Design for Change in Higher Education

Review\nProselytizing for the adoption of design thinking as the transformative process that will save higher education, this book further asserts that universities need design organizations and presents the authors' own educational design organization, the Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology, as a model for other universities to follow. Each theoretical topic is illuminated with a case study drawn from the Hub's projects. A highly timely contribution; this is a moment when we need a book that tells us how to enact the change that is so desperately needed.
―Madlen Simon, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Outreach, University of Maryland, College Park\nMany people in higher education will find this book valuable and inspiring. Original and important, it addresses an incredibly significant and timely topic: the need for rethinking how institutions in higher education respond to changes in the environment (such as pandemics, relevance, budget crises, etc.).
―Bryan T. Stinchfield, Franklin & Marshall College\nAn indispensable guide for anyone who wants to shake up higher education.
―Jake Knapp, New York Times–bestselling author of Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days\nThis book shows how profound change in higher education requires a truly different approach like learning experience design.
―Niels Floor, founder of LXD.org\nIt's time to design the next iteration of higher education.
There is no question that higher education faces significant challenges. Most of today's universities aren't prepared to tackle issues like demographic change, the continued defunding of public education, cost pressures, and the opportunities and challenges of educational technologies. Then, of course, there is the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, which will reverberate for years and may very well usher higher education into an era of significant structural change. Some critics argue that a premium should be placed on change functions―that is to say, on creativity, innovation, organizational learning, and change management. Yet few institutions of higher education have functions focused on thoughtful, iterative problem-solving and opportunity identification.
The authors of Design for Change in Higher Education argue that we must imagine and actively make our way to new institutional forms. They assert that design―a practical art that is conceptually rich and visible in its concreteness―must become a core internal competency of the university. They propose one grounded in the practical experiences of a specific educational design organization: Michigan State University's Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology, which all three authors have helped to run. The Hub was created to address issues of participation, impact, and scale in moving learning innovations from the individual to the collective and from the classroom to the institution. Framing each chapter around a case study of design practice in higher education, the book uses that case study as the foundation on which to build design theory for higher education. It is complemented by an online playbook featuring tactics that can be used and adapted by others interested in facilitating their own design work.
Touching on learning experience design (LXD) as an increasingly critical practice, the authors also develop a constructivist view of designing conversations. A playbook that grounds theory in practice, Design for Change in Higher Education is aimed at faculty, staff, and students engaged in the important work of imagining new forms of education.