The benefits of synergy
A collaboration between the Boston College Center for Digital Innovation in Learning (CDIL) and the Lynch School of Education and Human Development’s Barbara and Patrick Roche Center for Catholic Education has proven the remarkable benefits of synergy: when a partnership produces a greater outcome than the sum of its individual parts.
The joint venture came about when the Roche Center—founded in 2007 to build excellent and equitable Catholic pre-K-12 schools—was faced with a challenge: How to translate years of in-person expertise into an engaging online experience for Catholic volunteer school board leaders?
Melodie Wyttenbach (Caitlin Cunningham)
The center’s Executive Director Melodie Wyttenbach approached the CDIL, launched in 2019 as a centralized service center for all facets of online education support and an innovation space for new digital teaching and learning initiatives.
The two BC entities already had a good track record, having teamed up to create courses for the Roche Center’s Catholic Leadership Cohort, which enables Catholic educators to enroll in the Lynch School’s Master of Education in Educational Leadership and Policy program.
But this new undertaking was something quite different, according to Christopher C. Martin, the Roche Center’s program director of board development and executive leadership. The daunting task was to build online asynchronous learning experiences for the Board Development Institute (BDI), the nation’s most comprehensive Catholic school board formation program. While the goals for the BDI were clear, explained Martin, the center had modest experience, at best, in building a large-scale online education program. Moreover, the course needed to respect the volunteer participants’ schedules while equipping them with practical tools immediately applicable in their schools.
Christopher Martin
“Quite frankly, I had no idea where to start,” said Martin. “How do we engage busy, unpaid board members from across the country online? How do we build a course that feels professional, cohesive, and motivating? What technologies would be essential to sustain these courses online, and how could they be used most effectively?”
But the two teams created an outcome more expansive and impactful than either one could have achieved alone. Together, with CDIL’s learning designers, instructional media producers, and learning technology team, the Roche Center co-developed a program that is now reaching more schools, leaders, and communities than ever before.
While the BDI had several valuable resources for Catholic school leaders and board members, the Roche Center sought to consolidate these assets into a cohesive, accessible learning experience that could serve as a repository for leaders to return to repeatedly.
CDIL Executive Director Brian Salerno
For each learning experience, CDIL worked with the program directors to devise a conceptual structure of the course and to generate content highlighting the program’s mission. In the end, they organized each learning experience into three sections: “Minds On,” which introduced new concepts and skills; “Hearts On,” which provided opportunities for discernment and reflection; and “Hands On,” which allowed learners to apply the content to their own lives and professional contexts. Given the diverse needs of Catholic school educators, the topics range from finances and budgeting to marketing and leadership.
From the outset, Martin recognized CDIL’s approach as their point of difference: The team didn’t simply build a course, they partnered in every sense of the word.
“They weren’t just teaching or coaching, they were accompanying us on the journey, truly engaging in the content to understand what our learners would see,” said Martin. “We worked with learning designers who helped us organize lesson plans and resources, technology specialists who built out modules, media producers who thoughtfully edited video recordings, and together, established an experience that would entice participants. It was the whole package.
“At first, I wondered how CDIL could support our work, but once we got started, my mind was blown. They wanted our program to be the best it could be, and they were with us every step of the way.”
In the end, the collaborative experience was positive in many respects for both centers.
“As an institution, we are so fortunate to have CDIL as a resource to enhance the online learning experiences we create for our students,” said Wyttenbach. “Working alongside their team was genuinely wonderful, as their insightful guidance seamlessly blended with unbounded creativity to bring a sophisticated learning design to our Board Development Institute to life.”
“What made this collaboration with the Roche Center so successful was the way they consistently led with mission, heart, and an openness to innovation,” said CDIL Executive Director Brian L. Salerno. “Our partnership on the BDI wasn’t just about designing an engaging and interactive online experience; it was also about creating space for formation and reflection in service to Catholic education nationwide. That synergy of purpose made the work deeply meaningful for our team.”