Axim Collaborative Partners with UNCF and Harvard to Support Development and Adoption of HBCUv

In June, Axim Collaborative launched its partnership with the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) and Harvard to support the development of HBCUv, a platform that will provide digital learning capabilities tailored to the specific needs of HBCUs and the communities they serve.  HBCUv, a project led by the Institute of Capacity Building at UNCF, is intentionally designed to replicate the learning culture and community for which HBCUs are well known and aspires to be a shared resource open to all HBCUs and enable institutions to share knowledge, resources and best practices. 

The partnership between Axim Collaborative, UNCF and Harvard will focus on the platform’s course development and course management capabilities, which provide the resources, training and guidance to help faculty effectively develop learning experiences. The collaboration will allow each organization to contribute unique expertise, learn from each other and involve other partners, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In particular, the partnership will work to:

• Develop the Culturally Relevant Course Repository (CRCR), which will provide a collection of culturally relevant educational materials, resources and information that faculty are easily able to incorporate into courses. To develop this repository, UNCF and Harvard will work together and with partners, including MIT OpenCourseware, to leverage existing learning assets that can be adapted for this foundational set of educational resources.

• Build an instructional design framework tailored to the needs of HBCUs faculty and students. This framework, HBCU Authentic, will leverage existing best practices and provide a critical resource to support faculty developing courses on the platform.

• Invest in pedagogical development by supporting a robust learning community that offers educators the opportunity to collaborate, share best practices and explore ways to leverage the platform to support their teaching.

Axim Collaborative is excited to launch this project to support the talented students currently served by HBCUs. HBCUs are uniquely aligned with the goals and mission of Axim, generating impressive results with historically limited resources. While HBCUs represent ~3% of the higher education institutions in the U.S., in 2014 they accounted for 17% of bachelor’s degrees and 24% of STEM degrees earned by African Americans. 

UNCF partners with institutions to explore ways to evolve HBCU education to leverage technology and online learning in support of continued student success. Axim Collaborative is excited to catalyze the UNCF and Harvard partnership to build critical institutional capacity to further these strong student outcomes.