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to similarly co-locate or form their own communities and partnerships .
In higher education innovation , there is a real tension in these matters .
The challenge is to try and get these two different forms of ecosystem and community to interact and come together .
To do this we need explicit and deliberate efforts at partnership and community building , and specific efforts towards incubating a rich and diverse mix of thinking and expertise .
This sort of innovation culture-building activity is common in areas of research commercialisation , and presents a great opportunity for universities .
It has been well-documented in places such as California ’ s Silicon Valley and the Oxford-Cambridge-London golden triangle in the UK .
Creating such ecosystems , communities and partnerships around teaching and learning innovation is less common .
There is a growing need and opportunity for our universities to build ecosystems and partnerships to pursue incubators for new approaches to learning .
The likelihood is that it will be required by the future of learners in a new learning economy .
CASE IN POINT One great example of this is already happening at the Melbourne Business School ( MBS ).
The MBS Learning Innovation Hub ( MBS &) has been formed with the support of a prestigious institution , its community , and its governance structures .
It aims to serve the evolving needs of a well-established learning provider ( and its clients and students ) that sees itself as delivering learning by business , for business .
It has formed from within traditions of residential postgraduate and executive education offerings , associated with one of Australia ’ s oldest universities , in a community of long-established and blue-chip business partners .
But it has explicitly and deliberately sought to break the mold of those origins by building new connections with EdTech and other start-up innovators .
It has an explicit purpose to bring together future-of-learning trailblazers , and operates as an edgy , innovative , and disruptive unit , driven by technology and new ways of learning .
By seeking to extend the traditions and current offerings of a sector-leading business school , it aims to create a start-up-like activity and focus within an established operating model and organisation .
MBS & also embraces new pedagogies , technologies , business models , and learning products , and has launched the first initiative to market this year .
This future-of-learning incubator is a 12-week program that brings together learning experts , businesses , government , and the tech sector , to align around big problems in the future of learning .
This collaborative incubator has yielded five prototypes for products that directly solve for big problems such as skill shortages .
Innovation journeys , especially for premium institutions , are fraught with challenge and come with change management requirements
Work is underway to build the prototypes into concrete products for the MBS & stakeholders .
In an unusual move for the education sector , MBS & is sharing all of its efforts ( even commercial ideas ) transparently with its community .
Aware that the education sector ’ s challenges cannot be solved by one institution in isolation , MBS & hopes that deep collaboration will advance new approaches to learning and skill-building that directly tackle the needs of employers and the Australian economy .
Innovation journeys , especially for premium institutions , are fraught with challenge and come with serious change management requirements .
INSTITUTIONAL ALIGNMENT One of the factors bolstering the disruptive efforts of MBS & is that it takes place within a broader transformation journey for the Melbourne Business School ( MBS ).
MBS has recently released MBS Online , offering online short courses , digital academies , and online degrees fit for a digital skills economy .
It , too , has made strong forays into premium learning technologies , having recently become the first Australian institution to launch the virtual classroom , a state-of-the-art technology that mimics the theatre and immersiveness of the executive , residential-style education that it has always been known for .
That transformation journey is spearheaded by a new breed of leaders and innovators with a clear sense of purpose , and contemporary approaches to leadership that have arisen from their formative experiences .
The journey is bold , adventurous , and ambitious , intentionally different in its approach to using incubators , partnerships , and a start-up mentality to build from its tradition and prestige in ways that ensure it is competitive in a fast-changing sector . ■
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