Overview of NMC Initiatives

As part of its ongoing research, the NMC identifies areas of potential impact in teaching, learning, research, and creative expression. These areas, or initiatives, are designed to address a need or challenge, framed in the form of a question. The activities and programs undertaken by the NMC aim to tease out the relevant issues related to each question and find ways to address them.

Within each initiative, the NMC employs four strategies to develop supporting activities. These are to convene people around ideas; to catalyze dialog and discussion; to build community and engage people; and to contribute to the field in the form of publications, demonstration and other projects, and information archives.

The NMC's three core initiatives are long term and ongoing efforts that support all of the activities of the organization. These initiatives are primary strategies for accomplishing the mission of the NMC. In addition to the three core initiatives, several focus area initiatives allow the NMC to deeply explore an area of interest. As the landscape of technology and higher education changes, new focus area initiatives are developed; and as new ideas become established and part of general practice, the older NMC initiatives that investigated them are retired.

Core Initiatives of the NMC

Dynamic Knowledge Initiative
Guiding question: How can technology drive the formation of new knowledge, expand dialog, and fuel the exchange of ideas?

Emerging Technology Initiative
Guiding question: How can the NMC and its members keep abreast of emerging technologies that may be important to our collective work?

New Collaborations Initiative
Guiding question: How can we leverage the work of learning organizations outside our usual spheres to inform and enhance our own work and reach new audiences?

Focus Area Initiatives of the NMC (2008-2010)

New Media and Learning Initiative (NMLI)
Guiding question: How has the growth and acceptance of new media opened new opportunities for teaching and learning?

New Scholarship Initiative
Guiding question: How are the processes and products of scholarship changing? What does this mean for the academy?

Immersive Learning Initiative
Guiding question: How can we make activities that bring people together around knowledge and the exchange of ideas more engaging? How might we also remove or lessen barriers of time, distance, and culture?

Retired NMC Initiatives

Pachyderm Initiative
Guiding question: How can we help people and institutions create media-rich digital stories about their work and passions?

Learning Objects Initiative
Guiding question: Are there systemic and more efficient solutions that can make creating effective web-based learning easier?