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Anyone with the job title of assistant vice provost and executive director of academic and learning innovation for the Office of Academic and Learning Innovation is someone I want to know. In this case, the job title holder is Randall Fullington from the University of Colorado at Boulder, a colleague I’ve relied on for advice about scaled online degrees. Randall graciously agreed to answer my questions about his role, career path and advice for others looking to move into leadership roles in academic and learning innovation.
Q: Tell us about your role as assistant vice provost and executive director of academic and learning innovation. What are the big projects, services and initiatives that you lead? What does a typical day look like?
A: My team and I support the CU Boulder community by collaborating with colleagues across campus on new initiatives to improve our online and hybrid modality experiences for students and CU, facilitating and supporting new online degrees hosted on the Coursera platform and piloting new educational technologies. In partnership with academic units and business offices, we’ve helped launch four master’s degree programs and over 340 noncredit programs. Last year, we launched the inaugural BoulderTalks: Insights from Education Innovators Series.
My typical day is bookended by helping my wife get our kids to school and then coaching soccer or taking bike rides as a family. During the workday, I meet with my team, which consists of development, design and finance divisions; colleagues from departments across campus; and our partners at Coursera. As an innovation office, ALI works to build relationships with partners from across campus in academic and business offices to help solve challenges facing academic units wanting to try something new. Apart from this, I also get to meet with peers from other universities, help plan events for the annual UPCEA Central Region conference in March 2025 and support the Affordable Degrees at Scale Symposium. The best part of my day is making opportunities for connections between colleagues within CU and across higher education.
Q: What educational and career path brought you to your current role?
A: I’ve been an educator for most of my professional life. I’ve been an instructor at the community college level, worked with reading development organizations, taught composition online, guided backpacking trips for incoming first-year students and facilitated experiential learning courses. I think I’m drawn to teaching and learning because it runs in my family—my wife, mother, sister and brother have all taught—and because it allows me to pursue so many different interests.
My Ph.D. experience was a traditional, residential, research-based program. I enjoyed my literary research but was also drawn to coursework in the pedagogy of higher education and writing center theory, as well as a teaching position with the Miramontes Arts and Science Program, which is designed for first-generation and underrepresented students. At the same time, I was teaching with Colorado Community College Online, where I was interacting with students who don’t fit the typical four-year undergraduate mold: military spouses, single parents and grandparents taking care of their grandchildren and modeling the importance of further education. Those students created an imperative in me to expand access to the highest-quality educational content.
I took multiyear breaks between receiving my undergraduate degree and my master’s degree program and then again between my master’s and Ph.D. programs, during which I worked in multiple industries. This combination of attending CU Boulder, considered a prestigious institution, working with nontraditional populations and nonacademic experiences has fueled two motivators for me: to open access to learners who are unable to attend CU Boulder in person and to explore new ways of delivering education to those in our region and beyond.
Q: What advice do you have for early and midcareer academic colleagues who would like to progress towards a leadership role in academic and learning innovation?
A: The most important thing I’ve found is to build relationships across units and institutions. What I love about the work of educational innovation is that it takes a team of people with backgrounds in teaching, research, higher education administration and a deep understanding of the institution. That can also be a challenge because all of those people are pulled in many directions. If you take the time to foster those relationships, you can build agile, successful teams that connect the necessary pieces together. That kind of collaboration is essential for leadership positions in academic and learning innovation.
Second, I recommend doing the work of introspective leadership. Soon after taking this position, I joined a leadership program that pulls together a diverse group of higher education and corporate leaders in order to learn from each other. Being in that class gave us a shared language for assessment while also allowing us to see that we’re all still growing as leaders. The work of innovation requires failure and assessment, so having a group of people to fail with and learn from is key.
