Friday, May 6, 2016

Designing an Innovation Course: Part 6: Outline

In Part 5, I prepared a 129 page book of readings for a course in "Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship in Technology". I now have enough material for the course, so here is the proposal:

Title: Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship in Technology

See: http://goo.gl/UobTB6
Short Title: Innovation Tech

Level: 3rd year undergraduate and postgraduate versions

Course Description: Innovation requires the ability to recognize the opportunities provided by technology and know how to exploit them in business. The aim is more efficient and effective organizations, be they for-profit or not, existing or new start-ups. This requires documented investigation, analysis and review. A methodical investigation of functions and processes, requirements, costs, sustainability and business benefits is needed, with specifications and acceptance criteria. Twelve weekly topics introduce the materials to students with interactive quizzes and forums to help build the skills needed for assignments. The student can undertake this course in parallel with Innovation ACT, or another entrepreneur program, and submit artifacts from that program for assessment.

Rationale: Course to provide recognition of the work of students undertaking entrepreneur programs such as Innovation ACT.

Structure and Content: The course consists of two parts, corresponding to the skills:

A. Innovation
1. An Introduction to Innovation
2. Business Model Thinking
3. Stakeholder Engagement

B. Business analysis
4. Concept Generation
5. Value Capture
6. Documenting

Learning Outcomes:

After completing this course, student will be able to:

1. Innovate: Prepare a plan to exploit business opportunities provided by technology, for more efficient and effective performance of an existing or new businesses,
2. Analyze: Document an analysis of a business in terms of functions and processes, by identifying and quantifying improvements to reduce costs and enhance sustainability.

The learning objectives are based on the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) skills definitions:  "Innovation" and "Business analysis", as used by the Australian Computer Society (ACS) for accreditation.

Workload: To complete the subject you will need to spend 8-10 hours each week reading, communicating with colleagues and tutors, and preparing assignments.

Prescribed Text: User:Tom Worthington/Books/Commercialisation and Entrepreneurship. (2016, April 3). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 05:54, May 5, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Tom_Worthington/Books/Commercialisation_and_Entrepreneurship&oldid=713313890

Preliminary Reading:  Worthington, T. (2015). Introduction to Innovation - Commercialization and Entrepreneurship in Technology. Retrieved from http://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/2015/04/designing-innovation-course-part-3.html#innovation

Reading List:

Australian National University. (2015). TechLauncher. Retrieved from http://cs.anu.edu.au/TechLauncher/
CBRIN. (2014). Canberra Innovation Network: Who We Are. Retrieved from http://cbrin.com.au/#weare
Cotton, Charles & Kirk, Kate. (2012). Viewpoint: The Cambridge Phenomenon, five decades of success. BBC News UK. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-17982595
Department of Communications (2015). Establishment of a Digital Transformation Office, Malcolm Turnbull, Minister for Communications, Australian Department of Communications. Retrieved from http://www.minister.communications.gov.au/malcolm_turnbull/news/joint_release_with_the_hon_tony_abbott_mp,_prime_minister_establishment_of_a_digital_transformation_office#.VRnQrcvhntS
DFAT (2015). innovationXchange - Australia’s new aid paradigm. Minister for Foreign Affairs, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs, Canberra. Retrieved from http://foreignminister.gov.au/releases/Pages/2015/jb_mr_150323.aspx
Entry 29. (2012). Co-working at Entry 29, Retrieved from http://cbrin.com.au/#weare
EurActiv. (2013). How Innovation is Changing in Europe: an interview with OECD's Andrew Wyckof. EurActiv. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/m4kM7ocL6fA
Garnsey, E., Lorenzoni, G., & Ferriani, S. (2007). Speciation through Entrepreneurial Spin-off: The Acorn-ARM story. Retrieved from http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Elizabeth_Garnsey/publication/222423713_Speciation_through_entrepreneurial_spin-off_The_Acorn-ARM_story/links/0deec52945dd7279bf000000.pdf
GRIFFIN Accelerator. (2014).  GRIFFIN Accelerator: About Us. Retrieved from http://griffinaccelerator.com.au/about-us/
IELTS. (2011). IELTS band scores. Retrieved from http://www.ielts.org/institutions/test_format_and_results/ielts_band_scores.aspx
Innovation ACT. (2014a). Innovation ACT: History. Retrieved from http://web.archive.org/web/20131030170036/http://www.innovationact.org/about/history/
Kirk, Kate & Cotton, Charles & Gates, Bill, 1955- (2012). The Cambridge Phenomenon : 50 years of innovation and enterprise. Third Millenium, London
McEwan, M. (2012). Evaluating and enhancing the feedback process: an international college case study. Practice and Evidence of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 7(1), 79-95. Retrieved fromhttp://community.dur.ac.uk/pestlhe.learning/index.php/pestlhe/article/viewFile/131/244
OECD (2011), Charting innovation. OECD Publishing, Paris.
Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/site/innovationstrategy/chartinginnovation.htm
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2005). The measurement of scientific and technological activities Oslo manual : guidelines for collecting and interpreting innovation data (3rd edition). OECD, Paris. Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/3859598/5889925/OSLO-EN.PDF/60a5a2f5-577a-4091-9e09-9fa9e741dcf1?version=1.0
SFIA Foundation Ltd, (2015). The purpose of SFIA. [online] Skills Framework for the Information Age. Retrieved from https://www.sfia-online.org/v501/en/index.html
Segal Quince & Partners (1985). The Cambridge phenomenon : the growth of high technology industry in a university town. Segal Quince & Partners, Cambridge
Smith, Patricia L. (Patricia Lucille) & Ragan, Tillman J (2005). Instructional design (3rd ed). Hoboken, N.J. John Wiley & Sons
Worthington, Tom. (2015). Canberra Start-up Business Boomerang. Retrieved from http://blog.tomw.net.au/2015/03/cambridge-phenomenons-fifty-years-of.html#cbb

Assumed Knowledge:  It is assumed the student is familiar with basic computing concepts, from a course such as The Craft of Computing (COMP1040), Introduction to Programming and Algorithms (COMP1100)  or Business Information Systems (INFS1001). The student will need to be able to use a computer and the Internet to complete this on-line course and be familiar with academic writing and referencing to undertake assignments.

Assessment: There are two areas of assessment in the course:
1. Weekly Assessment (20%): Contributions to weekly discussion forums (10%) and completion of a weekly quiz (10%),
 2. Assignments (80%): mid course (40%) and at the end (40%).

To pass the course at least 10/20 for Weekly Assessment and 40/80 for Assignments is required. Grades of 70% and higher (Distinction and High Distinction) are based only on Assignments.

Assessment Rationale: The questions each week are on topics to be covered in the assignments, allowing students to build their skills. Each major assignment correspond to a learning objective for the course: 1. Innovate: Prepare a plan to exploit business opportunities provided by technology, for more efficient and effective performance of an existing or new businesses, and, 2. Analyze: Document an analysis of a business in terms of functions and processes, by identifying and quantifying improvements to reduce costs and enhance sustainability.

The course rationale is similar to that for "ICT Sustainability" (COMP7310) published in a conference paper: Worthington, T. (2012, July). A Green computing professional education course online: Designing and delivering a course in ICT sustainability using Internet and eBooks. In Computer Science & Education (ICCSE), 2012 7th International Conference on (pp. 263-266). IEEE. Presentation notes at: http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/green_computing_professional/

Quality Assurance Arrangements:  The course learning objectives are based on the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) skills definitions. SFIA is used by the Australian Computer Society (ACS) in accrediting ANU computing degrees. The course format is based on "Sustainable ICT" , which won the Education Category of the ACS Canberra ICT Awards 2010 and a national ACS Gold 2015 award in the ICT Higher Educator category.


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