New interim director is reimagining the Center for Academic Innovation | Texas A&M University-San Antonio | TAMUSA

The Texas A&M University-San Antonio Center for Academic Innovation is being reimagined under the leadership of new Interim Director Kathryn Appenzeller Knowles.

The goal of this reimagining is to have the center’s role on campus more accurately reflect its name. 

“The Center for Academic Innovation is really there as a support for faculty, and I think we’re refocusing on that, giving it its identity back,” Knowles said in a Sept. 28 interview.

Knowles, who is also A&M-San Antonio’s director of quantitative reasoning, said that the CAI will be focusing on helping faculty with teaching, learning and innovating from a pedagogical perspective. 

For her first semester as interim director, Knowles is hoping to increase awareness of the CAI and inform faculty of what the center does.

“One goal is really just visibility, and communicating what the center is about … because I don’t know that that’s really well known,” Knowles said. “And two, here’s our mission and vision and goals, and here’s some concrete examples of how we can help you.”

Dr. Mohamed Abdelrahman, provost and senior vice president for academic engagement, further explained the idea behind the changes at the Oct. 7 Faculty Senate meeting. 

“The name didn’t match what they were doing … a lot of what they were handling were mainly tickets for fixing issues,” he said. 

Previously, the center was in charge of support tickets for the Blackboard learning management system, a process which will now be handled by Information Technology Services.

“Blackboard can still be part of what the center does, but … it’s how to use Blackboard in the most efficient way, the most pedagogically sound way,” Abdelrahman said.