Badavas Center FAQs

Where is the Badavas Center?

First floor of Adamian Academic Center: 160

What are some highlights of the Center's work?

Individual Coaching: Providing personalized guidance and support in course design to enhance pedagogical effectiveness and ensure great student impact, for both in-person and online course creation.
Workshops: Facilitating group workshops to foster experimentation and incubate new teaching approaches, promoting a culture of continuous improvement, such as the “Unleashed” series and ideation sessions for Shared Experiences, Executive and Professional Education programs, and online learning.
Collaborative Learning Communities: Creating spaces for faculty and staff to exchange ideas, share best practices, and collaborate on innovative teaching strategies, through Bagels @ Badavas sessions, cohort-based learning with Unleashed initiatives, and external partnerships with KAOSPILOT.
Signature Learning Experiences: Identifying and developing distinctive learning opportunities within academic programs to enrich student engagement and outcomes.
Curricular Mapping: Mapping curricular cohesion across programs to ensure alignment with learning objectives and foster a cohesive educational experience, in new undergraduate majors, graduate offerings, and Executive and Professional Education opportunities.
Bringing Initiatives to Fruition: Providing guidance and support to bring programs and initiatives to fruition, including Executive and Professional Education, pre-Bentley programming, and study abroad re-designs.
Fostering Community and Partnerships: Supporting the work of community partners and the teaching & learning ecosystem through collaborations, such as sustainability and arts initiatives on campus and impactful initiatives through Learning Design and the Academic Technology Center.
Curriculum Evolutions: Spearheading and partnering in the redesign of Bentley University's undergraduate core curriculum to foster interdisciplinary exploration and experiential learning, including the building of Falcon Discovery Seminar.
Enterprise-level Innovations: Serving as a critical catalyst, incubator, and partner for groundbreaking innovations that shape Bentley’s academic landscape and its capacity to excel in the future, such as the campus-wide Spaces project and the growth and development of Executive and Professional Education.
Thought Partnership: Collaborating closely with educators and centers to cultivate and nourish innovative ideas, such as the development of new Pre-Bentley programs, action-learning study abroad opportunities with Cronin, and First Year Experience.
High-Impact Practices: Assisting faculty in integrating impactful teaching practices, like Badavas’ research-based 5 Pedagogical Pillars, into their courses to optimize student learning outcomes.
PADE (Pedagogically Advanced Digitally Enabled) Opportunities: Building scale and capabilities, and supporting faculty in developing custom digital content, experiential learning and targeted feedback that enables individual and organizational impact for Executive and Professional Education

Through these diverse initiatives and services, the Badavas Center empowers educators and partners to embrace innovation, enhance pedagogy, and shape the future of teaching and learning at Bentley University (and beyond!). Thank you for your partnership and collaboration; we look forward to future opportunities with you!

How do I contact the Badavas Center?

We’d love to hear from you! You can contact Suzanne Dove at sdove@bentley.edu or Liz Paushter at epaushter@bentley.edu

Do I go alone? With a small group? With my department?

Yes, yes, and yes! We welcome faculty, staff, alumni, students, external partners of all sizes.

What should I expect in Innovation Incubation Hours?

Think of Innovation Incubation Hours as the Center’s Office Hours. Have an idea but don’t know where to take it? Building a program and could use a thought partner? Looking for innovative teaching strategies? Interested in pedagogical research? Innovation Incubation Hours looks different for everyone—we can ideate together, organize together, implement together. We host Hours in person and on Teams; you can select your preference on our Bookings page.

Can I share successful teaching and learning in my (or my colleagues’) classroom?

Yes, please! We would love to highlight the innovative work that you and/or your colleagues are doing in the classroom. Please email Liz Paushter (epaushter@bentley.edu) to talk it through.