Merging Two Campuses, One Book Group at a Time

Wednesday, October 29, 2025 | 9:45AM–10:30AM CT | EDUCAUSE Commons, EDUCAUSE Central Poster Area
Session Type: Poster Session
Delivery Format: Poster
In the fall semester of 2024, Purdue University launched its new, urban campus in Indianapolis. Purdue in Indianapolis is an expansion of the Purdue West Lafayette campus, creating at 65-mile-long campus of faculty our teaching center now serves. To help connect instructors and staff at both campus locations, we held a “choose your campus adventure” reading group, held at both locations, to encourage exchange and connection among both Purdue populations. Our chosen book, Minding Bodies, focused on embodied learning, which fit thematically in our bi-locational exploration of campus, learning environments, and community. In our poster, we explore several ways we brought participants and the two Purdues together. Through mixing of participant populations to shared activities and photos of both groups, we share the varied ways we leveraged a book group to create community and opportunities for exchange for faculty and staff at two locations.

Presenters

  • Tracey Birdwell

    Assistant Director Center for Instructional Excellence, Purdue University
  • Annika Kraft

    Associate Instructional Developer, Purdue University