Innovative universities in times of disruption

Below the abstract of the description of a workshop that will take place during the AMCIS 2020 conference (August 10-14, 2020). 



As we’ve all experienced recently, the world is faced with unforeseen challenges/developments - such as the current Corona virus - organisations need to respond adequately to an unknown future. There is often uncertainty about how organisations can do this. Also, in actual educational systems, we can recognise developments like this. Every University has faced problems implementing new technologies/opportunities to innovate our education. Blended learning, research-based learning, cooperative learning, MOOCs, all terms that we used to initiate innovation in education. These processes lasted for decades and research showed that ‘a successful educational innovation requires a stepwise approach that includes needs assessment, design of intervention, testing and analysis, evaluation of intervention, and determination of learning retention’ .  However, resistance to change in traditional education is widespread. From a theoretical perspective, there are reasons why this inability for being innovative can be explained from research on teamwork. Lacking trust between all those involved, fear of conflict, lacking commitment, avoidance of accountability and no focus on results, all reasons why the innovation was obstructed. During the workshop, we will elaborate on how to assure that the gained insights and experiences will not be thrown away in no-time.