Learning Innovation in Higher Education: Understanding the Contributions of Learning Professionals Across the Institution

Abstract

This paper explores the emergent field of learning innovation. Drawing on the work of Kim and
Maloney (2020), learning innovation is understood as the interplay between a complex set of
practices, methods, and designs as attempts by higher education to improve teaching and
learning. The term innovation speaks to the intentional investment in change to improve
practice. Recently, there has been “a turn to learning” in higher education that was accelerated
in 2020 with the move to online learning in response to the Covid pandemic that required an
intense focus on designing for student learning (Kim & Maloney, 2020, p. 4). In this research we
inquire into the contributions of learning professionals at one university. The work of these
professionals is undertaken outside the traditional delineation of teaching and learning as being
the sole responsibility of faculty in the classroom. One early research focus to emerge has been
the changing roles and identity of professional staff in higher education. Early findings build on
earlier research by Whitchurch (2008, 2012) and point to new directions for research into the
ways learning innovation is predicated on how universities make space for scholar-practitioners
within campus organizations and service units to improve the learning experience for all
students.