As a champion of Michigan’s Center for Academic Innovation, I am always looking for opportunities to highlight CAI’s work. When I saw that CAI was hiring for an associate director of media and technology solutions, I reached out to see if I could help spread the word about my new “Featured Gig” series. Jeremy Nelson, CAI’s executive director of creative studios, shared his thoughts on the role.
Question: What is the purpose of the university with this role? How does compliance help advance the university’s strategic priorities?
A: Earlier this year, President Ono unveiled the university’s Vision 2034, which provides a road map for the next 10 years for our institution. A key priority is advancing our efforts to achieve a “life-changing education” for our students and alumni, including aspiring to “a future where UM education connects and empowers students everywhere to reach their full potential by expanding access, offering, and delivery. in a community of diverse people.” Many people and skills will be involved in this project; among them, a strong and scalable media infrastructure is essential.
For example, the university made a major investment in studio infrastructure and equipment this past year by building six new state-of-the-art production studios within the Center for Academic Innovation, one of which is an expanded virtual production studio. The associate director of media and technology solutions role will lead a team of communications and technology professionals who will maintain these studios, network and server infrastructure, and media management to ensure we can continue to deliver high-quality educational media products to meet our needs. teaching goals of our faculty.
As more education partners build capacity to deliver online degrees, high-quality media production will be a key part of this. This role will help inform the strategy to develop high-quality media for online credit and non-credit programs and fulfill our mission of providing studio capacity for the campus network.
Q: What role does it play in building a university? How will the person in this role interact with other units and leaders across campus?
A: This role will be based in the Creative Studios team at the Center for Academic Innovation and report directly to me. The person in this role will have the opportunity to deeply understand the current needs from learning partners regarding the support and infrastructure needed to create MOOCs and online degree media. The Center for Academic Innovation works with all 19 schools and colleges on the Ann Arbor campus, and this person will engage with leaders from all departments to help understand their needs, coordinate media and technology solutions for their unit, and assist in our creation and implementation of the -network studio to deliver high quality products to all partners.
Question: What would success look like in one year? Three years? Over here?
A: In the first year, we are really looking for a leader who will come in and take the time to deeply understand our current processes, workflows, and needs to develop a long-term plan for success. By the end of that first year, we’ll call it a success if we’ve built a set of scalable and flexible operating processes and infrastructure that will position us for continued growth.
At the three-year mark, we will have fully utilized a series of networked studios and media production capabilities across the campus that will support the broader needs of online learning and teaching to meet the teaching needs of each unit and the learning needs of each student. . The challenge of delivering quality at scale requires constant attention and a commitment to continuous improvement and agility. At the Center for Academic Innovation, we embrace these big challenges and look to be the force that allows faculty and units to focus on what they do best, all while pushing the boundaries of innovation.
Q: What future roles will the person taking this position be prepared for?
A: This type of role will be a combination of someone who can balance solving deep technical problems with strategy and high-level thinking. This person will help grow and develop a team of professionals who deliver modern media technology solutions to address educational goals. This person will be prepared for technical leadership roles involving media production in any discipline.
The great thing about working at CAI is that you have the opportunity to work with expert faculty in almost every field, so on-the-job learning prepares you for many different fields. I see this type of role as a great opportunity for someone to build their skills in relationship building, advanced technical problem solving and strategic planning thinking. I am very excited to work with someone to help us achieve our next goals for CAI and the University of Michigan.