If you're a faculty member and you'd like to address a problem, pause before approaching your administrator. Administrators are incredibly busy. They're usually scheduled to the minute the entire day with meetings and struggle to find time in the day for that work. So many will work evenings and weekends regularly. It's a grind that lasts 12 months of the year.

I can’t imagine being a college student today. Not only are there many distractions, such as personal and professional setbacks and opportunities, but there are pandemics, world events, and so forth. It’s no shock, especially with everything happening around them, that enrollment is down, and colleges are struggling to fill seats.

If you worked on a math redesign of any kind last year and you didn't reach your goal, that's not unusual. Change with such considerable elements takes a lot of people, resources, and time. The secret is to just keep going. Redesign is an evolution, not a revolution.

Higher education is typically in a state of reform. With the pandemic, that has only accelerated. When initiatives for change are enacted, having stakeholders at the forefront is critical to the amount of the time needed for the initiative and its success. Which stakeholders have the most influence on success or failure of higher ed initiatives? Faculty.

Redesign always takes longer and is more involved than we first expect it to be. With many unforeseen components, those simple suggestions to “improve a course” or “enhance a placement policy” don’t stop there. Instead, they’re simply starting points. In this post, I give you practical information on the role of buy-ins, funding, and other impacted areas that will help you navigate your own redesign.

Like many educators, I read the 2020 Annual Gates letter with great anticipation. Their work in education over the last 20 years has made a strong impact on U.S. education, which is now admittedly their biggest challenge. I want to speak on behalf of my peers, teachers, who are capable of making the changes needed in policy and reform, but seldom get the chance to do so.