Course syllabus - Culture and space for innovation

Objectives

The purpose of the course is to explore culture and space for innovation through theory and practice in order to improve students understanding and skills in this area.
The course is especially designed for those who are interested to learn more about how they can develop an innovative culture and physical space in their companies and would like to exchange ideas and experiences in this field with other companies.

Learning outcomes

After the course student will be able to:
- describe tools and methods for developing innovation culture in their organizations
- analyze and use physical space in different ways to support innovation culture in their work environment
- analyze and use different tools for supporting experiential learning, collaboration and innovation in their teams, engaging people´s body, mind and emotions
- apply the concepts, theories and research findings explored in the course in order to improve culture and space for innovation in their work environment

Course content

For companies to be able to survive and compete in todays´s fast changing global markets, it is of key importance to develop the competence to constantly innovate and adapt to the changing environment. Developing organizational culture and space for supporting innovation are constitutive parts or organization´s overall innovation capacity. Many companies have developed the competence for continuous improvement and optimization of existing operations but lack the competence for more explorative and radical innovation. A different kind of thinking, acting and collaborating - organizational culture is needed to support radical innovation and in order for a company to change the existing mindset and culture, people need to be trained or given space, time and support to develop their new practice. This course creates the space where students can experience how creativity and explorative innovation can be supported in groups and students are given a chance to train their own competence in creativity and innovation. Tools are proposed and created for students to develop culture and space for innovation in their own working environments. For these purposes the course is based on the latest insights from research in the area of innovation culture and space, which will be combined with principles and tools that artists use in their creative practice to create enabling space for creativity and innovation in groups.

Tuition

The course is designed as a series of interactive workshops in which creative exercises using different types of media for expression (visual, verbal, movement, sound) are used. Each workshop is focused on one aspect of innovation culture and space, from the introduction of concepts of culture and space for innovation, the importance of personal involvement, trust and working with emotions, creativity, improvisation and play, diversity, reflection and physical space and other supportive structures for culture for innovation.

Requirements

General entry requirements

Examination

Exercise (INL1), 1.5 credits, marks Pass (G)
Exercise, laboratory work (LAB1), 3 credits, marks Pass (G), 0.5 credits for each workshop
Seminar (SEM1), 3 credits, marks Pass (G)

A student who has a certificate from MDU regarding a disability has the opportunity to submit a request for supportive measures during written examinations or other forms of examination, in accordance with the Rules and Regulations for Examinations at First-cycle and Second-cycle Level at Mälardalen University (2020/1655). It is the examiner who takes decisions on any supportive measures, based on what kind of certificate is issued, and in that case which measures are to be applied.

Suspicions of attempting to deceive in examinations (cheating) are reported to the Vice-Chancellor, in accordance with the Higher Education Ordinance, and are examined by the University’s Disciplinary Board. If the Disciplinary Board considers the student to be guilty of a disciplinary offence, the Board will take a decision on disciplinary action, which will be a warning or suspension.

Grade

Pass, Fail

Interim Regulations and Other Regulations

The course completely overlaps with XINO52 Culture and space for innovation.