One year ago, when the campus community was first introduced to the Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology and its mission to help MSU reinvent itself as a learning institution, it was an innovation accelerator without a chassis – a space without a place. But that all changes Oct. 27 when the Hub opens its new location in Wells Hall.
“The Hub as a unit is meant to help identify, accelerate and sometimes create new ways to learn, research, deliver instruction and collaborate," said Jeff Grabill, associate provost for teaching, learning and technology and director of the Hub. "Our projects directly support the provost’s priorities for student success and they also extend the university in new ways,”
The Hub’s new location in Wells was designed to support its mission, acknowledging that innovation requires collaboration and is fueled by opportunity. The space invites and welcomes collaboration between faculty, students and staff in an open environment that encourages teamwork and supports risk-taking and problem solving by creating space to act differently.
The Hub is currently working with colleges and units across campus. Projects include:
- The College of Veterinary Medicine. The Hub is helping the college reinvent its curriculum, from facilitating initial design thinking through research, curriculum development and teacher professional learning.
- Department of Mathematics. The DOW STEM Scholars is a summer bridge program that provides academic support to incoming students declaring a STEM major who place in Math 1825, Intermediate College Algebra and Trigonometry. The Hub supported DOW staff to develop an enhanced orientation program, a blended learning experience that would allow DOW to better meet the needs of an increasing number of students, and helped coordinate the assessment efforts focused on the math portion of the program. The revised program launched in summer 2016.
- Integrative Studies Centers. The Hub is collaborating with MSU’s three Integrative Studies Centers to design, launch and evaluate an integrative studies pilot intended to provide students with new ways to learn. The pilot will link courses in integrative arts and humanities, integrative social science and integrative biological and physical sciences on a themed track that students will move through in cohorts. Faculty, students and advisors will collaborate to design an engaging, cohort-based experience that facilitates interdisciplinary learning. The Hub will guide these design teams through curriculum development and facilitate connections with campus resources.
“The Hub is designed to leverage, coordinate and scale MSU’s existing energies and creativity. Our space directly reflects and supports our organizational culture and the way our team functions,” Grabill said. “We offer new ways to work, new physical spaces for collaboration and a group of people who can help the campus design how we can become a new learning institution.
“What I’m hoping for this space is that every day we see a kind of energy and passion, and a mix of people – students, staff, faculty – who are working together on compelling projects that positively impact students,” Grabill said.
The Hub is part of the Student Success Transformation Initiative overseen by the Office of the Provost, which includes MSU Neighborhoods, and MSU’s collaboration with 10 other university partners in the University Innovation Alliance.
MSU Hub Open House:
When: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m, Oct. 27. Visitors can stop by anytime in that window.
Where: 619 Red Cedar Rd., D101 Wells Hall