Don’t stop at understanding. Discovery and Innovation as Learning Outcomes in Business

May Wang

BNU-HKBU United International College, China

 

Abstract:

With increasing importance being placed on the development of Outcomes Based Teaching and Learning (OBTL) in higher education, teachers are required to document how their courses and programs support the development of those skills and attributes. The outcome-based approach is a student-centered approach, which calls for the articulation of what we expect our students to learn, and gathering evidence to determine whether they have learned it. The approach has been widely adopted in universities across the world. In standardized evaluation rubrics for all students in one subject, how could we encourage students not to stop at understanding but to create and discover new things? As teachers we not only need to ensure that students learn the knowledge and apply the skills that will enable them to be life-long learners in their chosen professions, we want to develop their ability to create/innovate/discover and enable them to adjust to changes and challenges that lie ahead. Therefore, it is important that discovery and innovation should be taken as one of the learning outcomes in the curriculum and course design. This issue is addressed here through the rubrics design of discovery/innovation as one of the learning outcomes and two case studies of a university teacher in Business Division from two courses. The first case illustrates a project in the course of Management Information Systems on an innovative iPhone Application and the second case presents a business plan by students which really turn into entrepreneurship in the University.