Minneapolis / Salt Lake City – April 17, 2019 – eLumen, the world’s first ever fully integrated curriculum and assessment management software provider, announced today their partnership with Coursetune, a blueprinting software for visualizing curriculum design. This partnership provides eLumen partner institutions with an interactive way to identify curriculum gaps and alignment at-a-glance and provides Coursetune institutions with comprehensive curriculum and catalog workflow management fully integrated with outcomes assessment, strategic planning, and student engagement.

“From the time we started at eLumen, we have believed that the foundation of a great learning experience is a well-designed curriculum. Partnering with Coursetune allows our institutions to deepen their engagement with backwards design and constructive alignment while leveraging the power of eLumen to support sustainable continuous improvement and program development (and review),” said Joel Hernandez, eLumen CEO. “This opens doors for collaboration and transparency that just haven’t been available before—we couldn’t be more excited about what this makes possible for our institutions.”

“The ability to provide customers with an end-to-end system for designing curriculum, cataloging, and assessing, is exactly the type of big-picture goal we aim for at Coursetune. We are pleased to see this goal come about in our partnership with eLumen, which has been successfully championing this vision around the world, with quality higher education solutions,” said Dr. Maria Andersen, Coursetune CEO. “The more we can help educators ensure high quality curriculum design and continuous improvement of that curriculum, the better the value and outcomes for students.”

To learn more about Coursetune, visit http://www.coursetune.com.

About Coursetune

Coursetune provides highly visual blueprints of the requirements and strategy behind quality course design. Planning first in Coursetune helps teams identify curriculum gaps, prepare for accreditation, communicate program vision, and create higher quality learner experiences. Coursetune enables educators and administrators to collaborate effectively on the complex alignment process necessary before creating syllabi, lessons, activities, assessments, or multi-media content, for face-to-face, online or blended learning.

About eLumen

eLumen is the first ever fully integrated system to support curriculum and catalog, assessment and program review, ed planning, badging, career pathway maps, and more! eLumen workflows feed performance and disaggregated data to those who need it – academic leadership, institutional research, faculty, and students. Only eLumen can help manage all these processes in one platform that also connects with your SIS and LMS, allowing you to accomplish what you need to do so you can focus on what you want to do. eLumen supports some of the most innovative colleges and universities across the globe.

Questions about this partnership?

Karen Rothstein, PhD
eLumen Vice President of Strategy and Research

April is Community College month, and I kicked off my celebrations by attending two very different conferences: The RP Conference and The HLC Conference. Though region, focus, and attendees were quite different, one theme reverberated…change. AACC’s Community College Daily recently had a short and powerful article on what happens when institutions, whether academic or business, ignore change. The opening line says it all, “Colleges do not fail because of competition, environmental changes or even declining or changing student demographics. Colleges fail when leadership ignores warning signs and becomes paralyzed by tradition or ignorance” (Sygielski, 2019).

Having now had many hats in education…instructor, dean, researcher, and now VP in the private sector…I find myself asking all the time, “Why is change so hard?” Sure, change can be scary but also exhilarating; it’s a potent moment of opportunity and growth. Though for many it is also a gaping chasm of possible mistakes and regret: “What if I’m doing it wrong?” “Will I get fired?” “What if the way it was is better than the way it will be?”

So, here’s the thing. It’s rarely as great as you remember it…those glory days. Like an 80s glamor shot, we often smudge the lens in our strolls down memory lane. While a picture taken with your pink Le Clic camera may capture a moment of unbridled happiness, one data point does not a trend make. Lucky for us, we have decades of educational data that show the good old days weren’t always good (equity gaps anyone?) and tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems.

As we have heard again and again, there are aspects of higher education that need to change. Closing opportunity gaps. Increasing completion rates. Streamlining the student experience. Most would agree that these changes will help students, but rarely are faculty, classified professionals, and administrators given the training necessary to implement change. I know for some of you a deep understanding of change management may seem like a “duh” moment. But I can tell you from my own experience, and what I hear from colleagues in the educational system, there is a struggle with how to implement change…any change. If this is you, please read on for a quick summary of Kotter’s (2019) eight steps of change management through an education lens. If you already are a pro at change management, awesome…and please share the love with your colleagues!

Create a Sense of Urgency and Build a Guiding Coalition

For many institutions, especially community colleges, creating a sense of urgency has been taken care of by events like legislation or funding formula changes. Urgency…check. And if you hold an “informational” meeting, you’ll find your coalition of the willing as well as those who were voluntold relatively easily. So far so good.

Form a Strategic Vision and Initiatives

Well, the institution vision is already there in the form of an Educational or Strategic Master Plan. The initiatives are often also in place due to legislative urgency. But here’s where things start to get tricky. People may not agree with the initiatives. They don’t feel heard. They don’t understand why things are changing. They feel that the changes are a direct attack on the hard work they do every day. This is where constant, consistent communication is key. And it must be bi-directional, active, and widespread: newsletters, updates at any and all meetings, brown-bag lunches, and professional development seminars. Any time a group of employees meet, make updates about change a priority. In addition, a transparent process to collect feedback, process it, and send a response out to the college is also crucial. It’s fine to have opportunities for individuals to speak, but if nothing happens or there is no acknowledgement of their voices, the process is hollow and insincere. You’ll know you’ve done it right when someone in a meeting says she didn’t know about something and several people say, “Oh…it was in the email. I’ll forward it to you.”

Enlist a Volunteer Army and Enable Action by Removing Barriers

Your well-oiled communication machine is humming. It’s time to grow the choir. Institutions often stumble at enlisting the volunteer army and removing barriers. The assumption may be that you have told everyone what you are doing in multiple formats, so let’s hop to it. This is what we need to do so let’s just get it done. Nope, there is still work to do to create compelling reasons for individuals to volunteer as well as acknowledgement of barriers. Ensuring that all members of the college community can participate actively in the change is one step. This may mean offering professional development activities multiple times so faculty who are teaching or classified professionals who are scheduled to work can have the opportunity to attend. Have the choir bring a colleague to an event to help grow your base. If a college sees certain constituent groups are not attending events, do a formative assessment to gather data on why and make changes accordingly.

Generate Short-Term Wins

This is another area where institutions can flounder. There is often such a focus on the long-term goal that people are frustrated by the slow pace. In that frustration, people fail to acknowledge the daily good work and the incremental steps large-scale change requires. So, widely distribute and celebrate the wins…increases in fall to spring persistence, calling 500 students and having them avoid being dropped for non-payment, the beautiful new landscaping in the quad; the amazing handout the History department developed outlining their program road map. It’s easy to point out all the ways something is not going the way you planned…but it’s also just as easy, and infinitely more inspiring, to highlight all the ways things are going right. Create a culture of celebration!

Sustain Acceleration

So you have this great momentum going, the boulder is starting to roll…how do you keep it going? This is where deep, thoughtful, meaningful evaluation is so important. Evaluating the efficacy of changes you’ve made, reflecting on the data, and then continuing to fine tune or apply your success to a different area. Always with an eye on how progress can be implemented institution-wide. This is where assessment and program planning are key tools. Collect data from formative assessments and modify as you go along. Move from retroactive assessment to in-time “remediation” for the institution’s interventions and programs. Colleges want to offer timely assistance to students when they hit a bump in the road, with the right tools, you can do the same thing for your institution.

Institute Change

And once you have the data from assessment and documentation from program reviews and curricular changes, the college is ready to grow the change. What worked? What didn’t? What can we make bigger? What do we let go? This is the good stuff…the opportunity to see the progress you’ve made, honor the work that’s been done, and focus on the excitement of the future. Change goes from a place of fear to a place of celebration.

So that’s it…my Cliff’s Notes for change management. As a former English teacher, I find that analogy a smidge distasteful, but if the yellow-covered pamphlet fits…

Sygielski, J.J. (2019, April 4). Failure is a choice we make. Retrieved April 11, 2019, from https://www.ccdaily.com.

Kotter International (2019). 8-Step Process. Retrieved April 11, 2019, from https://www.kotterinc.com.

Email: karen@elumenconnect.com
LinkedIn: karen-rothstein-a5629160/
Facebook: karen.rothstein.7
Instagram: klrothstein/
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Karen Rothstein, PhD
eLumen Vice President of Strategy and Research

When I first became a teacher, during the 90s tech boom, some people were incredulous at my starting salary…an amount that was probably 1/10 a typical annual bonus. I could see the look on their faces…Why on earth would you go into education? And then I would ask, “Tell me about your favorite teacher.” Without missing a beat, she would launch into a fond tale about Ms. Stacey, who always found a way to make algebra fun using silly voices or Mr. Jennings who would pepper his history lecture with anecdotes about his own trials as a student.  The fact that 30 years later a former student may regale friends with stories of her crazy English teacher Ms. Rothstein who would crawl under a desk to illustrate prepositions and recite Shakespearean soliloquies so dramatically that even Linda Evans would be impressed. That’s why I went into education.

After being a high school teacher, an adjunct professor, an institutional research analyst, and a Dean, I’m now asked…Why on earth would you become a vendor?  Without missing a beat, I launch into my experience in meetings where we would discuss all the wonderful things we wanted to do for students and how we need to become a student-ready college.  The “what” was exciting and inspiring. The “how”…well…um…yeaaah…we’re not quite sure how. How do we let students know their progress along their educational journeys? How do we provide accurate information about programs and course requirements? How do we let students know they are learning? How can we let potential employers know the skills our graduates have? Then I learned about a company that can help colleges answer all of these questions and empower students to make informed choices. That’s why I joined eLumen.

One of my “duties as assigned” is to write an ongoing blog.  As a former English teacher and parenting blogger, I’m very excited to use this part of my brain once again. Please check back regularly to discuss what’s happening in the California Community College system as well as educational systems across the country. I’ll be sharing my thoughts and hope you will as well. There’s quite a bit of change afoot and plenty of fodder for rich discussion. Pathways, promises, and funding…oh my! Plus, I use words like “afoot” and “fodder,” that’s got to be worth something?

Minneapolis, January 15, 2019 – eLumen is pleased to announce that Bill White has joined the team as Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Eastern US. Prior to joining eLumen, Bill served most recently in the role of Strategic Account Executive with Blackboard and was responsible for overall account management and strategy for higher education in the state of Florida. Before that, Bill was the Vice President for Information Technology and CIO at Valencia College for 17 years. In this role, Bill provided strategic and operational leadership for Valencia’s information technology services and initiatives supporting multiple campus locations in central Florida.

Prior to Valencia College, Bill was a CIO at SunGard Education and served as Director of the Computer Center at Rockford College. Bill has also provided leadership to and has served on a number of state, regional, and national organizations, including EDUCAUSE, the Florida Virtual Campus (FLVC), the Florida State College CIO Council, the Florida Association of Educational Data Systems (FAEDS), and the Florida Society for Information Management (SIM). Bill graduated from Rockford University, majoring in Computer Science and Business Administration. 

In his new role at eLumen, Bill will be responsible for authoring and executing on our regional go-to-market strategy; most importantly, Bill will be working with institutions in the evaluation and subsequent implementation of our integrated platform for curriculum management, outcomes assessment, program review, and digital catalog. 

eLumen, the leading provider of software and services built to power student learning and success, announced today that the Contra Costa Community College District (CCCCD) has selected eLumen to provide an integrated solution to help the District with accreditation, curriculum and catalog, program review and planning, and student learning outcomes. eLumen was CCCCD’s choice thanks to its seamless integration, consistent interface, and easy data interchange and exchange, allowing the District to address emerging needs for Guided Pathways and Chancellor Oakley’s Vision for Success while eliminating inefficiencies resulting from non-integrated systems.

Dr. Fred Wood, Contra Costa Community College District Chancellor,  explained why eLumen was their choice for student and institutional success by stating, “As a complex organization of three colleges with similar and yet unique needs, we wanted a partner that would help us with the challenges from such initiatives as AB705, Guided Pathways, shifting funding formulas, etc.”

We were seeking a single solution to encompass all of our needs from Program Review, Student Learning Outcomes and the Course/Scheduling approval processes. eLumen stood out as the only provider that could address all of these needs in a single platform. — Mojdeh Mehdizadeh, Executive Vice Chancellor

CCCCD’s colleges, Contra Costa College, Diablo Valley College, and Los Medanos College, had been laboring through manual processes and disparate systems to manage college and district level curriculum and student learning outcomes assessment management, strategic program planning and review and reporting processes. The colleges and district look forward to integrated workflow processes within eLumen’s platform, saving time and resources so that more focus can be spent on making informed decisions on program improvements and student progress.

“We were seeking a single solution to encompass all of our needs from Program Review, Student Learning Outcomes and the Course/Scheduling approval processes. eLumen stood out as the only provider that could address all of these needs in a single platform,” says Mojdeh Mehdizadeh, Executive Vice Chancellor, Education and Technology at CCCCD.

About Contra Costa Community College District

The Contra Costa Community College District (CCCCD) is one of the largest multi-college community college districts in California. The CCCCD serves a population of 1,019,640 people, and its boundaries encompass all but 48 of the 734-square-mile land area of Contra Costa County. The District is home to Contra Costa College in San Pablo, Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, as well as educational centers in Brentwood and San Ramon. The District headquarters is located in downtown Martinez. For more information visit http://www.4cd.edu/default.aspx

About eLumen

eLumen is a globally recognized innovative curriculum and assessment management platform that supports integrated workflow across multiple academic processes. Whether workforce alignment, accreditation demands, or curriculum redesign, you need to start the design of your courses and programs with competencies and learning outcomes in mind. eLumen lets you build your curriculum around your learning outcomes and integrate them seamlessly with outcomes assessment and program review, letting you “close the loop” like no other partner can. Our configurable course and program design workflows let you manage every type of curriculum, while also designing Guided Pathways, Transfer Programs, and other important curriculum management functions.

Additionally eLumen’s catalog module works in tandem with curriculum management to provide seamless updates to approved courses and requirements for online catalog posting via a robust curriculum map tool, eliminating the manual work of catalog updates—and opening the possibility of ed plan and advising integration. Our Catalog feature integrates with labor market data so students can make informed decisions on course selection; additional student engagement resources include badging, portfolios, and extended transcripts. For more information visit www.elumenconnect.com