February 16, 2024

The 2024 CU Innovation & Efficiency (CU I&E) Awards Program just kicked off on February 1 ... and we already have two great submissions to share.

  • A team at Boulder Campus Office of Contracts and Grants redesigned the department's onboarding program to make sure all new hires -  regardless of work location - receive a streamlined and effective experience. Niki Spaeth and Jessica Trowbridge turned to Canvas to create a centralized online platform for onboarding task lists, resources, and progress tracking. Notes Niki: This program empowers new employees to hit the ground running without having to wait for supervisor availability or instruction. From day one, they get to start working towards the familiarity and confidence that we all crave when we start a new role. By trusting our new hires with their onboarding experience, we set the stage for a culture of trust within our department.
  • Another team at Boulder (Academic Technology members Bryan Melville, Jason Black, Quang Do, Anita Antony Samy, and Ahman Woods) also leveraged Canvas to improve student and instructor experience with Online Flexible courses. Students may begin these courses at any time and have six months from their start date to finish. The group launched two new processes that calculate course end dates and final grade due dates ... and send email reminders to instructors to submit their final grades on time. Bryan comments that, Fully online, flexible courses like these may be strategically critical to the University in the future, and I’m excited that we were able to deliver a low-cost, easy to maintain, common-sense solution to a serious problem facing this course modality.

We encourage you to review the entries on our CU I&E Current Submissions website. Perhaps they will inspire you to share your own innovative work with us!