Business Process Innovation using the Process Innovation Laboratory

Most organizations today are required not only to establish effective business processes but they are required to accommodate for changing business conditions at an increasing rate. Many business processes extend beyond the boundary of the enterprise into the supply chain and the information infrastructure therefore is critical. Today nearly every business relies on their Enterprise System (ES) for process integration and the future generations of enterprise systems will increasingly be driven by business process models. Consequently process modeling and improvement will become vital for business process innovation (BPI) in future organizations. There is a significant body of knowledge on various aspect of process innovation, e.g. on conceptual modeling, business processes, supply chains and enterprise systems. Still an overall comprehensive and consistent theoretical framework with guidelines for practical applications has not been identified. The aim of this paper is to establish a conceptual framework for business process innovation in the supply chain based on advanced enterprise systems. The main approach to business process innovation in this context is to create a new methodology for exploring process models and patterns of applications. The paper thus presents a new concept for business process innovation called the process innovation laboratory a.k.a. the Ð-Lab. The Ð-Lab is a comprehensive framework for BPI using advanced enterprise systems. The Ð-Lab is a collaborative workspace for experimenting with process models and an explorative approach to study integrated modeling in a controlled environment. The Ð-Lab facilitates innovation by using an integrated action learning approach to process modeling including contemporary technological, organizational and business perspectivesNo; keywords

Education in Process Systems Engineering: Why it matters more than ever and how it can be structured

This position paper is an outcome of discussions that took place at the third FIPSE Symposium in Rhodes, Greece, between June 20–22, 2016 (http://fi-in-pse.org). The FIPSE objective is to discuss open research challenges in topics of Process Systems Engineering (PSE). Here, we discuss the societal and industrial context in which systems thinking and Process Systems Engineering provide indispensable skills and tools for generating innovative solutions to complex problems. We further highlight the present and future challenges that require systems approaches and tools to address not only ‘grand’ challenges but any complex socio-technical challenge. The current state of Process Systems Engineering (PSE) education in the area of chemical and biochemical engineering is considered. We discuss approaches and content at both the unit learning level and at the curriculum level that will enhance the graduates’ capabilities to meet the future challenges they will be facing. PSE principles are important in their own right, but importantly they provide significant opportunities to aid the integration of learning in the basic and engineering sciences across the whole curriculum. This fact is crucial in curriculum design and implementation, such that our graduates benefit to the maximum extent from their learning

Brave New Worlds: Transcending the Humanities/STEM Divide through Creative Writing

Creative writing offers a critical and innovative form of inquiry promoting integrative learning that transcends disciplinary barriers. Authors first provide an overview of the scholarship on creative writing pedagogy, its unique capacity to engage a range of knowledge domains, and its significance for honors education. They then offer primary examples of incorporating creative writing projects into two honors classes that bridge STEM fields and the humanities. Analyses of student reflections (n = 35) in relation to learning outcomes strongly suggest that creative writing helps students explore course concepts through several ways of knowing—critical, situational, and affective—while fostering new perspectives on these concepts, their interconnections, and their implications. The value of creative writing as a platform for self-directed and interdisciplinary learning within the transdisciplinary context of honors is discussed

Exploring 21st Century Learning in Virginia Secondary School Technology and Engineering Classrooms: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine how integrative STEM teachers utilize the Standards for Technological and Engineering Literacy (STEL) to foster and assess 21st-century learning in technology and engineering classes at multiple Virginia public secondary schools. The theory guiding this study was Kolb’s experiential learning theory, which integrates nine learning theories into an innovative cyclical learning process that is like the engineering design loop. This hermeneutic phenomenology included 15 Virginia technology and engineering schoolteachers (Grades 6-12) who purposefully taught multiple academic disciplines and utilized the eight practices of the STEL in the context of their curriculum to foster 21st-century learning. Data collection included individual interviews, journal prompts, and physical artifacts (lesson plans, assessment tools, etc.). Data were entered into the Delve data analysis software and were analyzed using Van Manen’s hermeneutic phenomenological theory for common themes regarding the fostering and assessment of 21st-century literacy. The themes extracted from the data included measuring 21st-century learning, developing 21st-century curriculum, and the eight practices of technology and engineering educators: creativity, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, optimism, attention to ethics, systems thinking, and making and doing. The findings indicated that integrative STEM methodology, multidisciplinary instruction, and the eight practices of the STEL fostered 21st-century learning. This study’s significance was to add to the available literature on integrative STEM education and the STEL fostering 21st-century learning

Practical subjects in the vocational curriculum: A critical review of the literature

There is a growing number of studies in the field of vocational education and training, including studies on the practical training that takes place in vocational colleges to prepare students for successful transition into workplaces. There is need to review these studies for systematic knowledge building in the field, and to provide an evidence base for practical training in colleges. This is what this critical review of the literature on practical training in vocational colleges set out to do. The review identified theoretical, procedural, technical and contextual forms of knowledge in practical work, and found that different knowledge types underpin different kinds of practical tasks. Based on these findings, the study proposes a framework towards enhancing practical training in colleges

Toward a New Social Contract: A Tripartite Mixed-Methods Analysis of Social Sustainability at Three Land-Grant Universities

Increasingly, colleges and universities in the United States are adapting toward a model of behavior that incorporates issues of sustainability. This adaptation in universities and in society has implications on the organizational and nation-state level, the very core of which may serve to reshape the social contract between the two. In addition to supplying a strong counter-hegemonic argument that alters the competitive economic agenda-setting paradigm, this study serves as a tripartite comparative case study analysis of university adaptation toward social sustainability. By employing a social capital lens to understanding social sustainability in higher education, this study seeks to examine the relationship between higher education, sustainability, and the nation-state.The conceptual framework of this analysis will draw on Putnam\u27s concept of social capital, in the effort to understand the relationship between higher education, sustainability, and social capital as well as what a sustainability paradigm could mean in terms of a new social contract. The methodology of this study is exploratory and aimed at understanding university adaptation in three ways: first, elements of organization and administration aimed at advancing sustainability; second, teaching and research efforts that have been established within a sustainability frame; and third, community and outreach efforts that examines the role of the university in its local environment as well as the work toward public service. The specific methodology employed can be categorized as comparative case study (Yin, 2003). To validate findings, data is triangulated via a between-methods design and collected through: qualitative survey, contextual content analysis, and comparative discourse analysis respectively (Jaeger, 1988). The result is effectively a 3 x 3 mixed methods design so that each individual case study employs each of the three methodologies in order to provide a rich description of the social sustainability phenomena and offer data for comparative discourse analysis. Findings reveal three distinct strands amongst the case studies in the analysis of sustainability discourse. Results show the importance of the role of, organizational context, personal approach of the chief sustainability agent, and organizational saga in contributing to adaptation. In this way, sustainability approaches and the priority and university adaptation differed. These three approaches can be described as: an energy/operations/facilities perspective, a research and academic-focused perspective, and a humanistic-grassroots approach