Three Strategic Action Areas can enable Harvard to create a new type of learning and research community, working to address the world’s most challenging issues while advancing Harvard’s mission of education and scholarship. These three Strategic Action Areas developed out of the three Working Groups of the Task Force.
Reimagining the Classroom: Blended Classrooms, Courses, and Curricular Pathways That Enhance the Student Experience
Led by Bridget Terry Long, Dean of the Faculty of Education and Saris Professor of Education and Economics at the Harvard Graduate School of Education
The unifying principle informing all such efforts must be to put students and their needs at the center. We can strengthen the fundamental anchors of the Harvard experience through deliberate, creative, and thoughtful learning design for all modalities, whether residential, blended, or online. Doing so can engage an even broader range of students in ways that expand Harvard learners’ geographic, demographic, and financial diversity.
- Meet students where they are: accommodate learner needs, honor identities, and tailor instruction
- Prioritize interactive pedagogy and peer-to-peer teaching and learning
- Blend multilocal experiences through hybrid programs
- Build lifelong community engagement
Enriching Content: Creating a New, Unified, and Coherent Strategy for Digital-First and Short-Form Learning Experiences
Led by Bharat Anand, Vice Provost for Advances in Learning at Harvard University, and the Henry R. Byers Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School
An effective strategy for short-form content will simultaneously require local innovation and creativity by faculty and greater coordination to ensure the efficient use of high-production resources, provide access to common infrastructure, and realize cross-Harvard benefits. Those benefits might include sharing content across schools to avoid costly duplication of effort and investment.
- Create modular online learning experiences for use in residential courses and online offerings
- Meaningfully expand the impact of Harvard’s teaching beyond the physical classroom
Expanding Community: Reimagining Harvard’s Global Online Learning Experience
Led by Michael D. Smith, John H. Finley, Jr. Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
Developing a digital learning community that encompasses residential students, alumni, and new global participants is a compelling and ambitious vision. Even as we recognize the challenges, we are inspired by our initial discussions. We recommend creating a university-wide working group to more fully explore the vital and exciting opportunity posed by Harvard Global Learning 2.0.
- Develop a new platform for connecting the global Harvard community
- Explore new ways to translate a residential component to online programs
- Connect the research community, learners, and alumni