The "Ecosystem for Learning"​ Approach to an Integrated Student Experience

When it comes to shaping the student intellectual and developmental experience, colleges and universities often fall short of a holistic and integrative strategy. Sometimes, they don’t seem to have a strategy at all. In this post, I discuss how institutions can improve in this regard by employing an “Ecosystem for Learning” framework.

This framework explicitly recognizes that the student intellectual and developmental experience takes place across various dynamically interconnected domains. It follows that what is happening in any one domain is best understood in the context of the entire ecosystem, and that institutions should do more to leverage the connections in the system.

The domains of the Ecosystem for Learning include the full range of the student experience: spaces; technology; content, programming, and ideas (from academic courses, to student research and experiential learning, to topics discussed in an informal conversation at the dining hall); communities and networks; and cultures.

The reasons colleges and universities fail to take an ecosystem perspective is a topic for another time. The culprits include the inherent complexity of students’ lives and interests, along with relatively weak cross-boundary organizational communication and coordination due to structural and cultural forces.

How to explore or develop the framework at your institution

Institutions of higher learning can enhance what students take away from their experience by working collectively, across organizational boundaries, to take some very discrete steps:

Promote the general idea of the Ecosystem for Learning so that it informs colleagues’ worldview and vocabulary. Embrace the connected and mutually reinforcing nature of what is happening at your institution. Whoever decides to lead this charge should seek out advocates, sympathizers, and good sports to further this mindset. I have found that simply introducing the idea of an ecosystem is enough to build momentum. I think this is partly because, as elusive as organizational cohesion can be and as much as we neglect it, it remains an ideal that we aspire to.

Identify the domains of the Ecosystem for Learning at your institution. These include but are not limited to: Classrooms, networks and friendships – among classmates, fellow majors, or the student body in general, learning management systems, student interest groups, undergraduate research opportunities, living-learning communities, relationships between faculty and students, and elements not sponsored by the institution, e.g., social media channels.

Decide – in a discursive, democratic way – what characteristics you want your Ecosystem for Learning to embody. Examples include but are not limited to:

Fluid boundaries – between disciplines, between courses in a given discipline, between courses and co-curricular activities. Imagine a joint project between students in a computer science course and a history course. What exactly would that project be? That’s the beauty of this framework – the faculty and students will figure it out. They just need to be connected.

Active, engaged students, in the classroom and beyond.

Student metacognition and self-awareness about their course of study and their experiences overall.

Creating and outfitting spaces, and then promoting and scheduling them, to encourage collaboration and group meetings.

Universal design.

Meaningful student-faculty interaction.

Collaboration among students in undergraduate majors.

An awareness of the role of failure in learning and innovation

Map the Ecosystem for Learning as it currently exists at your institution, including ways in which it already embodies the characteristics that are identified as desirable. If you can think of some data points, that will help from an evaluation standpoint and it will help clarify that the ecosystem concept has roots in existing practices.

Commit to supporting existing parts of the ecosystem that embody the shared vision that is developed. In some cases, this can consist simply of describing or framing programs and efforts in a way that illustrates their contribution to the ecosystem.

Promote changes – whether it’s a new initiative or an enhanced connection among existing phenomena – that would further that shared vision.

Getting the ball rolling: Easier than you may think

The barriers to entry for furthering the idea of an Ecosystem for Learning are low. This process can start with informal discussions. One does not have to be in a position of formal leadership or obtain formal institutional buy-in to get things started. A small group of staff, faculty, or students acting as a coalition of the willing can promote ideas and make real change.

At my institution, I had many individual conversations and eventually invited some folks to discuss the idea in groups of 12 to 15 individuals. Part of what we did was to map the ecosystem and note areas of existing success, such as the University’s active learning initiative and its undergraduate research efforts, both of which embodied the student engagement ideal that we held for our ecosystem. I also helped organize a hackathon where participants went through guided ideation activities.

Later, I pitched a “campus as classroom” internal small grant program to a leader with whom I had previously discussed the ecosystem idea and worked with on other efforts. She liked the pitch, adapted it, and created the grant program. When the program was announced, hundreds of faculty had their attention directed, at least for the moment, to the idea of integrating the outdoor campus into course activities and assignments.

What comes next from that program remains to be seen, but that initial win only required a single stakeholder with sufficient ability to act. One lesson from this example is that the effort to promote the ecosystem mindset can start with the colleagues who you already know. Mine your existing relationships. Another lesson is to know where you have institutional leverage. And you probably have more than you realize: so much good can be done at a decentralized, let-a-thousand-flowers-bloom institution through the power of suggestion and persuasion.

While the Ecosystem for Learning could take a formal, prominent place as an institutional strategy, it could also be more decentralized and exist as a brand, an inspiration, or a franchise of sorts. Early in the process of thinking about this framework on my campus, one dean suggested we might view it as a flag to rally behind. What is most important is that the effort can grow, but remain sustainable, and lead to tangible action.

If you would like to discuss this topic further, please feel free to comment here or send a note.