Thomas Carey
Sarah McDonald
Felix Nobis
Victoria Peel
Our WINCan projects can sometimes feel like a relay race: our initial 2017-18 pilot projects in BC seeded the further work in our 2018-19 Ontario collaboration hosted by York University’s Lassonde School of Engineering. Building on both of these, our most ambitious WINCan project to date launched in 2019 in Melbourne Australia. This post introduces our Melbourne team and their first course units which launch in July 2020 (the start of Fall term down under). In a subsequent post, we’ll summarize the team’s work to date via a summary of their April 2020 presentation to their academic Alliance partners in England.
The Monash University project leadership team
Our new academic partner in Melbourne is Monash University’s Faculty of Arts.. Monash University –the largest university in Australia – was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the State of Victoria. Monash is one of Australia’s “Group of Eight” leading research universities and one of the world’s “top 100” in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
Monash Arts enrolls nearly 8,000 students and the Monash Arts’s initiative in Human-Centred Workplace Innovation is a key element in the Faculty’s 5-year strategic initiative plan. The goal is to develop capability for B.A. graduates to contribute distinctive value in current and future workplaces – capabilities that leverage the disciplinary Ways of Knowing from Humanities, Social Sciences and Performing Arts disciplines and also contribute distinctive value in graduates’ other roles as community members and global citizens.
Here are the key team leaders for the Monash initiative:
Dr. Felix Nobis, Project Leader – Undergraduate, is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Theatre and Performance at Monash University and the director of Work-Integrated Learning for Monash Arts. Felix is also a professional actor with many roles in stage, TV and film productions in Australia and beyond, as well as an accomplished playwright and translator (Boewulf).
Dr. Victoria Peel, co-Project Leader – Postgraduate, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Tourism with research interests in Tourism and Australian Studies. Vicki is also Deputy Associate Dean Education (Graduate Coursework) and former Deputy Director of the National Centre for Australian Studies.
Dr. Sarah McDonald, Executive Champion for the initiative, is an Associate Professor in the Monash School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics and Associate Dean (Education) for the Monash Faculty of Arts.
We will be maintaining strong links between our ongoing Canadian projects and these international ‘siblings’. WINCan’s co-Principal Catalyst – Academic Partnership, Dr. Thomas Carey, has been the ‘Connector, Coach and Catalyst’ for the Monash project and was recently appointed as Executive-In-Residence for Teaching and Learning Innovation in the Monash Faculty of Arts. (WINCan team members may recognize this title, as Tom has been engaged in a similar role for the B.C. Association of Institutes and Universities since 2017.)
The first Monash Arts course units
Here are descriptions of the first course units on Human-Centred Workplace Innovation in the 2020 Monash Arts Handbook for students. The “ATS” listing indicates an interdisciplinary course unit in Arts.
ATS2211 Understanding Human-Centred Workplace Innovation: Concepts and Cases
In every working environment the ability for employees to value-add and innovate is greatly valued by employers. In this unit students will develop an understanding of innovation as a workplace attribute and social process. Through an examination of both theoretical frameworks of innovation and case studies which apply different forms of innovation, students will have the opportunity to develop their own innovative responses to issues across a range of industries and sectors. They will also develop the skills to test these ideas in peer-group scenarios..
ATS3173 Workplace Innovation Project Studio
In this unit students will have the opportunity to work on innovation projects from a range of industries and stakeholders. Students develop an understanding of the theoretical frameworks underpinning contemporary approaches to innovation. Students will work in interdisciplinary project-based teams to gain practical experience in developing solutions to an authentic stakeholder brief.
Projects will be overseen by stakeholders and an academic team. Students will pitch their final project concept to an expert panel. Students enrolled in this unit may propose an innovation project linked to their own work/volunteering or community service roles…
There are more highlights on this initiative in our February 2020 blog post on Three Key Ideas for Developing Capability in Human-Centred Workplace Innovation with B.A. Students.
Other Partners
In addition to interdisciplinary activities across the six academic Schools within Arts, the following internal Monash partnerships are already in development:
the Monash Education Academy – similar to Teaching & Learning centres in North America – is involved as an early test site for the skills to be developed in ATS2211 and deployed with workplace partners in ATS37. This is one aspect of the plan to use the Learning Design in both course units as an exemplar of Hypothesis-Driven Design.
the Department of Design (in the Monash Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture) has complementary course units in Design Thinking for students outside the Design major, including units at fundamental and advanced undergraduate levels , as well as discipline-specific post-graduate offerings.
Workplace Partnerships are being developed to co-create Work-Integrated Learning opportunities. You can get a sense of our approach to these collaborations in the WINCan What We’re Learning blog post by Felix and Tom on Co-Developing Capability Specification, Curriculum Maps and Learning Activities.