While teaching and learning for Entrepreneurship capability is an established activity in higher education[1], teaching and learning for capability in employee-led Workplace Innovation is a more recent development. Initiatives to develop workplace innovation capability in higher education reflect a growing recognition that “innovation and entrepreneurship are not only distinct concepts, but they also play out in postsecondary institutional contexts in different ways”[2]. Higher education institutions are beginning to recognize that all students should have opportunities to engage with innovative and entrepreneurial workplace activities[3], as a core graduate attribute and durable skill for the future of work.
In this three-post series, we describe a shared set of online resources and activities to help learners develop their understanding of – and capability for – workplace innovation. These resources are being created, adapted and enhanced by a collaboration across a diverse set of postsecondary institutions. This Collaboration Through Diversity approach has resulted in a rich set of ideas and distinctive versions for specific contexts from which we have all been learning.
In this post, we’ll summarize the resources currently available (Part I) and then describe examples of common interests across specific contexts which led to shared learning opportunities and greater diversity in the ideas applied by each partner (Parts II and III).
Evolution of Our Open Educational Resources (OER) for Workplace Innovation Capability
The figure below represents the OER developed so far, all available under a CC BY-NC-AS v4.o Creative Commons License. The ongoing series of progressively improved base modules (2022-2024) on Understanding and Applying Workplace Innovation are primarily being adapted for use in traditional for-credit courses across sectors of postsecondary education. The 2022 module, Workplace Innovation 1st edition and accompanying book chapter[4] resulted in an award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Teaching Excellence in Europe.
Figure 1: Our Five Workplace Innovation OERs Currently Hosted in the eCampus Ontario Open Library
Notes: Images and titles reflect the five OPEN Educational Resources (OERs) that are hosted in the eCampus Ontario Open Library. VLS refers to the eCampus Ontario Virtual Learning Strategy. Information about the eCampus OPen Library can be found at https://openlibrary.ecampusontario.ca/ . LInks to individual OER publication can be accessed by clicking on the images above.
An outstanding example of adaptation for a novel context, the Workplace Innovation Skills for Employment Success modules (available at https://q.utoronto.ca/courses/307280), was developed for the Arts and Science Internship Program (ASIP) in the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Arts and Science. The introductory page, “Welcome Instructors and Program Coordinators,” describes the distinctive ASIPcontext and the industry insights that informed the program’s development. There are also links to an Instructor’s Guide and to sample Student Personas that helped to shape the instructional approach and content.
A new pilot follow-on module on Enabling Inclusive Innovation in the Workplace illustrates our work-in-progress introducing new concepts; e.g., the links between employee-led Workplace Innovation, the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, and emerging new professional roles; e.g., Workplace Innovation Catalysts who support fellow employees in their innovation activities (Frye, 2024). As noted in a later post in this series, content from this latest module will be tested in Fall term 2025 within a course on Intercultural Engagement.
The OER content has proved to be particularly appealing for our current academic partners from Humanities and Social Sciences programs, who are keen to show how the European conceptualization of Workplace Innovation aligns with the ethos of their Liberal Arts programs and students. For the pilot module on Enabling Inclusive Innovation in the Workplace, one of the medium-term goals is to help students from these programs to discover how the distinctive ways of thinking and knowing developed in Humanities and Social Sciences can contribute significant value to innovation teams and activities.
Exploring Diversity in and for OER
Issues on Diversity in and for OER have been explored from several perspectives, including the impact of Diversity concepts as elements of workplace Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives in OER learning resources and activities. For example, a 2022 study of Nursing students using OER[5] addressed the question, “How do students perceive and envision equity, diversity, and inclusion in nursing-related open educational resources?” The study included both explicit Diversity topics and implicit exposure to Diversity concepts embedded in other topics.
Diversity also appears as a design imperative for Open Educational Resources, e.g., to support diverse learners[6]. Other studies have explored how OER designs address issues of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for disadvantaged learners. For example, a 2024 research report[7] surveyed both instructors and students on equitable use and access to OER materials, diversity of representation within the content, and changes to pedagogy for more inclusive teaching. Diversity can also be considered through the goal of adapting OER to target the diversity of student learning opportunities and approaches[8].
Our own perspective on Collaborating Through Diversity complements this research on Diversity within OER, by considering Diversity in developing OER, i.e., the contexts of the team of educators who contribute to shared OER development. We have been intentionally seeking out new partners for the Collaborating Through Diversity practice with different institutional types, geographical contexts, program hosts and course formats.
The main driver for this Collaborating Through Diversity practice is the common principle in innovation management that more diversity in innovation teams should lead to more breakthrough innovations. Our ongoing research is exploring the roots of this premise by investigating how different kinds of team diversity contribute to success for innovation project teams[9]. Based on this principle, we have been supporting the re-use, adaptation, and enhancement of our OER in a diverse set of institutional contexts.
Parts II and III of this series will illustrate how the Collaborating Through Diversity approach supports both distinctive adaptations for local instructional contexts and mutual learning from a diverse pool of ideas and ways of thinking.
Acknowledgement: in addition to the support of participating institutional partners, elements of the work reported here were supported by the eCampus Ontario Open Library program and the Government of Canada’s Future Skills Program.
References:
[1] Komodromos, M. (2025). A Literature Review on the Emergence of Entrepreneurship Education: Development, Trends, and Challenges. Integrating Simulation Tools Into Entrepreneurship Education, 21-46.
[2] Swayne, N., Selznick, B., McCarthy, S., and Fisher, K. A., 2019. Uncoupling innovation and entrepreneurship to improve undergraduate education. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development. 26(6/7), p. 783.
[3] Hamouda, A. (2018). Entrepreneurship for all: an exploration of the impact of entrepreneurship education across disciplines. In International Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Academic Conferences International Limited. Hero, L. M., and Lindfors, E. (2019). Students’ learning experience in a multidisciplinary innovation project. Education+ Training, 61(4), 500-522.
[4] Nobis, F., Stevenson, M. Baregheh, A., and Carey, T. (2022). Engaging Students with an Adaptable Model for Workplace Innovation Capability. Innovation & Entrepreneurship Teaching Excellence Awards 2022. An Anthology of Case Histories. Remenyi, D. (ed.). Academic Conferences International.
[5] Lapum, J., Bailey, A., St-Amant, O., Garmaise-Yee, J., Hughes, M., & Mistry, S. (2022). Equity, diversity, and inclusion in open educational resources: An interpretive description of students' perspectives. Nurse Education Today, 116, 105459.
[6] Anike, A. N., Nnatu, U. A., & Otubelu, B. N. (2024). Innovative ways to design open education resources for marginalized communities. African Journal of Educational Management, Teaching and Entrepreneurship Studies, 13(2).
[7] Sergiadis, A. D., Smith, P., & Uddin, M. M. (2024). How Equitable, Diverse, and Inclusive Are Open Educational Resources and Other Affordable Course Materials? College & Research Libraries, 85(1), 44.
[8] Schmidt-Jones, C. A. (2012). An open educational resource supports a diversity of inquiry-based learning. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 13(1), 1-16.
[9] Bourke, J. (2016). Which two heads are better than one. How diverse teams create breakthrough ideas and make smarter decision. Sydney: Australian Institute of Company Directors. Phillips, K. (2019). What is the real value of diversity in organizations? Questioning our assumptions. Commentary chapter in Page, S. (2019). The diversity bonus: How great teams pay off in the knowledge economy, Princeton University Press. pp. 223-245. Dutcher, G., & Rodet, C. S. (2022). Which two heads are better than one? Uncovering the positive effects of diversity in creative teams. Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, 31(4), 884-897. Tambe, S. (2023). Cognitive Diversity: Vital but Invisible. In Role of Human Resources for Inclusive Leadership, Workplace Diversity, and Equity in Organizations (pp. 214-232). IGI Global.