Designing a Sandpit- and Co-Design-informed Innovation  Process for Scaling TEL Research in Higher Education

Abstract

Sustainably digitalizing higher education requires a human-centred  approach. To address actual problems in teaching as well as learning and  increase acceptance, the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) solution(s)  must be co-designed with affected researchers, teachers, students and  administrative staff. We present research-in-progress about a sandpit-informed  innovation process with a f2f-marketplace of TEL research and problem-mapping as well team formation alongside a competitive call phase, which is  followed by a cooperative phase of funded interdisciplinary pilot teams co-designing and implementing TEL innovations. Pilot teams are supported by a  University Innovation Canvas to document and reflect on their TEL innovation  from multiple viewpoints.

Introduction

Innovation in higher education often means scaling research outside of university in  the open-market by founding start-ups [1], for example. However, research in the  realm of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) also needs to be scaled internally to  digitalize teaching and learning in our universities and meaningfully innovate higher  education.

Despite the long research tradition in TEL (e.g. 2019-14th EC-TEL conference), the  teaching and learning practice in higher education remains focussed on leveraging  digitalization for scaling and enhancing frontal speech (e.g. recording courses for  distance education). Many TEL insights are not transformed into sustainable practices  as 3rd-party funding often only results in impact on selected application contexts.   When it comes to leveraging existing TEL-research for improving teaching and

learning practices, sustainably and systematically, there is a gap: “How to understand, support and monitor sustainable evolution of university-internal TEL innovation?“ In this paper, we describe 1) a sandpit and co-design-informed innovation process for  TEL innovation in higher-education and 2) the University Innovation Canvas as  instrument for documentation, reflection and guidance within this process.