The Future of Learning Playbook: A practical guide to navigating the changing landscape for creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship 9783110767360, 3110767368

Learn about the future of CIE learning and how to build your capacity to design an innovative and creative learning land

130 49 10MB

English Pages 186 Year 2023

Report DMCA / Copyright

DOWNLOAD FILE

Polecaj historie

The Future of Learning Playbook: A practical guide to navigating the changing landscape for creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship
 9783110767360, 3110767368

Citation preview

JOHN BESSANT O LG A KO K S H AG I N A KY R I A K I PA PAG E O R G I O U

E R U T U F E TH G N I N R A E L OF K O O B Y A PL A practical guide to navigating the changing landscape for creativity, ­innovation and entrepreneurship

JOHN BESSANT OLGA KOKSHAGINA KYRIAKI PAPAGEORGIOU THE FUTURE OF LEARNING PLAYBOOK A practical guide to navigating the changing landscape for creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship

TA B L E O F CONTENTS

PART 1 CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTRE­ PRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

WHY WE NEED CREA­T IV­I TY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEUR­SHIP SKILLS ���������������������������������������������������������  10 THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF LEARNING FOR CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP ����������  28

Download

DOWNLOAD Worksheets marked with this icon can be downloaded here: 

PART 2 DESIGNING OUR FUTURE LEARNING WORLD

www.degruyter.com/books/9783110767360

CHAPTER III COLLABORATIVE APPROACH TO HELP YOU ENVISION AND DESIGN YOUR OWN LEARNING FUTURES ��������  54 CHAPTER IV THE CANVASES �������������������������������������������������  76

PART 3 INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK CHAPTER V JIM, UNIVERSITY LECTURER �������������������  92 CHAPTER VI JANE, UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT ���  114 CHAPTER VII JESSICA, SENIOR ­U NIVERSTIY MANAGER ������������������������������������������������������������  120 CHAPTER VIII NATALIA, UNIVERSITY  ­A DMINISTRATOR ��������������������������������������������  130 CHAPTER IX ANNA, SENIOR MANAGER �����������������������  136 CHAPTER X KATE, TEAM LEADER ����������������������������������  142 CHAPTER XI ALEXANDER, POLICY ANALYST �����������  148 CHAPTER XII ROB, DIGITAL ­E DTECH D ­ ESIGNER AND ­E NTREPRENEUR ��������������������������������  152 CHAPTER XIII RICK, PROFESSIONAL ­T RAINER �������������  156

PART 4 CONCLUSION: BRINGING THE CAST ­T OGETHER AND CHANGING THE ­S YSTEM AROUND ME CHAPTER XIV WORKING ACROSS B ­ OUNDARIES FOR ­D ESIRED FUTURES TODAY  �����������  164

Acknowledgements ���������������������������������������������������������������������������  175 About the ­authors  �����������������������������������������������������������������������������  176 References and further reading ��������������������������������������������������  180

6

 

F O R E WO R D

THE FUTURE OF LEARNING IS HERE, AND IT REQUIRES A NEW PLAYBOOK. Learning is occurring in a seriously changing landscape. Learners are becoming more diverse and lifelong, technology is rapidly reshaping both learning institutions and the skills learners need to be successful in the world, and globalisation and internationalisation are opening borders and creating new partnerships and collaborations. Leaders of education are also facing constant challenges. This includes strategic decision-making, adapting to change, navigating financial pressures, ensuring inclusivity and diversity and engaging with students, parents, partners, alumni, government and the c ­ ommunity.



7



Regardless of the challenges, the number-one fo-

to develop personal capabilities, self-efficacy, global

cus must be, always, learning. All education systems

outlook, flexibility, creativity and critical thinking, to

should be designed with the learner – and not the insti-

name a few.

tution – in mind. This means an intense focus on learning outcomes, and the interaction of learners with their

This playbook presents an exciting vision for the fu-

teachers, content and each other. Learning requires

ture, offering a roadmap for the educational landscape

leveraging the social dynamics available to enhance

of tomorrow. Within this essential resource, you’ll find

the student experience, and to encourage students to

the insights of forward-thinking individuals who are

think and challenge and make mistakes and practice.

both visionaries and thought leaders. They will inspire

Education must continue to be the creator, dissemina-

you to think beyond conventional boundaries and envi-

tor and aggregator of the skills, knowledge and com-

sion a future that is yet to be known. The perspectives

petences required for the operation of a successful so-

shared in this playbook, brought together by the imagi-

ciety. Learning must continue to remain relevant and

native, intelligent and strategic thinking of the editors,

be a modern, responsive and efficient system that is

Bessant, Kokshagina and Papageorgiou, hold immense

economically sound for governments and affordable

value in shaping a better tomorrow. Through this prac-

for individuals.

tical and hands-on playbook, you will learn about creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship and the challenges

Education providers must undertake a radical overhaul

posed by change. It will guide you in reimagining and

of learning experiences to reflect the different world of

designing your own learning future and world.

careers that graduates will be entering into tomorrow. Learning must develop students’ learning skills, par-

PROFESSOR CLAIRE MACKEN

ticularly focused on digital competencies and the soft

BA, LL.B (Hons), GCHE, GCAIB, MBA, PhD

skills, competencies and knowledge students require

Pro Vice-Chancellor and General Director of RMIT ­Vietnam

to adapt to multiple, unknown future careers. There must be a focus on lifelong learning and opportunities

part 1 

PA R T 1



CHAP

9



, N O I T A V O N N I C R E AT I V I T Y, D N A P I H S R U E N ENTREPRE E G N A H C F O E G N THE CHALLE

CHAPTER I WHY WE NEED CREA­T IV­I TY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP SKILLS  ��������������������  10

CHAPTER II THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF LEARNING FOR CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP  �����������������������������������  28

10

part 1

I

CHAP

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

­T I V ­I T Y, A E R C D E E N E WHY W PREE R T N E D N A N O I N N O VA T I S NEURSHIP SKILL plex tile, uncertain, com la vo – ld or w CA VU d We live in a sy to navigate it an ea s ay w al t no ’s It and ambiguous. ecies, Fortunately, as a sp r. he ug to en ev t ge it’s going to hich help – they’re w s ill sk e m so ve human beings ha ugh survive in pretty to to us d le ab en ch hi the ones w rprises lay around su nt sa ea pl un re environments whe every corner.

11

We can imagine, explore new options, come up with new ideas – we can innovate. So in our VUCA world, the skills of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship (CIE) are likely to be essential “life skills.” We have the basic mental equipment, but we need to learn and build capability. How we do so, and how that pattern is changing, is the theme of this book, and in Part 1 we explore the ways in which the craft of innovation is changing.

VATI ON AN D CR EATI VI TY, IN NO HI P AR E ES SE N­ ­E NT RE PR EN EU RS AN D HE LP US TI AL TO SU PP OR T CA WOR LD TH RI VE US IN A VU

O

ne of the few good things to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis has been the steady flow

of examples of impressive innovation. If we needed a reminder that we are a wonderfully inventive, creative species then we haven’t had to look far in recent months. Faced with the urgent challenges of providing life-saving equipment like ventilators or protective

12

part 1

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

equipment, the response was not only rapid but along a

urgency to drive innovation. Images of fish dying be-

broad frontier, bringing together players from different

cause of ingested plastic provide stark reminders of

worlds to share their knowledge and other resources in

the environmental damage we continue to do and the

the service of meeting the challenge.

pressure is on to find ways of being more careful with our planetary resources. According to the World Wild-

We had players from worlds as far apart as vacuum

life Fund (WWF), we are consuming those at the level of

cleaners, Formula One motorsport and aircraft design

1.75 planet’s worth, a figure likely to rise to 2 by the year

coming together to co-create novel solutions – fast.

2030. Which is a problem since we only have one planet to actually live on and supply them.

The effort was sustained as the targets shifted, finding ways to create and then test, approve, manufacture and

As if those crises weren’t enough, we’ve still got plen-

distribute vaccines as a way of moving on to the offen-

ty of other challenges not yet resolved – a third of the

sive against the virus. We are not out of the crisis yet

world’s people have no access to clean drinking water, a

and we might face new pandemics and disruptions in

billion can’t read (with hundreds of millions of children

the future, but there are optimistic signs, and much to

set to follow in their footsteps), close to 100 million peo-

be taken from our ability, once again, to mobilise cre-

ple are homeless refugees, the list goes on.

ativity and innovate. Which is a good thing, because

And behind all of this we need the engine of eco-

even if we do manage to get through this crisis and

nomic growth to help the recovery from the COVID-19

back to a kind of normality it will still be one in which

pandemic. We need innovative businesses to power the

we need innovation, urgently and across a broad front.

economy, to employ people and to create the wealth, which we can use to deliver public services like health-

Not least in the area of sustainability. It’s becoming

care, welfare and education.

clearer than ever that we have a lot more to do to try and save our planet – extreme weather events like heat

So we need innovation more than ever. But we also

waves, fires and floods give an almost biblical sense of

need to be able to make it happen effectively, to be able

I

CHAP

13

WHY WE NEED CREA­T IV­I TY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP SKILLS

to repeat the trick. There’s too much at stake to trust in luck; we need to learn to manage the process in a systematic way and we need to do it responsibly and ethically. We need to think about

DESIGNING EDUCATION

4

SYSTEMS that help us question the consequences of our

decisions, and integrate the notion of a social contract to design desirable futures for everyone.

Definition

1 THE GOOD NEWS – WE KNOW HOW TO

2

3

­M ANAGE INNOVATION The good news is that we know quite a bit about man-

0

aging innovation. Innovation isn’t a single flash of inspiration, a light-bulb moment. Instead it’s a journey to create value from ideas – and we know a lot about that journey and what influences success and failure along the way. We’ve got a map and it’s a well-worn but reliable one. In fact, over the past 100 years or so we’ve managed to capture and codify the knowledge enough to allow the idea of an innovation management standard. That sounds paradoxical, but what it means is that we have a stable body of knowledge about the kind of system an organisation needs to put in place to enable innovation to happen regularly and repeatedly. It will

GE ME NT AN D IN NOVATI ON MA NA US EN VI SI ON DE SI GN CA N HE LP RE SP ON SI BL E DE SI RA BL E AN D ERYO NE FU TU RE S FO R EV

DESIGNING ­E DUCATION SYSTEMS Systems design helps to view problems and solutions from the perspective of the whole system in education and training.

14

part 1

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

vary; it needs less formality in a start-up than in a giant 50,000-person corporation. But there is still a discipline and a body of knowledge to draw upon and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is now actively promoting it. That doesn’t mean that making the innovation journey is simple. Having the knowledge is one thing, but we

E IN WHICH THE LANDSCAP LING W E A R E T R AV E L — WE NEED LY E D I W S E I R A ­V N O VA T E I N TO L E A R N TO I N RLDS. ­D I F F E R E N T W O

still have to adapt and configure it to our own circumstances. The challenge remains the same – how do we create value (commercial and social) from our ideas? And the overall structure of the journey – the stages we need to pass through like search, select and implement – is the same. But the context in which this plays out, the landscape in which we are travelling, varies widely. We need to learn to innovate in different worlds. It might be the world of the start-up – a high-risk roller-coaster ride at high speed, fuelled by passion and energy and built on dreams. That world is all about scarce resources, high uncertainty and lack of knowledge, groping through a maze in the dark. And for every start-up success story there are thousands of failures, often representing people with wonderful ideas, energy

I

CHAP

15

WHY WE NEED CREA­T IV­I TY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP SKILLS

and passion but lacking the skills to translate those into

How to create an innovation culture in which many

something of sustainable value.

people can be involved in the innovation task, and how to align the efforts? And how to recapture the start-up

There’s an additional risk here – sometimes the desire

capability, how to build in the capacity for challenge

to succeed can make some entrepreneurs blind to why

and risk-taking, how to create the capacity to renew the

they created their ventures in the first place. The story

business?

Definition

of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos illustrates how ambiSOCIAL INNOVATORS the same growth challenges

tion can be harmful to different stakeholders involved

For

and how long it might take a system to realise its own

are there, but trying to make the world a better place

shortcomings; to fail to integrate ethics and responsi-

through innovation brings in additional challenges:

bility over the potential success and venture money.

how to balance the passion and stay true to the core

The famous Silicon Valley concept of “faking it until you

values underpinning the social mission with the need

make it” can sometimes be a dangerous one.

to bring in a network of partners who may not always share this commitment? How to work with multiple

Or it might be the world of the growing business, flush

stakeholders? How to balance the need for risk-taking

with the success of a first venture and now trying to

with ethical concerns for vulnerable people?

repeat the innovation trick. Adding complexity – new offerings, new markets, new partners and bringing in

And in the public sector, managing the tricky three-way

more people and the structure and systems to enable

balancing act is imperative. We need to take risks and

them to innovate.

we need to ensure there’s sufficient reward for taking them. But we also have to take care of reliability – we

Successful growth doesn’t make maturity a comfortable

can’t not deliver key public services. That often leads to

place for innovation. Instead it brings other challeng-

a culture of risk aversion, playing it safe – no one wants

es: how to maintain a steady flow of both incremental

to try out new things if they are going to get blamed

and radical innovations and do so across a broad front?

when things go wrong. But the rising costs of public

SOCIAL INNOVATION refers to the design and implementation of new solutions that imply conceptual, process, product or organisational change which aim to improve the welfare and well-being of individuals and communities.

16

part 1

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

services and the growing demand mean we can’t carry on without innovation, sometimes of the radical kind – balancing risk, reward and reliability. So there are plenty of journeys to be made, plenty of innovation adventures to be had. What they share is that Hints & Tips

Quotes

there’s an element of learning to become better travellers, mastering the skills and capabilities which will help us make those journeys more effectively, to reflect

» Why wait? Let’s start with our youngest children from the earliest of days. ­Making play the playground for developing the skills and experiences required for innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity embeds the teaching and learning into the everyday, which ensures it becomes the norm for the next generation. I’m excited! «

on the progress made and be able to see the bigger picture of our actions.

THE INNOVATION JOURNEY We understand that innovation doesn’t just happen, nor is there a magic innovation machine which simply requires feeding with the right ingredients to guarantee a steady stream of successful value-creating innovations.

CLARE STEAD

It’s about people, and they need the skills and capabili-

Founder, Creator & CEO at Oliiki

ties to undertake the innovation journey. As the famous management writer Peter Drucker once said, “innovation is what entrepreneurs do” – and they do it in many different contexts. We may use the la-

I

CHAP

17

WHY WE NEED CREA­T IV­I TY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP SKILLS

bel to describe what goes on in a start-up, but we need the same set of skills in a project teamworking in an established organisation. We need people able to drive through change to help improve the services we deliver inside public sector organisations like schools and hospitals. We need social innovators, working in different ways to create social value to help make the world a better place. And in hundreds of other spaces – the local

GO

O

D

S W E

N

scout group, the online carer’s support group, the organisers of the after-school club and the many other social groups which share a common purpose – the same pattern of shared creativity and value creation operates. Hints & Tips

Quotes

Whilst passion and energy help, they don’t necessarily mean innovation succeeds. Most innovation fails – not surprisingly, it goes with the territory. It’s all about uncertainty, and you can’t make an innovation omelette without breaking eggs. The point is not that innovation is difficult and (especially at the early stages) often fails – but rather to use that to help you learn. Intelligent failure is at the heart of today’s agile methodologies and the core approach is probe and learn, experiment and pivot, reflect on the learning and how it can be used.

»Innovation is what entrepreneurs do.« PETER DRUCKER

18

part 1

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

But it would be very wasteful to keep going back to zero after each innovation project, whether it succeeds or

LEARNING TO MANAGE INNOVATION

fails. Far better to try to distil learning about the how – what worked and why? In other words, we can learn to

The Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M to you and me) has been around a long time – 120 years to be precise. And during that time it’s been responsible for countless innovations, some of which have in their way changed the world – Scotch tape, Post-it Notes and Wetordry sandpaper are amongst their many successes.

manage innovation, build up the skills and capabilities to repeat the trick. At an individual level this is about skills development but in the organisational context it is about skilled peo-

They have a simple business goal: they expect to generate a third of their sales from products which they have introduced during the past three years. In other words, they are betting their future on their ability to innovate. They’ve been doing this for decades, setting this target and achieving it – and they renew what they offer the world across a range of about 50,000 products.

ple plus a set of “routines” – embedded behaviour patterns which shape “the way we do things around here.” They can be supported and reinforced with tools, structures, techniques, etc. – but underneath there are ways INNOVATION of enabling people to deploy their innovation skills ef-

fectively.

Being able to repeat this innovation trick year upon year isn’t a matter of luck, it’s about having learned to manage a systematic process. And they continue to learn, refining and adapting their innovation model to cope with an ever-changing complex world.

It’s a craft.

1/3

YEAR 1

INNOVATION You can find a case study describing 3M’s innovation approach here:

YEAR 2

YEAR 3

YEAR 1

1/3

I

CHAP

WHY WE NEED CREA­T IV­I TY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP SKILLS

THE CRAFT OF INNOVATION There’s a wonderful computer game, originally developed back in the 1980s called “Elite” – you can still find versions of it today. It was a simple but enthralling game involving learning to pilot a spacecraft and then criss-crossing the universe in a series of inter-planetary trading activities. The early stages were all about mastering the craft skills of being a pilot – crashing repeatedly as you tried to dock with a space station, managing to load your first cargo and then being attacked and shot down by pirates, finally making it to your destination and turning a small profit on your trading mission. But over time you got better, developed your skills and capabilities and began to make more adventurous journeys. You learned the craft. Although set far into the future, there’s a kind of resonance with a much older model – that of the medieval craftsman. The guilds were pretty good at managing vocational training, with a system which still has value today. Whether you were going to be a stonemason, wheelwright, thatcher or blacksmith, your training fol-

TS MA N IS A BE CO MI NG A CR AF BY LE AR NI NG TO ED JO UR NE Y AC HI EV D HAVI NG AG EN CY BE PR OACT IV E AN NI NG OV ER YO UR LE AR

19

20

Hints & Tips

MORE ON INNOVATION Managing Innovation: Integrating Technological, Market and Organizational Change (Bessant & Tidd, 2020). The Radical Innovation Playbook: A Practical Guide for Harnessing New, ­N ovel or Game-Changing Breakthroughs (­K okshagina & ­A lexander, 2020).

part 1

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

lowed the same path. You’d start at the bottom, learning

right through to capturing value. Whether we are in the

as an apprentice through a mixture of formal training at

public or private sector, working in a start-up or part of

the hands (and often fists) of a master who would men-

a large established organisation, the same challenges

tor your progress through a long sequence of mistakes.

emerge.

But eventually your learning paid off; you were released into the wider world as journeyman, able to take

Making the journey is going to require considerable skill

your trade and practice it alone. (Note the word “prac-

if we are to avoid crashing somewhere along the way. But

tice”; you still had a lot to learn, but you did this now by

learning these skills doesn’t have to be a matter of trial

accumulating a variety of different experiences work-

and error alone. Just like our medieval guilds, there is a

ing on different projects).

wealth of accumulated experience which can help. In the case of managing innovation, we’ve been studying and

Eventually there’d come a day when you’d built up

sharing knowledge about making the journey for around

enough hard-won craft knowledge to be able to spend

100 years. That’s a valuable resource to draw upon.

your time not only building cathedrals but also passing on your knowledge to another wave of apprentice

The evidence is clear – there are things we can do to

stonemasons. You’d become a master craftsman.

stack the deck more in our favour and these come down to learning the craft of managing innovation. We need

This idea of learning a craft offers us a useful metaphor

to develop the skills around creativity, innovation and

for the world of innovation. We know it’s not magic –

entrepreneurship – CIE.

creating value from ideas doesn’t simply happen when a light bulb flashes above someone’s head. It involves a journey, one as fraught with uncertainty and nasty surprises as any of my interstellar jaunts. And whilst each journey is unique, there’s a pattern to them which is shared; innovation involves key stages from ideation

I

CHAP

21

WHY WE NEED CREA­T IV­I TY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP SKILLS

Link

LEARNING THE CRAFT OF INNOVATION Whatever label we give them, there are plenty of people around who share the need to manage innovation. So there’s a huge demand for finding ways to enable them to learn and deploy the capabilities around creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. Helping them master the craft of

 innovation.

An example of a report which highlights the growing importance placed on CIE skills is Bringing Out the Best: How to Transform Education and Unleash the Potential of Every Child (The Times Education Commission, 2022).

There’s growing recognition of this with policymakers calling for the development of key skills around creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. And with this comes support for programmes and activities designed to help deliver these capabilities, which puts a premium on thinking about how we approach supporting the learning of these life skills for the future. The good news is that there is growing opportunity and interest. From being a subject taught in business schools

— CI E- RE LATE D TH E GO OD NE WS OG RA MM ES AR E CO UR SE S AN D PR AN D NOT A BE CO MI NG A NO RM PR IV IL EG E

and engineering classes we now have a much broader palette of offers and short- and long-form courses to suit a wide audience. School kids now have the chance to explore the joys of starting their own classroom-based businesses. The same thing is happening at universities and other higher education ­establishments, with stu-

The OECD Learning Compass 2030 sets out an aspirational vision for the future of education comprising individual and collective well-being. The compass emphasises the need for students to learn to navigate through unfamiliar contexts.

22

Podcast

part 1

Podcast im Text

TORBAY AND SOUTH DEVON NHS FOUNDATION TRUST You can find out more by watching the video interviews on improving patient experience and process innovation in the hospital setting.

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

dents invited to join boot camps and work in incuba-

And change is happening in the not-for-profit social

tors, trying out the tools and techniques to equip them

change world. The humanitarian aid sector is, by any

either to start their own ventures or be experienced and

stretch of the imagination, a challenging world to work

skilled enough to be attractive employees for estab-

in. But it’s one which has innovation right at the centre.

lished organisations.

We sometimes speak about innovation as a matter of

In the area of social innovation there’s a prolifera-

survival; in the world of disasters (natural or man-made)

tion of courses and resources to help enable start-ups

it is literally so. Unless we can find solutions – and fast

to establish and scale, drawing in an ever-wider vari-

– to problems of providing clean water, food, healthcare

ety of potential entrepreneurs. The Diversity Business

and shelter, vulnerable people are at serious risk.

Incubator, for example, which focuses on supporting minority ethnic entrepreneurs, is working with refu-

Thankfully it’s a world where innovation happens ex-

gee women in the Plymouth area of the UK trying to

tensively and whilst the demand side remains almost

help them establish a foothold in a new country and

overwhelming in scale, the availability of innovations

achieve an identity through starting ventures based on

to help deal with it is improving. But there are plenty

food and crafts.

of challenges to making the journey from great ideas to creating this kind of value. We’d recognise the same

In the public sector there are laboratories and training

themes from elsewhere in the innovation world – how

camps, courses and resources to help bring an innova-

to move from a value proposition (a theory about how

tive mindset Podcast and find ways to channel ideas. For ex-

we might possibly create value) to creating a robust

ample in the

im Text

TORBAY AND SOUTH DEVON NHS FOUN-

solution which actually does. And even if we get that

DATION TRUST junior doctors are required to work on

far, prototyping and developing our way to a successful

process innovation projects as part of their final train-

pilot, the bigger journey still lies ahead of us – how to

ing whilst programmes like the Productive Ward have

move it to scale.

been in operation for many years, equipping medical staff with skills in innovation.

I

CHAP

23

WHY WE NEED CREA­T IV­I TY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP SKILLS

MORE THAN JUST LUCK Part of the solution to these puzzles lies in capacity-building – developing the skills and capabilities needed by the people who work in the sector, meeting

Hints & Tips

the challenge of learning the craft of innovation. There’s been a lot of interest in this over the past 10 years and the sector is slowly moving to a position where innovators recognise that success is “more than just luck” – and are working to master the skills and capabilities

» The future of teaching entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity is exciting. I think there is no better way to learn new skills than running a business. You need to focus on things that are relevant in that very moment and implement your learnings right away. «

around managing innovation. Training programmes around the challenge of building robust business models, learning to use key tools in innovation management, mastering the required skills to manage their journey to scale – there is a great deal now available to support the learning process. The supply side is also changing, becoming more diverse both in the number of players and the range of

OLE TILLMANN

resources they offer. The consulting industry, for exam-

Founder and CEO of PEAK

ple, no longer simply trades on providing expert knowledge; instead it increasingly seeks to transfer and help embed innovation skills inside organisations and does so through multiple inputs. For example, supply chain learning has been a key feature of the work of organisa-

THE HUMANITARIAN INNOVATION GUIDE Growing online resource to help individuals and organisations find their starting point and navigate the humanitarian innovation journey.

24

part 1

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

tions like Toyota, passing on process innovation skills through guest engineers acting as learning facilitators for learning. Software vendors like Hype see their role not only as providing the tools for managing innovation across a wide range of organisations in many sectors, but also about training and development around organising and managing innovation. This proliferation also poses a challenge. As we’ve seen we know a lot about the “what” question in innovation and we have access to a knowledge base with which to equip people. But we also need to look hard at the “how” question.

HOW DO WE EQUIP PEOPLE WITH CIE SKILLS? How can we enable different learners in different contexts to master the craft of innovation? This isn’t easy – for a start the subject is not a theory (although there are many strands of theory which can help inform the craft). It is something learned by doing and reflecting; smart innovators learn and improve over time. So classroom-based models may be incomplete, although they may well help provide foundations.

­ E AC H E R S H OW C A N T AND TRAINERS S T AY C U R R E N T ­ DDRESS THE AND A R­D Y N A M I C O P P O E ATUNITIES OF CR TION T I V I T Y, I N N O VA NEURAND ENTREPRE AND S H I P T E AC H I N G ­T R A I N I N G ?

I

CHAP

25

WHY WE NEED CREA­T IV­I TY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP SKILLS

But simply learning by doing and failing is also not sufficient; experience is a great teacher and we can learn to avoid failure next time if we take care to distil lessons. The trouble is that this might be wasteful; a better approach might be to integrate the “body of knowledge”  VISION project

with the world of practice, a sort of “just-in-time” mod-

That’s the thinking behind the

el where relevant knowledge can be brought to bear in

which began back in 2019. Conceived as a “Knowledge

the context within which the need for it arises.

­Alliance” project within the EU’s Erasmus+ scheme, it

The pattern is complicated further by the prolifera-

brings together a mixture of university researchers,

tion of channels through which learning can take place.

practitioners from a variety of public and private sector

Flipped classrooms and project-based learning have

organisations, policymakers and support organisations

a good pedigree, but the world of online and blended

around a core question:

learning must now be added to them. And then there

Link

VISION PROJECT

OPEN ACCESS BOOK

is the role of powerful new technologies – and genera-

How can teachers and trainers stay current and address

tive AIs – which as ChatGPT demonstrates have a high

the dynamic opportunities of creativity, innovation and

­potential of changing the way we work and learn.

entrepreneurship teaching and training?

All of which makes having a picture of the future and

Using an integrated and proven suite of tools for sys-

the ways in which we can help people master the craft

tematically exploring the future, the VISION team has

of innovation rather important. Not least because the

interviewed over 130 stakeholders, built a variety of

future has yet to happen; the better we understand and

scenarios and explored them in depth through work-

explore it, the more we can identify desirable scenarios

shops, webinars and other tools to create a detailed

and then “backcast” from them, roadmapping our way

picture of the emerging challenges and opportunities

to relevant policy and practices which we can introduce

in this space of learning facilitation around creativity,

today.

innovation and entrepreneurship.

Envisioning the Future of Learning for Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Papageorgiou & Kokshagina, 2022).

26

part 1

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

This process highlights challenges for many different actors – learners themselves, of course, but also those who facilitate learning: teachers, trainers, coaches, con-

Hints & Tips

Quotes

sultants, who do so in many different settings. And the wider organisations in which those learners work – how to create a learning context in the middle of the producHints & Tips

tive workspace? How to blur the boundaries between learning and work; how to make immersive learning contexts? How to include learnings and shapers of the

DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns (Christensen et al., 2008).

learning environment to allow a more inclusive consideration of the future-oriented learning mission? For conventional providers with classroom heritages, how to find new ways of enabling learning, reaching out; remote and blended learning, new technologies, new approaches. What about the demand side – the market to whom all of this learning support provision is addressed? C ­ layton Christensen’s visionary challenge to higher education suggested significant potential for disruption, not least by radically extending the market space to include

»Collaborative learning, joint innovation and co-creation of knowledge will characterise the future of education. I envision a future where learning happens in all kinds of places, at flexible time schedules and in very diverse digital and social settings. Let us care much more about deep engagement, the joy of learning and traceable learning journeys!«

those previously unserved or underserved by existing

PROF. DR. KATHRIN M. MÖSLEIN

provisions. Will digital technologies and falling costs

FAU Vice President Outreach & EURAM President

in course and learning resources mean that many more

I

CHAP

27

WHY WE NEED CREA­T IV­I TY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP SKILLS

people can access the skills of creativity, innovation

What do we need to do today to build for their (and our)

and entrepreneurship? And what will this do to existing

innovation tomorrow?

« 

structures and business models? We already have examples of this – like Southern New Hampshire University which is providing degree-level training to people living in refugee camps. With seed funding from Audacious to pilot the programme, they’re the next five years, lowering the cost of the degree and enabling more than 16,000 refugees across 23 sites to improve their futures. Such changes represent fault lines along which the current models of learning may fracture – but like any crisis there are also significant opportunities opening up. In this book we’ll look briefly at some of the key dimensions of change which the VISION project identified; if you want to learn more in depth you can find the open access book from the project on page 25. We’re also going to try to bring that future vision to life by exploring the future through the experience of a number of different personas. What do they see, hear, feel as they play their role? What makes it a good experience for them?

Summery

now seeking to scale their solution to 15 countries over

SUMMARY  C reativity, innovation and entrepreneurship (CIE) skills are essential in an increasingly volatile, ­u ncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world.  I nnovation doesn’t just happen, but is a craft. There is an element of learning in all innovation journeys that helps you become better and more effective travellers.  T here is a great deal available to support the CIE learning process, but a challenge remains to stay current and be ready for the future.

28

part 1

II

CHAP

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

DSCAPE N A L G N I G N A H THE C I T Y, V I T A E R C R O F OF LEARNING ER P E R T N E D N A I N N O VA T I O N NEURSHIP ntly ey do things differe th – y tr un co r he ot The past is an ow it will be difkn e w – re tu fu e th there. But so too is akeof more than 250 st ts pu in e th on g in ferent. Build e explored a wide w , ld or w e th nd ills. holders from arou ing and using CIE sk ir qu ac to d ke lin es range of issu

29

This chapter distils the findings of the collective work conducted thanks to the EU-funded project VISION about certain elements that are changing the current learning landscape, and which are likely to become even more prevalent in the future. These include learning by doing, being in real-world environments, experimentation and challenge-driven education. Better understanding these elements is an important step toward designing your own future-ready learning landscape. N TO IN NO ­ W E NE ED TO LE AR NM EN T TH AT VATE IN AN EN VI RO STAB LE IS AN YT HI NG BU T

I

nnovation matters – of course. It’s the driving force behind economic and social change and underpins

our evolution as a civilised society. But it happens in an environment which is anything but stable – it’s a constantly shifting landscape, weathered by storms and floods. As we saw in the last chapter, we live in a

30

part 1

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

“VUCA” world – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous – and we need to change continuously to survive within it.

Uncertain

Hints & Tips

In such a VUCA world the development of skills and capabilities to work with innovation is becoming esDISRUPTIVE INNOVATION Online or hybrid learning and other disruprive innovations allow many institutions to rethink their higher education model. The Innovative University: Changing the DNA of Higher Education from the Inside Out (Christensen & Eyring, 2011) provides a great resource to dive into these challenges.

sential – they are no longer the province of specialists but something we all need to acquire and practice. They are becoming life skills, but developing them across the population raises a big question – how? What are the relevant capabilities and how do we enable learning and skills development? How do we teach them, who

Volatile

should do that, along which channels, etc.? These are Ambiguous

the questions that the VISION project explored which at its heart is a vision of how these things might develop over the next 10 years. It’s not a passive report; VISION is a call to action, and it poses challenges around what we might start doing now to secure a positive future. Bringing together the inputs from more that 250 stakeholders through interviews and workshops into a manageable framework wasn’t easy, but the VISION team has built a structure to help focus our thinking. Think of it like a bridge between two worlds – the one here and now with which we are familiar, and the other stretch-

Complex

II

CHAP

31

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF LEARNING FOR CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

ing towards the distant mists surrounding the world of

THE SHIFTING LANDSCAPE

2035. Getting to the other side requires structure – we have to pay attention to the architecture of that bridge

At the heart of the VISION model is a journey – the pro-

and its core components. A real bridge would have steel

gression towards knowing and being able to practice

and wires, nuts and bolts and rivets, platforms carrying

something. It’s a craft, as we saw in the last chapter,

road or rail tracks, piers to support them, and so on. It’s

one which we can learn and practice. So what’s chang-

not just a magical insert plugging a gap in the land-

ing as we make this learning journey?

scape, it’s a carefully engineered structure. Our equivalent is made up of 12 core components, each of which represents a shift from what we see today.

Process

Physical material

Digital technology

Outputs

Outcomes

Style

Students Impact

Teacher Evaluations Subject matters

Space

32

part 1

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

It affects:   (a) The pillars of learning – who is involved, what is learned, where does this take place? Hints & Tips

Quotes

  (b) The learning journey itself – how does the transmission of knowledge happen, what are the style, materials and processes?   (c) The outcomes of the learning, and the underlying question of purpose – why make the journey, what do you desire to achieve at the end? Each of these is changing and the core VISION book (Papageorgiou & Kokshagina, 2022) describes these shifts in detail with a wide variety of examples. For our purposes in this playbook we provide a quick overview – and then move on to the big question of what this means for us and how we might work with these future

»Through academic research and ongoing practice, we know much more about ­innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity now than even 10 years ago. Innovation is now recognised as a profession. It is important to share these learnings and help with skill-building through ­traditional and non-traditional educational vehicles: master’s programmes, ­executive education, short seminars and ­conferences. «

shifts. How will we navigate our own learning journey?

PROF. GINA O’CONNOR

Whatever role we might play – directly as learners or

Professor of Innovation Management at ­Babson College

teachers or indirectly as shapers of the learning context – what can we do to create a positive future-ready learning world?

II

CHAP

33

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF LEARNING FOR CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Let’s look at some of these shifts in a little more detail!

And that’s where CIE – creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship – comes in, as a power tool we can deploy to help deal with them. We’ve got a good track re-

PURPOSE – WHY INNOVATE?

cord – we have evolved this far as a species through innovation – but perhaps our biggest challenge is yet

The first shift is all about the purpose of innovation.

to come. And it’s one which affects the coming gener-

It’s sometimes easy to see innovation as an option, as

ations particularly. It’s not a coincidence that so much

a “nice to have,” something we can choose to do or not.

of the swelling protests to “do something!” are coming

But that’s a long way from today’s reality – and certainly

from children and young adults, nor that this move-

from the one we can see across our misty gorge. We’re

ment began in schools and colleges, their leaders young

already confronting huge challenges – quite apart from

figureheads (like Greta Thunberg) with a call to action to

the COVID-19 pandemic we face big questions about

preserve their futures.

whether our planet will survive. Climate change and the

Link

associated violent weather events have brought a sense

Innovation can help – and so learning the skills around

of urgency – but this is just the tip of a very large ice-

CIE is increasingly important. But the knowledge and

berg. Our future is bound up in wrestling with popula-

capability need to be linked to a shift in thinking about

THE 17 SDGS

tion growth (and unequal distribution of opportunity),

the underlying purpose – what is innovation for? Why

of resource scarcity (including the very basics of life it-

innovate in the first place? What drives it? Not just for

self like water and food), of trying to live peacefully on

economic growth or job creation, certainly not just for

an overcrowded planet and doing so while limiting the

making money or bringing more unnecessary things

damage we seem to be inflicting. The widely mentioned

into the world. Increasingly, its purpose is being ques-

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a call for action to promote prosperity and protect the planet.

  United ­Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

tioned and reframed, with a growing concern for prin-

aren’t simply a useful political list to trot out but an ex-

ciples like responsibility and inclusion and a focus on

istential agenda – if we want to survive we are going to

social innovation as much as commercial. We know

need to work towards handling these “grand challenges.”

that to meet the challenges of the 21st century and turn

34

part 1

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

towards solidary and ecological commitment, we need

CROSSING KNOWLEDGE BOUNDARIES

to change our process and organisational structures in order to ensure a shift towards a big purpose and grand

Which brings us to another shift – from a world where

challenges.

learning and the education process underpinning it move from a narrow discipline-based approach to one which recognises the need for interdisciplinary collaboration. If we are going to solve grand global challenges, then we need to think in terms of big integrated systems models. Innovation has never been a single discipline subject, nor has it been a theoretical one; it is a practice, the bulk of what we know having come from observations of success and failure in deploying that practice. It has more in common with a craft in the medieval sense, something which can be learned through practice, engaging with ever bigger projects and challenges. Yes, CIE is informed by many traditions – economics,

Hints & Tips

sociology, psychology, engineering, e ­cology – but it acts as a funnel, channelling these different knowledge strands into something which enables us to understand

INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION is essential in meeting challenges in education, which demand high flexibility and innovation.

– and operationalise – how ideas can create value. Not surprisingly, this shift towards seeing CIE as a cross-disciplinary challenge-led practice is leading to a shift in the structure of institutions designed to facilitate learning. These are already converging and the

II

CHAP

35

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF LEARNING FOR CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

trend towards collaboration and mutual exchange is likely to accelerate. Already we are seeing institutes which recognise that challenges don’t come in neat disciplinary packages posted through the letterboxes of specific

CHALLENGE-DRIVEN EDUCATION Many colleges and universities now have close links, joint institutes and other arrangements which bring different disciplines together – things like the healthcare innovation collaboration between Imperial College London’s medical school (and its close ties to major teaching hospitals in London), its business school and the neighbouring Royal College of Art with its world-leading expertise around design. Or the Norwegian University of Science and Technology which has “villages” (i.e., areas of interest) of around 30 members which address questions such as ­“Biofuels – a solution or a problem?”, “Sustainable, affordable housing for all” and “Portable technology and well-being.” Each v­ illage is run by a professor who divides students into smaller groups to work on problems in their topic area (Mulgan et al., 2016).

knowledge departments – they require collaboration. Or some institutions like Minerva University embrace education by challenge. They pick real-world challeng-

Hints & Tips

es to focus on and students work on solving these challenges by bringing skills from different disciplines and reflecting how they can be applied to solve the problem at hand. A lot of incubation and acceleration programmes are focusing on interdisciplinary collaboration and societal challenges. Their goal is to integrate citizens, companies, start-ups and communities to tackle the most pressing challenges in an interdisciplinary and responsible manner. For example, for the last 10 years, Makesense aims to empower everyone by equipping all stakeholders in society to work together, with no barriers to entry. There are plenty of others around the world that are trying to reunite actors in solving global challenges.

IMPACT FOR INTERDISCIPLINARITY Institutions’ focus on the impact of research and teaching require a fundamental shift towards a co-created, embedded and positive research impact culture.

36

part 1

Hints & Tips

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

Quotes

» I believe that right now, actions ­are more important than thoughts. The actual future will have different scenarios depending on what we do today. For me, the most vital actions for the future of education are: 1. making scientists’ voices heard; 2. bringing diverse educators together to exchange and innovate; 3. using the advances in technology for making quality learning inclusive and accessible. Let’s shape the best possible scenario together!  « RADEK CZAHAJDA Trainers’ Forum Co-Founder, EPALE Ambassador

BRIDGING DIFFERENT WORLDS This idea of knowledge collaboration links with a third major shift – towards cross-sector, cross-institutional collaboration. These days the “ivory tower” notion of universities and other “seats of learning” does not play well with the realities of our challenging environment. Rather than being connected to their communities by a narrow causeway, they are increasingly embedded in those communities, supporting innovation by facilitating the flow and utilisation of knowledge and ex-

II

CHAP

37

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF LEARNING FOR CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

perience across different sectors. In a world of “open innovation” the emphasis has shifted towards knowledge flows, knowledge in motion, beyond boundaries of specific institutions. Enabling this is now at the heart of

INNOVATIVE CITIES It’s also a lesson we have seen played out repeatedly in the world of practice. Take the case of Boston, Massachusetts – a city which has reinvented itself repeatedly, riding out waves of growth and decline in industries as varied as textiles, gun-making, machine tools, information technology and now biotechnology. Its ability to remain a centre for innovation owes a great deal to the complex web of links which it has built up over a century – it’s a knowledge-linked city. And its education system lies at the heart of its ability to innovate and reinvent itself. Around the world we’re seeing increasing emphasis being placed on building “ecosystems” around education providers, enabling connections amongst the complementary players and mechanisms for allowing much higher levels of student mobility across these boundaries. And that’s going to increase (Best, 2001).

innovation policy and it underpins the “impact agenda” in the measurement and justification for funding higher education. The same is true of the research mission of universities – the growing interest in, and emphasis on,

Hints & Tips

knowledge production which takes place in the context of application – the so-called “mode 2” model and on research impact that is societal, transformative and adaptive as pictured by the third generation of impact. Far from being the guardians of knowledge held closely inside their libraries, higher education providers are increasingly becoming “knowledge missionaries” with students (via research partnerships, internships and other forms of project-based learning) acting as their agents in the field. One way in which we can already see this happening is in the role of innovation spaces as environments where such cross-boundary collaboration can take place, spaces that create conditions for better collaboration practices. Different labels are attached – innovation labs, incubators, accelerators, maker spaces – but

MORE ON THE MODE 2 MODEL Mode 2 Society and the Emergence of Context-Sensitive Science (Gibbons, 2000).

38

part 1

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

they come down to the same thing – a recognition of the need to encourage knowledge flow across boundaries and to engage many different players within them. We can see them as “stepping stones” providing early prototypes for the kind of collaborative cross-boundary contexts within which students will move in the future. And it’s not a one-way movement; for the wider workforce, the idea of lifelong learning and continuous upgrading and updating of skills will mean a growing market for education provision. But this needs to take place within structures and environments which support learning in parallel with working – through parttime courses, online study, micro-credentials and other forms which bridge the two worlds.

BEYOND THE CLASSROOM Learning spaces is where we find another shift. With innovation as a practice targeted at grand challenges and drawing on multiple strands of knowledge woven together in a collaborative fashion, the question is inevitably raised around the physical environment in which learning might take place. It’s not hard to think of the current model, still predominantly one which

NM EN TS LE AR NI NG EN VI RO AR ED AR E MOVI NG TO SH LE AR NI NG SPAC ES

II

CHAP

39

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF LEARNING FOR CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

has been around for centuries in which learning takes place within a physically defined space – a classroom or lecture theatre – and where key roles are embedded in the architecture. The teacher is the source of knowledge, and she or he transmits this to the attentive audience who often sit in rows like a Greek amphitheatre, absorbing and chewing on the pearls of wisdom being

Hints & Tips

Quotes

dispensed.

Hints & Tips

That’s changing, of course – we’ve seen growing interest in alternative models like the flipped classroom, or project- or challenge-based learning. But we’re likely to see considerable acceleration in experiments around alternative approaches (and the environments they imply) which might be better suited to enable learning CIE. There’s a lot to be (re-)learnt from kindergartens where the underlying theory is all about providing “scaffolding” within which children can learn by themselves through experimentation. We’re now seeing very different designs for learning spaces – not least their migration to the context in which innovation problems exist

»The future of teaching innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship is in the reimagined school. It triggers a process that puts imagination before knowledge, develops awareness and learning of new scientific concepts and brings together humanistic and scientific sources in a new and unique channel of knowledge, the STEAM channel. «

and within which skills might be developed.

PIERO FORMICA

A good example of a physical space created for the ex-

Senior Research Fellow and Thought Leader, Innovation Value Institute, Maynooth University

plicit purpose of nurturing innovation and creativity is the Aalto Design Factory, founded in 2008. The idea

FURTHER READING The Psychology of Intelligence (Piaget, 1950). The Role of Play in Development (Vygotsky, 1978).

40

part 1

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

emerged from a research project that was called the “Future Lab of Product Design” that focused on designing an optimal physical environment for product researchers and developers. Its core mission is “to build a new kind of passion-based learning culture” and support collaboration and co-creation across disciplines between

Hints & Tips

Quotes

students, researchers and practitioners. The facility itself is an old wood processing technology building that has been transformed into different spaces that include different workshops, lecture halls, offices and social gathering spaces. Its layout “inspires and encourages * Envisioning

Future Innovative Experimental Ecosystems Through the Foresight Approach. Case: Design Factory (Munigala et al., 2018)

teachers to teach students with more hands-on problem-based methods while solving real-life problems.” * And – thanks in no small measure to the COVID-19 pandemic – we are moving increasingly online. This has long been seen as a potential site of disruption to the current higher education model; online technologies enable massive reach (in terms of accessing students) but without compromising the richness of the learning

»The pandemic has boosted online education. This is an opportunity but also a risk. Practice-related sciences need to reinforce the bridge between theory and practice. In academic programs, we should not focus on the content only. My three dreams: To inspire and engage every single student! Help them to find their passion! Educate them to understand, respect and trust other experts. «

experience. Otherwise unknown institutions like the

PROF. KALEVI EKMAN

University of Phoenix (located in the middle of a desert

Godfather of Design Factory Global Network,

but with a huge student base), the Southern New Hamp-

Director and Founder of Aalto Design Factory

shire University (with its degree programme targeted at thousands of displaced people living in refugee camps)

II

CHAP

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF LEARNING FOR CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

and Monterrey Tec, which numbers a student base close to a million strong from the mountains of Mexico. Now the rapid scramble has moved institutions around the world to explore online options and the future is almost

Hints & Tips

Quotes

certain to involve some kind of hybrid provision rather than a return to the business as usual of face-to-face learning. It highlights a central question: Where is the locus of learning? Do we learn at an institution, or at home, or in some other context, or perhaps a combination of all of these?

CHANGING THE CONTENT OF CIE LEARNING We can see by now that we are not talking about incremental changes at the edge of the CIE learning world; these are big shifts, full of challenge and opportunity. Another shift relates to the nature of the skills which effective CIE practitioners will need in the future – the “curriculum” across which they will learn. What’s becoming increasingly clear is that possession of “hard” skills – know-how – may not be enough in a future context in which being able to effect change will be a key part of being a successful CIE player. This requires much more understanding of people – whether in the

» Learning will be increasingly individual, whereas creative processes will be increasingly collaborative. This means that learners will ­request different modules and learning units from different education providers and combine them individually to complete a degree in the course of their lives. The challenge in the future will, therefore, be to bring together these individual paths of learners in such a way that creativity can be promoted as a group phenomenon. « DR. TINA LADWIG CEO at Northern Institute of Technology Management

41

42

part 1

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

context of why they might or might not adopt new ideas or being able to empathise with them. Design thinking has already made a big impact in CIE education by introducing the concept of empathy, but there is consid-

Hints & Tips

Quotes

erable further scope for bringing in other “soft” skills around emotional intelligence, influencing people, understanding diversity and enabling inclusion. The skills challenge also relates to the need to learn Link

to think in systems terms. We’ve always known that moving innovation to scale, having a major impact, depends on systems thinking. Innovation architects like

BUILDING ­I NNOVATION ­A RCHITECTURES You can find out more about Brindley and his systems thinking here:

James Brindley (who built the canal infrastructure which enabled the accelerating Industrial Revolution in Britain in the 18th century) didn’t simply start digging trenches for water to flow. He worked on pumping systems, tunnelling, locks to raise and lower water and boats, design of ships to navigate the canals, even inventing the concept of containerisation to speed up loading and unloading. Above all, he knew that he couldn’t do it alone; he needed complementary assets and the skills to negotiate partnerships and alliances. If we are going to deal with the kind of “grand challenges” we referred to earlier, we need to emphasise the importance of systems thinking, moving from specialist- to generalist-driven curricula or their combination.

» Education is already shaping the future of work, technology and society. Schools are evolving and not confined any more to a physical space. The long-awaited dream of a global and cosmopolitan teaching perspective, with a more tailored and adapted learning process, is now a reality. Innovation will be a core part of the national curriculums, creativity will be fundamental in reimagining the different ways we organise knowledge – perhaps also a key-part of any methodology. « JAVIER FERNÁNDEZ Head of Culture at Instituto Cervantes, Tokyo

II

CHAP

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF LEARNING FOR CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The skills challenge plays out across a much wider population. The future of learning will no longer be confined to people at the early stages of their lives but extend through lifelong learning. That brings with it the challenge of building capabilities to learn on a continuing long-term basis – learning to learn. What about the supply side? Who’s enabling all this learning? Our focus on the learners and the way in which they might change, in terms of the environment where they learn, their skills development and their engagement with grand challenges is only one side of the story. We also need to think about the “supply side.” How is the

IS SYST EM S TH IN KI NG PO RTAN T IM RE MO BE CO MI NG D IN NOVATI ON TO LE AR NI NG AN

world of the teacher or lecturer changing? In the past, their role was as a source of knowledge, a transmitter. In the future, this is likely to move away from simple information provision towards teachers being designers and facilitators of learning journeys. The role will involve several components – a curator of knowledge, a coach, a mentor; in the process we may find ourselves rediscovering the old models of universities as places where the

sense of what they had learned – less “broadcasting” of

bulk of activity was student-centred “reading” for a de-

knowledge and more enabling its acquisition through

gree. The role of the professor was to help students make

tutorials and other forms of engagement.

43

44

part 1

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

And, as if being a “chameleon in the classroom” weren’t enough, they need to interact much more with the external world, becoming bridges to help connect the different contexts we talked about earlier. They need to

Hints & Tips

Quotes

update their knowledge by constantly interacting with the industry experts and stakeholders of their professional field. It’s often hard to find the space in a heavy workload, but research shows that integrating external Hints & Tips

speakers, industry cases and challenges, and company visits increases the quality of the learning output.

LEARNING EXPERIENCES There is no “onesize-fits-all”approach. Designing and facilitating learning experiences to reflect different learning styles and preferences is crucial.

But enabling learning isn’t something which only happens in schools, colleges and universities; it’s increasingly part of the fabric of private and public organisations trying to upgrade their human capital resources. Internal training and development is a growing field, reflecting the shift towards lifelong learning and the recognition that there is real substance to the idea that “people are our greatest asset.” The ways in which such training is delivered are changing in line with the shifts we’ve been exploring, and there are similar major implications for the role of trainers, with their role increasingly becoming that of coaches and facilitators rather than technicians administering regular injections of knowledge. For them, part of the challenge is

» Personalisation is the future of education. Mass customisation has been used as an approach to customise sneakers, muesli, and blue jeans. ­Today, the technology is there to finally transfer this strategy to all levels of education in a scalable way. I envision a future where digital twins and shadows of each student’s learning journey will totally transfer their teaching or training experience into a personalised challenge, empowering students and also making learning much more fun. « PROF. FRANK T. PILLER Co-Director of TIM I nstitute at RWTH Aachen University

II

CHAP

45

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF LEARNING FOR CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

in being able to take a wider perspective, reconnect and

ment of skills in the context of where and how they

upgrade their own knowledge in ways which can enrich

will be needed, traditional evaluation models like ex-

the organisations in which they are located.

aminations and essays are unlikely to be appropriate. Innovation is about converting ideas to value and the creative and entrepreneurial skills needed to do that

SHOW ME WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED!

may not lend themselves well to this form of assess-

Link

ISO STANDARD FOR INNOVATION ­M ANAGEMENT ­S YSTEMS

ment. Instead, a move towards more project- and outLearning in traditional models is usually accompanied

come-based models, involving a wider range of stake-

by some form of assessment and evaluation, measur-

holders in the assessment process, is needed.

ing progress against external metrics like passing an exam or successfully completing a quiz. But in the fu-

This pattern is changing: the

 INTERNATIONAL ORGAN-

ture there is likely to be a shift in this whole evalu-

IZATION FOR STANDARDIZATION (ISO) is actively promot-

ation structure – learners become what they produce,

ing a standard for innovation management systems

they become the changes they make. For example, what

where the skills which practitioners would be expect-

better way to assess an entrepreneurship course than to

ed to have in the role of innovation manager are list-

review the venture they create – or at least rehearse up

ed in the main ISO standard report. The emergence of a

to pitching? Or take part in an innovation project – per-

profession means that some form of evidence of prior

haps a new product launch or a change management

learning will still be needed but so too will a portfolio

initiative within an organisation. Demonstrating the

of successful practice.

ability to reflect on practice and to utilise key concepts acquired during training might offer fruitful alternative pathways. Given the pattern outlined above, with more boundary-crossing, project-based activity and the develop-

Hints & Tips

SYSTEMS APPROACH Hyland et al. (2022) describe a systems approach for innovation management in their book Changing the Dynamics and Impact of Innovation Management: A Systems Approach and the ISO Standard.

46

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

TE

CH

NO

LO G

Y

part 1

Hints & Tips

Quotes

TECHNOLOGY AS A KEY ENABLER Finally, there is the challenge of technology. Last, but by no means least, this one offers significant opportunities to enrich the learning experience, although the cost and scale of investment required will make it an issue of strategic priority. The shift towards online learning has already spawned a flurry of start-up activity bringing new ideas to the educational space and platforms to support video, audio and extended learning are amongst the biggest areas of growth in the late-­ COVID-19 economy.

»The future will be shaped by our ability to see the invisible, create an ecosystem of lifelong learning and earning, and redesign learning spaces to facilitate collaborative learning. Focusing on ethics, equity and empowerment in teaching innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity will help humanity face the invisible. « DR. SANJAYA MISHRA

So far many of these have integrated what is currently available, making it possible to prepare and deliver

Director: Education at Commonwealth of Learning

II

CHAP

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF LEARNING FOR CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

at scale mixed media learning inputs and to distribute these to a wide and remote marketplace of learners. But other developments are still to come – for example in the field of virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR). Here it will become possible to configure learning environments of different kinds, transporting students to workplace situations and to classrooms, integrating virtual partici-

Hints & Tips

Quotes

pants from different geographic regions, introducing avatars and even virtual “doubles” of lecturers to enhance the learning experience. Machine learning might also play a key role in both delivery and assessment, for example by offering interactive simulations which allow students to explore complex and challenging innovation situations as a rehearsal for the real thing. But, as suggested above, this will not just be a matter of climbing technology learning curves. The costs of designing and implementing such learning systems and the demands placed on fast access high-bandwidth communication networks will be significant. In addi-

» What is, without a doubt, carved in stone is the automation of ­almost all sectors. It is going to be all-pervasive and all-encompassing. The question is, how do we adapt? I believe creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial skills combined with human skills, will enable 21st-century talent to face and lead the future. «

tion, educational institutions may increasingly need

ARAVIND CHINCHURE

to rethink their role at a strategic level, including their

Founder & CEO at QLeap Academy

physical footprint. Is there a role for large campuses with multiple buildings when much of the learning experience could be delivered virtually?

47

48

part 1

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

THE LEARNING LANDSCAPE OF THE FUTURE Overview of shifts

ELEMENT We can summarise the ways in which things are changing in the table. This sets the stage on which our learning stories around CIE will play out.

TRADITIONAL E D U C AT I O N

F U T U R E - R E A DY LEARNING LANDSCAPE

PILLARS OF LEARNING

Students

Passive and interim information recipients

Active and lifelong learners

Teachers

Lecturer and subject expert

Various roles: coach, mentor, facilitator, curator, practitioner, learning designer; continuous upskilling

Subject matter

Discipline-centred

Multidisciplinary, problem-based and challenge-driven

Spaces

Classrooms and lecture halls with fixed seating

Flexible spaces and the real world

II

CHAP

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF LEARNING FOR CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

ELEMENT

TRADITIONAL E D U C AT I O N

F U T U R E - R E A DY LEARNING LANDSCAPE

LEARNING JOURNEY Style

Individual and independent

Team-based and collaborative

Process

Linear

Iterative, exploratory and experimental

Physical material and other equipment

Blackboards and textbooks

Arts and crafts

Digital technologies

One-directional

Interactive

LEARNING RESULTS

Outputs

Written material

Written material, physical prototypes and action

Outcomes

Standardised knowledge acquisition

Personalised knowledge, skills and attributes

Impact

Institutional

Societal

Evaluation

One-dimensional

Multidimensional

49

50

part 1

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

And it involves some very significant shifts which are already beginning to take place around the basic architecture of how we enable learning about CIE. This picture isn’t pie in the sky or idle speculation; it comes from a well-informed forecasting process involving a wide range of experts from education, industry, the

Hints & Tips

Quotes

public sector and policy worlds. These are well-crafted science fiction pictures of the kind of world we are likely to see emerging over the next decade. The big question that raises is around what we are goHints & Tips

ing to do about it? We have the capacity to shape the future by our actions in the present, so it makes sense to look in depth at this emerging picture and pick out the

INNOVATION’S DARK SIDE Take a look at the book The Dark Side of Innovation (Coad et al., 2022) for more on this topic.

elements we’d like to see, to amplify, to build in to create a positive context to support learning the key skills around innovation. And, by the same token, we need to look hard at what we don’t want to see, the “dark side” implied by some of these predictions, and to take steps to ensure they don’t develop.

» I believe that architecting one’s own future will become a lifelong learning strategy. Everyone is going to have multiple careers, and jobs within those careers will morph at an increasing pace. Having the resilience and ingenuity to adapt will be an important attribute to develop over a lifetime. We need to build individual capacity to meet downstream opportunities and ­challenges. « DAVID PORTER Principal Consultant at David Porter & ­Associates

II

CHAP

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF LEARNING FOR CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

That’s what we’re going to explore next: moveing from looking at the general landscape to getting inside the heads of some key players in this game. What might the players – students, lecturers, managers in the public and private sectors, strategy-makers in educational institutions and so on? 

W E H AV E T H E HAPE ­C A P A C I T Y T O S T H E ­F U T U R E B Y N THE O U R   ­A C T I O N S I ­P R E S E N T

« 

Summery

experience of these changes be for a range of different

SUMMARY  T he current learning landscape is undergoing several changes or shifts that respond to ongoing and emergent challenges.  T hese shifts implicate various elements: (a) who is involved, what is learned, where this takes place, (b) how the transmission of knowledge happens, its style, materials and processes, and (c) the underlying question of purpose and what is achieved at the end of the learning journey.  M any of these ongoing changes and emergent trends are already evidenced in education programmes focusing on creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship.  B etter understanding their characteristics and the challenges they pose to the traditional ecosystems of learning is the first step toward deciding what we would like to do about it.

51

part 2

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

PA R T 2

II

CHAP

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF LEARNING FOR CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

E R U T U F R U O G N DESIGNI D L R O W G N I N R A LE

CHAPTER III COL L ABORATIVE APPROAC H TO HE L P YOU ENVISION AND D ESIG N YOUR OWN LEARNING FUTURES  �����������������������������������������������  54

CHAPTER IV THE CANVASES  ����������������������������������������������������������  76

53

54

part 2

III CHAP

DESIGNING OUR FUTURE LEARNING WORLD

TO H C A O R P P A E V I C O L L A B O R AT ESIGN D D N A N O I S I V N H E L P YO U E ES R U T U F G N I N R A YO U R O W N L E veloped s and techniques de ol to l fu er w po y an us There are m sight that can help re fo d an on ti va no in the fields of in chapsirable futures. This de ds ar w to k or w d e envision an troduces the tools w in d an gy lo do ho et ter outlines our m nt fue and explore differe in ag im us lp he to have selected companied by “canac is e on ch Ea . ng tures for CIE learni ur own u can put forward yo yo ch hi w on es ac vases” – sp rspectives. ideas, insights and pe

55

O

ur approach has two main parts: first, envisioning our desired future and second, figuring out how to

get there. To help us reach these goals, we have created the following process. This process does not have to be linear, you can iterate and go back and forth between different steps.  Step

1 — C hoose and create a persona (Designing personas: Canvas 1)

 Step

2 — T hink about your future persona (Future scenarios: Canvas 2)

 Step

3 — E nrich the vision of the future (Rich picture: Canvas 3)

 Step

4 — P inpoint key shifts or transitions (Transitions map: Canvas 4)

 Step

5 — D evelop a roadmap to get from here to there and back (Roadmap: Canvas 5)

 Step

6 — D ecide the shifts or activities you would like to focus on (Personal change map: Canvas 6)

 Step

G YO UR STAR T EN VI SI ON IN W! NO RE DE SI RE D FU TU

7 — I dentify other people involved in these that you could work with (Stakeholder map: Canvas 7)

 Step

8 — R eflect on your learnings and consider the next steps (Discovery-driven learning map: Canvas 8)

56

part 2

DESIGNING OUR FUTURE LEARNING WORLD

The overall process looks like this:

DESIGNING THE From the perspective of one persona in the cast.

STEP 1 CHOOSE AND CREATE A PERSONA In the world of marketing, “personas” are fictional characters that represent the different user types that might

1

use your service, product, site or brand in a similar way. Creating



CHOOSE AND ­D ESCRIBE YOUR PERSONA CANVAS

PERSONAS

helps us understand our users’ needs, ex-

INTERESTED IN A DEEPER DIVE INTO THE TOPIC OF PERSONAS? … here’s a reading list:

THINK ABOUT YOUR PERSONA IN A SCENARIO IN THE FUTURE CANVAS

periences, behaviours and goals. Designing and using personas helps us to put our-

2

selves in the shoes of  Akama

& Prendiville, 2013

our users and can aid

 Yoo

et al., 2022

problem exploration

 Van

Rijn et al., 2011

with diverse stake-

 Cooney

et al., 2018

 Morrison

& Dearden, 2013

holder groups by surfacing tacit knowledge.

Bring the cast together.

YOUR FUTURE PERSONA’S WORLD AS A RICH PICTURE CANVAS

3

III CHAP

57

Collaborative approach to help you envision and design your own learning futures

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT FOR CIE

We can make use of this approach to help us focus on the “who?” side of our future exploration. Instead of there simply being a “future” with the various shifts going on which we explored in Chapter II, we can put a living character in that space and get a sense of what it

ROADMAPPING TOWARDS THE FUTURE CANVAS

5

Your shifts to focus on: WHAT ARE THE MAIN TRANSITIONS TO EXPLORE CANVAS

4

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO ME? CANVAS

6

feels like, what it involves, how it comes across to them. Hints & Tips

To create personas, we can draw on storytelling approaches to create representations of characters with whom we and others can empathise. Our persona

CANVASES

doesn’t live in a vacuum; they interact with a world

We created a canvas for each step of the way and introduce them in this chapter. In Chapter IV you can find all canvases in full size to fill in and download and in Part 3 we provide many examples of how to use the canvases based on different personas.

around them, so we can think about these elements. It’s just like imagining a character in a movie or novel, and the more we can flesh them out the more valuable they can be as a guide. Of course, there’s a risk of bias and

MY SPHERE OF INFLUENCE CANVAS

7

of introducing stereotypes in persona creation, so it’s worth trying to counter this through talking with others if we can. Canvas 1 is a simple framework to help build a persona.

MY CHANGE MAP: LEARNINGS CANVAS

8

We acknowledge that there are a lot of templates to help you work on your persona. We suggested one to bring you closer to the learning environment.

58

part 2

DESIGNING OUR FUTURE LEARNING WORLD

INTRODUCING CANVAS 1 › YOUR PERSONA

STEP 2

ROLE DESCRIPTION

PUT THAT PERSONA INTO THE FUTURE My role, day-to-day activities

The next step is to put our persona into the future, adding details about them as we consider the various aspects of the future scenario we’re exploring. What does

My work environment

The main purpose of my role (in one sentence)

he/she see, hear, touch, etc. as they go about their day? Once again the idea is to get inside their head, see the world through their eyes and get a sense of the challenges they will face and the positive things they will

PERCEPTIONS, BARRIERS AND ENABLERS

enjoy tomorrow. What do I like about my work environment?

What do I dislike about my work environment?

A scenario can be thought of as a narrative that illustrates potential futures or potential features of futures that could occur. It is possibly the most iconic approach that can be taken while conducting foresight or future

What would I like to see more of?

What would I like to see less of in my work environment?

studies. Scenarios are not forecasts about the future; rather, they are analogous to simulations of certain probable trajectories for the future. Both an exploratory approach and a tool for decision-making, their primary purpose is to highlight the discontinuities from the

What are the big barriers and conflicts?

What stops me from achieving my goals in my work environment?

present and to disclose the choices that are accessible as well as the potential repercussions of each choice.

III CHAP

59

Collaborative approach to help you envision and design your own learning futures

There’s no right way of doing this; we’re simply using the persona device to bring a future world to life. When writing your fictional story, try to make readers (i) feel as if the persona is a real human being, (ii) identify with the persona and (iii) judge the actions of the persona. When writing your story, don’t forget to reflect the val-

CANVAS 2 › FUTURE PERSONA WHAT IF…

Your persona Short description of your persona (based on Canvas 1)

SCENARIO 1

ue systems of your persona that should be reflected in their thoughts and actions; avoid writing personas that

SCENARIO 2

are too superficial. To help you think of different fictional scenarios, you can use “what” if prompts to en-

SCENARIO 3

vision scenarios on how a specific persona’s roles can evolve. You can use these scenarios to help you build a rich picture (see Canvas 3).

Present

Future Several scenarios

R — V I S I O N S M AT T E N OW I F   YO U D O N ’ T K W H E R E YO U ’ R E PROB­G O I N G   Y O U ’ L L MEA B LY E N D U P S O WHERE ELSE!

STEP 3 ENRICH THE VISION OF THE FUTURE One tool to help with envisioning the future world through their experience is something called a “rich picture.” This is simply a visual description which captures the richness of that future experience and allows us to explore it, crawl around it, represent it. It’s a way of capturing something with many elements and interactions and making it visible for others to look at and explore.

Capture here several scenarios on how this persona can evolve in the future.

60

Link

part 2

DESIGNING OUR FUTURE LEARNING WORLD

The “rich picture” methodology was originally developed as part of Peter Checkland’s

SOFT SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY If you’d like to know more about SSM, scan the QR code.

 soft systems meth-

the technology they use, etc. It doesn’t take long to see that the picture can become pretty rich pretty fast!

odology (SSM) which he used to help organisations and individuals make sense of the complex worlds in which they were trying to operate. Developing a rich picture is all about finding ways of describing a situation in an unstructured (pictorial) way – how it is.

CANVAS 3 › A RICH ­P ICTURE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY DEGREE

There’s no right way to make a rich picture, it’s just a powerful way of representing a lot of different things in a simple way which captures challenges, interconnections, problems and opportunities. Here’s a simple example of a rich picture done by a lecturer to repre-

TEACHING CIE • Why does it matter? • Key skills and capabilities • Models of CIE processes

sent his future experience in preparing and teaching * Identifying Didactic Knowledge: An Empirical Study of the Educationally Critical Aspects of Learning about Information Systems (Cope & Prosser, 2005)

an undergraduate course in information systems management. * Creating a rich picture helps us see the world through the eyes of our persona – what matters to them, where they see challenges, conflicts, positive elements, etc. And, importantly, it allows us to see the other elements in the world with whom or which they interact. For example, if we were drawing a rich picture for a persona who is a lecturer then it would probably include students/learners, colleagues (other lecturers), managers at various levels, the physical context in which they work,

LECTURER MARK + MARK EXAMS

III CHAP

61

Collaborative approach to help you envision and design your own learning futures

GOOD

FEEDBACK, OPINION ON CIE

BAD

CIE Good Bad TEXT BOOK

READING + RESEARCH + INTERACTING WITH CHAT GPT

SUBJECT SURVEY

INTERNET

HANDOUTS: TUTORIALS/SHEETS CONFUSION TUTORIAL WORK + ASSIGNMENT + PRESENTATION

Blah Blah

STUDENTS

COMPLETE EXAMS Blah Blah

ARGUMENTS + CONFLICTS

CIE EXAM 50%

LEARNING • Homework • Tutorial work • Discussions • Group work

READING + RESEARCH

CLARITY + UNDERSTANDING

PASSED FAILED

LIBRARY

62

part 2

DESIGNING OUR FUTURE LEARNING WORLD

STEP 4 PINPOINT KEY SHIFTS OR TRANSITIONS

INTRODUCING CANVAS 4 › TRANSITIONS TO FOCUS ON

Of course, making a rich picture can simply be a “brain

THINK OF SEVERAL SHIFTS THAT ARE IMPORTANT FOR YOUR PERSONA AND ADD THEM BELOW

dump” exercise, but it can also be built by using some prompts. And it’s here that we introduce our next canvas – bringing the scenarios developed by the VISION project (which we described in Chapter II) to help act as prompts in building a rich picture. We can use these to help us create what we call a “transitions map” which

Your primary shifts to focus on

Please describe your desirable transitions: What do you expect to achieve?

highlights key shifts of importance to our persona. FROM

PILLARS OF LEARNING

LEARNING JOURNEY

TO

LEARNING RESULTS

teacher

style

evaluation

students

process

outputs

subject matter

physical material artefact

outcomes

space

digital technology

impact Don’t hesitate to come back to this vision and adjust it based on your learning

III

63

Collaborative approach to help you envision and design your own learning futures

CHAP

STEP 5

sible. Your work on creating future personas using Can-

DEVELOP A ROADMAP TO GET FROM HERE TO

vas 2 and on building a rich picture using Canvas 3 can

THERE AND BACK

help you reflect on where you would like to go next.

Link

So, time travel is probably not on the agenda but an

ROADMAPPING

What we’re interested in, of course, is not idle day-

increasing role for technology to enable a metaverse in

dreaming about nice future possibilities. Futures don’t

which we interact with increasing amounts of our time

For more on roadmapping, scan the QR code.

just emerge, they are shaped by decisions and actions

could be.

taken now. So if we want to get closer to those desira-

Having defined where we’d like to get to, the next

ble futures, then it makes sense to think about what we

step in our bridge-building is to be clear about where

need to start doing to bring them about. This is the ba-

we are starting from. And in answering “Where are

sis of a powerful futures technique called roadmapping.

we now?” it’s important to be honest and self-critical;

Roadmapping is a key tool in forecasting and strate-

there’s no point in trying to build a bridge when one

gic planning in which we construct a scenario, a fore-

set of the pillars holding it up is mounted in shifting,

cast of the future, and then work backwards – “back-

uncertain sand!

cast” to explore the stepping stones which helped us get there. It is powerful because it provides us with information about what we need to do by when and who else, what else needs to change to help us get there.  Roadmapping provides us with a bridge to the future. It starts by asking, “Where do we want to get to?” – picking the most suitable scenario in terms of desirability. Since it is in the future, we needn’t be constrained – we can dream about what we’d like to see, though it helps to be realistic in terms of using data about key trends which help us see what might be pos-

LEARNING LANDSCAPES …

… LET’S GO!

The Institute for Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge has extensive resources around the theme of roadmapping.

64

part 2

DESIGNING OUR FUTURE LEARNING WORLD

The last stage is putting the bridge in place, step by step.

Imagine the company is looking to identify opportu-

A useful increment for such stepping stones might be a

nities in the field of “intelligent wearables” – items of

year; at the end of each increment we’d expect things to

clothing and jewellery with additional functions like

have changed.

health tracking. We can begin to construct a roadmap of what has to change and how we might approach these

Imagine a company trying to work out its product strat-

changes.

egy over the next 10 years, taking advantage of market and technological trends to find new opportunities. It might construct a picture something like the graphic below.

TIME / WHEN?

RESOURCES

VISION

PRODUCTS

A) WHY?

STATUS QUO

MARKET

B) WHAT?

C) HOW?

2

3

1

Where are we today?

How do we get there?

Where are we going?

III CHAP

Collaborative approach to help you envision and design your own learning futures

YEAR

WHAT DO WE SEE OURSELVES OFFERING TO THE MARKET?

2030

Offering a wide range of clothing with intelligence woven in through “computer patches” in the fabric

2029

Creating patches which can be sewn on to different clothing items and deliver different functionality

2025

2023

Extending this to items of clothing – hats with headphones embedded in special pockets, gloves with sensors which communicate with our phone by gestures Add-on intelligence like wristbands which contain simple computing power – “Fitbit” style

WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO? WHAT NEW KNOW­L EDGE OR MACHINERY OR SKILLS DO WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO DO THIS?

HOW WILL WE DO THIS? WHO OR WHAT CAN HELP? WHAT NEEDS TO BE IN PLACE?

Marketing linked to identifying which wearables and functions will take off and deploying our skills to create/meet these needs

Add in clothing design, increasingly embedding the functionality in fashionable contexts

Hire textile designers, extensive prototyping with lead users to find key parameters which matter in the marketplace

Add in textile technology – learning to work with different fabrics and mastering sewing and other techniques

Partner with a clothing manufacturer to complement our IT skills

Computer design skills, software and hardware

65

66

Hints & Tips

part 2

DESIGNING OUR FUTURE LEARNING WORLD

And we can break this down into different areas – for

What’s our desirable vision for a “good” future? Ideally

example, bringing in different functional areas in a

this might involve everyone having access to CIE skills

company and what they can contribute. So it becomes a

at all points during their lives. They would be self-di-

way of developing a strategic plan for the organisation,

rected learners, supported by coaches who can encour-

mapping the steps needed to help it move towards the

age and enable them. Their skills wouldn’t be evaluated

future it wants to be a part of.

by examinations or external assessments, but by their ability to show what they can do, with a portfolio of

BACKCASTING involves working backward from a desired future to the present to establish a way to achieve that vision.

What this simple process does is translate the desirable

successful innovation projects behind them. They’d be

picture of a future into something we can start working

making good use of technology, but remaining in an in-

on today. It combines “forecasting” – creating a vision

teractive world where teamwork and face-to-face inter-

of the future, with “backcasting,” playing that back in

action play a key role, and so on.

For more on backcasting, see Back from the Future: The Backcasting Wheel for Mapping a Pathway to a Preferred Future (Bengston et al., 2020).

stages to reach where we are today. And it gives us the next steps we should take if we want to get to that de-

We could throw this into sharper relief by thinking of

sirable future. It’s a roadmap for change.

the kind of future we wouldn’t like to see – one where learning is seen as a periodic injection of something

So how can we use roadmapping as a tool to work with

to be absorbed, swallowed down like unwelcome med-

our CIE learning future, identifying what we need to

icine. It would continue to be delivered in broadcast

start doing to bring about the changes which will help

fashion without any attempt to contextualise to indi-

create the future we want? It’s worth doing – after all,

vidual leaners or their world. Assessment would be by

we’ve all got a stake in it, and it might make sense to

external measurement and those who failed to perform

act positively to create the best experience rather than

to the desired metrics would be dropped off the bus in

have it happen to us.

unceremonious fashion. Teaching would remain a formalised delivery process rather than a student-focused

To build our roadmap, we need to begin with the big question of “Where do we want to get to?” – the vision.

enabling approach, and so on.

III CHAP

67

Collaborative approach to help you envision and design your own learning futures

The VISION project was based on carrying out this exer-

That’s a great start – what we’d like to see. But it won’t

cise of building a collective picture of the future world

magically emerge. If we want it, then things have to

for CIE learning – that’s what gave the project its title.

change – and that change starts with ourselves. We

The vision created collectively by hundreds of people

can actively shape our future, but we need to be a little

has been refined into something with quite a bit of de-

more systematic about what we change and when. We

tail around the key trends and the big levers which are

need that roadmap.

likely to be involved in shaping it.

Hints & Tips

KEY FUTURES-­ ORIENTED REASONING PROCESSES Futures thinking, abductive reasoning and contingency mapping support can be used to support your exploration of the desirable futures.

EN DS AN D SP OT TI NG KE Y TR VI SI ON BI G LE VE RS : TH E EC TI VE ­P ROJE CT 'S CO LL FU TU RE ­P IC TU RE OF TH E FO R  CI E LE AR NI NG

68

part 2

DESIGNING OUR FUTURE LEARNING WORLD

BACKCASTING – HOW DO WE GET THERE?

INTRODUCING CANVAS 5 › ROADMAPPING TOWARDS THE FUTURE

Backcasting involves envisioning an ideal future (using a process like visioning) before considering the steps that

END DATE

SHIFT

must be taken to realise that future. The conversation about a future we can shape can be opened up if stakeholders are able to propose more creative new ideas. To get from our persona’s “today world” to this positive future will involve a journey, and creating a roadmap for

What do I want to see by when?

that journey will involve answering some key questions:  What

time frame do we focus on? (How far into the future?)

 What

do we want to see by then?

 W hat

will be the main changes/activities required for our

Milestone

MY GOALS Milestone

persona? Canvas 5 helps us build this roadmap, focusing on key

MAIN CHANGES

stepping stones/milestones. For this, think of two to three main milestones and reflect on what changes should be implemented to achieve the goals bringing you close to designing your future learning environment for CIE.

START DATE

Milestone

What will be the main changes and activities required for your persona?

III

Collaborative approach to help you envision and design your own learning futures

CHAP

STEP 6 DECIDE THE SHIFTS OR ACTIVITIES YOU WOULD LIKE TO FOCUS ON Having created a personal version of this – essentially the roadmap of the changes your persona needs to see – what needs to be done to achieve this? And what/ who else do we need to help us (We’ll work through an example of this in the next chapter.) Now we need to see exactly what these changes entail for our learning journey. For activities and changes listed in Canvas 5, we will need to consider: 1) What skills are needed to put these activities in place? 2) What resources will be required? 3) How will we know that our activities have been successful in bringing about the changes we want to see?

OUR N OW S E T O U T Y E S TO ST E P P I N G STO N THE FUTURE...

69

70

part 2

DESIGNING OUR FUTURE LEARNING WORLD

AN EXAMPLE FOR SHIFT 1 › STUDENT KEY THEME

2023

2025

2027

2030

What’s the current ­situation?

What would I like to see has changed by this year?

What would I like to see has changed by this year?

What would I like to see has changed by this year?

My role

Passive information recipient

Hybrid with some elements of active learning and direction of my own studies

Possibility to design my own curriculum across different institutions

Active and lifelong learner, equipped with the skills and supporting structures to be so

So what do I need to change?

Become a more active learner

Work with my pedagogical team and provide active feedback on my learning pathway

Identify with my university exchange programmes to participate in

And what skills do I need to help me do this?

Acquire skills in formulating questions/critical thinking rather than simply absorbing and accepting knowledge

Experiment in better using generative AIs for my learning

How can I get them?

Check what is available in my university and discuss with my course coordinators

Participate in design sessions for hybrid teaching

III CHAP

71

Collaborative approach to help you envision and design your own learning futures

This is the last step – it moves the future from being something out there which will happen to us to being something we can actively shape and create. It becomes

INTRODUCING CANVAS 6 › WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO ME?

a personal action plan (see Canvas 6 below).

Fill in changes from your roadmap (Canvas 5)

WHAT CHANGES AND ACTIVITIES WILL YOU ­F OCUS ON?

DESCRIBE THIS ACTIVITY

WHAT SKILLS DO YOU NEED TO PUT THESE ACTIVITIES IN PLACE?

WHAT RESOURCES DO YOU NEED?

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOUR ACTIVITIES ARE SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENTED?

CHANGE

1

CHANGE

2

CHANGE

3

72

part 2

DESIGNING OUR FUTURE LEARNING WORLD

STEP 7

The thing about roadmapping is that it identifies the

IDENTIFY OTHER PEOPLE INVOLVED IN THESE

things you have to do and change to get towards your

CHANGES THAT YOU COULD WORK WITH

desired future – but also what else and who else is going to be needed. And that quickly sets up the need to

One last thing we need to consider. Life is a little like

understand system level change and how to effect it.

those Russian matryoshka dolls with smaller and small-

You can’t change everyone, but you can change your-

er versions nested inside each other. We’re all involved

self. And if you know what someone else needs of you

in various overlapping worlds, from our own individual

then you can work with that/them, and vice versa.

space, through to the people we interact with often like our work teams, right up to being part of much larger

So, in a company, the different functions may realise

systems.

they need to cooperate and collaborate on things. Different players may need to work with external partners to ensure things happen. It’s the same thing with the education system. We need to understand the future through the eyes and experience of key players. If Jane (our student) wants a good experience, then it will depend on Jim, the lecturer, to help her get it; on Jessica, the university manager, to provide the enabling strategy and investment; on Bill in the university’s admin team to ensure that there are close links with companies; and on Kate and Fred in

OVERLAPPING AND INTERCONNECTED WORLDS

the company to ensure that they are able to provide an inspiring setting in which Jane can work and learn etc.

III CHAP

Collaborative approach to help you envision and design your own learning futures

INTRODUCING CANVAS 7.1 › SPHERE OF INFLUENCE

WIDER SYSTEM: WHO CARES? MY SPHERE ­ OF INFLUENCE: WHO CAN?

MY DIRECT STAKEHOLDERS: WHO KNOWS?

73

INTRODUCING CANVAS 7.2 › HOW WILL YOU BRING THESE S­TAKEHOLDERS ONBOARD?

74

part 2

DESIGNING OUR FUTURE LEARNING WORLD

There are some things we are completely in control

STEP 8

of, we can make changes to them. We can decide how

REFLECT ON YOUR LEARNINGS AND

we spend much of our time, which skills we want to

­C ONSIDER THE NEXT STEPS

work on, which behaviours we want to change. They are mostly within our control. But there are others which

Well done! You have built your vision, your action plan,

are negotiated with people around us; we can influence

you have considered who needs to be on board – you

them, but if they are to change, it has to be a coopera-

are all set. Now you need to experiment, learn and ad-

tive process. And at the limit we operate within larger

just – we live in the VUCA-driven world and our goal is

systems over which we have no direct control – we can’t

to learn as quickly as possible and adjust to things that

change them (though we can make our views and wish-

work. Things like discovery-driven learning journeys

es known). We have to adapt our behaviours around

will help you process your learnings and consider the

these constraints – or else leave the organisation and

next steps (see Canvas 8).

find somewhere with a more supportive environment. So in our change roadmapping we need to be aware of these three levels and think through strategies for working at each level. For this, we first need to consider who are the stakeholders we need to interact with to design our learning journey. Canvas 7.1 helps you consider who your persona needs to involve in developing your learning journey and Canvas 7.2 will help you define some of the actions that you might consider regarding when and how to involve these stakeholders and bring them on board for your learning journey.

« 

III CHAP

Collaborative approach to help you envision and design your own learning futures

75

INTRODUCING CANVAS 8 › DISCOVERY-DRIVEN LEARNING List the main changes and activities you are focusing on (Canvases 5 and 6)

LIST OF MAIN CHANGES (CANVAS 5)

CHANGE 1

WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN LEARNINGS?



CHANGE 2



CHANGE 3



WHAT WILL YOU DO DIFFERENTLY? WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS? Summery

WHAT ARE YOUR SUCCESS METRICS? (CANVAS 6)

SUMMARY  T here are many powerful tools that build on foresight, future studies, co-design and innovation management that can help you envision desirable futures and devise a plan on how to get there.  T his playbook presents a selection of these that include designing personas, creating scenarios, drawing rich pictures and creating a personal transitions map and roadmap that highlight key shifts and changes needed to get there.

76

part 2

DESIGNING OUR FUTURE LEARNING WORLD

IV CHAP

T H E C A N VA S E S

e flow through our pl m si a g in tt se e ar In this chapter we wnes. These can be do as nv ca r ou of n io full-size vers versions of pernt re ffe di ng ti ea cr r loaded and used fo ly or admaps individual ro d an s re tu fu d sonas, desire with your team.

77

Pencil

Download

CANVAS 1 › YOUR PERSONA Describe your chosen persona

ROLE DESCRIPTION

My role, day-to-day activities

PERCEPTIONS, BARRIERS AND ENABLERS

What do I like about my work environment?

What would I like to see more of in my work environment?

What are the big barriers and conflicts in my work environment?



My work environment

The main purpose of my role (in one sentence)

What do I dislike about my work environment?



What would I like to see less of in my work environment?



What stops me from achieving my goals in my work environment?

78

part 2

DESIGNING OUR FUTURE LEARNING WORLD

Pencil

CANVAS 2 › THINK ABOUT YOUR FUTURE PERSONA Describe how this persona will change in the future and what the potential scenarios are

WHAT IF…

Capture here several scenarios on

how this persona can evolve in the future.

Short description of your persona (based on Canvas 1)

Present

Future

SCENARIO

1

SCENARIO

2

SCENARIO

3

SCENARIO

4

Download

IV CHAP

79

THE CANVASES

Pencil

CANVAS 3 › YOUR RICH PICTURE Use this blank canvas to draw your rich picture

Download

80

part 2

DESIGNING OUR FUTURE LEARNING WORLD

Pencil

CANVAS 4 › TRANSITIONS TO FOCUS ON Describe the main transitions that your persona experiences Your primary shifts to focus on

Please describe your desirable transitions: What do you expect to achieve? FROM

SHIFT on SELECT THREE TO FOUR SHIFTS THAT ARE IMPORTANT FOR YOUR PERSONA AND ADD TO THE RIGHT

PILLARS OF LEARNING

LEARNING JOURNEY

LEARNING RESULTS

teacher

style

evaluation

students

process

outputs

subject matter

physical ­material artefact

outcomes

space

digital ­technology

impact

Don’t hesitate to come back to this vision and adjust it based on your learning

TO

Download

IV CHAP

81

THE CANVASES

Pencil

Download

CANVAS 5 › ROADMAPPING TOWARDS THE FUTURE For each shift, plan how these transitions will be achieved

END DATE

SHIFT

What do I want to see by when?

MY GOALS Milestone

Milestone

START DATE

Milestone

MAIN CHANGES

What will be the main changes and activities required for your persona?

82

part 2

DESIGNING OUR FUTURE LEARNING WORLD

Pencil

CANVAS 6 › WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO ME? Create a more detailed overview of changes, consider an individual perspective of changes for your persona

CHANGE

1

WHAT CHANGES AND ACTIVITIES WILL YOU ­ FOCUS ON?

DESCRIBE THIS ACTIVITY

WHAT SKILLS DO YOU NEED TO PUT THESE ACTIVITIES IN PLACE?

WHAT RESOURCES DO YOU NEED?

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOUR ACTIVITIES ARE SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENTED?

CHANGE

2

CHANGE

3

Download

IV CHAP

83

THE CANVASES

Pencil

Download

Pencil

CANVAS 7.1 › SPHERE OF INFLUENCE

CANVAS 7.2 › ONBOARDING STAKEHOLDERS

Consider who is impacted by the changes and how

Consider how to involve these stakeholders and bring them on board

WIDER SYSTEM: WHO CARES?

MY SPHERE ­ OF INFLUENCE: WHO CAN? MY DIRECT STAKEHOLDERS: WHO KNOWS?

Download

84

part 2

DESIGNING OUR FUTURE LEARNING WORLD

Pencil

CANVAS 8 › DISCOVERY-DRIVEN LEARNING List the main changes and activities you are focusing on (Canvases 5 and 6)

WHAT ARE YOUR SUCCESS METRICS? (CANVAS 6)

LIST OF MAIN CHANGES (CANVAS 5)

CHANGE 1



CHANGE 2



CHANGE 3



WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN LEARNINGS?

WHAT WILL YOU DO DIFFERENTLY? WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS?

Download

part 3

DESIGNING OUR FUTURE LEARNING WORLD

PA R T 3

IV CHAP

87

THE CANVASES

RE I N TO T H E F U T U A N D B AC K

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER X

JIM, UNIVERSITY LECTURER  �����������������������������  92

KATE, TEAM LEADER  ��������������������������������������������  142

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER XI

JANE, UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT ��������������  114

ALEXANDER, POLICY ANALYST  ���������������������  148

CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER XII

JESSICA, SENIOR ­UNIVERSTIY MANAGER  ���  120

ROB, DIGITAL ­E DTECH ­D ESIGNER AND ­E NTREPRENEUR  ������������������������������������������������������  152

CHAPTER VIII NATALIA, UNIVERSITY ­A DMINISTRATOR  ���  130

CHAPTER IX ANNA, SENIOR MANAGER  ���������������������������������  136

CHAPTER XIII RICK, PROFESSIONAL ­T RAINER  ����������������������  156

88

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

In the remainder of this playbook we explore desired future worlds of learning through the eyes of a number of different personas. These are characters you probably recognise, different people who will inhabit the near future. We present one persona using all of our canvases to illustrate our methodology. We describe the rest through future scenarios, exploring what it means to them being in those futures but also how they got there, and how other things changed around them.

89

MEET THE CAST  J IM

is a lecturer at a college/university

 J ANE

is a student

 J ESSICA

is a senior university manager

 N ATALIA

is a university administrator

 A NNA

is senior manager for a big ­i nternational company

 K ATE

is a middle manager and team leader for a big international company

 A LEXANDER

is an education policy

analyst

add to this learning cast. We’ve drawn this cast

of characters from a much bigger set – we could add, for example, the dean of a school, the head of a department, an accreditation expert or an HR specialist. Our personas are imagined in 2035, not far away from now, within the context of our current lives and work. Without a doubt, future scenarios and change maps are dependent on the realities of the particular locations in which these personas are situated. Our future stories are recounted from our characters’ own point of view using the first person, however, you may wish to write your own as third-person narrations

 R OB

is a digital edtech designer and entrepreneur

 R ICK

O

f course, there are many other personas we could

is a professional freelance

training consultant

– use the style that feels more natural to you. We invite you to modify or extend our examples, or add completely different characters and stories that create the picture that reflects your desired future.

90

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

K AT E JESSICA

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

JANE

5

ROB JIM

91

RICK

ALEXANDER

EXPERIENTIAL & CHALLENGE-BASED LEARNING

N ATA L I A

ANNA

92

part 3

V

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

CHAP

JIM

TURER C E L Y T I S R E V I N U t I do much better at wha e m co be e I’v k in “I like to th ents seem more ud st y M n. ar le to enabling others – ­ dn’t d so am I. If things ha an – ed at iv ot m e or ­engaged, m w!” in an other job by no be ly ab ob pr I’d d change

93

LET’S DEEP DIVE INTO JIM’S ROLE AS A LEC­ TURER USING THE PERSONA TEMPLATE As described in Part 2, we will start with picturing the persona in the present. First, what is Jim’s role, his dayto-day activities, his work environment? The goal here is to consider Jim’s role in general and also think about the main purpose of the lecturer’s role. Second, we will explore barriers, enablers and perceptions that Jim has for this role and how he sees what people expect from him: What does Jim like/dislike about his working environment? What does Jim care about (values)? What would he like to see more of? Less of? Where are the big barriers or conflicts? Do you know Jim? Or someone like him? Or does this description reflect your own situation as a lecturer? We have sketched an example of Jim below. Please use the

EN TA IL S BE IN G A LE CT UR ER IP LE SO FT AN D ­M AS TE RI NG MU LT HA RD SK IL LS

blank persona page and try and sketch your version of Jim to bring him/her/them to life. The outcome should be a persona which reflects the reader’s own experience and interests.

94

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

CANVAS 1 › YOUR PERSONA Jim's example of how to describe a chosen persona

ROLE DESCRIPTION

Jim

University lecturer

My role, day-to-day activities University lecturer

In charge of student placement programmes in industry

PERCEPTIONS, BARRIERS AND ENABLERS

What do I like about my work environment?

What would I like to see more of in my work environment?

Good students



Freedom to conduct my research

More interactive classes

Accreditation

Engagement with other stakeholders

Silos between academic and professional staff members

Flipped classes

My work environment Traditional higher education institution Well-ranked institution in the UK

The main purpose of my role (in one sentence)

What do I dislike about my work environment?

Design and deliver good education programme

Teaching and research evaluation frameworks are time-consuming

Aiming to stay relevant for practitioners

Conduct good research programmes

Students have many learning options and their satisfaction with university programmes is lower

Make research and teaching more practical and applied



Grading students requires a lot of manual work that I could spend teaching and doing impactful research

What are the big barriers and conflicts in my work environment?

What would I like to see less of in my work environment?

What stops me from achieving my goals in my work environment?

Repetitive tasks and lec-

Lack of time to improve my teaching curriculum

turing in a passive mode

No allocated time to improve courses

V

CHAP

95

Jim UNIVERSITY LECTURER Jim,

FUTURE SCENARIOS – JIM IN 2035

Putting a bunch of students into a local business gives them a chance to have some extra brainpower and some

I’ve been in the game since 2010 and I’ve seen a lot of

fresh eyes plus a good chance to do some talent spot-

changes. When I arrived everything was different, it

ting. For the students it was a welcome breath of reality

was a growing school, trying to do new stuff. They had

and a chance to find out more – some of them came

the idea that “innovation” would be a good addition to

straight from school and had no idea how the world of

the portfolio, but they didn’t have a specific course or

work actually behaved.

Hints & Tips

focus for it. So I began teaching electives and modules on a wide range of programmes, from undergraduate

We progressed to bigger programmes and linkages along

right through to our MBA.

a broad frontier – shared research, student challenge projects, began some hackathons around big challenges

They brought me in particularly to help shift the bal-

which helped us link upon the growing interest in en-

ance away from being too ivory-towered, wanted more

trepreneurial skills being pushed from the top, from the

research but practical and applied. I found the gap be-

sides and even from our student union. Pretty soon we

tween us and local business wide but we began to close

were running a full-time master’s degree programme

it, managed to get some appointments as adjunct/visit-

in innovation and entrepreneurship as well as short

ing faculty and found they were only too keen to share

boot camps and spreading the basics to all students ir-

their experiences.

respective of what they were studying.

It was self-interest – they needed good graduates and

The bridge-building was great and it helped the stu-

getting to know them early was a no-brainer, plus they

dents integrate their knowledge more – whether they

had an increasing chance to shape the content of what

were business students working alongside scientists or

they learned. It was their idea to start the internship

theatre students teaming up with lawyers and chem-

programme that would prepare students to be manage-

ists. They began to appreciate that the world isn’t neatly

ment consultants - “mini-McKinsey”, as we called it.

packaged up into disciplinary boxes and that they could

CHALLENGING THE CLASSROOM THROUGH ­H ACKATHONS Here's a useful article describing this approach: Beyond the Flipped Classroom: Learning by Doing Through Challenges and Hacka-thons (Skirpan & Yeh, 2015).

96

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

benefit from taking broad views and bringing in dif-

It didn’t make sense to keep on using essays, pres-

ferent perspectives – learning to be in teams was also

entations and exams in this very different world, so

important.

we brought in a project-based approach. The students would work in teams on a “live” challenge – sometimes

Hints & Tips

FLIPPED CLASSROOM Aims to reverse traditional lecture by focusing on collaboration and discussion during classroom time.

That helped with the teaching side of things enormous-

one which came from our outside partners, sometimes

ly, not least because the students enjoyed it so much

one which the students chose themselves because it

and were more motivated. We also had the challenge of

mattered to them – on themes like sustainability and

growth to deal with, and despite an ambitious building

responsibility. These students are from different disci-

programme we were still short of space. Especially for

plines and universities. We are bringing them togeth-

a large class – and by large I mean we were growing

er as part of our capstone project focusing on different

to 300-plus students. No one really enjoyed that model

skills across disciplines. That helped us, not least be-

much – from my side it felt like I was a high priest or

cause we were now drawing in students from across

a demagogue trying to inspire the massed ranks rather

the university; our innovation/entrepreneurship course

than someone engaging in conversations and helping

had become something they all wanted to study what-

students learn. And with that scale the chances of actu-

ever core course they had enrolled in. And the project

ally hearing individual students and finding out about

made sense as a way of evaluating what had become a

their needs and concerns are very limited.

“capstone” kind of course for them.

So we moved to a model based on the “flipped class-

We found they were much more motivated, putting

room” and on project-based assessment. We’d prepare

in lots of extra time on research, chasing us for help

learning materials in advance – videos, audios, written

and advice because they cared about the outcome and

stuff – which the students would engage with before

wanted to make a strong presentation. Our experience

coming to the lectures. In the lecture sessions we then

was that it integrated the diverse material we’d been

had time to explore their questions and play around,

teaching and focused it, often drawing in material and

making it a much more interactive experience.

ideas from other subjects which they’d be learning

V

CHAP

97

Jim UNIVERSITY LECTURER Jim,

across the university. It switched from a “push” system

down the first thing they find, but really using the rich-

where we were trying to force knowledge into them to

ness of that vast external library to help them answer

a “pull” system where they were drawing it from us and

questions and build their arguments. And with technol-

focusing it for their own needs.

ogy we’ve been able to develop their teamworking – they can interact with their team in both remote and face-

And the students liked the projects because they felt

to-face fashions, and that’s enabled us to spread our net

more connected with them – there was a sense of pur-

more widely. These days we have as many off-campus

pose. We were focusing on some of the “grand chal-

(and occasionally visiting) students working with us as

lenges” that they cared about – things like sustainabil-

we do full-time, on-campus students.

ity – and they could see that dealing with them in real organisations wasn’t always simple. Plus they weren’t

Mind you, the university management hasn’t always

stupid; they could see that this kind of project-based

helped. They talk a good game but much of this is just

work in a real context would help them get jobs in the

lip service and slow support for platforms – not enough

future – the skills were much more usable, much less

on the technical support side to help the transition.

“academic.” For employers, we became a university of

Things got worse with the forced move into online

choice because they were getting a regular feed of peo-

learning; much of the early investment was a panic re-

ple they could work with and who brought something

action rather than a strategic plan. There’s still a lack

new to their world.

of support and training; it’s annoying because I can see the potential but I feel I’m hardly able to keep pace with

Technology has helped us a lot – it’s much easier to have

the current technology.

a rich online library of our own materials available for the students – a sort of “turbocharged” textbook model

The place has changed physically too. In the days be-

with video, audio and goodness knows what else. Plus

fore COVID-19, we had a huge building programme,

the students have the internet; our job is to help them

more and more classrooms to accommodate a growing

become good and critical researchers, not just writing

student population. But that all hit the buffers when

Hints & Tips

FOCUS ON SUSTAINABILITY Exploring case studies, using the local environment and data, and service learning can help you incorporate sustainability issues into teaching.

98

Hints & Tips

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE REF? The Research Excellence Framework (REF) can lead to challenges in over-assessing and evaluating teacher performance.

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

we had to go virtual, almost overnight. We struggled

of exam halls because they lost control. The whole place

in the early days of remote learning and nobody liked

became more decentralised. And they really didn’t like

it, neither staff nor students. Everyone wanted face-to-

the change in who does the assessment, bringing local

face – but there was a sense of disappointment when

organisations into the frame – they felt it was blurring

we did all come back together, as if nothing had really

the boundaries, that they would lose the special univer-

changed. Gradually, though, some of the useful bits of

sity identity.

remote learning fell into place; it helped us with the

It wasn’t all bad; they could see the benefits in flip-

“flipped classroom” idea, we didn’t always need to

ping the classroom, and the expansion of our part-time

bring hundreds of students into the same space at the

programmes helped them recruit more and different

same time. Plus we could use some of the newer tools to

students and charge a premium fee. They particularly

interact; we could run much more focused tutorials or

liked the way employers were sending staff and also re-

have online teams working. Of course, we still needed

cruiting our students; our national metrics went up and

some physical spaces like laboratories for the science

we became a role model for other universities.

students, but the other buildings began to change shape,

We’re still plagued by the way our system is locked

became much less focused on scale and much more on

into bigger assessment systems. We’ve still got too

smaller interaction spaces, which we could use flexibly.

much expectation on us from too many directions

One of my favourite days was when we knocked down

– we’ve got a research evaluation framework which

an old building – and replaced it with grass and trees,

measures my performance on research outputs, plus

reversing the mad construction boom with somewhere

the teaching evaluation framework which pushes hard

more reflective and comfortable to eat your lunch in!

on student satisfaction. It’s getting better – in the bad old days I felt like I was trying to dance to too many

It’s not always been easy; I’ve had my share of run-ins

different tunes and it was exhausting! I was expected

with the senior management around here. They are

to give individual mentoring and tutorial support at

wedded to their old systems and models; they didn’t

the same time as class sizes were growing, and also

like the change in assessment and the disappearance

expected to find time for my own research papers. It’s

V

CHAP

99

Jim UNIVERSITY LECTURER Jim,

getting better – not least because of my own efforts – for example, I eased the marking burden by pushing to involve external employers on our internships in the assessment. And I managed to get some retired lectur-

WHAT IF…

ers to help as an external marking network who could guarantee good-quality feedback to students, and who had the time to do so.

CANVAS 2 › YOUR FUTURE PERSONA Jim's example of how to describe future changes and potential scenarios and what the potential scenarios are

Jim University lecturer

Present

Future

SCENARIO 1

Implementing more practical and applied learning involving adjunct and visiting faculty

SCENARIO 2

Creating learning programmes embedded in the realities of business

SCENARIO 3

Moving to a full system where students actively manage their learning needs

SCENARIO 4

Moving towards becoming a coach to help students master their learning journey

100

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

CANVAS 3 › YOUR RICH PICTURE

FROM BARRIERS TO BRIDGES

DIVERSE STUDENTS Coming from different curriculums and backgrounds LEARNING MODE Flipped classrooms JIM

UT

SIDE WOR

SETTING UP + MANAGING PROJECTS WITH COMPANIES – MINI-MCKINSEYS

GROWING NUMBERS

BRINGING IN VISITING SPEAKERS

BRING THE REAL WORLD TO THEM

LEARNING MODE

HACKATHONS/ COMPETITIONS MOTIVATED STUDENTS

EMPLOYABILITY Conflict VR

Web 3.0

Remote

TECHNOLOGY Open AI /Chat GPT

ME

UNIVERSITY MANAGEMENT Conflict ME

EXTERNAL EVALUATION of my research and teaching

LD

O

Jim's example of a rich picture

V

CHAP

101

Jim UNIVERSITY LECTURER Jim,

PICTURING THE FUTURE – ENVISIONING THE LEARNING LANDSCAPE Jim’s been reflecting on the world he’s operating in in 2035 and he’s also told us of some of the journey towards reaching this point. His is an optimistic story and we can translate it into a “rich picture” – as introduced on pp. 59 – 61. Please see on the previous page our rough sketch of Jim’s rich picture. There’s no right way to make a rich picture, it’s just a powerful way of representing a lot of different things in a simple way which captures challenges, interconnections, problems and opportunities. After all, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” so even the simplest of sketches will help us capture Jim’s experience. We can help build a picture by using the key shifts from our model as prompts – using the transitions map in Canvas 4.

N G WO R L D IN OUR CHANGI E NEED OF LEARNING W ANGING T O S TA R T B Y C H UT WHERE O U R S E LV E S – B T O S TA R T ?

102

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

CANVAS 4 › TRANSITIONS TO FOCUS ON Jim's main transitions

Your primary shifts to focus on FROM

Evaluation

Traditional assessments at the end of the semester

Continuous assessment: combining self- and group ­assessments based on a life challenge

Style

Traditional lecture modes

Flipped classrooms to interact and play

Spaces

Lecture halls and workshop areas

Placements in industry ­combined with in-class experience to discuss and explore together

Technology

In-class delivery

A hybrid working experience where students leverage on metaverse, collaborative platforms online to connect

SELECT THREE TO FOUR SHIFTS THAT ARE IMPORTANT FOR YOUR PERSONA AND ADD THEM TO THE RIGHT

PILLARS OF LEARNING

LEARNING JOURNEY

TO

LEARNING RESULTS

teacher

style

evaluation

students

process

outputs

subject matter

physical ­material artefact

outcomes

space

digital ­technology

impact

V

CHAP

103

Jim UNIVERSITY LECTURER Jim,

That’s our attempt to capture the key shifts in the learning landscape from Jim’s standpoint. You might want to add/subtract/change the map to reflect your rich picture of the future and its challenges and opportunities – our blank template will help you do so. Hints & Tips

ROADMAPPING TOWARDS THE FUTURE

USE THIS CANVAS TO REFINE THE RICH PICTURE FOR JIM, BUILDING ON THE SKETCH WE CREATED ­E ARLIER.

The future persona, rich picture and transitions map represent a desirable view of where we’d like to get to and give us some sense of the different elements involved. Now let’s look a little more systematically at what changes and when – essentially translating the journey towards that future into a map. For each transition identified, you can design a different roadmap. This next canvas gives us Jim’s priority change list – these are the major “stepping stones”/milestones which need to be in place to get to the future he wants to see. We could summarise it in a simple template – like a “todo” checklist.

104

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

END DATE

CANVAS 5 › ROADMAPPING TOWARDS THE FUTURE

Learning journeys are flexible and involve multiple institutions

Jim's transition roadmap

SHIFT 1 What do I want to see by when?

Students play an active role in course curriculum design

2030

Flipping the classroom 2027

2025

START DATE

2022

2035

Redesign the delivery: prepare new instructions

Prepare a course for students on pedagogy and tips to design their learning journeys

Work with the ­a ccreditation ­i nstitutions to see what needs to be done

What will be the main changes and activities required for your persona?

V

CHAP

105

Jim UNIVERSITY LECTURER Jim,

Hints & Tips

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR ME?

THIS CANVAS GIVES US JIM’S PRIORITY CHANGE LIST – THESE ARE THE MAJOR “STEPPING STONES”/ MILESTONES WHICH NEED TO BE IN PLACE TO GET TO THE FUTURE HE WANTS TO SEE. WE COULD SUMMARISE IT IN A SIMPLE TEMPLATE – LIKE A “TO-DO” CHECKLIST.

The next step is to look at those changes and ask the question, “What do I need to change in order for this desirable future to happen?” For example, if the change for 2035 in terms of Jim’s role as a teacher is to move from being a broadcaster to a mentor/coach, then he’ll need to acquire and practice some of those new skills. If the technology shift is around using advanced interaction tools in the metaverse, then again there’s a need for him to develop the capability to work in this way and to adapt his materials and approach. We can summarise this “What needs to change?” list and link it to personal actions Jim has to take.

106

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

CHANGE #1 LEARNING JOURNEY

CHANGE

1

CANVAS 6 › WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO ME? A detailed overview of Jim's changes

REDESIGN THE DELIVERY: PREPARE NEW INSTRUCTIONS

DESCRIBE THIS ACTIVITY

All deliveries should be online and hybrid

› WHAT CHANGES AND ACTIVITIES WILL YOU FOCUS ON?

WHAT SKILLS DO YOU NEED TO PUT THESE ACTIVITIES IN PLACE?

S tudents can engage with the material and prepare before class

Online pedagogy



Attention-driven mechanisms for online learning Learning design

WHAT RESOURCES DO YOU NEED?

Platform for online modules



Graphic designer Several students to test learning journey

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOUR ACTIVITIES ARE SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENTED?



At least 30 students tested the ­prototype and are ready to trial the flipped classroom programme

V

CHAP

107

Jim UNIVERSITY LECTURER Jim,

CHANGE

2

CHANGE

PREPARE A COURSE FOR S­ TUDENTS ON PEDAGOGY AND TIPS TO DESIGN THEIR ­L EARNING JOURNEYS

WORK WITH THE ­ACCREDITATION INSTITUTIONS TO SEE WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE

3

Based on the flipped classroom a­ ctivity, students are ready to design their own learning journeys based ­on their preferences

For learning journeys to involve multiple institutions we need a ­systematic change

Hands-on learning design and pedagogy training to develop for students and teachers

Need to identify collaborators at the university to form the team

Several students to co-design the curriculum

Several institutions to design a pilot programme together

Resources to film, design content

A sponsor to fund this project

At least one course has fully adopted the methodology with the core content delivered for all and additional modules designed by students

A framework is created Institutional rules and procedures are adjusted A trial course is developed

Hints & Tips

FOR EACH SHIFT YOU WILL DESIGN DIFFERENT ACTIVITY SHEETS. TRY TO MAKE THEM SIMPLE BUT PRECISE.

108

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE AROUND ME? There’s a lot Jim can do – or we can do to make changes in our lives. Using the templates so far, we’ve got the basis of a personal action plan to help us get towards the

WIDER SYSTEM: WHO CARES?

kind of future we’d like to work in. But we also work with others in systems and organisations and we can’t change everything; sometimes we have no influence at all. So how can Jim work in this space? He’s going to need

MY SPHERE ­ OF INFLUENCE: WHO CAN?

to find ways to act where he has control over what he does (the innermost circle), some degree of influence (the middle circle) and where he has no direct influence, but at best can try to nudge things in the right direction (the outermost circle).

MY DIRECT STAKEHOLDERS: WHO KNOWS?

V

CHAP

109

Jim UNIVERSITY LECTURER Jim,

CANVAS 7.1 › SPHERE OF INFLUENCE

CANVAS 7.2 › ONBOARDING STAKEHOLDERS

Jim's example: who is impacted by the changes and how

Consider how to involve these stakeholders and bring them on board

Other universities

Recruit two to three ­lecturers who are willing to attend and provide feedback

Other lecturers Accreditation bodies Find a group of students interested to be ambassadors

Students Industry partners

Schedule a call with university administrator to present a project and seek what they need

University administrator

University alumni

Check if there are any similar programmes ­already

Develop a longterm commitment /memorandum of understanding (MOU) with one industry partner

Find several alumni who would like to sponsor projects

110

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

N, N’T JUST HAPPE O W E R U T U F E TH LE. IFFERENT PEOP D Y B D E P A H S IT’LL BE U N D E R S TA N D S O W E N E E D TO RE D W H AT T H E Y A N A E R A Y E H T WHO LO O K I N G F O R .

V

CHAP

111

Jim UNIVERSITY LECTURER Jim,

EXAMPLE: CHANGE #1 FLIPPING THE CLASSROOM

SPHERE OF INFLUENCE (REFERS TO THE ABOVE CONCENTRIC CIRCLES)

WHO OR WHAT CAN HELP – WHAT LEVERS CAN I MOBILISE?

WHERE ARE THERE BARRIERS IN THE SYSTEM WHICH I NEED TO FIND WAYS TO STEER AROUND?

Me – I have control over this space and my actions within it

I can develop my materials and revise my course design and can experiment within my courses

Need to keep my colleagues informed and also make sure this doesn’t contravene any faculty policy

My direct stakeholders/interaction – I can influence and work with these

I can recruit interested colleagues – maybe build a community of practice and try to move towards a flipped approach on several courses, learning from each other’s experiments. Perhaps co-develop online materials. Need to work with library, IT and other support colleagues

Need to make sure I’m not changing the balance of student workload

Need to make sure the system knows what I’m doing and that it doesn’t break any rules. Keeping them in the loop as to the how and why of my change in approach and using student feedback to help support my case

Need to ensure my course conforms to the principle and documentation aligned with faculty policy

Wider system – I have no direct control, have to work with it or at best “nudge” it in the right direction

Need to negotiate different kinds of spaces – if we’re using a flipped approach, then we don’t need conventional classrooms but would benefit from flexible workshop space. Need to negotiate access to this

112

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

Other personas can act as architects, shaping the environment for others. For example, teachers and coaches can create spaces and deploy styles which give students more room to change. Senior managers in companies and universities can create environments which support – or constrain – the emergence of different CIE

SOME THINGS GE, YO U C A N C H A N S O M E YO U C A N INFLUENCE AND H AV E S O M E YO U J U S T . TO WO R K W I T H

learning contexts. Policymakers can define and regulate the overall context within which the learning system operates at a regional or national level.

CANVAS 8 › DISCOVERY-DRIVEN LEARNING Jim's main activities and goals to focus on

« 

V

CHAP

113

Jim UNIVERSITY LECTURER Jim,

WHAT ARE YOUR SUCCESS METRICS? (CANVAS 6)

LIST OF MAIN CHANGES (CANVAS 5)

Redesign the delivery: prepare new instructions

Prepare a course for students on pedagogy and tips to design their learning journeys

Work with the accreditation institutions to ­ see what needs to be done

WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN LEARNINGS?

WHAT WILL YOU DO DIFFERENTLY? WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS?



At least 30 students have tested the proto­type and are ready to trial the flipped classroom programme

Students are really busy with their current curriculum – hard to find the motivated students to try a new programme

We will design the onboarding sessions and promote the course differently



At least one course has fully adopted the methodology with the core content delivered for all and additional modules designed by students

This activity is still in progress but we recruited 10 students to test the modules and see what is missing

Continue testing and adjusting the course content

We are currently finalising one trial course but it would be great to amplify the effort

Promoting flipped classes with other colleagues to help them experiment as well

A framework is created



Institutional rules and procedures are adjusted A trial course is developed

114

part 3

VI

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

CHAP

JANE

UDENT T S E T A U D A R G UNDER a bit university, it seemed to g in go t ou ab re “I wasn’t su to engage with the d te an w I . ur to de e. of an expensive make it a better plac to s ill sk e ir qu ac d real world an d how it’s delivered an se ur co is th d; But I’m glad I di .” nce and experience has given me confide

115

I

t’s November 1, 2035. My name is Jane and I’m recording this as part of my learning journey assignment.

I get credits for reflective practice and this podcast is all about my day – how and what I’m doing, what I’m learning and my reflections on it.

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

My day starts with me in self-learning mode – I go into my augmented reality (AR) world and catch up on some “concept-casts” – explainer videos. I can do this while I’m working out; I jog and stretch my way through my exercise routine while I’m watching the videos on my AR glasses. It’s great; I can be in two places at once and while I’m getting some new ideas, I can tag questions and notes via my virtual assistant (on my wristphone) who is my learning partner/scribe. Definition

Then it’s time for me to check in with my team. I’m on an international master’s programme being offered phys-

NI NG IT ’S A NE W LE AR WOR LD

ically by my university here in Germany but accessible

METAVERSE LAB

by students around the world. My project team involves

Metaverse is a term used to describe the increasing possibilities of exploring and operating in a virtual world, for example by using a virtual reality headset.

five of us – Anand, Mia, Salim, Chung-An and me – we’ve become good friends and I work with them quite a bit at the moment. We meet in the  METAVERSE LAB where we have our own workroom – once I put on the headset, it’s as real as if we were physically meeting. There’s lots

116

Link

You can find out more about ’value propositions’ here as part of the Business Model Canvas approach by scanning the QR code.

Definition

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

of space and we can see lots of other students wander-

working on four live project assignments. My favourite

ing around, moving in and out of different rooms on our

is my new venture where we’re developing and testing

virtual campus. Our workroom is ours for as long as we

a

work together, so that means we can leave our (virtual)

personal responsibility as team leader. Then there’s my

notes and sketches on the walls, brainstorming away to

company challenge – we’re working with Siemens as

our hearts’ content without having to worry about wip-

part of their ecosystem crowdsourcing model – and my

ing them off. We’ve decorated it to make it our place.

innovation consulting assignment where we’re work-

I usually grab a (real) coffee and enjoy just hanging out

ing on an innovation health check for a local business,

in there. Today we have a  SCRUM SESSION, an intense

interviewing and collecting data before writing and

three-hour burst where we brainstorm and develop ide-

presenting our report back to the board. And there’s

as around a key part of the project. (We use the agile

my SDG challenge 2050 where we’re working to try and

methodology – all the projects which make up the core

tackle waste recycling in a novel way, doing our bit to

of my learning use this approach which we were intro-

think about and help with the United Nations frame-

duced to in a live orientation boot camp when we began

work agenda which our university has signed up to.

 value proposition for a childcare facility – that’s my

SCRUM SESSION

the course.) We use the meeting to plan next steps but

Scrum sessions are part of the ’agile innovation’ approach which is increasingly being adopted by organisations. It is a fast, high-intensity brainstorming session focused on dealing with a particular challenge.

also raise questions, help each other out with shared

Thankfully there aren’t any exams for this course – I’d

learning; if we have an issue we need help with we flag

hate that, never enjoyed it at school and couldn’t see the

it and a mentor will join us to work through it. There’s

point of cramming lots of facts in, working to hold them

also a feedback link to my concept-casts so I can get

long enough to write them down during the three hours

tailored resources to help me understand and work on

in the exam hall – and then forgetting what they were

things next time I check in there.

or why they mattered after that! I like that what I learn is what I do; it seems very different. Back then I felt like

All the students around here work on a project-based

a ship being loaded and unloaded, empty at the end.

learning model – everything we do is linked to some

Now I carry it with me, add to it, make it me.

kind of live project. I’m currently in four different teams

VI CHAP

117

Jane undergraduate STUDENT Jane,

What I like about this learning world is the focus on

HI, I'M SARAH

things that matter – it doesn’t feel “academic,” just learning things for their own sake. Instead it lets me engage with things I care about. I feel I am able to make a difference and it makes me want to learn more so I can make a bigger impact, really make change happen. And it feels like it is me, I’m not being pushed into wearing a standard set of “thinking clothes”; instead it’s tailored to me. I feel I’m stretched and challenged, but also supported.

Hints & Tips

It’s also great to be constantly meeting new people and having to learn to hit the ground running on new and challenging projects. I’ve made lots of friends and

GENERATIVE AIs

it’s also helped me see things from different points of

With intelligent algorithms and personalised approaches, GenAI can adapt to individual student needs, enhance engagement and foster critical thinking. By harnessing the power of GenAI, education can become more inclusive, accessible and tailored to the unique abilities and interests of each learner.

view. I really like the projects I work on where it’s not just business school students, but a team made up of These days our assessment is continuous, I’m steadi-

others following different courses. Sometimes the col-

ly building my learning portfolio, a kind of blog/diary

laboration is great, working with biology students, en-

wrapped around the actual results and documentation

gineers, lawyers, medics, I keep being surprised by the

of the projects I’m working on. My virtual assistant (VA)

different ways people can look at the world. Plus that

– I call her Sarah – is a generative AI chatbot, she helps

often helps us come up with great solutions to the chal-

by prompting me and together we capture what’s been

lenges they set us to work on!

useful. She also helpfully packages it up into my digital

I like having my personal mentor, my coach. An-

portfolio, a kind of live CV which I can share with po-

nette’s much more than a lecturer, though she knows

tential employers when I start job hunting.

her stuff – she’s a guide, a critical friend, a signpost and

118

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

so much more. I can’t help thinking she must enjoy this side of things as well – I can’t imagine how it must have been for her in the old days when she started out. ­Annette (my human coach) and Sarah (my VA) work together to help me faciltate my learning journey. How can you look out over a sea of faces in a lecture hall and just try to broadcast the knowledge you hope they want without any idea of what they are actually thinkHints & Tips

ing? Now I feel Annette has become a close companion; she’s been supporting me for the past two and a half years and the idea of her being my guide on my own

HUMAN-MACHINE COLLABORATION We need to design a learning environment where humans will collaborate with responsible GenAIs to provide the personalised learning experience tailotred to future learners.

learning journey isn’t as corny as it sounds – it really works for me. (Mind you, they did try to replace her with AI – that was an experiment I’d like to forget! I guess the university were trying to improve productivity and saw a way of automating the support – it just wasn’t the same.) It’s great having a VA to help me log what I’m doing, organise my timetable, that kind of thing. But you need someone human to talk to, especially when you’re trying to work something complex out in your head. Plus you can’t sit in the café and have a coffee with a robot!

IN ­ YO U C A N ’ T S I T H AV E THE CAFÉ AND A A COFFEE WITH ­R O B O T !

VI CHAP

119

Jane undergraduate STUDENT Jane,

What don’t I like about the course? Well, for one thing,

a wonderful digital twin to the real campus – we often

I feel guilty – it’s quite expensive. If it weren’t for my

have team meetings sitting on the grass by the virtual

parents I couldn’t afford it, so I wonder about those who

lakeside. But it’s no substitute for the real thing, the

can’t. I know there are scholarships and things, but

place and the people.

nonetheless it feels like this is a great experience which everyone should have access to – and they don’t.

What next? I’ve got lots of ideas about what I’d like to do, can see where I might make a difference and the

Definition

Another thing sometimes is the whole virtual interac-

kind of work I’d like to be involved with – leading a

tion bit – I know it’s got lots of advantages, means I can

team, working on social innovation projects. Thanks to

meet people from all around the world and work with

the project-based learning and the internships, I’ve had

METAVERSITY

them, and it makes it possible to get good teachers and

a chance to try out a few potential employers and there

high-quality input. But the face-to-face dimension is

are one or two with whom I’m beginning to have con-

something I miss – I realise that when we have a “live”

versations. That’s another good thing about this course

session working on a project with local students for lo-

– you get to “taste and try before you buy,” have a good

cal organisations. Sometimes it’s good to be real.

look at what you might end up doing before you have to

The idea of a metaversity is one being tried by a number of players – for example the Nova School of Business and Economics in Portugal. A metaverse is a world built around virtual reality (VR) and it’s seen as possibly game-changing in the field of education. It’s one reason why Facebook changed its name to Meta – they see this as their next big strategic bet.

commit. I’m looking forward to it, feel like this univerMETAVERSITY is

sity time has really helped shape me and given me the

pretty good and it works as a virtual place to enable

momentum to launch my career. I’m going to miss it

us getting together. But it’s not the same as physical-

when I graduate next year, though from what I’ve seen

ly being in the same room, feeling the same weather,

going on to a job won’t be the end of my learning. There

reacting to the same things going on around you. Not

seem to be lots of opportunities to keep going, continu-

that I blame the university – they’ve tried their best. I

ing the journey. Who knows, I might even end up com-

like the way the university have tried to hang on to the

ing back and doing the kind of thing Annette is doing,

history – they’ve preserved the old buildings and the

sharing her experience with the next generation.

It’s the same with the spaces – the

gardens, made it a lovely space to spend time in. Made

« 

120

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

VII CHAP

JESSICA VERSTIY S E N I O R ­U N I

M A N AG E R

r is just like any othe ty si er iv un a g in nn “People think ru for it. strategy and then go r ea cl a t se – ss ne r large busi – everyone has thei ts ca g in rd he e lik But it’s not! It’s of them try and get enough to is b jo y m d an s own idea er.” move forward togeth n ca e w at th so e re to ag

121

I

guess we began rethinking the mission of the university 10 years ago – it was part of our birthday cele-

brations, the 250th anniversary of our founding. We decided to ask ourselves the big question: What should a university be? We conceived the idea of “kinetic knowledge” – putting knowledge in motion, not just accumulating and creating it in research labs or dusty libraries, but moving it around, sharing it, above all passing it on to our students who act as carriers. That’s how you have impact on the world. Sure we’ve got world-class research, our staff are well published and ranked and rated, but it’s the knowledge movement that matters. And that’s a two-way (or multi-way) street. We need to understand what new knowledge is needed and how the world is changing and allow knowledge to be pulled through from us as well as pushed out from us. We try to get as close as we can to industry and government – run around the field of practice rather than sitting up the

XT BU IL DI NG TH E NE NI NG ­G EN ER AT IO N LE AR ­E NV IR ON ME NT

top of the hill watching from our ivory tower. We’ve always done this, our partnership with the outside world is good but the boundaries have really shifted over the past ten years. We’re getting much closer and involving them in our strategy, just as they increasingly bring us into theirs, especially in the area of human resource

122

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

planning. Knowledge-based enterprises in the economy depend on knowledge workers to drive them – and that’s what we supply. And that’s my job – as part of the top team, I’m responsible for strategy and in particular for reaching out, making this kinetic knowledge thing really happen. We’re making progress – there are some things I’m proud of. These days, half of our chairs are not just enHints & Tips

dowed but actively managed by their sponsors – companies, foundations and others. They’re not just consulting outposts, places where companies can tap into

CREATING WEALTH FROM KNOWLEDGE For a review of some of the challenges facing universities in putting knowledge into motion, see Creating Wealth from Knowledge: Meeting the Innovation Challenge (Venables & Bessant, 2008).

our knowledge base – they are people who are explicitly engaged. Those professors function as nodes around which knowledge collects and we’re all clear that their responsibility is to communicate the knowledge that they create. And they help us build bridges to the wider community, creating the infrastructure across which our community can more actively engage. That shows through particularly with student projects. Whereas in the past we had isolated research projects and limited opportunities for internships, now it’s a part of every student’s life to be engaged with “real-world” challenges in a “real-world” context and to learn though

K N OW L E D G E LL ­E C O N O M I E S W I ­ UTURE — BUT BE THE F ON T H AT   D E P E N D S T CREMORE THAN JUS DGE, AT I N G K N O W­L E T IT W E   H AV E T O P U I N TO M OT I O N .

VII CHAP

123

Jessica SENIOR ­U NIVERSTIY MANAGER Jessica,

that experience. For the companies and public sector or-

prided ourselves on being a “full-spectrum universi-

ganisations who provide these opportunities, it makes

ty” representing many different knowledge sets. But in

a great deal of sense – it’s a very effective recruitment

the past that was hard to support, and we had constant

process through which they can screen and match skills,

bickering over resources, with staff retreating into de-

abilities and personalities much more effectively.

fensive silos. We resembled a 17th-century picture of Germany, all little castles and fiefdoms! But now we’re

And we’ve changed a lot in our approaches to what we

focusing the broad spectrum of skills and perspectives

teach and how we teach it, moving much more towards

which we can offer on big challenges, aligning our dif-

the kind of “grand challenges” which society faces and

ferent knowledge resources to help deal with them.

at the same time trying to help shape realistic learning opportunities for students, allowing them to work

That’s why learners like us. They want a university

on projects in context and developing an understand-

to be relevant in a complex world and they want the

ing of some of the challenges in the implementation

knowledge they acquire to help them deal with it. They

of new ideas as well as their creation. We adopted the

recognise challenges don’t come in neat disciplinary

targets in the United Nations Sustainable Development

packages. Our courses are much more like spaghet-

Goals (SDGs) early on – it was a good thing to be seen to

ti now: learners choose and are guided along learning

be doing at the time, make them part of our declared

pathways rather than towards a specific qualification.

university strategy. But we’ve found that they resonate amongst our students and staff alike – they want to feel

That was a big battle for me and my colleagues. Get-

there’s a real purpose to what we do.

ting the education ministry and the other relevant authorities to accept that we could be trusted to ensure

Another issue has been that our partners in the outside

quality and design evolving curricula. We’ve finally

world face complex challenges which create a demand

caught up with the business world where things long   QUALITY CONTROL – inspection and

for interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary knowledge.

ago moved from

That’s become one of our key strengths. We’ve always

measurement and other costly overheads – to a world

Hints & Tips

CHALLENGE-DRIVEN UNIVERSITY A challenge-driven university develops students by putting them up against difficult problems and challenges for which there are no established answers.

Definition

QUALITY ­C ONTROL The idea of quality management has moved from one where everything is inspected and checked to one where quality is everyone’s responsibility and is built into processes from the outset.

124

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

where “quality” became embedded in our systems. We

revenue stream through in-house courses but it quickly

had to work hard to prove that we could be trusted and

got expanded. We realised that a key part of the ­“kinetic

didn’t need so much external intervention and over-

knowledge” strategy wasn’t just pushing knowledge

sight – now that is paying off. (Not that there isn’t still

out to the wider world, but instead helping channel the

a long way to go – we teach students about  MINIMUM

huge demand for knowledge. And that came much more

VIABLE BUREAUCRACY, but our practice still lags a long

from non-traditional students – people coming later in

way behind that!)

their lives to higher education, people wanting learning partnerships as part of their career development over

Definition

Nowadays our “degree” is available at different levels

the long term – and, of course, people much more ge-

from undergraduate through to the master’s level and

ographically distributed than we had taken account of.

beyond. But the content is rich and diverse and above

The world is our campus these days.

all student-focused; they pack their own suitcases to accompany them on their learning journeys. We might

We’d always had aspirations to be an international uni-

MINIMUM VIABLE BUREAUCRACY (MVB)

still train medics or engineers or lawyers, but we do so

versity, we even had recruitment offices and outposts

in ways that give them a much richer set of knowledge

in far-flung places like China and Latin America. But

This means working with the minimum amount of structure needed – decision points, upward referrals, etc. – for activities to happen.

to draw upon.

now we’ve got three times as many external students as internal ones, and they’re coming to us from all around

We’ve also needed to think hard about who we teach.

the world.

We’ve come to understand that there’s a much bigger world of “students” out there that we weren’t reaching.

This has forced us to confront the challenge of where

And so we set up a “digital academy” – our way of using

the boundary of the university actually lies. We used

new technologies to extend our reach. Our original target

to talk of “full-time” and “part-time” students, or use

was to reach back to our alumni and in particular work

other labels which implied different levels of participa-

with them and their organisations to provide continu-

tion in the life of the university. But now we don’t make

ing development opportunities. That generated a useful

that kind of distinction any more. We try very hard to

VII CHAP

125

Jessica SENIOR ­U NIVERSTIY MANAGER Jessica,

mix the learning experience so there is an opportunity for face-to-face engagement where possible in our physical home environment. We think the “groves of academe” are rather important; they provide a special place for reflection and conversation and exploration.

LEARNING

We’ve even used a great deal of our recent income for work on this, creating a peaceful parkland campus – a bit like a knowledge resort! The purpose of this is to provide a physical reference point for the kind of intellectual activity we want to help develop. Our “students” have also changed – we call them “learners” now. This is a deliberate rebranding because we see them being the agents of their own learning journeys. We see our role as a university is to be the enablers, the curators, the tour guides, the coaches, the travelling companions. But, of course, not everyone can attend all the time, so we’ve had to work really hard not only to create opportunities for physical visits but, also to recreate in a virtual space the elements, philosophy and underlying values of this approach. We began an ambitious programme 10 years ago to create a “digital twin” of our university – our “metaversity – in which we used the

RS E SU PP OR TI NG DI VE YS NE UR LE AR NN G JO

126

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

Link

A good example of the 'extended university' is this Southern New Hampshire Universitys programme offering courses to help people in refugee camps transform their lives through access to new skills.

Definition

growing technologies around augmented and virtual

a field trip to an ancient archaeological site or visiting

reality to create an alternative learning environment in

a state-of-the-art technical facility is so much easier

digital form. We had some early wins – having virtual

when you can take a virtual trip there!

meeting spaces and learning to use the right tools to make those productive spaces helped us with our ex-

It’s taken a while, but I love putting on my VR headset

pansion plans. It’s much easier scheduling lectures for

and taking a stroll around the place, seeing students

thousands of new students when you can do so online

by the lakeside, watching animated conversations hap-

and in asynchronous fashion. We’ve become a 24/7 uni-

pening and hearing voices raised in argument – despite

versity by accident; since we engage with learners in

the fact that the participants are in reality separated by

time zones spread right across the world, we’ve had to

thousands of miles!

learn to operate in a similar fashion. We’re always open these days! These are massive open online courses and represent a growing range of courses aimed at reaching a very wide audience with educational inputs. They are often linked to ’micro-credentials’ – small certificates of progress which can be accumulated towards more formally recognised degrees and similar qualifications.

So, yes, technology has made a big difference. We always knew we could reach people through using tech-

MOOCS

It was clear from those early experiments that technol-

nology and in the early decades of this century we

ogy could help us become more efficient – but we risked

looked at the experience of “distance universities” like

losing some of the other elements of the university ex-

the Open University in the UK; the University of Phoenix

perience. Being able to walk around a physically relax-

and

ing campus, have informal conversations whilst stroll-

and Monterrey Tec in Mexico. We knew we could deliver

ing around the grounds, hosting open-air seminars on

quality to many more learners and indeed that was part

the grass – all that real-world stuff was missing. So we

of my brief as vice president, responsible for growing

began to work with some great architects to imagine –

our coverage. I looked at everything from

and then realise – a virtual campus which was about

online diplomas, certificates and full-scale online pro-

replicating the kind of physical experience of being at a

grammes, to different modes of access, including satel-

place of learning. A big part of that was finding ways to

lite campuses.

leverage the technology to our advantage – organising

 Southern New Hampshire University in the USA;

  MOOCS to

VII CHAP

127

Jessica SENIOR ­U NIVERSTIY MANAGER Jessica,

We’d been playing with the idea of using technology, but it wasn’t until COVID-19 hit that we were forced into action. Suddenly I had the urgent challenge of gearing us up for remote learning. We’d no idea how long or how bad the pandemic would be – we just knew that if our 250-year history wasn’t going to come to a shuddering stop, then we had to change. On the plus side, I was

T H E ­C O V I D -1 9 PA N D E M I C ­K I C K - S TA R T E D IN A   R E VO L U T I O N T H E   W AY W E INE ­A P P R O A C H O N L LEARNING.

given a complete free hand (and, more importantly, a

Hints & Tips

very large chequebook) with which to make the change happen. The easy part (a relative term!) was the equipment, hardware and software. I bought thousands of Zoom licences, we upgraded our IT, focused the techies on support and rolling an infrastructure that could provide a temporary solution. But all of this was merely a stepping stone towards what I realised was going to have to be a much more fundamental change. And one which had real implications in a positive direction for the future, in particular helping me with my outreach mission and with our strategic objective of becoming a significant player on the international stage. Our big challenge was not in hardware and software but in the skills, the attitudes, the Weltanschauung (world-

PANDEMIC-POWERED TRANSITION This article gives an overview of how COVID-19 forced changes in the way learning is delivered.

128

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

view) of our staff – that was the hard part. Whether we

Hints & Tips

Quotes

were talking about lecturers or support staff, the same comment came all the time, the longing to go back to “normal.” And students were the same; in fact, we experienced quite a backlash at the change to remote learning. They complained that they were missing the face-to-face university experience, and the quality of technology enabling remote learning was not necessarily very high. They too wanted “back to normal” stuff. We were all learning, and in particular it became clear to me that we needed to create new learning resources, complementing books and lectures. We’d also need to try to move to a more “flipped” mode where students came pre-prepared with questions rather than passive appetites. Our remote technologies didn’t do a good job of “broadcasting” – what works in a live setting with a lecturer doesn’t always translate when delivered online. We needed to look at how professional broadcasters got their messages across and adopt some of their approaches. We also needed to rethink how we organised coaching and mentoring on a more individual basis, going back to a model closer to that of the 15th century where people would “read” for a degree under guidance.

»We must bear in mind, then, that there is nothing more difficult and dangerous, or more doubtful of success, than an attempt to introduce a new order of things in any state. For the innovator has for enemies all those who derived ­advantages from the old order of things, whilst those who expect to be benefited by the new institutions will be but like lukewarm defenders.« MACHIAVELLI

VII CHAP

129

Jessica SENIOR ­U NIVERSTIY MANAGER Jessica,

­Technology gave us an opportunity to do this, but mak-

We’ve certainly had our share of those encounters.

ing the transition was not easy. I wouldn’t say it was

I’m not sure what was hardest – changing the way our

about dragging certain people kicking and screaming

teachers and support staff saw themselves and our role,

into the 21st century, but my arms often ached at the

or changing the expectations of the bureaucrats and of-

end of a working day!

ficials with whom we need to interface – we’re still part

We were lucky; we’d always had a small department

of the formal state education system here in Germany.

within the education faculty which had experience and

Convincing them that our core values of academic ex-

knowledge about different modes of learning, the po-

cellence wouldn’t be compromised by changing the ap-

tential of new technologies and the challenges in mak-

proach we took – and that we could have an even more

ing use of them. But now this became a key resource

significant impact if we were allowed to change it.

for us in forming a new strategy around outreach and connection at scale. We now have close to half a million

It’s been hard; it’s required a lot of resources but, we’ve

students compared to the 40,000 we had in 2022. But

reinvented ourselves. I think our founder would be

importantly this is not just about volume; this is how to

proud to see his institution still being relevant in the

enable learning without compromising quality. The in-

middle of the 21st century and that we’re still putting

novation researcher Clayton Christensen had foreseen

knowledge into motion.

this kind of  DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION in the higher education sector and we were fortunate to be able to ride the wave rather than be swamped by it. It’s not been easy – sometimes it’s felt like pushing an impossibly heavy rock up a very steep hill. I have a framed picture above my desk of Machiavelli who certainly understood a few things about innovation.

It’s changed my job and it’s certainly changed me.

« 

Definition

DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION This takes place when an existing market is challenged by the emergence of an innovation running along a very different trajectory. Usually, disruptive innovations involve simple lower-cost solutions which appeal to a different market but which are also attractive to the mainstream.

130

part 3

VIII

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

CHAP

N ATA L I A R  ­A D M I N I S T R AT O UNIVERSITY

– om of the university ro ne gi en e th in “I feel like I’m ep the ship moving ke n ca e w re su e it’s my job to mak ople ted waters. Those pe ar ch un d an w ne forward into rections but it’s us di g in st re te in in t get on the bridge poin got the machinery to ve e’ w re su e ak m who have to us there!”

131

I EXPERIENTIAL & CHALLENGE-BASED LEARNING

joined the university back in 2018, when a new space for learning was constructed to host collaborative

learning, teamwork and prototyping activities, which traditional classrooms and lecture halls could not accommodate. My role at the time was twofold: first, manage the space, and second, provide support for the activities organised there. I was given the title of a “­coordinator” in a small team of three people, all tasked

Hints & Tips

in different ways with designing and implementing a set of student learning experiences that led to innovation. The activities were experiential and experimental, using human-centred design methodologies to tackle real-life challenges. The latter also meant that I had to establish relationships and regularly interact with people outside the university boundaries. After all, “real” challenges to the students had to come from the “­ real world,” especially from the industry, which was also targeted in hope of financial support.

TO NE W AP PR OACH ES LI NG TH E LE AR NI NG AR E OI AT IO N W HE EL S OF ED UC

It wasn’t long after I started working that it became obvious that my role and tasks were far beyond the typical clerical tasks of a university administrator. In fact, what attracted me to the position when I first read the advertisement was a certain openness and flexibility to the job description that linked to the newness, and thus

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING is an engaged learning process whereby students “learn by doing” and by reflecting on the experiences.

132

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

uncertainties, of the educational initiative at hand. It

similar initiatives globally and used these connections

was very exciting to be part of an initiative that was

to explore new kinds of activities and collaborations,

self-labelled as “a prototype for the future of education,”

like study visits, shared courses and research projects.

but understanding what exactly that meant in practical terms and then explaining to others was far from easy.

Right before the COVID-19 pandemic started, I became actively involved in a research project I helped acquire

Definition

HACKATHONS are events that bring together people from different disciplines and backgrounds to engage in rapid and collaborative design and engineering activities in order to find innovative solutions to a specific challenge.

During the first few of years of working, I spent a lot of

that put me in touch with an international community

time trying to grasp and explain the activities I was in-

of people who were trying in different ways to pave a

volved in. Yes, I still had to deal with room reservations

new way of learning in different settings, from elemen-

and manage visits, but most of my energy was directed

tary schools to beyond universities. Naturally, my day-

toward coordinating and organising activities that fell

to-day space-management tasks became meaningless

outside of the established and credit-earning courses. I

during the pandemic, when virtual learning became

developed contacts with industry partners and started

the norm. Gradually, more people joined the team, each

  HACKATHONS that were open

with different threads of my original tasks. One per-

not only to the university students, but others beyond.

son focused explicitly on strengthening connections to

In parallel, I became involved with student groups

the industry; another one building relationships with

that were interested in innovation and were attracted

all sorts of different stakeholders that were relevant

to the challenge-driven and experimental spirit that

to a specific challenge students had to tackle; and yet

this initiative strived to nurture. Importantly, I spent

another dealing with the organisation of the courses

a lot of time and effort in trying to collect information

themselves, which increased in numbers as the years

and communicate to the rest of the university admin-

went by.

organising innovation

istration, from academic programme directors to senior management, what it was that I and my colleagues

These days I’m at the centre of a bustling learning envi-

were doing. Strategically, I also established connections

ronment. My work couldn’t be busier and more exciting!

and became involved in an international network of

There are different challenge-driven innovation cours-

VIII CHAP

133

NATALIA UNIVERSITY ­A DMINISTRATOR NATALIA,

UNICORNS

es that now run in parallel, accommodating hundreds of students at the same time (rather than a privileged handful the first courses could handle); and there are regular innovation hackathons, many of which are organised as a weekend getaway for students in one of the many innovation spaces that now exist outside the university campus cityscape that have been designed pre-

Hints & Tips

cisely for concentrated and creative collaborative work. At any given time, there are about 100 students (which is a big number for a relatively small university) in companies, conducting field visits, or who are engaged in the research at hand (research that is directly related NEXT LEVEL

to real-world challenges). And there is almost an equal amount of faculty, teaching staff and coaches that are involved in the student activities. In addition, there is a new brand of admin support staff that help pave the pathway for the students to continue their projects beyond the classroom. I’m very proud of the couple of successful spin-offs that I have helped realise in the past decade! That’s right – two student projects made

D CH AL LE NG E- BA SE IN G LE AR NI NG IS DR IV IN NOVATI ON

it through the next level; they are nowhere near close to being unicorns, but they are established companies with sizable personnel and a sustainable/environmentally friendly approach.

CHALLENGE-BASED LEARNING is a collaborative learning experience in which teachers and students work together to learn about compelling issues, propose solutions to real problems and take action.

134

Definition

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

Although a lot has been achieved and many positive

frequently receive because the answer from the AI bot

changes have occurred, there are many challenges that

is not trusted (even if it’s exactly the same as mine!).

remain. For starters, no matter how many platforms I LIFELONG LEARNING is the pursuit of knowldge throughout one’s entire life, outside or after the completion of formal education. It’s particularly important for enhancing personal and professional development and employability. Lifelong learning is ongoing and self-­ motivated.

have tried, it is still difficult to establish a communi-

Another challenge that I face these days is organising

cation channel for sharing information and documents

  LIFELONG LEARNING experiences that are in high de-

that everyone likes and checks. There are so many more

mand. My organisation started offering these back in

options now than about a decade ago and I wonder

2025, when the university ran a pilot programme as

whether that might be part of the problem with com-

part of an EU-funded project that aimed to break the

mitting to one platform. Equally challenging from a

silos between university courses and those that are

purely administrative sense is keeping track of every-

normally run by community lifelong learning centres.

one’s agenda. As learning has become more person-

If we aimed to tackle real-life challenges, we needed

alised and tailored to specific individuals’ or cohorts’

to try not only to mix students with other disciplines,

needs, finding a time for shared activities has become

but also with different ages and experiences in life. And

a nightmare.

so, we designed a challenge-driven course that accepted people that were not registered at the university,

Thankfully, I’ve been working more and more with an

people that were retired, self-employed, unemployed or

AI bot that takes care of a lot of the mundane activities

had permission from their full-time workplace to par-

like checking schedules, finding and booking rooms,

ticipate. Although the pilot was difficult to implement

buying materials and following up with everyone’s

administratively, having 18-year-olds working side

tasks. Most are now used to having conversations with

by side with 48- and 68-year-olds, it was a huge suc-

an AI bot, apart from some of the older faculty who find

cess both in terms of the course outcomes and also the

it rude to receive a message from a machine rather than

learning experience.

from myself. Well, these people will be retiring soon, I oftentimes think, especially when I find myself having

Once the EU funds were no longer there to pay the or-

to cut and paste obvious answers to questions that I

ganisational expenses, I worked hard on finding an-

VIII CHAP

135

NATALIA UNIVERSITY ­A DMINISTRATOR NATALIA,

I’ve held different titles throughout the years – from co-

IPLE B R I D G I N G M U LT TO WO R L D S - H OW ITIES BRING UNIVERS IR C LO S E R TO T H E C O N T E X T.

ordinator to manager to associate director – but perhaps the one that best describes my work today is that of an “orchestrator.” I’m the person that ensures that the roles, needs and voices of everyone involved in these challenge-driven experimental and experiential learning experiences are handled with care, so that everyone works together in harmony. Naturally, this task has been far from easy, especially in the early days, when the team was growing, and new roles were not easy to separate from each other.

swers to questions around how to make these courses

People used to tread on each other’s toes, time was

sustainable. Could companies support us or should we

wasted in time-consuming coordination meetings,

charge fees? How much should we charge if people were

while tasks remained unchecked because it wasn’t clear

not interested in credits or degrees? At least I didn’t

who was supposed to do what. At least today several

have to worry about where these new initiatives should

positions that did not exist back in 2018 are understood

take place, as a couple of years earlier I had managed

as well as a position like a secretary was at the time.

to claim and transform a big university lecture hall that

And, importantly, I no longer need to explain what

had hardly been used into an open and flexible space

 “prototyping the future of learning means because,

appropriate for teamwork. In addition, a big deserted

although it is not set in stone, the infrastructure and

warehouse that was owned by the town hall was made

approach that I have helped put in place is at once solid

into a makerspace and I had permission from the may-

and flexible. 

or herself to use it for the kinds of meaningful learning activities I managed.

Link

« 

Prototyping the Future of Learning: Reflections After ­S even Iterations of Challenge-Based Innovation (2014 – 2020) (Papageorgiou et al., 2021)

136

part 3

IX

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

CHAP

A N NRAM A N A G E R SENIO

l about e – these days it’s al m ti e th l al ng gi an “My job’s ch t of smart young ou st be e th g in tt recruiting and ge ks – ng to learn new tric vi ha ep ke I . us g in people join we don’t deliver on if d an ns io at ct pe they’ve got high ex !” meone else who will them they’ll find so

137

I

work for a big international company. I’m 45 and am based in London. I joined the company when I was

still a fresh graduate and have been working for 20 years across different divisions and roles. I have made my way to the top of the corporate ladder and today I oversee a team of 50 people located in different countries. Podcast

The company is expanding, and I need to make sure

Podcast im Text

that the right talent is there and that the company can recruit talented people. Before, my new hires were all about the remuneration, job stability and bonus package, but I feel that there is a shift now. Gen Zers entering the workforce are more multicultural, they look to progress quickly and adapt, and they do not want job security with a guaranteed pension – they seek diverse work activity and experiences. Young adults are more entrepreneurial, tolerant, trustworthy and less motivated by money. They also seem to be more positive about the future, purpose-driven and

OW ’S TR AI NI NG TO MO RR TA LE NT

environmentally concerned. Younger graduates are very conscious of looming water shortages which indicates that they have a high sense of responsibility toward our natural resources. They are also less inclined, though, to participate in their communities than earlier generations.

LEARNING TO ­S PEAK GEN X, Y, Z AND BEYOND This video interview with Henry Rose Lee shares her experiences in helping organisations understand the diversity across different age groups.

138

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

Our new recruits not only demand a flexible way of working, but they expect us to have it; to allow them to thrive at work and for the organisation to support them in their development and growth. It is an interesting challenge for us as managers going forward to strike a balance between ensuring profits and satisfying our purpose-driven workforce.

RGEN ZERS ENTE I N G T H E WO R KRE FORCE ARE MO , M U LT I C U LT U R A L PROT H E Y LO O K TO G R E S S ­Q U I C K LY D A N D A D A P T, A N ANT T H E Y D O N OT W J O B S E C U R I T Y.

Being a more traditional company, we are still transitioning to allow more flexible ways of working. For this, I work closely with HR to support change in our policies. So far, we as a company participate in well-being indexes like HappyIndex®AtWork. This allows my collaborators to indicate what they think about our work culture, environment, roles, etc. This index is public and anyone can access it. My company allows for flexible contracts more and more. Employees in our team can decide whether they want to decrease their contracts to focus on personal projects or take time off to study, travel or volunteer. These flexible work arrangements don’t come without a challenge, as we also need to make sure that our business division runs smoothly. But we see how it results in a more positive working culture where employees

IX CHAP

139

ANNA SENIOR MANAGER ANNA,

who opt for flexible work arrangements share what

ways on top of their full-time job; they did not have

they’ve learned, challenge our way of working and help

time to experiment with deploying these new skills.

us improve continuously and support employees in their projects.

I think what’s become important is the need to facilitate and allow learning throughout one’s life. No matter

We are now much more flexible when it comes to choos-

the age and preferences of the learner, there is a need

ing the environment and place where our collaborators work. I have to admit that with COVID-19 many of us were sceptical and we even had to push people back to the office once lockdown was over. But we also learned that not everyone wants to be back in the office; we need to be more accomodating and create setups that allow us to work remotely without having any penalties on our efficiencies. I love this because it empowers my team to build the working environment that fits their needs best. Our company is much more active in setting trajectories for lifelong learning journeys. We were always active in proposing training modules for our employees, bringing different consultants and trainers on board for individual and collective training activities. But now we do much more than that. The reason for that is that despite our rich educational portfolio, employees were not using these learning opportunities fully, as they were al-

IP LE TH ER E AR E MU LT G PATH WAYS LE AD IN RE TO YO UR FU TU

140

Hints & Tips

T-SHAPED SKILLSET Learning designers of the future need to have ‘T-shaped’ skill sets – a metaphor used in job recruitment and popularised by IDEO CEO Tim Brown. The vertical in the ‘T’ represents a deep skill in one area, and the horizontal bar represents an ability to collaborate and apply knowledge across areas.

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

to support reskilling and upskilling in better ways. I be-

The learning journeys are designed in collaboration

lieve this is all just an outcome of the shifting of the

with many institutions. They have several learning

workplace and shifting of expectations within work.

designers within their HR team. Their role is to design

We don’t expect experts to come to our workplace any

a learning journey for each employee based on their

more, we expect learners who are ready to adjust, giv-

needs and then help them adjust these learning jour-

en the shifting nature of their work. That is why re-

neys regularly. This role is new to the company, but it

cruitment now is based on mindsets and not on tech

changes so much: it helps to carefully design and devel-

skills. We look for people who are open-minded, system

op learning experiences with the right partners. They

thinkers, people who deal with uncertainty and who

have a digital platform where employees can follow on

ask questions .

their learning journey, express their needs and follow their progress.

But my company is accountable to help our collaborators thrive and learn. Therefore, every employee has a

They have also paired this platform with an internal

lifelong learning coach based on their preferences and

pool of ideas and requests. Employees can volunteer

learning needs. These coaches are workers for our or-

their newly acquired skills to handle projects in other

ganisation as well. Every single employee (even the

units (even if this is outside their day-to-day job). They

most senior ones) has a coach. These coaches are not

see how our learning journeys contribute to greater

chosen based on their level of seniority but based on the

agility and the ability to better capitalise on new tech-

needs that a specific person has. For example, I am now

nologies. This in turn can generate a significant com-

coached by my 21-year-old hire on using the metaverse

petitive advantage in existing and new markets.

and exploring how generative AIs can improve our work practices responsibly. The coaches rotate but can still follow their trainees later. They do this to create a culture of support and cohesion within the team.

IX CHAP

141

ANNA SENIOR MANAGER ANNA,

How are these learning initiatives funded? This was one of the biggest challenges for me and my company. They have a mixed system. When joining a company, each employee receives a budget (a mixture of monetary budget and coins to be used) for their learning. This budget increases every year, not only based on their performance, seniority, etc., but also based on the application of skills learned through their platform. They have a real marketplace where employees contribute to tasks and receive rewards in the form of coins to transform into learning opportunities or time to spend on their adventures. They have a system to help reflect on how

E T H E WO R K P L AC E NEEDS SHOULD FIT TH IN O F E M P L OY E E S R Y. THE 21ST CENTU

they applied the skills, helping to get a broader picture. Another way for employees to increase their budgets is to become trainers and coaches – to encourage learning by doing and a flipped classes policy. should be responsible to create a future that is more fit So the funding is a mixture of top-down funding allo-

for people – the kids and adults. I think there’s a need

cated by a company and also bottom-up where every-

for a paradigm shift in the future of education, and the

one is in charge of their budgets. They do so to help

future of work, so it’s important to prioritise better val-

people be active in deciding what type of learning is

ues, and a sense of values, and allow everybody to be

needed, what type of pedagogy. Their learning design-

empowered and to carve out their own niche in life and

ers are there to help as well.

do what they are excited about to live a purposeful life.

To conclude, I feel like the workplace should fit the needs of employees in the 21st century. Companies

Managers play an important role and need to support these shifts. 

« 

142

part 3

X

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

CHAP

K AT E

TEAM LEADER ormy first team in the ed in jo I n he w r be “I still remem that if I got to be a en th f el ys m ed is ganisation – I prom erye my team the one ev ak m to rd ha k or w manager I’d e cracked it yet, but I’v if re su ot N . in one wanted to be n.” in the right directio it seems to be going

143

I

never expected to find myself in this position. Or rather, I never thought about it. Back when I was a stu-

dent, I wasn’t clear at all where I was going, only that I wanted to make a difference. I liked the optional course

Definition

I could take around innovation and entrepreneurship, seemed to give me some information, some tools, some ideas about how I could make change happen. And that’s what I wanted. I toyed with the idea of starting something with a friend; we got as far as setting up an eco-stall for the student market at our university. We’d source Fairtrade products and try and find the things others weren’t offering – there was too much coffee and cocoa, too much jewellery, so we tried to find different, interesting stuff. Not easy – which is one of the reasons why our business never really flourished! But it was fun and we learned a lot. But when I graduated, the companies came looking for

E SH AP ­ TE AM LE AD ER S AR CE S OF IN G TH E WOR KP LA TO MO RR OW

us, trying to take on new talent with our skills. Mine was an engineering degree, electronics and mechanical combined, so I’m good at making things actually happen with this

  INTERNET OF THINGS. Robots are just

a part of it, everything needs interfaces and actuators, and that’s where I came in.

INTERNET OF THINGS The internet of things (IoT) refers to the many different devices which can now be built with some intelligence and communications capability. What this means in practice is that they can talk to each other and create ’smart’ environments – for example adapting the lighting, heating, entertainment and other systems in a home to the needs of different users.

144

Definition

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

I like the company, it matched at least some of my val-

responsibility for others as well as for delivering new

ues, was making energy devices to enable a transition

products on time and which worked! He was a great

to a   LOW-CARBON ECONOMY. And they seemed to like

boss, I’m trying to follow his example …

me, I was well paid and the hours were flexible – espeLOW-CARBON ECONOMY This refers to the various technologies being used to try and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by industries which contribute to global warming. Low-carbon solutions seek to minimise this impact in a variety of ways.

cially after the COVID-19 pandemic. I could work some

I love my job – it’s challenging and I still believe it

of the time from home – though that’s not easy when

makes a difference. We’re bringing the best of science

you need an expensive lab and equipment to realise

to make the tools to enable smart but safe and eco-sup-

your ideas! I got in the habit of using my mornings for

portive homes. I get to visit outside a lot, make con-

thinking, writing and meetings and then afternoons

nections, find out what’s going on, what’s needed and

(and many evenings!) in the lab with our team. These

how our products work in the wider context of people’s

days, that flexibility is a blessing since I’ve got two kids

homes.

at home; I like to think that I learned the discipline I needed back then and it helps me manage my work-life

But one of the best things is my role as a team lead-

balance now.

er, being responsible not just for getting people to do the job, their bit of the project, but giving them a sense

The company developed me, gave me the chance to

of purpose. Part of that is trying to help them develop

study more and I chose to dig deeper into this inno-

themselves, giving them the skills to do what they do

vation thing. I took a specialist master’s, though orig-

better and get where they want to go. Sounds like a cli-

inally I’d looked at an MBA. What I really liked about

ché, but a happy team is a productive one – and the best

the company was the way they were prepared to talk

way I’ve found to make them feel wanted isn’t by pay-

about the things I was learning and to make changes to

ing them, it’s by paying attention to their development.

our systems. I say “they” – it was really my line manag-

What and who they want to be as individuals.

er who did this. He was supportive but also interested, gave me lots of freedom to shape the way I worked. And

Our company has decentralised training and develop-

he promoted me to team leader, which meant I now had

ment; it used to be part of HR, but now they’re just the

X

CHAP

145

Kate TEAM LEADER Kate,

service team who help us get what we want to happen. I

to draw out of them their ideas, insights and anxieties –

sit with my team and work out a personal development

is a process that is really important. The company sent

plan with each of them, and then we get HR to help make

me on a   DESIGN THINKING course which gave me the

it happen. It’s great that the training world outside has

theory, but there was no substitute for actually doing it.

changed so much, it’s meeting us more than halfway

I learned about the tools I could use to help, but above

now. Where we’d have to go off site in the old days, and

all learned the process of bringing users into the inno-

give up precious days, now it comes to us, mostly in

vation process. And that’s something I really work on

the form of online and virtual stuff, but we still have a

with my team these days: co-creating in context with

workshop space where we can do live training.

customers – our “three Cs” mantra!

Plus, so much of it is linked directly to the context,

In project management – these days I’m not much of a

working on live projects, learning by doing and find-

team leader – I get them to take responsibility for the

ing the challenges and then drawing in expertise and

process. We work in agile fashion, lots of scrum meet-

knowledge to help equip us to deal with it.

ings and daily progress reviews reflecting on the last sprint and planning the next. My role is more and more

I remember this from my early days with the company.

that of a coach as they learn the skills of being in and

We were trying to create gadgets to put into “smart”

leading a team. That helps – means when someone from

homes so older people could continue to live inde-

my team is seconded to another project they’ve already

pendently in their own environment. We thought we

got the skills to hit the ground running. I get good feed-

understood their challenges, what they needed, and we

back on the quality of the people working with me –

were sure we could translate them into useful products.

trouble is, they don’t want to leave, even when there’s

I learned some hard lessons fast in those early projects

good promotion and development opportunities up

– but it was great that the company put me in the field

ahead for them!

to learn them. Took me a while before I realised that talking to the users – really listening and finding ways

Definition

DESIGN ­T HINKING is an approach which emerged out of recognition of the importance user voices had in shaping innovation. Pioneered by the design consultancy IDEO, it’s become a widely used methodology for organising and managing the innovation process.

146

Hints & Tips

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

One of the things I really enjoy is working with univer-

days, there’s a range of stuff which suits different peo-

sity students – the people I used to be. I guess I’m pro-

ple. They can learn alongside the job – and that makes

jecting a bit, but I try to create learning opportunities

for better, more knowledgeable and self-critical team

which I’d like to have had more of when I was studying.

members, not afraid to be change agents and to chal-

The chance to experience the real world but also to feel

lenge. We’ve always been an entrepreneurial company,

a part of it – not just a short internship, a bit of industry

but our growth owes a lot to the kind of people we now

tourism, but a real experience. They like it – it makes

have and their skills at making change happen as much

the stuff they are learning more relevant. And we like

as their technical skills.

it – they carry over new thinking and ideas plus we get PURPOSE-DRIVEN ORGANISATIONS focus beyond profit margins and returns on investments to craft strong mission statements and purpose-driven strategies.

to see them working in context. It beats the old recruit-

It’s been helped by technology – of course. There’s been

ment interview hands down!

a huge leap forward to the point where everything you

Where am I going to be in five years’ time? Probably with the same company, as long as I keep this kind of freedom to operate and the purpose and the values are aligned. But I’d like to be doing even more of the training and development side, bringing on others, it’s a bit like being a mum, seeing them grow and develop! I see myself as the one who organises and guides their learning even though I don’t necessarily “teach” them. There’s plenty of stuff on the supply side, courses have become much more flexible so you can really personalise things to an individual. Learning materials have improved – it’s more than books and lectures these

L ENTREPENEURIA S NEED ­O R G A N I S AT I O N S TO ENTREPRENEUR HEM KEEP DRIVING T F O R WA R D .

X

CHAP

147

Kate TEAM LEADER Kate,

might have had at the university – library, lecture hall,

dents like the real-world connection. I like it because

lab – is available in online format. We spend a lot of

I get to partner with my colleagues at the university

time in the virtual campus of our local university, get-

(some of whom taught me!) and because they ask me to

ting away as a team to learn new tools and techniques

help bridge the two worlds by sharing my experiences –

without having to physically spend too much time away

they even made me a visiting professor!

from the factory. In fact, we often use the virtual campus as a place in which to have our scrum sessions –

We’re not so interested in qualifications – the bits of

partly because my team is globally dispersed and we

paper that people have. What we’re concerned with is

run on different time zones for some projects. Having

what people can do – and this is one of the areas where

lunch/breakfast together under a (virtual) oak tree sat

things have changed in the right direction. These days,

on the grass is a nice way to kick off the project meeting!

the university assesses students through what they call

But the relationship with the university is more than

their experiences. In practice that means they get grad-

that – they have become our partners in the process I

ed on how well they’ve done the live projects they work

described before. Bringing people on board has nev-

on – which is good for us because now we can see what

er been more important, and finding the number and

people can actually do, not just what they know about.

  LEARNING PORTFOLIOS – essentially a collection of

quality of people is helped by having them as a channel, drawing in talent from across the world and connect-

That works the other way around as well. My team want

ing them with us. We design the internship projects to-

to develop themselves and they like having the univer-

gether and we share in the evaluation. Everybody wins

sity degrees and certificates to remind them of how well

– we get new insights as well as new, interesting stu-

they’re progressing. But these days they don’t have to

dents, they win because the student learning is inte-

write essays or sit exams, they can get credit for what

grated through focusing on a real-world challenge. We

they actually do, showing how they use the new knowl-

win because we get the chance to spot talent and sell

edge they’re acquiring.

ourselves as good employers; they win because the stu-

« 

Definition

LEARNING PORTFOLIOS are a purposeful collection of learners’ work that exhibits a student’s effort, progress, achievements and competencies gained.

148

part 3

XI

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

CHAP

ER A L E X A NLD YST POLICY ANA

ing ern knowledge-mak od m e th t ou ab s lk “Everyone ta in public adminon ti va no in r fo ed ne cial economy and the sitive change and so po e se to t an w e w istration. If e people who will th on s cu fo to ed innovation we ne tting – and that means pu e dg le ow kn at th e carry and us able collaboration en to e ac pl in s ie some clever polic ning.” and continuous lear

149

initiative for more than three years, but I planted the seeds for this almost 20 years ago, back when the Commission started putting a lot of emphasis on CIE and different platforms and funding lines to support these were established. It’s been a long and twisty, but very rewarding, journey! I have a PhD in the social sciences, which I received back when the 2008 financial crisis hit, so the prospects for landing a tenure-track position at the time were not looking very bright. I managed to get a couple of postdoctoral positions for a few years, all connected to

Hints & Tips

projects funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ or Framework programmes. I enjoyed conducting

T PO LI CI ES PU TT IN G TH E RI GH TS IN NOVA­ IN PL AC E SU PP OR VI TY TI ON AN D CR EATI

research on these big collaborative projects, and it was

NEW APPROACHES

through this work that I started to think about policy

Human-centred design, prototyping and experimentation in policy making can lead to more innovative and inclusive solutions to societal challenges.

work related to innovation and learning. So I left the academic world when I landed a short-term position at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and De-

I

velopment (OECD) working on a programme about the ’m a senior policy analyst and getting ready to go to

future of education and after a couple of years moved

an event organised by the European Commission to

to a similar position at the EC’s Joint Research Centre.

launch a programme for learning creativity, innovation

Once I finally became a full EU civil servant, I moved to

and entrepreneurship that is built on my life’s work and

Brussels where I worked toward the creation of an ini-

recommendations. I’ve been officially working on this

tiative to change the processes and tools used to foster

150

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

stakeholder and citizen engagement and enhance cre-

crisis, emphasised innovation, as well as other key-

ativity and participatory innovation in policymaking.

words as time went by such as sustainability and green skills. One of the first things I tried to do when the

Link

Labs for Social Innovation (Papageorgiou, 2017).

This initiative was modelled after the many versions of

lab was established was to put in place a methodolo-

 social labs, as opposed to scientific ones, that began

gy for the accumulation of knowledge from EU-funded

finding form in 2012. These included public and social

projects in the social sciences and humanities. Unlike

innovation labs (or PSI labs), government innovation

most research projects and labs in the natural sciences,

labs, design labs, change labs, living labs, do tanks, hubs

I found that social scientists appeared not to be taking

and hives, all of which were united in their approach

stock of the work already done, mistakes made or best

to using innovative and lab-like approaches to address

practices developed, thus wasting resources in repli-

real-life challenges. They featured an experimental ap-

cating efforts and conversations, convening yet another

proach, human-centred design, systems thinking, rap-

event or publishing a new guide. In the field of learn-

id prototyping, facilitated workshops, ethnographic

ing for innovation, specifically, it appeared as if every

methods, co-creation, citizen engagement and action

EU-funded project that dealt with innovation learning

research. These labs provided a setting where design

came out with its own “toolkit,” which, apart from its

and visual communication could contribute to co-cre-

design, was almost identical in its content to the other

ating and prototyping effective policies for all citizens.

innovation tools and templates.

They also prioritised foresight and horizon scanning in order to investigate the longer-term impact of pol-

I eventually set up a wiki-like page where I started the

icies and anticipate implications of emerging societal

curation of knowledge and information derived from

challenges. They were spaces that helped to radically

EU-funded initiatives. I put forward a template where

rethink how policy is created in the 21st century.

scholars, practitioners and policymakers alike could directly edit and expand. Importantly, once this new kind

My work within these labs focused on policy for re-

of “encyclopaedia” was established, all proposals for

search and education, which, since the 2008 financial

new projects had a resource to consult to check exactly

XI CHAP

151

Alexander POLICY ANALYST Alexander,

what was done before and then justify the specific con-

was started almost 20 years ago, has helped policy

tribution of the project against this body of knowledge

analysts get out of their armchairs and into the field,

and action. Eventually, national funding agencies took

bringing their observations and interlocutors into a

note of this initiative and joined these efforts, simul-

laboratory or a safe space for processing what has been

taneously putting pressure on academic practices and

discovered, along with the co-creation of more inter-

publication industry norms to pave the way for a new

ventions and further experimentation.

paradigm for formally assessing, conducting and disseminating research work.

Learning for creativity, innovation and entrepreneur-

Hints & Tips

ship is now also conducted in a collaborative way. TrainI have always been a believer that the findings of pub-

ing modules, toolkits and other resources are readily

licly funded research should not be hidden behind

available across ages, fields and industries. Instructors

FLEXIBILITY IS KEY

paywalls, but made widely available through open ac-

and coaches involved in these initiatives have diverse

cess repositories. It’s taken a while for the subscrip-

backgrounds and expertise. In fact, I’m now also able to

tion-based models to change, and this change was driv-

easily switch hats and act as a coach to a group of stu-

en by a sizable proportion of researchers and members

dents in challenge-driven learning. Most importantly,

of the general public who demanded to know, in prac-

learning is combined with action, so it is not unusual

tical and accessible ways, the results of scientific work.

to see students working alongside industrial partners,

Being able to change hats, and having an adaptive and flexible set of skills, is particularly important considering the constantly changing work environment.

their instructors, policymakers and members of the Making research more visible and ready to use slow-

public at large on societal problems of common inter-

ly led to changing the way academics interacted with

ests. The programme I have helped create is designed

industry, policy and society. Among the many positive

precisely to encourage more of these collaborations and

shifts I have observed during my career is the breaking

“learning action-driven” work. I’m so excited for its

down of silos between different sectors and increased

launch! 

communication and collaboration between them. The lab initiative and knowledge-sharing platform, which

« 

152

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

XII CHAP

ROB

SIGNER E ­D H C E T D ­E L A DIGIT EUR N E R P E R T N ­E D AN was the answer to gy lo no ch te at th k “I used to thin ning good bet but I’m lear ty et pr a ill st ’s It . everything much working with w ho d an , er tt be it how to shape doing that well.” others is the key to

153

M

y name is Rob, and I’m in my 40s. I have an IT and engineering background, but was always

passionate about education, about making it more personalised to my learning style. I was frustrated when I was a student because classrooms were not my thing. I preferred to be outside, learning with my pillars and focusing on specific challenges at hand. This is why I created an edtech company that creates customised learning journeys for students based on their needs. Hints & Tips

One exciting programme that my company is currently bringing to the class is to explain artificial intelligence to students, help them learn how to interact with ChatGPT. “We are opening the black box of AI to students and their parents by showing that it is not magic.” The course shows students where they can use AI and machine learning every day and helps them build

RE LE AR NI NG DE SI GN IN G FU TU TE CH NO LO GY

their own machine learning system by following all the steps. The programme sparks their curiosity, but also helps them be less scared about the future ahead of them, more prepared. The goal is to give students skills to master and learn these technologies, and design their own ones.

FUTURE WITH MACHINES AI and machine learning are not a panacea but can be employed to make learning more ­i nteractive and immersive.

154

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

As I often say, we are the disruptors in the area – many innovation mainstays are no longer accepted in the education space, we all know it but we stick to them as the system is so slow to change. I think that many teaching techniques need to be reconsidered when digital education helps make things more efficient, interactive and manageable. My role focuses on leveraging the power of technology to create positive change for learning, for collaboration. Hints & Tips

I still see a lot of places where technology is poorly used in education. We just replace traditional lecture halls with online screen sharing and paper with the screen.

DIGITAL PEDAGOGY

This is wrong! For me it should be about changing the

It is important to carefully consider when, how and why technology is used, ensuring that no student is left behind because they have no access to tools and infrastructures.

styles of teaching, making it more intuitive, interactive and immersive. In my role, we are supporting education regardless of the place, the organisation, the level of education by creating new learning spaces. Students use multiple media sources simultaneously, sitting alongside people from different disciplines who are solving very different problems, alone or in groups.

W E N E E D TO ­P O W E R ­L E V E R A G E T H E   Y O F T E C H N O LO G ITIVE T O  ­C R E AT E ­P O S CHANGE FOR ­L E A R N I N G .

XII CHAP

155

ROB DIGITAL E ROB, ­ DTECH ­D ESIGNER AND ­E NTREPRENEUR

For me, it is important that learning experiences are not

tal divide that is being created, the access to tools and

seen as closed systems but that they evolve over time,

infrastructure, etc. The key for me is digital pedagogy:

that students and teachers have a possibility to always

we need to carefully think when technology is used,

adjust them to the needs at hand, improve them – be-

for what purpose, what the right support is and how

come active players and be able to adapt the systems

it helps. For example, there are a lot of discussions on

to their learning preferences. This became apparent to

the harmful effects of screens. Here we need to think

me when my own son joined a traditional school. Hav-

about the uses. If it means passively watching a screen

ing autism, my son was not getting the education and

then yes, but if we ensure that students interact with

support he needed and there was a lack of therapeutic

each other, having time to discuss what they see on the

support to help him engage effectively with learning.

screen or use technology, for example, to write essays

For example, many autistic kids are highly visual and

together, annotate each other’s work, then it allows for   PEER-TO-

instructions should reflect this. It is important that our

collaboration, for collective reflection and

learning programmes reflect different preferences and

PEER LEARNING. Similarly, VR can be used to conduct

requirements of students in an inclusive way; learning

activities like bringing students into a totally different

designers should be trained to consider these elements

environment for meditation, for better understanding

when developing new practices. My company is highly

of other learning settings that they can also discuss in

vocal in developing tools and practices to consider in-

class together.

clusive design and pedagogy, both in class and in online environments.

For me, learning should be designed by using technology but we always need to put the students at the centre,

What is important in my role is to make sure that tech-

reflect on their needs, what they get from this experi-

nology, is used to its full potential. Technology is a tool,

ence and how it can be improved by involving them in

and depending on the pedagogy and practices it can

creating the learning landscape that is flexible to create

create positive change or lead to negative outcomes.

dynamic learning environments. 

Of course, there is a dark side to technology: the digi-

« 

Definition

PEER-TO-PEER LEARNING is a mutual learning and training strategy that involves participants of the same level engaging in collaborative learning. Simply put, peer-to-peer learning is when one or more learners teach other learners.

156

part 3

XIII

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

CHAP

RICK

 ­T R A I N L A N O I S S E F O R P

ER

learn is that they want to le op pe t ou ab g in “The great th r them. The trick is fo le ib ss po at th e – my job is to mak n they they want and whe t ha w ch at m to s to find way es.” developing themselv in em th ge ga en , it want

157

T

hings have changed a lot for me over the past 10  years or so – and almost all of it very much

in the right direction! Used to be that I worked alone, delivering a lot of face-to-face workshops mostly for

Definition

companies with the odd public sector or charity organisation thrown in. Teaching things like design thinking and

  USER ENGAGEMENT, trying to make innovation

more inclusive. But above all making the skills available in the form of easy-to-master tools; there wasn’t a lot of theory in my courses, though if you pushed me I could point you to the relevant research behind what I was doing. But things started to change – I was getting more work than I could handle, couldn’t be in two places at the same time, plus the travel was wearing me down. The demand was growing, seemed like everyone wanted these skills but I was working at full stretch to try and deliver them. And then along came COVID-19 – and

ES IN EN GAGI NG TR AI NE OC ES S TH E LE AR NI NG PR AT TE NT IO N IN CR EA SE S TH EI R

everything just stopped! It was not a good time for me, I’d just bought a house and we had a baby on the way and suddenly the whole business model on which I worked was broken.

USER ENGAGEMENT User and customer engagement places people at the heart of outstanding customer service, and customer engagement is essential for success in this area.

158

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

For a few weeks we – like everyone else – were in a state of shock, not knowing what we were going to do. But gradually some pieces of the puzzle became clearer. Definition

With most of their workforce limited to working from home, at first companies struggled to get their work done in this new mode. But they gradually realised

HYBRID ­W ORKING grew out of the original ’lockdown’ stages during the COVID-19 pandemic. People began working from home (WFH) and then as offices reopened many organisations allowed for a mixture of WFH and office/workplace presence. In the world of training this meant a move from fully online and remote teaching/training to a mixture of online and face-to-face interactions.

that there was a sort of opportunity in this – they could make use of some of the time to upskill and train their people. Which posed a challenge to people like me – my work was in demand again, but only if I could learn to deliver it in a fundamentally different way. That was a steep learning curve, mastering a whole new set of technological tools but also working out how to keep engagement when you’re not face-to-face in a workshop room. Gradually things came around and when the pandemic eased and we went back to various forms of   HYBRID WORKING I was in a better position to deliver. I real-

ly enjoyed the welcome return of face-to-face teaching but I also realised how much more I could achieve with the online toolkit alongside this. Not least I could package up some of my learning inputs – the “mini-lectures” I used to give – and make short videos which people could watch beforehand. So our online work-

NEW MODES OF UP WO R K I N G O P E N H I N KN E W W AY S O F T TO I N G A B O U T H OW ING IN ENABLE LEARN E. T H E WO R K P L AC

XIII CHAP

159

Rick PROFESSIONAL ­T RAINER Rick,

shops turned into more Q&A/exploration sessions be-

what I wanted people to learn and had developed ma-

cause the learners had already done some pre-work

terials to support that. But it didn’t always have to be

around the topic. I began to use the model in various

me – and if I got someone else involved, the added bo-

configurations – as a fully online programme and as a

nus would be that they would have their own material,

hybrid where we’d use what’s called a “flipped class-

stories, tools, etc. to add to the mix. All I had to do was

room” approach, with learners working beforehand on

make sure the package we delivered met the client’s

the concepts and then exploring them live with me in

needs in terms of content and delivery.

face-to-face sessions. It really took off. I knew lots of friends in the same It worked and it was helped by having a strong pro-

game and they’d all been through the same rough patch

ject focus – it wasn’t just training for its own sake, the

during COVID-19. And some of them were also strug-

learners needed the skills to help them with live pro-

gling with capacity problems working as a solo act. So

jects which they were working on. So I changed the way

we began to build a platform, matching different de-

I worked and soon had my old problem come back to

mand-side requests to an increasingly wide portfolio of

haunt me – how to be in lots of different places at the

specialists who could deliver stuff and who drew on our

same time? Even with the switch to partly virtual work-

growing library of support materials.

ing, it still stretched me to full capacity – and didn’t make me too popular at home with (by now) two young-

That was 10 years ago; these days we’ve got well over

sters running around!

200 trainers (all of whom we check out carefully in terms of their ability and underlying knowledge) and a

Then my wife made a comment one night which got

huge library of support materials – a mixture of video,

me thinking: “Why does it always have to be you – why

audio and text stuff, and translated into 20 languages

can’t you get someone else to deliver your stuff?” Which

so far. Our client base is huge and global; we’ve now

was a very good question – and something I’d played

got offices in Singapore and Cape Town trying to match

around with before. It made sense; I had a clear idea of

local demand to our supply to ensure a good fit. We’ve

Hints & Tips

CO-CREATION AND OPEN INNOVATION Co-creating a library of teaching support materials and making these available online can help scale learning and reskilling for CIE.

160

part 3

INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

expanded the learning offer – we have webinars, Definition

SCRUM Scrum methods involve a high-intensity brainstorming and problem-solving activity focused on a live challenge. They are part of the wider ’agile’ approach to innovation and benefit from having a dedicated coach/­ facilitator – the ’scrum master’ – who can help focus and direct the process.

VIR-

point which works for them – for example we’re doing a

TUAL PROJECT SCRUM COACHING, all sorts of self-paced

lot of work with the United Nations High Commissioner

learning packages as well as our core group-based

for Refugees helping reskill displaced people by deliv-

training programmes. Interestingly, we’ve increasing-

ering our courses into refugee camps. We’ve brought to-

ly found ourselves in conversations with universities

gether a wide range of experienced teachers and train-

and other providers, many of whom are looking to add

ers on the supply side who work as much (or as little)

some practical tools-based skills and capabilities to

as they want – we’ve remobilised a whole generation of

their students.

retired managers and lecturers, for example! And we’ve lowered the barriers to entry for organisations wanting

We’re actively exploring AI – I could never imagine be-

their staff to develop these skills; we can now offer sup-

ing substituted by some kind of robot avatar, but we

port to even micro-businesses. What excites me about

can use the technology to amplify what we do. Already

the model is that it can scale. We know how to do this

we’ve got an offer which takes our core materials and

in our chosen field, but there’s really no limit to how it

does much more than translate them; it interposes a

could be applied to any subject or skill set.

layer between the supply side of what we can offer and any target user group. This offer pulls together relevant local cases and helps local staff a possibility to use AI learning agents which can interact with the students and tailor the learning experience to their world. We’re still experimenting, but it’s got real possibilities. For me, the best thing about the move to creating a platform is that it enabled us to scale education and training in our field of innovation and entrepreneurship. We can reach many more people now and do so at a price

« 

part 4 INTO THE FUTURE AND BACK

PA R T 4

XIII CHAP

163

Rick

CONCLUSION: T S A C   E H T   G N I ­B R I N G G N I G N A H C D N ­T O G E T H E R A E M D N U O R A M E T H E SYST

CHAPTER XIV WORKING ACROSS ­B OUNDARIES FOR ­D ESIRED FUTURES TODAY  �������������������������������  164

164

part 4 CONCLUSION: B ­ RINGING THE CAST ­TOGETHER AND CHANGING THE SYSTEM AROUND ME

XIV CHAP

SS O R C A G N I K R O W DESIRED R O F S E I R A D N ­B O U F U T U R E S T O D AY e from a perspectiv s ce en ri pe ex ng ni Designing lear perspecial to incorporate uc cr is a on rs pe ng of each in the future learni rs de ol eh ak st t en tives of differ ­environments.

165

The personas we have created are not isolated; only by bringing the learning cast together can we make the systematic shifts needed to adjust our learning landscapes. This is the goal of this Part 4 – to help you consider how the system will change around you and what role you can play in this shift.

THE WAY WE USED TO LEARN

NEXT FLOOR THE NEW WAY TO LEARN

THE NEED FOR THE SYSTEMS CHANGE Many of the social, cultural, political and professional structures that support our communities have remained

N HOW TO IT IS TI ME TO LE AR CT IV ELY LE AR N MO RE EF FE

static and unchallenged for generations. The way we learn is shaped by education infrastructures that were set in stone (literally, if we consider some of the physical structures for learning) many years ago. It is evident today that there is a need to keep pace with the changes

166

part 4 CONCLUSION: B ­ RINGING THE CAST ­TOGETHER AND CHANGING THE SYSTEM AROUND ME

we’ve outlined. We need leaders, strategists and think-

approach, experiment with what works for you. Here

ers who are able to dismantle these structures, analyse

again you have the opportunity to consider why you are

them and envision alternatives from different perspec-

doing this in the first place. What is your role in the sys-

tives – from different viewpoints and also at the level of

tem and what actions can you take to help the system

a system where views of all stakeholders are taken into

make changes?

consideration. Practices presented in this book are intended to inEducation systems need to be more coherent and adapt-

spire, to help you identify initiatives that you think

ed for changing realities of learning. But what does that

your institution should put in place or that you can

mean – to be coherent and adapted for learning? As we

implement at your level with the help of local stake-

saw in previous chapters, we all come with different

holders around you.

backgrounds, views and constraints. We have different resources in place to make change happen. There is no “one-size-fits-all” solution when it comes to shifting

ENVISIONING AND CHANGING THE SYSTEM

our learning environment. Creating a coherent learning

AROUND YOU

environment needs to be adjusted to realities, to the local ecosystems and to the needs of each specific insti-

You’ve seen and had a chance to explore some of the key

tution and its ambition for the future.

scenarios that may take place and affect the development of the system. By now, you know who you are and

A systems change perspective includes practices and

what role you might play, what drives you, what influ-

methods such as systems dynamics, futures practices,

ences your thinking and behaviour. Once you have your

complexity, systematic action inquiry and co-design.

own “persona,” you can then look at the corresponding

There is no specific way to work on shifting the edu-

learning environment for CIE which you’ll operate in.

cation system, but we hope that the toolkit shared in this book can be a guide for you to design your own

XIV CHAP

WORKING ACROSS B ­ OUNDARIES FOR DESIRED FUTURES TODAY

This is where the idea of circles of influence can help

For this, you need to first identify the main actors in-

as well – you know who your stakeholders are and you

volved in the unfolding of that specific systems change

have considered how you are going to communicate

scenario and prioritise those over the others. Your stake-

with them. But now we want you to go one step further

holder maps are here to help. But who is missing? Any

and think about your entire learning ecosystem of the

future personas that might challenge your learning en-

future.

vironment or personas who were not relevant before and become relevant now? Who is part of your learning cast? Second, think about the intended and unintended consequences of your actions; extract considerations relat-

A LEARNING SYSTEM The goal here is to consider a learning system in its entire complexity by visualising flows and relationships, considering different levels and scales: users, stakeholders, connected ecosystems as well as objects and environment. You can imagine yourself as an architect when your changes can help to create a new system for everyone involved.

ed to pain points and opportunities, also considering that the same actors could be involved in multiple scenarios and behave differently in each of them and think of different ways forward that can be put in place to overcome these challenges. Unintended consequences are important to take into account; we often forget about them but these can change working practices of different personas in your environment significantly. Finally, consider if there are any scenarios to avoid some of the intended consequences; what would you do and how? Imagine ways around them. This will bring you an actionable board to deal with changes for your learning cast.

167

168

part 4 CONCLUSION: B ­ RINGING THE CAST ­TOGETHER AND CHANGING THE SYSTEM AROUND ME

SYSTEMS CHANGE MAP IN THE FUTURE CONSEQUENCES DEFINE THE STAKEHOLDERS WHO WILL BE IMPACTED BY THE CHANGES IN YOUR LEARNING LANDSCAPE

WRITE DOWN YOUR INTENDED INNOVATION CONSEQUENCES

STAKEHOLDER GROUP 1



STAKEHOLDER GROUP 2



STAKEHOLDER GROUP 3



THINK ABOUT ­P OTENTIAL­ UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCIES AND BARRIERS

IMAGINE POTENTIAL WAYS AROUND THEM

XIV CHAP

WORKING ACROSS B ­ OUNDARIES FOR DESIRED FUTURES TODAY

Finally, we suggest you attend to your learning exploration with the systems change map that you can use to

IRST YO U N E E D T O F AIN IDENTIFY THE M ED A C T O R S I N V O LV ING IN THE UNFOLD ­ PECIFIC O F T H AT S E SYST E M S C H A N G SCENARIO AND SE ­P R I O R I T I S E T H O RS. OV E R T H E OT H E

communicate your plan and have a high-level picture of your endeavours. This canvas brings different elements of the puzzle together, so you just need to collect the main outputs from your work in the following way: 1. Place your persona in the centre 2. Capture all the changes that you have considered 3. Capture all the activities envisioned to bring each challenge to life 4. Consider all stakeholders in the learning case needed for all the activities and changes 5. Reflect on the consequences for these stakeholders By bringing everything together, you can think about what is missing, what seems unrealistic or too complex. You can use this canvas to get feedback from your peers.

169

170

part 4 CONCLUSION: B ­ RINGING THE CAST ­TOGETHER AND CHANGING THE SYSTEM AROUND ME

Reflect on the consequencies for each stakeholder Consider all stakeholders needed for these activities Activities to put in place to manage each transition

Change 1

My changes

STAKEHOLDERS NEEDED

ACTIVITIES TO PUT IN PLACE MY CHANGES TO IMPLEMENT

MY PERSONA

Change 2

This brings us a complete picture when it comes to designing learning environments for CIE: from the perspective of one persona in the cast and the systems change map that requires bringing the cast together.

CONSEQUENCES FOR THE STAKEHOLDERS

XIV CHAP

171

WORKING ACROSS B ­ OUNDARIES FOR DESIRED FUTURES TODAY

DESIGNING THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT FOR CIE From the perspective of one persona in the cast.

CHOOSE AND ­D ESCRIBE YOUR PERSONA CANVAS

ROADMAPPING TOWARDS THE FUTURE CANVAS

1

THINK ABOUT YOUR PERSONA IN A SCENARIO IN THE FUTURE CANVAS

2

5

Your shifts to focus on: WHAT ARE THE MAIN TRANSITIONS TO EXPLORE CANVAS

4

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO ME? CANVAS

6

MY SPHERE OF INFLUENCE CANVAS

7

YOUR FUTURE PERSONA’S WORLD AS A RICH PICTURE CANVAS

MY CHANGE MAP: LEARNINGS CANVAS

3

Bring the cast together.

8

SYSTEMS CHANGE MAP

172

part 4 CONCLUSION: B ­ RINGING THE CAST ­TOGETHER AND CHANGING THE SYSTEM AROUND ME

CONCLUSION

that this book is important. Considering educational practices from the perspective of future-oriented per-

We often hear that education is changing, that it is out-

sonas helps us create a desirable future adjusted for

dated, understaffed and that people are overworked.

learning, continuous innovation and creativity, pre-

Yet, at the same time, we know that teaching the next

pareing learning for future career pathways that don’t

generation is a crucial task and that educators need to

even exist yet and providing skills to adjust, change

be supported in changing their practices. We need to

and learn on the go. We also need an education sys-

holistically change the system while helping the stake-

tem that plays an even bigger role to shape sustain-

holders who are in there to change as well. Teachers

able collective futures, repair injustices and integrate

today are teachers, counsellors, nurses, parents, medi-

innovation in a responsible and ethical way. We need

ators, custodians, friends, experts, future-citizen cre-

to organise our learning practices around the princi-

ators, innovators, learning designers and much more

ples of cooperation, collaboration and solidarity. That

besides.

is why bringing the learning cast together – in particular when focusing on CIE – is important, as these dis-

Students are also much more active in shaping their

ciplines help us look into the future, develop skills for

own education practices in becoming teachers and de-

learning and adjusting, question current assumptions

signers as well by considering their own curriculum,

and design new systems. 

peer-to-peer learning, etc. And, of course, we are no longer thinking just about “students” in an education institution; increasingly, there are learners in all walks of life, at various stages in their career and undertaking their learning journeys in multiple different ways. We see an emergence of other stakeholders and changing roles of institutional actors – this is why we think

« 

175

AC K N OW L E D G E MENTS personas and material presented in this work. They would also like to thank friends and colleagues across the ISPIM community and at the University of Exeter, University of Stavanger, University of Erlangen-Nurem-

T

berg, Monash University, RMIT, EDHEC Business School, his book builds on the collaborative work conduct-

NTNU, UCLA and Fusion Point/Esade Business School for

ed in the context of the VISION project (2020 – 2021),

their inspiration and challenges.

funded by the EU Erasmus+ Knowledge Alliance programme (number 612537-EPP-1-SI-EPPKA2-KA). The

The authors would like to express their appreciation to

opinions expressed in this work are the responsibility

Steve Hardman, Lucy Jarman and the De Gruyter team for

of the authors and do not reflect the official opinion of

staying with us and being so supportive along the way.

the European Union. Finally, a special thanks to Tim Jones, a visionary thinkThe authors would like to thank the VISION consorti-

er on all things innovative who had the ability to ena-

um partners and everyone who shared their views

ble wonderful conversations about the future. He was a

and contributed with their insights during numerous

constant source of insight and encouragement and we

interviews and workshops that helped us to build our

miss him very much.

176

ABOUT THE ­A U T H O R S STAY IN TOUCH [email protected]

JOHN BESSANT He has acted as advisor to various national governments, Originally a chemical engineer, John Bessant has been

to international bodies including the United N ­ ations,

active in the field of research and consultancy in technol-

the World Bank and the OECD and to a wide range of

ogy and innovation management for over 40 years. He is

companies. He is the author of over 40 books and mon-

Emeritus Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

ographs and many articles on the topic of innovation

at the University of Exeter, United Kingdom and also has

management; the most recent include Managing Inno-

visiting appointments at the ­ University of ­ Stavanger,

vation (2020) (now in its 7th edition), Entrepreneurship

Norway and the University of E ­rlangen-Nuremberg,

(2018) and Riding the Innovation Wave (2017). You can

­Germany.

find more and follow his blog at www.johnbessant.org.

177

O LG A KO K S H AG I N A

STAY IN TOUCH [email protected]

Olga Kokshagina is Associate Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at EDHEC Business School,

She has several years of experience teaching and man-

France and Associate Researcher at Monash Universi-

aging innovation with organisations like Danone,

ty, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. She is a member of the

­Airbus, Accenture, Société Générale, Schneider Electric,

EDHEC Foresight, Innovation and Transformation Chair

the WHO, CERN and Yoma. She is an appointed member

and Management in Innovative Health Chair Research

of the French Digital Council (CNNum) and co-author of

Associate. She received a PhD in management science

The Radical Innovation Playbook (2020) and Envision-

from Mines Paris PSL Research University, France. Her

ing the Future of Learning for Creativity, Innovation and

research was part of an industrial programme conduct-

Entrepreneurship (2022). Her work has been published

ed in collaboration with STMicroelectronics where she

in leading management journals such as Research Pol-

a range of innovative projects. Her work focuses on the

icy and California Management Review. Olga is a wom-

areas of strategic management of design, open and rad-

en’s health advocate, she is passionate in bringing tech-

ical innovation, entrepreneurship and the role of digital

nology and design to improve care practices of women

technologies in transforming the nature of work.

and their families.

178

STAY IN TOUCH [email protected]

KY R I A K I PA PA G E O R G I O U

Kyriaki has led a collaborative pedagogical and research program on challenge-driven innovation (CBI) in collaboration with CERN, Esade Business and Law

Kyriaki Papageorgiou is a Marie Curie fellow at the De-

School, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and

partment of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture, Nor-

Istituto ­ ­ Europeo di Design (IED) in Barcelona. She is

wegian University for Science and Technology (NTNU),

the co-­author of Envisioning the Future of Learning for

and a Visiting Associate Researcher at UCLA. She has

­Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (2022) and

a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the University of

author of Labs for Social Innovation (2017). She is the

California, Irvine and works at the intersection of an-

recipient of numerous research grants from agencies

thropology, science and technology studies (STS) and

such as the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the

innovation management. Her research has looked at

EU programme for research and innovation (FP7, H2020,

the discourses and practices of innovation in tackling

­Horizon Europe), the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and UN-

big societal challenges, and the emergent role of robots

ESCO. Kyriaki has worked at the Delegation of the EU in

and AI in transforming work and our daily lives. She is

Egypt and served as an independent expert to the EU

currently studying the future of universities and aca-

Directorate for Research and Innovation and Egypt’s ­

demic work.

Ministry of ­Scientific Research.

180

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

Christensen, C., & Eyring, H. J. (2011). The Innovative University: Changing the DNA of Higher Education from the Inside Out. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, c2011.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

Akama, Y., & Prendiville, A. (2013). Embodying, Enacting and Entangling Design: A Phenomenological View to Co-Designing Services. Swedish Design Research Journal, 1 (1), 29 – 41. Bengston, D., Westphal, L. M., & Dockry, M. J. (2020). Back from the Future: The Backcasting Wheel for Mapping a Pathway to a Preferred Future. World Futures Review, 12 (3), 270 – 278. Bessant, J. R., & Tidd, J. (2020). Managing Innovation: Integrating Technological, Market and Organizational Change (7th Ed). Hoboken: Wiley. Best, M. H. (2001). The New Competitive Advantage: The Renewal of American Industry. New York: Oxford University Press.

Christensen, C., Johnson, C.W., & Horn, M.B. (2008). Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns. New York: McGraw-Hill. Coad, A., Nightingale, P., Stilgoe, J., & Vezzani, A. (2022). The Dark Side of Innovation. London: Routledge. Cooney, R., Stewart, N., Ivanka, T., & Haslem, N. (2018). Representational Artefacts in Social Problem Solving: A Study from Occupational Rehabilitation. Design Studies, 56, 149 – 168. Cope, C., & Prosser, M. (2005). Identifying Didactic Knowledge: An Empirical Study of the Educationally Critical Aspects of Learning About Information Systems. Higher Education, 49 (3), 345 – 372. Gibbons, M. (2000). Mode 2 Society and the Emergence of Context-Sensitive Science. Science and Public Policy, 27 (3), 159 – 163. Heiss, L., & Kokshagina, O. (2021). Tactile Co-Design Tools for Complex Interdisciplinary Problem Exploration in Healthcare Settings. Design Studies, 75, 101030. Hyland, J., Karlsson, M., Kihlander, I., Bessant, J., Magnusson, M., & Kristiansen, J. N. (Eds). (2022). Changing the Dynamics and Impact of Innovation Management: A Systems Approach and the ISO Standard. London: World Scientific Publishing Europe Ltd.

Kokshagina, O., & Alexander, A. (2020). The Radical Innovation Playbook: A Practical Guide for Harnessing New, Novel or Game-Changing Breakthroughs. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. Kokshagina, O., Rickards, L., Steele, W., & Moraes, O. (2021). Futures Literacy for Research Impact in Universities. Futures, 132, 102803. Morrison, C., & Dearden, A. (2013). Beyond Tokenistic Participation: Using Representational Artefacts to Enable Meaningful Public Participation in Health Service Design. Health Policy, 112 (3), 179 – 186. Mulgan, G., Townsley, O., & Price, A. (2016). The Challenge-Driven University: How Real-Life Problems can Fuel Learning. Nesta. Retrieved from › https://media.nesta.org.uk/documents/the_ challenge-driven_university.pdf.

Papageorgiou, K., Hassi, L., Bragos, R., Charosky, G., Leveratto, L., & Ramos-Castro, J. (2021). Prototyping the Future of Learning: Reflections After Seven Iterations of Challenge-Based Innovation (2014–2020). CERN IdeaSquare Journal of Experimental Innovation, 5 (1), 5 – 10. Piaget, J. (1950). The Psychology of Intelligence. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Skirpan, M., & Yeh, T. (2015). Beyond the Flipped Classroom: Learning by Doing Through Challenges and Hack-a-thons. ­P roceedings of the 46th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 212 – 217. Venables, T., & Bessant, J. (Eds). (2008). Creating Wealth from Knowledge: Meeting the Innovation Challenge. London: Edward Elgar.

Munigala, V., Oinonen, P., & Ekman, K. (2018). Envisioning Future Innovative Experimental Ecosystems Through the Foresight Approach. Case: Design Factor. European Journal of Futures Research, 6 (1).

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). The Role of Play in Development. In Vygotsky, L. S. (Ed), Mind in Society. The Development of Higher Psychological Processes (pp. 92 – 104). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Papageorgiou, K., & Kokshagina, O. (2022) Envisioning the Future of Learning for Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter.

Yoo, D., Logler, N., Ballard, S., & Friedman, B. (2022). Multi-lifespan Envisioning Cards: Journeying from Design Theory to Tools for Action. In Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, 557 – 570.

Papageorgiou, K. (2017). Labs for Social Innovation. ESADE Institute for Social Innovation and the Robert Bosch Stiftung. Retrieved from › https://www.slideshare.net/ESADE/labs-for-social-innovation-institute-for-social-innovation-esade

Van Rijn, H., Sleeswijk Visser, F., Stappers, P. J., & Özakar, A. D. (2011). Achieving Empathy with Users: The Effects of Different Sources of Information. CoDesign, 7 (2), 65 – 77.

ISBN 978-3-11-073943-5 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-076736-0 ISSN 2940-2360 Library of Congress Control Number: 2023932372 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche ­N ationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the i­ nternet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Design, Illustration and Typesetting: Editienne, Berlin Printing and Binding: optimal media GmbH, Röbel www.degruyter.com

E FUTURE OF H T T U O B A N R A LE O B U I L D YO U R T W O H D N A G ­L E A R N I N A N I N N O VA T I V E N G I S E D O T Y T I C A PA C ANDSCAPE. L G N I N R A E L E V A N D C R E AT I Whether you are a student who wants to learn and acquire new capabilities for Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), a teacher or lecturer trying to pass on the skills and capabilities of CIE to a new generation, or an industry professional responsible for skills development as part of a talent management strategy, learn how to create a supportive and useful learning environment for the future world of CIE. The Future of Learning Playbook provides a rich set of easy-to-use canvases, specific examples, and invites readers to begin a journey of reflection to design their own futures. In an easily accessible and visually appealing way, De Gruyter Business Playbooks offer practical concepts for improving business performance. They are an extremely valuable resource for a wide range of business

Designing innovative and creative learning landscapes for everyone.

professionals. www.degruyter.com

ISSN 2940-2360 ISBN 978-3-11-073943-5