Imagine & Build flexible learning foundations by developing a Spring Intersession learning hub as an experimental ground of flexible learning at McMaster.

Actions we will pursue in support of this strategy include:

• Reduce barriers and create pathways to enable the development of micro-credentials and other short courses
• Create an online information hub that can serve as a central hub of information about Intersession, Spring, and Summer learning opportunities
• Develop a robust Spring Intersession term that provides interdisciplinary, experiential, and community-engaged online and in-person learning opportunities
• Create and communicate various pathways for internal and external learners to participate in Intersession, Spring, and Summer terms
• Develop partnerships with Faculties, central units, and external groups interested in pursuing or supporting flexible learning programming in the Intersession, Spring, and Summer terms

Anticipated Outcomes

• Short-term (2 years): McMaster Intersession, Spring, & Summer terms are promoted in a coordinated manner that enables learners and teachers to pursue flexible learning pathways.
• Medium-term (5 years): McMaster Intersession, Spring, & Summer terms are both seen by McMaster and external learners as dynamic semesters that offer a range of flexible learning options and seen by prospective students as a reason to pursue an education at McMaster.
• Long-term (10 years): McMaster Intersession, Spring, & Summer terms offer a range of learning activities that are recognized as a leader in flexible learning in higher education

Spark Imaginations of instructors and learners by creating spaces to discover, dream, and design pathways, ideas, and possibilities of what academia could look like if done differently.

Actions we will pursue in support of this strategy include:

INSPIRE Infrastructure

• Create a systematic approach to fostering informal ideation spaces with faculty members, staff practitioners, community experts, and students
• Create a cohort of annual INSPIRE Flexible Learning Fellows that includes faculty, staff practitioners, community experts, and student partners
• Work with Service Units to identify possible courses to pilot and staff practitioners to engage with.
• Work with the Office of Community Engagement to identify possible ways to formally partner with community organizations that might be interested in having a staff member teach a course
• Work with the MacPherson Institute to create an INSPIRE fellowship program that might build on existing program offerings or structures

Student Engagement

• Foster a strong student community of INSPIRE champions through the existing student advisory committee, the creation of a student partner fellowship, and the creation of an INSPIRE Flexible Learning Community of students
• Develop an INSPIRE brand that reinforces what we mean by flexibility, seeks to reach all students campus-wide, and provides pathways that students can easily see themselves in.
• Work with the Registrars Office to create a streamlined application process that allows non-McMaster students to easily enroll in INSPIRE course offerings.
• Work with the Student Success Centre to align promotions with the EXPLORE platform and other programming that supports students in navigating their pathway at McMaster

Faculty Engagement

• Invite faculty colleagues to connect and imagine what they might do if they could do teaching differently
• Create a communications plan targeting early- and mid-career faculty members to try their faculty-specific ideas in intersession that also includes a timeline for proposal development, course planning, delivery, and follow up
• Aim to create a faculty idea submission process in the winter before (14-16 months) they might be teaching.

Anticipated Outcomes

• Short-term (2 years): Students, faculty, staff practitioners, and community experts build relationships to populate INSPIRE opportunities and are aware of the ways in which they can become involved with INSPIRE offerings.
• Medium-term (5 years): INSPIRE gains reputation for fostering innovative teaching and learning concepts through intentional, supportive ,and appreciative relationship-building and ideation processes. As a result, increasing numbers of stakeholders engage in INSPIRE processes and opportunities.
• Long-term (10 years): INSPIRE is seen as McMaster’s grand central station of innovative teaching and learning. Rather than needing to actively seek out stakeholders, stakeholders actively reach out to INSPIRE to learn how to get involved.

Pilot & Incubate flexible teaching and learning practices and initiatives that have teaching champion(s), respond to learner-identified needs/priorities, and show early promise for successfully cultivating wonder, inspiration, and transformation in teachers and learners

Actions we will pursue in support of this strategy include:

INSPIRE Infrastructure

• Annually pilot 5 new topic courses that run during spring intersession
• Annually incubate 5 or fewer sophomore courses that run during spring intersession in partnership with an interested Faculty-based champion
• Create a set of common themes annually that are informed by students and/or others that frames a call for applicants to an annual fellowship program.
• Create clear themes or topics of focus (e.g. AI) and flexible teaching practices (e.g. ungrading) that allow for clarity of focus for those who want to pitch ideas
• Create formal and informal spaces that support instructors to build flexible learning capacity
• Develop formal pathways for piloting and incubating that include: a) a set of principles/values to evaluate success against that clearly outline how courses will be evaluated (and by whom); b) how to explore advancing them beyond a pilot phase; and c) a sense of possible timelines.

Student Engagement

• Incorporate student perspectives into process of selecting topics and themes through the student advisory committee
• Develop a cyclical student enrolment process that is easy to navigate and clearly frames the many benefits of INSPIRE courses and intersession for students.

Faculty Engagement

• Create pathways for Faculty-based courses to be piloted during Intersession in parallel to the INSPIRE suite of courses
• Track Faculty-based course offering pilots as possible examples to share when encouraging more faculty members to use the intersession and spring/summer sessions as space to test new teaching and learning ideas

Anticipated Outcomes

• Short-term (2 years): Promising ideas that respond to identified themes and topics of focus are given an opportunity to be delivered in a low-risk intersession environment. Early adopters are supported in advancing concepts with home Faculties, units, or organizations.
• Medium-term (5 years): Successful pilots are either: a) incubated within INSPIRE over multiple years and evaluated for their long-term potential; b) supported by their home Faculty beyond the pilot. Early adopters are looked to as champions in this work, encouraging others to get involved.
• Long-term (10 years): INSPIRE cyclical model of piloting and incubating seen as a go-to system for low-risk experimentation and  innovation that both tests the efficacy of promising programs and supports identification of pathways towards normalization at McMaster.

Sustain and Normalize flexible teaching and learning courses, programs, and pathways that successfully cultivate wonder, inspiration, and transformation in teachers and learners

Actions we will pursue in support of this strategy include:

INSPIRE Infrastructure

• Create a concurrent certificate that encourages students to deeply engage with flexible learning through an INSPIRE suite of offerings that sees students enrol in Intersession annually throughout their time at McMaster.
• Develop an INSPIRE suite of flagship courses that are offered consistently and collectively form a sustainable program foundation of Flexible Learning offerings that can provide financial stability and allow emergent ideas to be tested in a low-risk environment

Student Engagement

• Promote flexible learning pathways that encourage students to see themselves as flexible learners who spread out their course load, finish a semester early, or gain knowledge in a discipline far different from their major

Faculty Engagement

• Actively share INSPIRE’s mission, activities, and learning throughout the University to shift campus culture towards being more open to normalizing innovative teaching and learning approaches.
• Create a set of case studies that can capture how McMaster has adopted flexible teaching and learning practices more recently in order to help facilitate pathways to change
• Develop clear outlines of the pathways and processes for Faculty-based courses to follow when seeking to have a course piloted during Intersession approved as a long-term offering within a specific program
• Work with Associate Deans to develop new policies or processes that can support the normalization of innovative teaching and learning approaches piloted by the INSPIRE Office of Flexible Learning (e.g. structures that allow faculty members to teach year-round, buyouts for spring course load)
• Create necessary teaching overload buyout mechanisms, vetting process, and a pathway that can allow faculty members to teach.

Anticipated Outcomes

• Short-term (2 years): A combination of INSPIRE and Faculty-based programming operate throughout the Intersession, Spring, and Summer terms.
• Medium-term (5 years): INSPIRE operates a suite of programming that collectively assures operational sustainability while supporting Faculties in advancing their priorities.
• Long-term (10 years): INSPIRE seen as a  credible space that is responsible for both delivering and introducing students to flexible academic programs that benefit Faculty and University-wide priorities. Outcomes of INSPIRE-supported initiatives and innovations are adopted into the day-to-day practices of the University.

Evaluate & Mobilize knowledge about flexible teaching and learning practices

Actions we will pursue in support of this strategy include:

• Partner with the MacPherson Institute to develop a model that can support evaluation and mobilization and build upon the in-house expertise that MI has related to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
• Proactively share findings with McMaster decision-makers to share lessons learned and inspire consideration of how different practices that have found success within INSPIRE could be scaled and expanded across areas of the University.
• Partner with the Registrar’s Office and Institutional Research and Analysis to determine how best to utilize data available and how this data can inform evaluation and knowledge mobilization.
• Point faculty members who teach in Intersession towards resources offered by the MacPherson Institute should they be interested in any of the evaluation, mobilization, or course design programming available.
• Actively participate in local, regional, national, and global teaching and learning conferences and gatherings to share INSPIRE learnings and outcomes

Anticipated Outcomes

• Short-term (2 years): A cyclical model of research and evaluation helps to identify practices for adoption and knowledge sharing.
• Medium-term (5 years): INSPIRE begins to emerge as a thriving research hub with data that can help inform updates to teaching and learning practices, support faculty on their career pathway, and share learnings with others.
• Long-term (10 years): INSPIRE research institute established as an in-house engine to support  innovative teaching and learning practices.