Design for Change in Higher Education

Book excerpt: It'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.