Learning Resources

Abstract: After the 2017 earthquake in Mexico City, Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey’s campus underwent a transformative rebuilding process that emerged as a pedagogical prototype for the university system. This article explores the design strategies that prioritized civic engagement, resulting in buy-in, support, and representation from the community. It also describes the methodology behind blurring the boundaries between the university and its surroundings through lean principles in set-based design, strategies for resilient building, and insights into effective collaboration.

Abstract: Missouri State University’s Ozarks Education Center, in the heart of the Ozark Mountains, provides a case study for outdoor, field-based, and architectural regionalism education. It offers unparalleled student opportunities for tailored regional learning experiences and research options, while fostering partnerships with external organizations outside of the main campus environment. In this article, we share how being true to the region’s historical architecture and ecology, especially in undervalued and isolated locations, and incorporating site-specific approaches in a remote setting support off-the-grid learning in the post-COVID academic landscape.

Abstract: Implementing Sustainable Change in Higher Education: Principles and Practices of Collaborative Leadership
by Brent D. Ruben
Stylus Publishing: Sterling, Virginia: 2022
229 pages
ISBN: 978-1642674415

How should higher education leaders take on the challenges of change? In Brent Ruben’s Implementing Sustainable Change in Higher Education: Principles and Practices of Collaborative Leadership, the author says there’s no simple approach. Instead, he encourages leaders to “understand and leverage the dynamics of change; lead collaboratively and meaningfully; engage one’s colleagues; and adopt and pursue a shared vision of organizational purpose and aspirations.”

Abstract: The Agile College: How Institutions Successfully Navigate Demographic Changes
by Nathan D. Grawe
Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore: 2021
298 pages
ISBN: 978-1421440231

Does hope motivate action or complacency? Does crisis induce change or despair? Nathan D. Grawe readily acknowledges this tension in The Agile College, his follow-up book to his 2018 Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education. The latter propelled the inescapable discussion throughout higher education of the looming “demographic cliff.” The Agile College suggests how agile institutions might prevent demography from becoming destiny.

Abstract: Shared Leadership in Higher Education: A Framework and Models for Responding to a Changing World
Edited by Elizabeth M. Holcombe, Adrianna J. Kezar, Susan L. Elrod, and Judith A. Ramaley
Stylus Publishing: Sterling, Virginia: 2021
256 pages
ISBN: 978-1642672251

Abstract: American industries, professional organizations, individual companies, and higher education institutions continue to struggle to attract employees from underrepresented populations. Future-forward thinking is required to ensure a multicultural workforce. The authors, a design educator at a predominantly white, Midwestern university, and a high school principal at a multicultural urban school district, developed an intentional collaboration—partnerships between secondary and postsecondary institutions—to bridge the gap. In this article, they share strategies they developed for recruiting and retaining underrepresented students through intentional planning and design of competency-based, personalized learning models.

Abstract: Edited by Eugene L. Zdziarski, Norbert W. Dunkel, and J. Michael Rollo
Routledge: Oxfordshire, England: 2021
388 Pages
ISBN-13: 978-0367333720

Abstract: Entrepreneuring the Future of Higher Education: Radical Transformation in Times of Profound Change
by Mary Landon Darden
Rowman & Littlefield: Lanham, MD: 2021
202 pages
ISBN: 978-1-4758-5494-7

Abstract: An agile mindset exercised by leadership and distilled down into organizational culture is the prerequisite for any higher education institution planning to transform itself in an age of constant disruption. The post-pandemic world will continue to present new challenges for colleges and universities as they seek innovative solutions to plan for an ever increasing volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment. Higher education leaders would serve themselves and their institutions well by learning how to practice the six attributes of an agile leader in a volatile world.