Learning Improvement Community (LIC)
Community of Practice (CoP) Application
This is the application for the Learning Improvement Community (LIC) Community of Practice (CoP) offered by the Assessment Institute in Indianapolis. The application contains 3 parts: (1) welcome and overview; (2) applicant information; and (3) possible questions based on your feedback:
- How would you describe your current familiarity with learning improvement? (Multiple choice.)
- In your own words, how would you explain learning improvement to a colleague who was unfamiliar with it? (A sentence or two is plenty!)
- During the Community of Practice, where would you most like to focus your work? (Multiple choice.)
- Which description comes closest to what you would like to accomplish during the Community of Practice? (Multiple choice.)
- What question, challenge, opportunity, or possible work would you most like to explore through the Community of Practice? You do not need to have a fully developed project. (A few sentences are enough!)
- What statement best describes your current situation? (Multiple choice.)
- Which group(s) would you seriously consider joining? Select all that apply: Explore & Share, Launch & Nurture, and/or Build & Sustain. Descriptions provided.
- Which group(s) is your first choice? Select one: Explore & Share, Launch & Nurture, or Build & Sustain. (Multiple choice.)
- Attestation Statement: If selected as a 2027 Community of Practice Member, I understand that I will be expected to: participate actively in my assigned CoP group and its scheduled meetings; devote approximately five hours per month to CoP-related activity, including both group engagement and work within my own professional context; make reasonable progress on the learning improvement work I identify with my group; document and reflect on my experience so that I can learn from others and others can learn from my work. (Check box.)
- Is there anything else you would like us to know about your interests, circumstances, or possible participation? (Please share anything else you think would be helpful as we review your application.)
Close Date
The application closes on Friday, November 20, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. (Eastern), and information about joining the CoP will be shared with applicants in early-December 2025. Should you have questions, please email Keston Fulcher at fulchekh@jmu.edu and reference LIC CoP in the subject line.
Application Overview
The Learning Improvement Community, in collaboration with the Assessment Institute in Indianapolis, invites higher education colleagues to participate in a free, year-long Community of Practice focused on improving student learning.
Assessment can be remarkably good at demonstrating that assessment happened. Outcomes? Check. Evidence? Check. Report submitted? Check. But assessment gets more interesting when we ask: Where are students struggling? What if we spent more of our assessment energy finding those places, trying something different, and seeing whether it actually helped
That is where learning improvement begins. For this Community of Practice, learning improvement means identifying a meaningful student-learning need, making an intentional change to the learning environment, and using evidence to determine whether the change helped.
Throughout the year, members will receive facilitated group support, opportunities to learn with and from peers, practical resources, and guidance as they apply learning improvement within their own professional context.
The 2027 Learning Improvement Community of Practice will support participants in one of three groups based primarily on the kind of work they hope to undertake during the year:
| LEARN | DO | BUILD | |
| Groups | Group (1): Explore & Share | Group (2): Launch & Nurture | Group (3): Build & Sustain |
| Focus | Build understanding and help others engage with learning improvement. | Undertake or advance a program-level learning improvement effort. | Develop structures that support learning improvement across programs. |
| By the End | Apply and share learning improvement ideas in an authentic context and identify a next step. | Make meaningful progress on a concrete program-level improvement effort. | Develop or refine a tool, process, or support structure for improvement across programs. |
Time Commitment
The 2027 CoP will be primarily virtual, with an orientation in January, monthly group meetings from February through September, opportunities to share the work in connection with the October Assessment Institute, and reflection and wrap-up later in the year.
Members should plan to devote approximately five hours per month to CoP-related activity during the 2027 participation period. This includes group meetings and peer engagement, but much of the time will be spent applying the work within your own professional context. The CoP is designed to support work you are doing, or could be doing, rather than add five hours of meetings or assignments each month.
You do not need to know which group is the best fit before applying. The questions within the survey will help you identify the kind of work you would like to pursue, and the CoP leadership team will use your responses to support placement.
Application Note: When taking the survey, you may not be able to go back and change your answers, so please double-check your responses before clicking to the next page. The survey uses your responses to determine which page you are directed to, so going back may not be possible. If you are unable to complete the survey all at once, you can return to it later using the same link, and it should take you back to where you left off.