Abstract:

This presentation explores the emergent field of learning innovation. Drawing on the work of Kim and Maloney, 2020, learning innovation is understood as the interplay between a complex set of practices, methods, and designs as attempts by higher education to improve teaching and learning. The term innovation speaks to the intentional investment in change to improve practice. Recently, there has been “a turn to learning” (Kim and Maloney, 2020, p. 4) in higher education that was accelerated in 2020 with the move to online learning in response to the Covid pandemic that required an intense focus on designing for student learning. While there are many recent books that focus on how individual instructors can align their pedagogy with learning science (Simmons, 2016; Carey, 2016; Crow & Dabars, 2015), there is little research on how the scholarship of teaching and learning helps to inform and change higher education at the institutional level.

In this research we inquire into the contributions of learning professionals at one university. These professionals’ work is undertaken outside the traditional delineation of teaching and learning as being the sole responsibility of faculty in the classroom. We present a case study that explores how learning professionals are engaged in the work of advancing learning innovation across the institution. We utilize a reflexive, collaborative, critical self-study to better understand the service roles, and the contribution when learning professionals collaborate with faculty on course and program design, and when they advise and instruct on technology integration and discipline-specific pedagogical methodologies to complement, reinforce, and revitalize the scholarship of teaching and learning across the institution.

It is our belief that higher education institutions are well-served by breaking down the academic/administrative and faculty/staff barriers related to learning. Professional staff are in many cases learning innovators who enhance teaching and learning across the institution.

References:
[1] Carey, K. (2016). The End of College: Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere. Riverhead Books.
[2] Crow, M. and W. Dabars (2015). Designing the New American University. Johns Hopkins
[3] Kim, J. and E. Maloney. (2020) Learning Innovation and Future of Higher Education. Johns Hopkins.
[4] Simmons, N. (2016). The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Canada: Institutional Impact. Jossey-Bass.

Keywords:

Learning innovation, higher education, learning professionals, scholarship of teaching and learning.