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Shifting the Starting Point
Ulrich Mans
works for Leiden University’s Centre
for Innovation and is responsible for
designing new ways for academics to
engage with policy practice. He holds
a PhD in Environmental Science from
the University of Amsterdam and an MA
in International Development Studies
from Nijmegen University. Before joining
the Centre, he worked for various
think tanks, the Netherlands Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and NGOs in the peace
and justice sector.
Lucy Bernholz
is a Senior Research Scholar at Stanford
University’s Center on Philanthropy and
Civil Society and Director of the Digital
Civil Society Lab. She is the author of
numerous articles and books, and writes
extensively on philanthropy, technology
and policy on her award-winning blog,
philanthropy2173.com.
Symbolically, this move away from
research stands for a radically
different way of doing things. In
concrete terms, it is much more
incremental. When applied,
d-search trajectories mean that
the university’s role becomes
much more a facilitating one,
aimed at stimulating innovation
at the edges of its core business
of fundamental research and
teaching. In other words, we place
the innovative process centre
stage, driven by transdisciplinary
teams from academia and
elsewhere. This approach follows
some of the thinking that has
shaped innovation at universities
elsewhere in the world.
Professor Alfonso Fuggetta
explains that ‘innovation
produces experiences, feedback
and challenges that feed the
research process’ (2012). A
radical consequence could be
that research is disconnected
from the university as a location.
Former president of George
Washington University Stephen
Joel Trachtenberg suggested that:
“[a]cademics will still be needed to
conduct research […] but where it
will take place is not clear. Perhaps
“community” labs will appear in
tech zones, where academics can
rent facilities like digital start-ups.”
(2017).
For d-search trajectories, we
suggest adopting the concept of
innovation spaces as separate to,
but closely linked with the core
university workflows. This is in line
with Fuggetta’s recommendation
to ‘develop specific operational
entities, intermediate bodies,
that can effectively execute and
develop [a society-serving] model’
(2017). Many of the existing ‘Living
Labs’ offer such an engagement
space open to anyone within or
from outside the university. In
d-search environments as they
are designed by the Centre for
Innovation, emphasis rests on
a truly agile approach, driven
by rapid prototyping, repeated
iterations and enough outside-in
perspective to allow for scrutiny
from various angles. This is
why we apply design-thinking
principles across all our projects:
even seemingly unrelated
expertise might contribute to
solving a challenge. The d-search
approach assumes that along
the way, research questions
emerge, academic expertise
can be used, reused or verified.
While the ‘d’ –design– activities
serves our partners outside the
university to innovate something
of relevance in partnership with
universities, it generates a plethora
of new avenues for ’r’ –research–
trajectories.
Locating researchers outside the
university, and connecting public
innovators to the research process,
will strengthen scholarship and
society. These connections will
be able to sustain and advance
research in our age of distributed
capacity and expertise.
Sources: Lewens, T. (2015). The meaning
of science. 1st ed. Gretna: Pelican.
Fuggetta, A. (2012). 3+1 Challenges for
the future of universities. Journal of
Systems and Software, 85(10), pp.2417-
2424. Trachtenberg, S. (2017). Future
perfect: what will universities look like in
2030?. [online] Times Higher Education
(THE). Available at: https://www.
timeshighereducation.com/features/
what-will-universities-look-like-in-2030-
future-perfect [Accessed 19 Apr. 2017].
LEARNING EXPERIENCE
DESIGN: A NEW WAY OF
LEARNING
1. FROM KNOWLEDGE TO BEHAVIOUR
Successfully transferring knowledge is only one aspect
of learning: gaining insights, building new skills and
creating proactive behaviour are desired learning
outcomes of equal measure. The LXD methodology
rewards active behaviour by evaluating process
instead of output. By encouraging students to analyse,
experiment and implement projects, as well as asking
them to reflect on their experience, they can build
confidence to fail and learn to adapt to changing
circumstances.
2. FROM CONSUMERS TO PRODUCERS
By allowing students to choose their own subject
matter, we give them autonomy of their own learning
process with an aim to motivate and empower.
The purpose of this self-directed approach is to
turn students from consumers of information into
producers of knowledge. This challenge-based
learning aims to encourage an appetite for insight and
lifelong learning.
What makes an experience both educational and inspiring?
And how do you design such an experience? That’s what Learning
Experience Design (LXD) is all about.
LXD is a movement of designers, teachers, educational experts,
scientists and publishers who are looking for better ways to learn.
They propose an integral design methodology and learner-centred
approach to education, and have identified four developments in
learning methods that could help shape the education of the future:
3. FROM SPECIALISATION TO CONTEXTUALISATION
Promoting interdisciplinary exchange of theory,
methods and applications serves to benefit students’
insights and stimulates new interests. Mixing students
into teams of different academic, cultural and skills
backgrounds could offer unexpected crossovers and
encourage interdisciplinary thinking. In this way,
students could learn to see beyond the limits of their
own field and learn how to work in teams.
4. FROM SCIENCE TO SOCIETY
LXD is about creating a space where learning
outcomes can contribute to making societal impact.
Why do we simulate abstract exercises when there are
enough real challenges to be tackled? For example, as
part of the development of a project, students could
be asked develop a start-up with the main goal being
helping local communities, using crowdfunding as a
tool to raise awareness. In this way, students share their
work and leverage the potential of their networks for
quality feedback.
Sjoerd Louwaars is the founder of Centre for Innovation's Changemakers Lab.
He runs the Innovation, Co-creation and Global Impact Minor as well as the Venture
Academy, a start-up programme for students.
Learning Experience Design