Higher education professors and administrators at all levels can learn tools to unleash academic change in their academic departments and institutions through a virtual summer workshop being led by three Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology professors.

The Unleashing Academic Change workshop, scheduled June 13-16, is part of faculty professional development events organized by the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) to encourage adaptation of an Engineering Unleashed Entrepreneurial Mindset-Driven Framework for undergraduate engineering education. Sessions are customized, research-based and practice-oriented for individual professors or a team of educators, novice faculty members, experienced teachers/leaders, or anyone in between in their careers. 

The enrollment deadline is April 14. Register and learn more about the workshop at learningevents.engineeringunleashed.com.

The workshop’s goal is to help participants understand and leverage the context within which effective academic change can happen and to equip educators with a suite of tools that can support their work, according to workshop co-leader Sriram Mohan, PhD, professor of computer science and software engineering.

Another co-leader Eva Andrijcic, PhD, associate professor of engineering management, adds that the workshop will provide participants the ability to identify opportunities for change within their institutions, create and share a vision for academic change, and identify and develop strategic partnerships. They also will learn how to deploy appropriate communication strategies to address different audiences, obtain buy-in for their change initiatives, structure and manage teams, and effectively assess and mitigate project risks.

Another session co-leader is Julia Williams, PhD, professor of English.

This Rose-Hulman faculty trio has presented Making Academic Change Happen (MACH) workshops for several years as part of the National Science Foundation-sponsored Revolutionizing Engineering Departments (NSF RED) initiative. 

Williams states that the workshop will leverage what has been learned about academic change in past MACH and NSF RED sessions, then sharing that knowledge with workshop participants. “The participants are cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset as they learn practical tools for academic change, with a goal of transforming their classrooms, departments, colleges, and campuses,” she said.

Rose-Hulman, a KEEN member, is a national leader in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education innovation.