Good Place Lab (QAA 1,2,5) EERPF

Objective(s) or key message: 

Good Place Lab is a self-guided asynchronous digital course aimed at learners who are embarking on entrepreneurship and innovation degree programmes. The course is structured as a sequence of steps based on a set innovation challenge related to improving a campus university environment. Learners will be able to explore concepts of innovation and gain insights into how design thinking methods can be applied to innovation. By taking this introductory course, the learners will:

• Test their assumptions about innovation 
• Develop basic understanding of design thinking 
• Practice creativity through playful and fun engagement activities
• Develop observation skills and practice empathy
• Gain reflection ability to map their acquired skills against eight selected EntreComp skills detailed for each of the challenge steps.

Introduction:  

Good Place Lab aims to engage learners in innovation practice prior to their formal University learning. The course has been co-designed with students in order to create an engaging and impactful introduction to innovation as a University subject as well as an entrepreneurial practice. The structure is flexible and learners can pause anytime during the course, take a break and reflect. The focus is an innovation challenge that learners tackle through a series of steps and exercises leading them to develop an innovative improvement to University campus environment. It is not an assessed course and the final output is a sketch and a story of the innovation that can be later shared in the classroom for debate and further reflection. There are no right or wrong answers and learners have an opportunity to have multiple goes at exercises.  

Activity: 

Good Place Lab course has been developed as a web-based resource accessible here: https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/designthinkinglab/. Learners enrolled to a certain degree programme are invited to an online webinar about three weeks before their arrival/commencement of their University degree programme. The webinar introduces the digital course concept to them, creates a community and provides an opportunity for a lecturer to get to know their future students. This can be carried out as a part of ore-arrival induction at any University.  

Learners do not need any log in or passwords. They access the course on the website though the link. It is recommended that learners engage in this course over at least one week period accounting for about 4 hours per section (in total approximately 30 hours). The course design follows design principles:

• Challenge is introduced as a question: How might we create an inclusive Campus environment for students of diverse backgrounds and abilities to enjoy outdoor activities together in a safe and fun way?
• Inspiration as next step introduces personas of students and the challenges they are currently experiencing in their University environment 
• Ideas section stimulates new approaches to coming up with ideas that may address the challenges of student personas 
• Prototyping gives an opportunity to ketch the idea(s) that learners can Share as a story in the next section
• Final stage is Reflection that provides a summary of learning and poses questions to reflect on 

Each section of the course has an introduction to the section with a short video, an interactive exercise, questions to be answered via an online board and a wrap up reflection based on EntreComp skills relevant to the section. 

As learners populate the online board with their answers, lecturer/course convenor is encouraged to provide comments to their answers, which helps learners with motivation to keep going.  Ideally, the lecturer providing these comments is their programme director or a module convenor who will continue this debate when the students start their university course. The online board provides an excellent resource for future debates related to innovation, failing fast, empathy and other topics introduced in this digital course. 

The course can be also run as a blended activity when students complete each section asynchronously and gather in class to share the outcomes of exercises and reflections. 

The course contains podcasts that were developed alongside the course and the full series can be accessed here: 

https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/designineducation/category/podcasts/. The podcasts are a complementary resource that can be incorporated into later learning about innovation and the importance of place in business. 

Impact:

80% of students typically complete the course and report enjoyment, unexpected fun with learning and new perspectives on their personal practices to problem solving. Learners develop greater sense of belonging to their University degree programme and get excited about the new concepts of innovation and design thinking. The course develops an opportunity for relationships between students and staff and also amongst students themselves to be formed prior to arrival to the University. The serious fun learning concept provides confidence in sharing challenges and empowers students to experiment without the pressure of assessment. Students get familiar with basic terminology and concepts that enable them to start their innovation degree programme more effectively. 

Learner outcomes :  

Learners reported the following outcomes:  

• Gained new perceptive on problem solving techniques
• Developed the ability to experiment and not thrive for perfection 
• Re-evaluated perceptions and assumptions about innovation 
• Learnt about the importance of human-centred solutions and focus on the user needs
• Re-evaluated the meaning and impact of empathy 
• Enhanced observation skills
• Learnt to appreciate the research stage of innovation and focus on the right problem 

Resources:

Padlet board or similar online accessible space https://padlet.com/

References:

Authors of the course: 

Dr Radka Newton, Senior Teaching Fellow, Lancaster University

Jacqui Jackson, Entrepreneur in Residence, Lancaster University

Phil Devine, Digital Education Facilitator, Lancaster University 

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