ASA Workplan

To do this, we need to support UW instructors to adopt effective teaching approaches and promote inclusive learning environments:

• By providing UW instructors with a rich array of instructional support services and opportunities to improve their teaching practice.
• By lending expertise to and supporting the outcomes of provost and faculty governance-led efforts to improve instructional quality.
• By strengthening tri-campus collaboration around instructional support services so that resources and programming are designed to be tri-campus de novo
• By providing instructors with resources to support accessibility across modalities
• By streamlining instructor access to information via a unit-agnostic Teaching@UW website that hosts faculty development opportunities, resources, and support for learner-centered pedagogies
• By supporting UW instructors using instructional technologies on all three campuses with just-in-time help with digital learning tools such as Panopto, Canvas, Poll Everywhere, and Zoom
• By clearly communicating that our instructional support approach is mode agnostic, supporting in-person, online, and hybrid instruction
• By performing research to inform new developments in teaching and learning, such as benchmarking and survey work, to inform new pedagogical models and identify emerging instructional technologies that enable instructional excellence

…And provide leadership in the design, construction, operations, and accessibility of general-assignment learning spaces:

• By continually improving classroom maintenance, equipment, and security in ways that respond to evolving instructor and student needs and expectations around educational technologies and access
• By renovating select classrooms to improve technology and accessibility
• By addressing urgent classroom space issues, including the lack of coordination and shortage of available rooms and labs
• By supporting ongoing efforts to ensure learning spaces, both physical and digital, are inclusive and accessible and that new courses incorporate universal design
• By partnering in the design and implementation of informal student learning spaces, based on a better understanding of the logistical and IT requirements of these spaces

Priority Efforts

• Priority instructional support efforts this year include scaling and improving:
  • AI + Teaching, a 4-week asynchronous courses for instructors
  • Teaching Online101, 120 faculty/year learning to teach online
  • Course redesign clinic, helping 80 faculty/yr adjust to the loss of TA lines
• Priority efforts to support learning spaces include:
  • Kane Hall Campus Automated Access Mgmt System (CAAMS) Retrofit, automated locks on exterior and classroom doors for emergency lock down
  • General Assignment Classrooms (GAC) CAAMS Retrofit, prioritizing high-density classrooms initially then extending to all classrooms
  • Renovations and classroom furniture replacements in 13 classrooms
• Relevant initiatives ASA is contributing to:
  • Digital Accessibility Initiative – ASA is developing new workflows, resources and support for making course materials accessible and ADA compliant
  • AI@UW Initiative – ASA serves on the new VP for AI’s advisory board
  • UW updates to student and peer evaluation of teaching – ASA supports faculty senate and provost sponsored groups to improve evaluation

To do this, we need to convene and partner with UW colleagues to promote academic success and alleviate barriers that impact retention, graduation, a sense of belonging, and access to curricular pathways and high-impact practices:

• By cultivating partnerships that promote student academic achievement
• By participating in efforts to align academic program capacity with student demand
• By piloting ways to improve students’ belonging and well-being in large classrooms, in partnership with the Resilience Lab
• By supporting a student technology loan program that provides UW Seattle students with access to modern multimedia and computing equipment

Priority Efforts

• Capacity vs Demand: Unit level applications, scoping work for pruning UW curriculum to align with enrollments by gathering data on applications by unit, bottlenecks and time to degree
• Five for Flourishing, a partnership with the Resilience Lab that supports belonging and connection among students in high-enrollment classes
• Student Technology Loan Program, increases service and visibility for students who need to borrow laptops and hardware by providing service in Odegaard Library

To do this, we need to lead efforts to address priority areas identified by the provost — especially in areas that support student access and success:

• By leading the UW response to new ADA rules around the accessibility of digital course content; scoping the challenge; creating new workflows, resources and supports; and educating instructors on how to make materials accessible
• By leading preparation for Student Information System (SIS) modernization – the UW’s next major systems replacement effort – ensuring business process identification and redesign in partnership with academic and administrative units
• By better aligning UW program capacity with student demand, working with a group of campus leaders and data experts to explore issues of capacity, gathering data in key degree programs, and working with partners to increase capacity and shift enrollment patterns

…And ensure UW successfully remains accredited:

• By providing university-wide leadership on the accreditation process, updating program information, organizing site visits, constructing accreditation reports, and liaising with The Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, the UW’s accrediting body

…And partner with faculty governance groups to improve guidelines, policies, and practices to:

• Promote instructional quality, in partnership with the faculty senate and the Faculty Council on Teaching and Learning (FCTL) – developing a common understanding and leveraging assessment and reward mechanisms to promote teaching excellence
• Advise the faculty senate and the Faculty Council on Academic Standards (FCAS) on updates to academic policies (e.g., learning outcomes and general education)
• Support general education governance, curricular management, and improvements in partnership with faculty senate and the Faculty Councils on Academic Standards (FCAS) and Tri-Campus Policy (FCTCP)

…And provide  UW perspectives and leadership to partnerships with regional and national higher education bodies:

• By serving on College Board advisory committees
• By representing the UW at the Council of Presidents, the association of Washington state’s six public four-year colleges and universities — providing leadership on committees involving curricular and enrollment management
• By representing the UW in the Big Ten Academic Alliance’s retention community of practice 
• By maintaining the UW’s strategy for the American Talent Initiative, a Bloomberg Philanthropies-funded partnership with the Aspen Institute focused on graduating low-middle income students at the highest performing universities in the US
• By partnering with Japan’s Waseda University on evidence-based, inclusive instruction in global classrooms

To do this, we need to address issues identified for improvement:

• By ensuring ASA websites are accessible and meet updated ADA standards
• By continually improving classroom maintenance, equipment (workstations, furniture, and A/V, ) and security
• By working with departments and units that are building or renovating spaces to incorporate campus classroom design standards
• By gathering and using feedback from colleagues and peer benchmarking to inform continuous improvement efforts and organizational development

…And continually improve the tools and technologies to support our work:

• By improving the workflow for determining student residency by implementing Slate, a CRM tool that supports the student lifecycle
• By improving IT support services to students such as the Learning Commons and the Student Technology Loan Program
• By improving IT services to support the ~1000 workstations and ~50 servers in the 20+ units ASA-IS supports, including the Office of
• Academic Personnel, Environmental Health & Safety, Health Sciences Services, and roughly a dozen research labs.

Priority Efforts

• Improving on our autumn 2025 web accessibility score of 96% in DubBot
• Explore opportunities to incorporate AI in service delivery models