Southern New Hampshire University’s EDI Foundations Learning Experience was born from the organization’s strategic STEDI (Standing Together for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) goals for fiscal year 2025. The program aims to help leaders and staff build the knowledge, skills, and terminology needed to drive inclusion at the university.
Program Details
The blended curriculum comprised seven components:
- A video from the Chief Diversity Officer
- An overview of the historical roots of EDI in higher education
- Completion of an Inclusive Behavior Inventory (IBI) assessment
- A debrief of the IBI assessment to help participants understand their report results
- An IBI course that explored the five dimensions of inclusive behaviors
- An eLearning course on moving EDI from intention to impact facilitated by an expert
- An instructor-led training
The learning experience was piloted in August 2024 to 62 team members. The pilot participants provided feedback that was rapidly integrated into the scaled learning launched to 4,900 staff the following month. In support of this, a massive train-the-trainer program was initiated. The process validated facilitators in delivering the curricula though teachbacks and shadowing opportunities. This produced 45 trained facilitators from across the university, many of whom possessed facilitation skills but were not formally assigned as learning facilitators in their regular work, such as HR business partners and senior-level leaders.
Evaluation of the learning was completed in two phases. Level 1 reaction data was collected at the completion of the learning experience. Level 3 validation of the application of the learning was completed through the integration of the learning behaviors into an annual performance goal. The performance goal called for leaders to validate the application of the learning experience objectives in annual performance reviews.
Leaders were trained in the content and charged with coaching their team members on the application of the learning objectives for reinforcement. There was also a series of reinforcing videos prepared by senior leaders released over the course of the first six months and a second set of videos released over the course of the following six months.
Results
Level 3 validation of transfer was completed through the integration of the learning behaviors in participants’ annual performance reviews. In FY’25, 87 percent of the participants were verified to have applied the learning during their work.
In FY’25, organizational belonging for underrepresented groups at Southern New Hampshire University as measured by an eNPS (employee net promoter score) engagement score was +59, 21 points above the organizational benchmark eNPS (+38).
