The Roche Center and CDIL worked together to answer the question, “How do we engage busy, volunteer board members online?”
“How could we design an online learning experience worthy of volunteer board leaders?” That was Chris Martin’s first question when he met with the team at Boston College’s Center for Digital Innovation in Learning (CDIL). As Program Director of Board Development & Executive Leadership at the Roche Center for Catholic Education, Martin knew the stakes were high. His team was about to launch fourteen online asynchronous learning experiences for the Board Development Institute (BDI), the nation’s most comprehensive Catholic board formation program. Any misstep in translating these materials into an online space risked weakening the trust of the very leaders they sought to serve.
What began as a challenge to translate years of in-person board development work into an engaging online experience quickly grew into a story of partnership, where two teams created something larger and more impactful than either could have achieved alone. Together with CDIL’s learning designers, instructional media producers, and learning technology team, the Roche Center has developed a program that is now reaching more schools, leaders, and communities than ever before.
“We really believe that schools will succeed when they have strong support from external-facing constituents. And that’s where these boards come in.”
The Roche Center, part of the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College, understands the importance of having a school board that is equipped with the resources and training it needs to lead with success. Without proper preparation, even the most passionate board members can struggle to serve schools and their leaders effectively. As Martin explains, “We really believe that schools will succeed when they have strong support from external-facing constituents. And that’s where these boards come in.” Partnering with the Healey Education Foundation, which laid the foundation for this work, the Roche Center sought a way to scale board development for Catholic schools nationwide. That’s when the collaboration with CDIL began.
Unpacking Challenges and Learning Opportunities
When Martin and his colleagues first envisioned the BDI, they had clear goals but little experience building a large-scale online program. “Quite frankly, I had no idea where to start,” Martin admitted. They faced the following challenges: How do we engage busy, volunteer board members from across the country online? How do we build a course that feels professional, cohesive, and motivating? What technologies would be essential to sustain these courses online, and how could they be used most effectively?
Catholic schools rely on board members who freely give of their time, talents, and treasure, often without formal recognition. For the BDI to succeed, the course needed to honor participants’ time while equipping them with practical tools they could immediately apply in their schools.
A True Team Effort
To address these needs, Dr. Melodie Wyttenbach, executive director of the Roche Center, approached CDIL for help. Wyttenbach had previously partnered with CDIL to design courses for the Center’s Catholic Leadership Cohort and, impressed by their work, knew they were the right fit for this project.
While BDI had several valuable resources for Catholic school leaders and board members, the Roche Center wished to consolidate these resources into a cohesive, accessible learning experience that could serve as a repository for leaders to return to repeatedly. For each learning experience, CDIL worked with the program directors to devise a conceptual structure of the course and to generate content that highlights the program’s mission. In the end, they decided to organize each learning experience into three sections: Hearts On, which allowed for opportunities for discernment and reflection; Minds On, which introduced new concepts and skills; and Hands On, which allowed learners to apply the content to their own lives and professional contexts. Given the diverse needs of Catholic school educators, topics include a range of areas, from finances and budgeting to marketing and leadership.
Expanding Reach and Impact
From the outset, Martin recognized the difference: “The fact that CDIL is a true and broad team—that was one of the most valuable parts,” he explained.“We worked across the board with learning designers who helped us organize lesson plans and resources, people who built out modules, media producers who thoughtfully edited video recordings, and even something as simple as establishing a branding that would bring people in. It was the whole package.”
For Martin, what stood out was CDIL’s approach. The team didn’t simply “build a course”; they partnered in every sense of the word. “It really felt like we were all in this together,” he said. “They weren’t just teaching or coaching—they were accompanying us on the journey, truly engaging in the content to understand what our learners would see.” That alignment with the Roche Center’s philosophy of accompaniment made the partnership especially meaningful.
In its first year, the Board Development Institute reached board members from more than a dozen schools. By the second year, nearly 25 schools and over 60 participants were enrolled—an exponential increase made possible by the professional and accessible nature of CDIL’s design.
“Before this online course existed, the Healey Education Foundation worked intensively with a small number of schools over two or three years,” Martin reflected. “Now, the Roche Center, with CDIL’s support, has transformed Healey’s work to reach more schools than ever before.” Equally important, participants feel supported long after the course ends. “Because of the way this was developed, people know they’re cared for,” Martin said. Many return to the Roche Center with questions and seek continued guidance, even joining other Roche programs, showing that the BDI helps build lasting partnerships rather than just delivering one-time training.
“They wanted our program to be the best it could be—and they were with us every step of the way.”
The story of the Board Development Institute is ultimately a story about partnership. “At first, I wondered how CDIL could support our work,” Martin recalled. “But once we got started, my mind was blown. They wanted our program to be the best it could be—and they were with us every step of the way.”
Having a collaborative learning design process is essential to CDIL’s mission. According to Associate Director of Learning Design Yuhan Li, “When we design something, we want to design the learning experience in a way that is sustainable in the future.”
For Boston College faculty and staff who are considering collaborating with CDIL, Martin’s advice is simple: “Do it. Partner with CDIL.” Whether you’re designing a course, rethinking an assignment, or building something entirely new, CDIL’s team of learning designers and media producers is ready to help.
