Noodle Partners to Help Design Digital Platform
ACE today announced that as
part of revamping the Council's strategic priorities during its
centennial year, ACE Leadership will transform its current suite of
leadership development programs into a series of regional summits and
initiate a robust peer-to-peer online platform and virtual library of
content.
ACE will execute the digital portion of the redesign by partnering with Noodle Partners, which helps universities create online and hybrid programs.
“As the collective voice of the nation’s
colleges and universities, ACE needs to help prepare our members and
model approaches that improve outcomes while lowering costs. Our members
want more interactivity, more connection, and fewer time- and
cost-intensive visits to our Washington, DC, headquarters,” said ACE
President Ted Mitchell. “It’s imperative that we evolve to meet our
members’ needs, so building high-quality online communities represents a
major effort in this direction.”
A number of these changes will be rolled out
in October, and they will grow over the next year in response to the
needs of leaders and institutions. The ACE Fellows Program, Moving the Needle Initiative, and ACE Women’s Network will remain three cornerstones of ACE Leadership, and support for these efforts will be enhanced through the redesign.
A key goal of the redesign is to create and
support a digitally enabled, peer-led network of higher education
administrators to improve institutional efficacy and student outcomes by
preparing leaders to address the complex challenges our institutions
face. It will employ a model combining both regional and digital
components, enhancing ACE’s position as a thought leader in higher
education leadership development with a unique focus on equity.
ACE embarked upon these changes after an
information-gathering period in which five outcomes became central
organizing principles:
- Equity: ACE’s leadership development programs should work
intentionally to serve the higher education community’s goals of
achieving leadership equity.
- Convenience: ACE members are constrained by time away from campus
and travel costs. To better serve its members, ACE Leadership should
meet them where they are.
- Connections: Participants value the networks created by ACE
programming and would like to be able to sustain them and utilize
peer-to-peer learning.
- Relevance: ACE Leadership should create more opportunities for multiple touch points and use of current pedagogies.
- Scope: ACE Leadership programming should help both individuals and institutions.
Noodle Partners is working closely with ACE to build a pedagogically sound, user-focused, and effective solution.
“This initiative will not only help ACE
better support higher education leadership,” notes Noodle Partners CEO
John Katzman, “but will show that leadership the impact of great online
technology and the benefit of creating networks.”
For questions about the transformation, please email ACELeadership@acenet.edu.