This week I had the opportunity to be in touch again (after a few months without seeing them) with the promoters of TELANTO www.telanto.com. The meeting has helped me to see, again, very clearly, that the University of the future will be different, very different from what it is today. Today a degree or a master’s degree in one of our universities is based on master classes and, at most, if it is technical studies, includes some practical subjects in the laboratory. Will this scheme continue to be valid? I don’t think so. In fact, education in general is already evolving. Some experts summarize three models:
- Traditional one,
- Problem-based and
- Challenges-based.
That last model, still very incipient, suggests the future reality of the Universities.
In fact, by generalizing, we are developing whole systems of innovation based on challenges. We are witnessing the birth of a Challenge-Driven Innovation, an idea that has been around for some time but has not yet become popular. Innocentive (www.innocentive.com) is based entirely on this model and defines it as follows: Challenge Driven Innovation (CDI) is an innovation framework that accelerates traditional innovation outcomes by leveraging open innovation and crowdsourcing along with defined methodology, process, and tools to help organizations develop and implement actionable solutions to their key problems, opportunities, and challenges. In CDI, a portion of the innovation is formulated as a challenge, in which a “challenge” essentially represents the problem statement for a block of work that can be modularized and in most cases rendered “portable.” Such a block of work can be outsourced or insourced as an integral unit. In contrast to ideas, which are often unstructured and loosely defined, challenges are specific, detailed, and actionable problems or opportunities. Via rigorous methodology, challenges are formulated, prioritized – and in some cases anonymized – by taking into account diverse perspectives to maximize the likelihood of them being solved by an equally diverse network of problem solvers. Once formulated, challenges are configured for specific channels. In fact, CDI explicitly defines distinct innovation channels, including those that are crowdsourced, as well as the criteria by which they are selected. Crowdsourced innovation channels in particular include:
- Internal Channels that reach all employees or select groups of employees
- Invitational Channels that reach select groups of partners, suppliers, retirees/alumni, or customers
- External Channels that reach open and public communities of problem solvers
We are in a world of challenges, focused on the great problems of humanity and society. Today these challenges are international, multidisciplinary and have high priority in political agendas. No actor can solve all the challenges or surely not even one of them. The solution requires effective university – industry – public sector collaboration. And the role of the public sector is to propose challenges to solutions that do not exist today.
One of the key players in this process of solving challenges is the universities. We already have some pioneering universities in which education is structured around the solution to real challenges of society and the economy. Such challenge-based education can be seen as an evolution of problem-based education. But it brings some unique characteristics:
- Part of the great challenges of society
- Solutions are worked under a value approach
- It is based on teamwork but there are also strong doses of self-awareness and personal leadership
- There is an entrepreneurial mindset in the search for solutions
Challenge-based education is emerging as the great new paradigm. Today there are already some experiences of universities that develop this new approach. But they do it without changing their current teaching plans. The next step will be the total reconfiguration of the university world, in which the classes will unfold in:
- Use at home of the on-line resources (Moocs, etc.) by the student (tools that are converting training into a commodity) and
- Work on challenges and real problems in the University.
Apple (which has published a guide on how to manage this type of teaching) states as follows: With Challenge Based Learning, schools evolve from being information repositories to creative environments where all Learners can acquire real-world knowledge, address realworld Challenges, and develop skills they can use to solve complex problems for the rest of their lives. Teachers become more than information experts: they become collaborators in learning who leverage the power of students, seek new knowledge alongside students, and model positive habits of mind and new ways of thinking and learning.
TELANTO located in Barcelona offers a platform to manage this new world, the next paradigm. Its platform incorporates business challenges and assigns them to specific university courses. I put a link to an article of the El País about this company
http://elpais.com/elpais/2017/02/13/talento_digital/1487003246_926078.html
Examples of Universities that are working with TELANTO are: University of Leicester, HTW Berlin. ESADE Business & Law School, University of St. Gallen, Fresenius University of Applied Sciences, SRH Hochschule Berlin. Martin Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg, La Salle Universitat Ramon Llull, Universität Potsdam, IESE Business School, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, RMIT, Catholic University Eichstaett-Ingolstadt o University of Deusto.
And the companies: LetMeShip GmbH, AXIVAS, Eurail Group G.I.E, Conrad Electronic SE, Groupon GmbH, Somfy, Bioprognos, Arquia Banca, Textsteine – Teil der Helfenstein Ventures GmbH, Robert Bosch GmbH, STI Freight Management GmbH, Nestle Purina, HP Inc, or Lyomark Pharma GmbH
It is fortunate to have this platform in Barcelona. We hope that together we can contribute to the creation of this new university model.