Innovation and change

Innovation in course design often arises when:

• we identify a challenge or problem
• we realise that student learning can be improved by changing one of the components of our course.  

We should always consider innovation in the context of improving teaching effectiveness and use evaluation data as a guide. In other words, when we innovate in our courses, we should reflect deeply on the process and draw on best practice and the experience of other educators.  You may also consider writing up the change you made and submitting a paper to an educational journal.

Innovation should not happen for its own sake and should be driven by a particular problem or opportunity that calls for a new way of doing things. Examples of challenges/opportunities at a curriculum level include a perceived need to adopt a new approach to teaching e.g. taking a problem based approach to the curriculum or taking a case based approach to the curriculum.  Adopting a new teaching approach can also drive change at the level of a course.  Changes at the course level may lead to changes at a curriculum level if the innovations prove to be effective.

Innovations at a curriculum and/or course level may also be prompted by changes outside of our control. For example, students may demand more flexible study options and/or distance education opportunities that allow them to continue working while they study.  A particular university may make its programmes available online, prompting similar innovations in "competing" universities.

There are many ways of evaluating the effectiveness of innovation.  In education, we typically advocate a triangulated (three pronged) approach to evaluation - we ask our students about their experiences, we ask our peers for their professional opinion, and we self-reflect.    

Sometimes we need to be a bit more creative when we are gathering information about our courses.  Other forms of evaluation may include, but are not limited to;

• An external assessor might moderate your course and provide feedback.
• If your course is delivered online as an open access course you might ask visitors to the course website to provide you with feedback. Gathering feedback in this way can provide you with a range of perspectives that you might not otherwise have had.

Sometimes we need to be a bit more creative when we are gathering information about our courses.  Other forms of evaluation may included, but are not limited to:

• An external assessor might moderate your course and provide feedback.
• If your course is delivered online as an open access course you might ask visitors to the course website to provide you with feedback. Gathering feedback in this way - open access feedback - can provide you with a range of perspectives that you might not otherwise have had.

Gathering feedback about your teaching and acting on what you find will be an ongoing process in which you reflect and make changes or act in terms of what the feedback is telling you.  For more details around best evaluation practice at the University of Auckland, visit Guidelines for Enhancement and Evaluation of Teaching and Courses. You may also like to visit the section [[Evaluation of practice and continuing professional development|Evaluation of practice and continuing professional development].