Unit information: Creativity and Innovation in 2016/17

Unit name	Creativity and Innovation
Unit code	INOV30001
Credit points	10
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Beckett
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	Transdisciplinary Group Project 1: Being Human Design and Systems Thinking
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Centre for Innovation
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

Drawing on social practices the unit will also focus on the creation and consumption of value. The material and non-material world around us gains its ‘value’ from its position within practices and that value is consumed as individuals perform practices such as cooking, or childcare. Using practice approaches the unit will examine the links between consumption and production of value and innovation. Successful innovation rests on an intimate understanding of how individuals use and consume value and how new material and non-material elements can re-shape the performance of practice.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Practice thinking – developing students’ understanding of practice and the consumption of value. These early sessions will be a mixture of traditional lectures, reading and experiential learning tasks to help familiarise students with practice thinking.

Practice and the creation of value – students develop an introductory understanding of marketing and strategy and the innovation approaches used by organisations. This will enable them to understand some of the challenges involved in creating innovative solutions within organisations, the different forms of innovation, incremental and disruptive and the strategic implications of innovations for organisations.

The innovation/creativity cycle – experimenting with practice thinking. The second stage of learning is to give students hands on experience of using practice thinking to generate innovations. This experiential learning is focused around an example problem or issues which the students work on in groups. This element of the unit combines small group working facilitated by the teaching team with creativity workshops that develop students’ experience of using creativity approaches. Moving between these forms of learning student gain experience of how to frame innovation opportunities, generate creative insights and to explore possible solutions.

Students successfully completing the unit will have gained:

1. Knowledge and understanding of practice thinking and its role in locating the creation and consumption of value.
2. The ability to use practice thinking to identify particular practices and articulate how value is created and consumed within them.
3. The capacity to use practice thinking analyse existing examples of innovation, especially disruptive innovation.
4. An ability to use practice thinking to generate new innovations.
5. The ability to use visual literacy and articulacy to explain innovation choices.
6. The capacity to reflect critically on the innovation development processes and the individual’s role in that process.

Teaching Information

Lectures, workshops and small group breakout sessions.

Assessment Information

Assessment on this unit is based on 100% course work and comprises of two elements:

1. 60% - A student led, research based group project using practice approach to value creation and innovation. Group presentations supplemented by a group portfolio which may include prototypes, designs, blogs, wikis etc. ILO 1, 2, 4 & 5
2. 40% - An individual reflexive critique. 3000 word individual reflection on the processes and outcomes of the group research project. ILO 3, 5, 6

Reading and References

• The Dynamics of Social Practice: Everyday Life and how it Changes, 2012, Shove, Panzar & Watson ISBN:9780857020437
• The Design of Everyday Life, 2007, Shove et al., ISBN:9781845206833
• Disrupt: Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business, 2010, Luke Williams ISBN: 9780137025145
• Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayten Christensen, When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, ISBN: 978-08758458521997