MI-LEARN Design Lab

Public and tribal community colleges, public universities, and independent colleges and universities in Michigan are all eligible to participate. 

An institution can only submit one application for their institution.

For the application process, adult learners can apply to any individual who graduated from high school, but didn’t enroll in a postsecondary institution within a year of graduation or adult learners who left a postsecondary institution before obtaining a postsecondary credential. For the purposes of data utilized in the MI-LEARN Design Lab and the Innovation Investment Awards, The Center will also use a more common definition of any adult who is 25 years of age or older that will allow for outcomes that can be evaluated against national and state standards. 

International students can be considered part of the adult learner population, but the proposal should also look at domestic adult learners as well. If the proposal is focused solely on international students, feel free to reach out to The Center and we can work with you on potential groups to support international student focused efforts. The proposal should look at the adult learner population broadly. 

Neither as long as the proposal is focused on adult learner completion. For the MI-LEARN Design Lab process, we are planning to accept every eligible institution that applies who is focused on boosting adult learner persistence and completion. Collaborations across institutions are encouraged. 

Self-assessment will only be provided to the institution. The MI-LEARN Design Lab team will be reviewing the self-assessment and lifting up themes discovered for sharing and discussion, but these themes will not be attributed to specific institutions. 

Yes, those proposals are eligible. We strongly recommend proposals infuse non-credit, micro credentials, and digital badges into a credit-bearing bearing plan. As part of the MI-LEARN Design Lab we can work with institutions on a proposal on how to incorporate these short-term items into a credit-bearing path. 

Institutions participating in the MI-RAISE Design Lab will receive free access to experts and consultants to help them develop system change proposals that will boost adult enrollment and completion. This assistance will help position the institution to identify the specific system changes to be undertaken, identify resources needed to accomplish the system changes, and position the institution to seek any internal and external resources needed to enact the system changes. Additionally, participants will have the opportunity to learn from each other and potentially collaborate on their efforts. Lastly, institutions will receive adult learner data and labor market information in their geographic areas. 

Community college and university leadership will get the benefit of additional resources to develop proposals that will increase their completion rates for adults at no cost to the institution. The proposals will prepare the institution to successfully apply for the millions of dollars in grants available to increase student success efforts available. Additionally, the planning work will identify ways to successfully implement the proposals that will lead to increased completion rates, thereby increasing the marketability of the institution and increased revenues due to lowering the drop rates. 

The program will provide consultants and technical experts to work with institution staff to develop system change grant proposals, adding capacity to their already taxed schedules and time. By participating in this process the staff who are responsible for developing proposals and submitting grant requests will receive significant supports that will ease their time burden in developing successful proposals and experts that will help them develop strong proposals for consideration and future funding support. 

The Center gets to pilot a model of technical assistance that can be utilized to fulfill its statutory requirements on consulting with Reconnect institutions on best practices. It provides an opportunity for The Center to build meaningful relationships with postsecondary institutions across the state. It will also inform The Center on the specific best practices of interest to Michigan’s public colleges and universities. Lastly, it will provide a meaningful pool of applicants for the Innovation Investment Awards. 

The MI-RAISE Design Lab will result in multiple community college and university proposals for system changes based on best practices and prepare the institutions or coalition of institutions to apply for funding to acquire the resources needed to execute the proposal. The MI-RAISE Design Lab will allow for increased communication and coordination between postsecondary institutions and develop a road map for success in boosting adult completion rates at their institutions.