Communities of Innovation is a framework for understanding the nature and characteristics of communities or organizations focused on producing innovative activity. The framework is not only descriptive, but leads to prescriptive recommendations for designing and supporting these types of communities in both education and business. Following are some papers and presentations presenting my ideas about collaborative innovation within these types of settings.
Research Papers
Using design thinking to improve student innovation, a paper detailing our experiences creating two design studios for teaching design thinking at Brigham Young University. Published in the Educational Technology Media Yearbook (2016).
What is shared? A framework for studying communities of innovation, published in Educational Technology Research and Development. (2009).
This framework was then revised and published in TechTrends. I consider this recent paper the more accurate one for my current thinking.
Learning to design collaboratively: Participation of student designers in a Community of Innovation, published in Instructional Science. (2011).
Innovation 101: Promoting undergraduate innovation through a two-day boot camp, published in Creativity Research Journal. (2012).
Teaching innovation in high school technology classes, published in Technology and Engineering Teacher. (2012).
Improving Problem-based Learning in Creative Communities Through Effective Group Evaluation. Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning. (2013).
Teaching, Doing, and Sharing Project Management in a Studio Environment. Educational Technology. (2013).
Creativity, Innovation, and Design at BYU
I am the co-chair of the Creativity, Innovation, and Design faculty group at BYU, and am also involved in developing the Interdisciplinary CID Studio in the library. for more information, see innovation.byu.edu.
Invited Presentation to the AECT Research and Theory division, Nov 1, 2013.
2013 – Rick West – Communities of Innovation from McKay School of Education on Vimeo.
“Interdisciplinary Innovation” presented to IPT Seminar, January 2015
Keynote at the Instructional Design Summit, July 12, 2013
ID Summit: Dr. Richard West from UVU Distance Education on Vimeo.
Designers for Learning Podcast
A Summary of Three Research Studies on the Innovation Boot Camp
Dr. Rick West – IP&T Seminar 11/17/2010 from McKay School of Education on Vimeo.
Radio Interviews
- Thinking Out Loud, a show on BYU Radio discussing “Group Creativity” on August 30, 2013. [Link to mp3]
- Everything Creative show on the Mormon Channel discussing “Designers.” [Show notes • MP3 • Article]
Awards
My initial paper describing COIs was awarded the 2008 Young Scholar and 2010 Outstanding Journal Article (all ranks) awards from the Association for Educational Communication Technology. In 2013, AECT invited me to give a presentation to the Research and Theory division on COIs as part of their annual series highlighting individuals “making an impact on research and theory in the field.” The paper from this presentation was then published in TechTrends.