MIT Inclusive Innovation and Business Courses

In 2020, MIT D-Lab built out a new training and external influence strategy and designed two new practitioner education courses as part of MIT’s Innovation and Technology professional education certificate: Inclusive Innovation and Inclusive Business.

How might we build a new education model at MIT D-Lab that will advance inclusion and design in international business and development?

Process

Virtual Facilitation Best Practices: Identification and application for future virtual trainings of key best practices including: 1) creation of and clear division of new roles for facilitation team; 2) adaptation of daily warm up activities; 3) establishment of target interaction ratio (20:30:40 lecture, discussion, activity) with limits on length of sessions; 4) Testing new collaboration and engagement tools to foster informal networking and individual brainstorming and reflection mediums

Decision to redesign delivery model: Reflecting as cross-MIT course team on curriculum, format, learning outcomes and D-Lab practitioner education strategy, decision in 2022 to focus core curriculum on fewer modules and to expand delivery to MIT undergrad students and research partners through existing courses and grants.

User Skills, Mindsets, Knowledge and Connections: Surveyed by D-Lab, before and after the II course, participants self-reported greatest growth in learning about identifying opportunities for innovation, navigating power dynamics, and how to work with diverse group of stakeholders in emerging market contexts.

Refinement of User Personas: Recruiting course participants was a key challenge during 2020-2021 year and assumptions made as to user course journey varied widely. Decision to in 2022 narrow target persona to be better aligned with D-Lab channels given oversaturation of Innovation courses at MIT and in wider online ed industry.

Outcomes

MY OTHER WORK

Participatory Design Curriculum

Global Scale Up X