The identity, roles, and tasks of an “Ecosystem Builder” has yet to be defined in the online/blended learning community and for higher education institutions. We invite you to engage in a design case by embodying the persona of an “Ecosystem Builder” in a large academic transformation projects that requires teams to work through common tasks for stakeholder buy-In, cultural change, faculty development, course redesign, project scaling and evaluation, student support, project staffing, and resource allocation.
Many problems we face today in higher education involve interdependent structures, multiple stakeholders, and often stem from legacy systems that either are working together or are now left siloed. Such problems are wickedly challenging to untangle and require a systems thinking approach. “A systems approach is the secret of successful practice” (Moore and Kearsley, 2012, p. 9) and systems thinking helps identify different levels of complexity. This type of thinking drove us to engage in systemic planning and utilize an ecosystems-thinking framework to create a shared vision among leaders, administrators, and project stakeholders for large academic transformation projects.
We leverage our experience to present the emergent leadership role of an “Ecosystem Builder” in higher education as one who is involved or will be involved in various large-scale academic transformation projects. Ecosystem building is composed of a group of passionate leaders who are motivated for meaningful change. In this role, they push for ideation, foster relationships, promote collaboration among stakeholders, uncover and dissolve barriers, support stakeholder needs, and create opportunities for growth, innovation, and change.
Bennett (2019) characterizes ecosystem builders in the field of community and economic development as people who are involved in:
- Orchestrating connections
- Connecting the dots
- Bringing together resources
- Identifying needs and gaps
- Advocating and bringing people together
- Putting together sparks, connections, events, programs
- Pulling together
- Connecting, connections, connector
- Championing
- Cheerleading
However, the identity and roles of an “ecosystem builder” has yet to be well defined in the online/blended learning community and for higher education institutions.
In this design session, we will (1) uncover the identity of an ecosystem builder; and (2) identify the tasks of an ecosystem builder in managing several large academic transformation areas, including:
- Stakeholder Buy-In, Mindset, Ownership, and Cultural Change
- Curriculum Pathways, Prerequisites, and Placement Requirements
- Faculty Engagement and Professional Development
- Course Redesign, Piloting, Scaling, and Evaluation
- Student Support and Engagement
- Project Staffing and Resource Allocation
Engagement Strategies
We will engage the audience in a design case analysis by embodying the persona of an ecosystem builder. Participants will be asked questions and tasked to focus on one major academic area of expertise to ideate, brainstorm, and develop a definition of an ecosystem builder for one area of challenge of their choice.