Landscape analysis as a tool in the curricular change process

Abstract

The Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation (Epicenter)'s initiative for faculty development and institutional change — called Pathways to Innovation (Pathways) — is working with U.S. engineering schools to embed innovation and entrepreneurship learning opportunities into the undergraduate experience. Pathways' program design is grounded in the literature that identifies best practices in faculty development and institutional change. Each participating institution begins its work with a process of documenting resources (assets) and identifying gaps at their school to create a analysis. That analysis then becomes the basis for identifying well-defined objectives for focused work to create meaningful change over a short period. The mapping process itself becomes a vehicle through which a large number of stakeholders throughout the institution are engaged. While this process of asset mapping is well-referenced in change literature, its application to curricular change is novel. The specific objectives of the Epicenter project are to increase the access to innovation and entrepreneurship learning opportunities for undergraduate engineering students; however, aspects of the landscape analysis process are relevant to a much wider audience of faculty and administrators seeking to implement curricular change beyond one instructor and/or one course. This paper reviews the research underpinnings of the landscape tool and describes its evolution based on early formative evaluation. Further, the paper illustrates the tool's use in more than 35 engineering schools with widely-varying profiles (i.e., public/private, small/large, rural/urban) and reports on how the tool has been used by teams to identify appropriate change strategies and increase engagement in their project by stakeholders. Finally, the paper identifies future directions and uses for the tool as well as possible topics for future research.