Innovation! Course Descriptor

Course Overview

Designed for students across the entire University who wish to learn about innovation. Students will learn the theories associated with creativity and innovation: the creative process, the different types of innovation, how innovation occurs and becomes a commercial reality as a new product, service or solution to a problem . The course will explore how different types of organisations (startups, existing corporations, and nonprofit entities), encourage and enable innovation The goal of this course is to understand how innovation in a variety of industries is conceived, vetted, tested, and to give students the tools to identify opportunities and then improve the quality of their ideas, whether they want to pursue an entrepreneurial path or innovate inside an existing firm.  This is a course that will encourage individual critical thinking and an ability to work as part of a team.

Students will explore their own creativity and work with their peers and tutors to develop a new business concept that solves a real world business problem  and make proposals for its implementation.

The course offers students an opportunity to obtain the  insight needed to understand the innovation process and what is required for successful innovation.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject Specific Skills

Transferable and Employability Skills

Teaching and Learning

This course has a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) page with a syllabus and range of additional resources (e.g. readings, question prompts, tasks, assignment briefs, discussion boards) to orientate and engage students in their studies.

The scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course are:

Lectures/seminars/workshops

40 scheduled hours – typically including induction, consolidation or revision, and assessment activity hours.

Version 1:all sessions in the same sized group

OR

Version 2: most of the sessions in larger groups; some of the sessions in smaller groups

Faculty hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to drop in or sign up to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback, individually or in small groups. 

Students are to attend and participate in all the scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course and to manage their directed learning and independent study.

Indicative total learning hours for this course: 150

Assessment

Both formative and summative assessment are used as part of this course, with purely formative opportunities typically embedded within interactive teaching sessions, office hours, and/or the VLE.

Summative Assessments

The assessments will require students to apply theories of creativity to find solutions to a current business issue or opportunity.

Further information about the assessments can be found in the Course Syllabus.

Feedback

Students will receive formative and summative feedback in a variety of ways, written (e.g. marked up on assignments, through email or the VLE) or oral (e.g. as part of interactive teaching sessions or in office hours).

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is for a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

The readings in this course should be a mix of academic literature and practical reading that challenges students to think and reflect on creative praxis.

Examples of academic reading could be found, for example, in the following highly ranked innovation-themed academic journals:

• Journal of Product Innovation Management
• Technovation
• Research Policy

Examples of practical reading might include readings like the following:

• Griffiths, C. (2019) The Creative Thinking Handbook: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Problem Solving in Business. Kogan Page.
• Kahneman, D. (2012) Thinking Fast and Slow. Penguin.
• Tidd,J and Bessant, J.R, (2020) Managing Innovation: Integrating Technological, Market and Organizational change, (7th Edition). Wiley.

Indicative Topics

Note: Comprehensive and current topics for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative topics provided below is used as a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Entrepreneurship
• Innovation processes for different business types
• Definition and types of Innovation
• Developing value propositions
• Customer segmentation
• Market  and consumer research