Breakthrough Models Academy

Numerous books and articles have been dedicated to the future of higher education and the need for models that make college more accessible, affordable, and effective. Designing and accelerating the adoption of those models will require leadership, innovation, and the use of technology. Successful leaders will not be bound by convention, but understand how to catalyze change.

Join us for the inaugural Breakthrough Models Academy, a collaboration of EDUCAUSE, the League for Innovation in the Community College, and Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC). The Academy's goal is to advance the next generation of change agents who can design new models that will serve higher education. The academy combines a week-long face-to-face event with an ongoing breakthrough model design challenge developed by cross-institutional teams. Team models will be judged by experts and peers at the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference 2013 and winning teams will receive up to $5,000 in prizes and scholarships to be used for future professional development.

The Breakthrough Models Academy transcends institutional type, geography, and disciplinary specialties and is a unique opportunity designed to engage with peers around some of the most significant challenges and opportunities facing higher education. The Academy is for higher education professionals who seek to catalyze change through the use of information technologies and innovative new approaches to student support and personalization to foster student success. Multiple applications from the same institution will be reviewed, however acceptance to the Academy stands on individual merit.

What is a breakthrough model?

Ensuring today's colleges and universities are accessible, relevant, flexible, and sustainable will require models that fundamentally alter current instructional delivery and student support strategies, financial models, operating structures and institutional policies.

Grantee projects, funded through the Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC)—a collaborative, multi-year program aimed at dramatically increasing college readiness and completion through applied technology—illustrate examples of breakthrough change. For example:

• At New Charter University, students leverage self-paced coursework before enrolling, only paying tuition when they earn credit toward a degree.

• Through a Personalized Learning Division, Northern Arizona University is leveraging open source content to allow students to "mix and match" content and delivery methods as they advance toward key competencies.

• A new program at Southern New Hampshire University encourages students to find mentors in the workplace and use a competency-based model defined, in part, by employers.

• The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is rethinking the student support model for their Texas Affordable Baccalaureate, engaging full-time faculty and industry experts in the development of course competencies, assessments, and curriculum materials as well as supporting students in lower-division courses by individual coaches who provide feedback and support across disciplines, Tutors provide on-demand, discipline-specific support. Faculty offer upper-division courses both online and face-to-face.