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Integrated transitions of care for rural older persons are key issues in policy and practice. Interdisciplinary partnerships are suggested as ways to improve rural-care transitions by blending complementary skills of disciplines to increase care’s holistic nature. Yet, only multidisciplinary efforts are frequently used in practice and often lack synergy and collaboration. The purpose of this paper is to present a case of a partnership model using nursing, gerontology and public health integration to support rural-residing elders as a part of building an Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner program.

This paper uses the Centre for Ageing Research and Development in Ireland/O’Sullivan framework to examine the creation of an interdisciplinary team. Two examples of interdisciplinary work are discussed. They are the creation of an interdisciplinary public health course and its team-based on-campus live simulations with a panel and site visit.

With team-building successes and challenges, outcomes show the need for knowledge exchange among practitioners to enhance population-centered and person-centered care to improve health care services to older persons in rural areas.

There is a need to educate providers about the importance of developing interdisciplinary partnerships. Educational programming illustrates ways to move team building through the interdisciplinary continuum. Dependent upon the needs of the community, other similarly integrated partnership models can be developed.

Transitions of care work for older people tends to be multi- or cross-disciplinary. A model for interdisciplinary training of gerontological practitioners in rural and frontier settings broadens the scope of care and improves the health of the rural older persons served.

The purpose of this paper is to describe an approach to developing a makerspace assessment plan. This approach focuses on connecting organizational and service point mission statements with outcome-based assessment plan goals, strategies, methods, and success measures.

This paper will outline the steps taken by an academic research library to design an outcomes-based assessment plan that monitors the human ecology of a makerspace. The paper includes a history of the space, the role of the library within the campus makerspace environment, the connection between mission statements and assessment plans, and how that connection can facilitate and drive space and service design.

Designing assessment plans that are centered on a makerspace mission statement can ensure that progress toward fulfilling the mission, values, and goals of the space is constantly monitored.

Academic library makerspace assessment literature is still in its infancy. This paper seeks to contribute to the literature on academic library makerspace management and stewardship.

Technology is integral to contemporary life; where the digital transformation to virtual information accessibility impacts instruction, it alters the skills of learning and comprehension (Gonzalez-Patino & Esteban-Guitart, 2014; Lloyd, 2010). Although librarians/media specialists provide orientation, instruction, and research methods face-to-face and electronically, they recognize that digital learning instruction is not a linear process, and digital literacy (DL) is multi-disciplinary (Belshaw, 2012). Policy and public research findings indicate that higher education must be prepared to adapt to rapid changes in digital technology (Maybee, Bruce, Lupton, & Rebmann, 2017). Digital learning undergoes frequent transformations, with new disruptive innovation and research attempts at redefinition (Palfrey, 2015). Research often overlooks junior/community colleges. We are all learners and we need to understand the digital learning challenges that incorporating DL includes in the new digital ecology (Adams Becker et al., 2017). This study provides real faculty/librarian commentaries regarding the understanding needed to develop digital learning and contemporary digital library resources. The authors investigate faculties’ and librarians’ degree of DL perceptions with instruction at junior/community colleges. Survey data analysis uses the mean of digital self-efficacy of variables collected, revealing that participants surpassed Rogers’s (2003) chasm of 20% inclusion. Findings provided data to develop the Dimensions of Digital Learning rubric, a new evaluation tool that encourages faculty DL cross-training, librarians’ digital learning collaboration, and effective digital learning spaces.

The purpose of this paper is to present a case study that illustrates how professional associations can provide the context for development of formal and informal interdisciplinary collaboration and promote advancement and dissemination of useful knowledge among disciplines and across geographic boundaries. This paper reports the work of the Rural Aging Special Interest Group of the Gerontological Society of America to develop and disseminate approaches that leverage existing resources to address the challenges of providing services to rural – dwelling older adults. It describes the challenges and the roles of networks in developing and supporting these partnerships to better meet the challenges.

This paper describes how interdisciplinary partnerships can enhance existing resources to better meet the unique needs of rural older adults and describes an example of how a professional association facilitated the process of creation and dissemination of knowledge about this approach. An overview of the process is provided with additional information relating partnerships to improving programs and services for rural older adults.

While addressing the unique needs of rural older adults can sometimes prove challenging, a number of entities have developed successful interdisciplinary partnerships that have expanded resources and improved effectiveness in addressing these challenges.

This paper illustrates how a professional association can play a key role in supporting creative interdisciplinary and international problem solving.

This case study investigated how a collaborative, interdisciplinary partnership supported pre-service teachers’ approach to integrating content and pedagogy in coursework and field-based experiences at a large, public university. The collaboration involved articulating shared goals and objectives, planning and teaching co-requisite courses, and sharing a vision of shaping future social studies teachers. The research questions that framed this study were: What elements contributed to a successful collaborative, interdisciplinary partnership? How did faculty involved in the collaboration conceptualize supporting pre-service teachers’ development of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)? The voices of the faculty members involved in this collaboration are highlighted to illustrate how they conceptualized meeting the needs of pre-service social studies teachers. Findings included identifying the constraints and benefits of partnerships as well as contributing factors to a successful interdisciplinary partnership. Identifying the evolving definition and role of PCK in the training of future social studies teachers is also addressed.

The University of North Texas (UNT) has a long-standing partnership with the University of Magallanes (UMAG), Chile. This partnership is unique due to the wide expanse of its activities and connections to the local, regional, national, and international contexts. Moreover, this mutually beneficial partnership and its accompanying and tangential activities and initiatives span student mobility, transnational research, academic partnerships, community engagement, and several UN Sustainable Development Goals. This case study will discuss the various aspects of the partnership, how it developed and flourished over the past 20 years, and the impact of COVID on initiatives to expand global collaboration. It is a fascinating study of how the research interests of two faculty members led the way for UNT to develop an interdisciplinary partnership with regional, national, and international recognition. In particular, the authors will analyze the key ingredients for success of the partnership along with lessons learned. The chapter also will examine how the pandemic created a new dynamic, discuss steps taken to mitigate its impact, and offer some predictions for future directions.

Academic researchers are increasingly required, and rightly so, to demonstrate the impact of their work beyond the gates of the university. This has led to an increasing focus, especially in response to funded calls, on developing research partnerships that cross disciplines, sectors and borders to help address our grand societal challenges. The purpose of this paper is to set out learning from the work of the organisation the Centre for Ageing Research and Development in Ireland (CARDI) and reflections on how to bring forward effective research partnerships involving users.

This paper is based on reflections and learning from the organisation CARDI which delivered a highly successful programme of interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral and cross-country research partnerships in both rural and urban areas between 2007 and 2015, across the island of Ireland.

Research partnerships that wish to involve users require time, commitment, support, understanding and a willingness to change and be challenged. This paper highlights that there are methodological, philosophical, moral, economic and of course, practical aspects to be considered.

This reflective paper is based on a case study from the island of Ireland during the period 2007–2015 working in the area of ageing and older people.

The author emphasises that for research partnerships involving users to be successful, they need to not only consider the most effective research methods but also focus on the overarching purpose of the work and adopt an ethos and practice that maximises each partner’s knowledge and expertise to their full potential.

This reflective paper focused on the characteristics associated with partnership success, i.e. communication style, values, philosophy and practice and argues that establishing effective and inclusive partnerships requires time, the appropriate framework and reviewing the process on an ongoing basis.

The issue of user involvement in research partnerships requires much more consideration. Researchers, government, funders, businesses and service providers are increasingly recognising the benefits of “user” involvement to help design programmes and services that are most effective. Nowhere is this more important than in planning and delivering services, policy and programmes for our ageing population.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a rationale for developing interprofessional competencies among graduates from professional and graduate programs, so that they are well prepared to participate in local, national and global social change strategies.

After reviewing the literature on strategic social change initiatives the authors briefly describe two such initiatives: corporate social responsibility initiatives and social entrepreneurial ventures. After reviewing the interprofessional literature from various disciplines and professions, the authors categorized them into “competencies,” “rationale,” “conceptual framework,” “principles” and “challenges.” An examination of exemplar pedagogy from this body of literature suggests ways to prepare students to lead and actively participate in innovative, collaborative social change initiatives.

Interdisciplinary competencies include teamwork, communication, contextual understanding, negotiation, critical thinking, leadership, openness and adaptability. Interprofessional educational models are difficult to implement, however, ethical responsibility of educators to prepare students for complex realities trumps the challenges.

Interprofessional educational experiences can enable students to engage in generative and transformational learning which can later facilitate in creation of innovative solutions for society's recalcitrant physical, social and environmental issues.

Based on the system's perspective, the paper provides guidelines and strategies for implementing interprofessional pedagogical initiative.

Extensive studies from the fields of mentoring, coaching and associated collegial relationships attest to the efficacy of professional partnerships in building capability and enhancing the practice and professional expertise of the participants. In particular, partnerships between staff across faculty, as well as across administrative and academic roles, can lead to shifts in student achievement, advanced practice in teaching and learning, and strategic alliances both within and external to the institution. In the current climate of challenge and uncertainty for tertiary institutions, it is crucial that the investment in students, campuses and a raft of delivery options is accompanied by a deliberate creation of opportunities for an institution's most significant resource – and expense – its people. This chapter includes vignettes of three deliberately constructed, interdisciplinary workplace relationships which comprised part of the authors’ research in 2007. Each relationship sought to combine complementary expertise, although the discourse and focus of engagement differed considerably. The three selected relationships evidenced successful primary outcomes in different areas: student success and retention; an enriched curriculum and pedagogy; and institutional gain. They also illustrate the distinctive nature of New Zealand's bicultural heritage operating in an educational setting. Through telling these stories, it is hoped that emerging threads and themes can contribute to a shared understanding of the multifarious benefits of interdisciplinary practice in higher education.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the structure, patterns and themes of interdisciplinary collaborations in the digital humanities (DH) research through the application of social network analysis and visualization tools.

The sample includes articles containing DH research in the Web of Science Core Collection as of December 2018. First, co-occurrence data representing collaborations among disciplinary were extracted from the subject category. Second, the descriptive statistics, network indicators and interdisciplinary communities were calculated. Third, the research topics of different interdisciplinary collaboration communities based on system keywords, author keywords, title and abstracts were detected.

The findings reveal that while the scope of disciplines involved in DH research is broad and evolving over time, most interdisciplinary collaborations are concentrated among several disciplines, including computer science, library and information science, linguistics and literature. The study further uncovers some communities based on closely collaborating disciplines and the evolving nature of such interdisciplinary collaboration communities over time. To better understand the close collaboration ties, the study traces and analyzes the research topics and themes of the interdisciplinary communities. Finally, the implications of the findings for DH research are discussed.

This study applied various informetric methods and tools to reveal the collaboration structure, patterns and themes among disciplinaries in DH research.