About
James Hilton, vice provost for academic innovation, oversees three units that, collectively, help shape the future of higher education in data-informed ways by seeding experiments around curricular innovation; evolving the development and use of educational technology to differentiate and enhance residential and online education; providing professional development focused on learning and teaching practices to the campus teaching community; and providing access to innovative learning spaces and creative technologies.
Leadership Team
James Hilton, Vice Provost for Academic Innovation
Gwen Brown, Executive Assistant
James DeVaney, Associate Vice Provost for Academic Innovation and Founding Executive Director for the Center for Academic Innovation
Organization Chart
Note: staffing changes will not be reflected in the SPG-hosted org chart as quickly as in the lists above and below.
Center for Academic Innovation
James DeVaney, Associate Vice Provost for Academic Innovation and Founding Executive Director for the Center for Academic Innovation
The Center for Academic Innovation (CAI) is where creativity, excellence, and the University of Michigan’s aspirations for societal impact combine to reimagine the future of higher education. CAI acts as a hub for innovation on campus, partnering with the U-M community to explore new modalities of learning and leverage the power of novel educational technology and translational research in service of strengthening the quality of a Michigan education and enhancing our impact on society. The Center positions U-M for a blended future and as a global leader in academic innovation to create and inspire change in higher education and to reinforce an engaged and informed society.
CAI leverages U-M’s unique combination of scale, disciplinary breadth of excellence, and commitment to public purpose to: expand access to a Michigan education; create a more diverse global learning population; create tools to enable student success; support and scale innovative teaching. CAI builds internal capacities, expertise, campus networks, and purposeful partnerships that enable learner-centered innovation across the institution and throughout the higher education ecosystem.
Center for Research on Learning and Teaching
Matt Kaplan, Executive Director
The Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) is dedicated to the support and advancement of evidence-based learning and teaching practices and the professional development of all members of the campus teaching community. CRLT partners with faculty, graduate students, postdocs, and academic leaders to develop and sustain a university culture that values and rewards teaching, respects and supports individual differences among learners, and creates equitable learning environments in which diverse students and instructors can excel. CRLT carries out this mission through orientations, workshops, consultations, and learning communities for instructors; collaborations with departments, schools, and colleges; grants for innovations in teaching and learning; and the dissemination and pursuit of research. CRLT’s areas of expertise include equity-focused teaching, course design and curriculum development, evaluation and program assessment, incorporation of technology tools for teaching, and the use of applied theatre to address climate issues in classrooms and departments.
The James and Anne Duderstadt Center
Kati Bauer, Chief Operating Officer
The Duderstadt Center is a unique learning facility, created to support engaged and collaborative learning supported by advanced technologies. The Digital Media Commons (DMC) has responsibility for the overall operations of the Duderstadt Center (DC). Its role is stewardship, helping to coordinate the services provided by multiple partner organizations (including units from the College of Engineering; the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities; the Art, Architecture, and Engineering Library; the Millennium Project; the campus XR Initiative; and the Mujo Cafe) and seeing that the Duderstadt Center’s resources reflect the priorities of the DC’s Executive Committee for serving the academic community.
The DMC staff also provide specialist expertise to support the technologies, spaces, and curricular programs of the advanced digital media resources and studios in the DC.