Educational innovation projects in Dutch higher education: bottom-up contextual coping to deal with organizational challenges

Abstract Understanding the process of initiation, design, implementation and embedding of educational innovations in higher education is necessary to develop better strategies for sustainable, large-scale educational innovation. Often early initiated educational innovation projects are not evaluated...

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Main Authors: Martine Schophuizen, Marco Kalz
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SpringerOpen 2020-06-01
Series:International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education
Subjects:
Online Access:http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41239-020-00197-z
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spelling doaj-2cfbf78daad64d47a488a72a60904ee82020-11-25T02:44:18ZengSpringerOpenInternational Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education2365-94402020-06-0117111710.1186/s41239-020-00197-zEducational innovation projects in Dutch higher education: bottom-up contextual coping to deal with organizational challengesMartine Schophuizen0Marco Kalz1Faculty of Educational Sciences, Open University of the NetherlandsInstitute for Arts, Music and Media, Heidelberg University of EducationAbstract Understanding the process of initiation, design, implementation and embedding of educational innovations in higher education is necessary to develop better strategies for sustainable, large-scale educational innovation. Often early initiated educational innovation projects are not evaluated well enough, making it hard to identify lessons learned. The aim of this study is to investigate how project leaders of innovation projects in Dutch higher education institutions are coping with organizational challenges. To address this we analysed qualitative focus group data with innovators that run projects at Dutch higher education institutions through the lens of contextual coping theory. Results show that the innovators identified challenges (primary appraisal), proposed possible solutions (secondary appraisal) and also were able to take concrete steps (coping efforts) to overcome challenges to design and implement open online educational innovations. From these findings it can be concluded that bottom-up initiatives can create awareness and are capable of finding local resources to establish support for embedding innovations locally, yet, appropriate, synchronized and timely top-down action is needed in order to create a sustainable and institution wide support system for experimentation and embedding of educational innovations. These findings will contribute towards developing better strategies to develop innovative educational practices and quality education.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41239-020-00197-zEducational innovationOrganizational embeddingCoping theory
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Martine Schophuizen
Marco Kalz
spellingShingle Martine Schophuizen
Marco Kalz
Educational innovation projects in Dutch higher education: bottom-up contextual coping to deal with organizational challenges
International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education
Educational innovation
Organizational embedding
Coping theory
author_facet Martine Schophuizen
Marco Kalz
author_sort Martine Schophuizen
title Educational innovation projects in Dutch higher education: bottom-up contextual coping to deal with organizational challenges
title_short Educational innovation projects in Dutch higher education: bottom-up contextual coping to deal with organizational challenges
title_full Educational innovation projects in Dutch higher education: bottom-up contextual coping to deal with organizational challenges
title_fullStr Educational innovation projects in Dutch higher education: bottom-up contextual coping to deal with organizational challenges
title_full_unstemmed Educational innovation projects in Dutch higher education: bottom-up contextual coping to deal with organizational challenges
title_sort educational innovation projects in dutch higher education: bottom-up contextual coping to deal with organizational challenges
publisher SpringerOpen
series International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education
issn 2365-9440
publishDate 2020-06-01
description Abstract Understanding the process of initiation, design, implementation and embedding of educational innovations in higher education is necessary to develop better strategies for sustainable, large-scale educational innovation. Often early initiated educational innovation projects are not evaluated well enough, making it hard to identify lessons learned. The aim of this study is to investigate how project leaders of innovation projects in Dutch higher education institutions are coping with organizational challenges. To address this we analysed qualitative focus group data with innovators that run projects at Dutch higher education institutions through the lens of contextual coping theory. Results show that the innovators identified challenges (primary appraisal), proposed possible solutions (secondary appraisal) and also were able to take concrete steps (coping efforts) to overcome challenges to design and implement open online educational innovations. From these findings it can be concluded that bottom-up initiatives can create awareness and are capable of finding local resources to establish support for embedding innovations locally, yet, appropriate, synchronized and timely top-down action is needed in order to create a sustainable and institution wide support system for experimentation and embedding of educational innovations. These findings will contribute towards developing better strategies to develop innovative educational practices and quality education.
topic Educational innovation
Organizational embedding
Coping theory
url http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41239-020-00197-z
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AT marcokalz educationalinnovationprojectsindutchhighereducationbottomupcontextualcopingtodealwithorganizationalchallenges
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