of workshops to Duke instructors on inclusive teaching which reached 54 participants.
- Developing a new teaching guide on how to Create an Inclusive and Equitable Course, which includes a quick start guide and a student-centered syllabus template.
- Adding language affirming our commitment to accessibility and providing information about how participants may request accommodations for events to our standard event registration form.
- Including Accessibility Quick Tips in our monthly newsletter.
Publications & Media Coverage
- Space Medicine, Duke’s first undergraduate-led online learning experience, to begin in July (Duke Chronicle)
- Staying Healthy in Space (Magnify)
- “A Lot Has Become Muted:” Supporting LGBTQ+ Students Living at Home During the Covid-19 Pandemic (Book Chapter)
- UN Development Programme and Duke University launch online course to foster private investments towards Global Goals (Mirage News)
- New Opportunity: Summer Course Development Grants (Duke Interdisciplinary Studies)
- How Duke Learning Innovation Evolved Where and How the Team Works (Inside Higher Ed)
- Duke Engineering’s FinTech Program Sends Certificates to Coursera Students as NFTs (Pratt News)
- Students Receive NFTs for Completing Duke Engineering's FinTech Program (Irish Tech News)
- 3 Questions with Duke Learning Innovation's Kim Manturuk (Inside Higher Ed)
- Yakut Gazi Named Vice Provost for Learning Innovation and Digital Education (Duke Today)
- Duke learning is transactional; how we can do better (Duke Chronicle)
- Teaching and learning innovation requires supporting (and incentivizing) instructors (EdScoop)
- Blind Review is Blind to Discrimination (Inside Higher Ed)
This annual report showcases the highlights from the 2021-2022 academic year.
For a complete list of everything we accomplished this year, see our Year in Review.
Want to see what we're currently up to? Check out our Year in Progress.
