“Discovery Towards Strategy”—Co-Creating an Institutional Innovation Strategy for Digital and Medical Education

Abstract

Through the pivot to emergency remote teaching during the pandemic, most universities have managed to become ‘digital’, at least in the delivery of educational programmes and business operations. And yet, the purposeful design and use of technology for education is far from the reality of such a pivot and remains difficult to achieve. While most universities outline some level of digital transformation as part of their innovation narrative and strategies, there is only a limited number of universities that adopt the culture of co-creation. This paper illustrates a bottom-up approach to the co-creation of a new digital and medical education strategy in a London-based Russell Group university to bring on change that is fit for purpose. The findings include the key insights, specifically, the five key values of what the community believed to be crucial—(i) broadening access to education, (ii) flexibility, efficiency and convenience, (iii) authentic learning, (iv) business proposition, and (v) pastoral care; and the eight areas of opportunities and challenges—(i) human relationships, (ii) co-creation, (iii) digital engagement, (iv) digital pedagogy, (v) digital literacy, (vi) edtech and IT infrastructure, (vii) support, and (viii) digital assessment and feedback. This paper also outlines the strategic project plans that were generated and since implemented as a result of the co-creation process. The limitations and future directions of this study are also noted.