Dear Center for Academic Innovation Community,
The responsible use of technology is essential to student success. Integrated carefully, educational technology can enable students to make informed choices and help them achieve their full potential, particularly those juggling multiple responsibilities such as jobs or family duties while completing their education.
Well-conceived partnerships with educational and industry leaders can help us support students through sustainable innovation. I am thrilled to announce our new collaboration with UM-Dearborn and Axim Collaborative to create the Student Success & Momentum Toolkit for the UM-Dearborn community. This toolkit will integrate two of our most effective student success innovations, Atlas and ECoach, educational software developed at CAI and customized to meet UM-Dearborn’s unique academic needs.
Atlas and ECoach have demonstrated efficacy and created an impact for U-M’s Ann Arbor students. We are working to ensure these tools are seamlessly integrated into UM-Dearborn’s information systems and tailored to assist students in researching courses, selecting instructors, and building schedules. Our aim is to foster early momentum that enhances retention and graduation rates while minimizing interruptions and debt accumulation.
Looking ahead, we aspire to expand this initiative beyond the University of Michigan. We plan to collaborate with colleagues at other two- and four-year institutions across Michigan to extend these transformative tools to students statewide. I want to express my gratitude for the close collaboration with Associate Provost Joan Remski at UM-Dearborn and Axim CEO Stephanie Khurana. You can read more about our thoughts on this exciting new initiative at Inside Higher Ed.
This partnership exemplifies the university’s commitment to innovation, supported by the Academic Innovation Fund, which is celebrating its 10th year in 2024. Atlas and ECoach were tools that started with innovative ideas from faculty. They were then built, iterated, and sustained thanks to funding from the AIF and the center’s diverse team of software engineers, designers, data scientists, behavioral scientists, and more working with those faculty to build innovative tools at scale.
It is this commitment to innovation university-wide and 10 years of dedicated work in innovation at the center that puts us in a position to support the university’s collective efforts to achieve the ambitious goals related to delivering life-changing education found in U-M’s Vision 2034.
In 10 years of the AIF, we have invested in innovation, connected and empowered learners, and supported student success. We have helped fund and create nearly 400 unique faculty projects, including software tools, hundreds of online courses with more than 11 million unique learners, and 150 research papers.
This unwavering support and commitment to pushing the boundaries of what is possible enable us to undertake ambitious projects like this exciting new partnership. By working together and supporting innovative ideas, we will continue to drive forward our mission of educational excellence and student achievement.
Go blue!
James DeVaney
Special Advisor to the President
Founding Executive Director of the Center for Academic Innovation
Associate Vice Provost for Academic Innovation