Employing Technology Industry Methods to Facilitate Transformative Learning Experiences in the Classroom: Insights From a Pilot

Abstract

High-impact, transformative educational practices change the way students see themselves and others, as well as impart knowledge. Practices from the technology industry may offer innovative strategies for fostering transformational learning experiences. We developed and implemented two innovation techniques—Hackathon and Innovation Time Off (ITO)—in a graduate course on social psychology and public health nutrition. The Hackathon occurred in the sixth and seventh weeks of the course; the last 4 weeks provided 10% of class time for ITO projects. All enrolled students participated in the pilot study ( n = 6; M age = 27.5 years; 83% female; 67% White) and completed reflection papers during the final exam period. Student learning was assessed from these reflection papers using a rubric for transformative versus nontransformative changes in five areas: confidence, pride, skills, perspective, and identity. Student responses revealed transformative changes in perspective ( n = 7). Additionally, nontransformative changes were found in confidence ( n = 1), identity ( n = 2), perspective ( n = 4), and skills ( n = 9). This pilot work suggests that the Hackathon and ITO contributed to perceived skill-building in problem-solving and teamwork, and the Hackathon may have led to transformative changes in perspective; ITO may not be appropriate for learners who need structure; high confidence remained unchanged; and these strategies are likely to be feasible and replicable.

Designathons in health research: a global systematic review

“…We retrieved 127 publications from additional searches (ie, citation searching and the complementary open call), with a further 11 publications included in this review. In total, we included 42 studies in this review,7 8 18–57 with 39 studies (93%) focusing on developing social innovations 7 8 18–20 22–42 44–53 55–57. The PRISMA flowchart is presented in online supplemental figure 1.…”

“…In total, 41 studies (98%) reported the number of designathon participants 7 8 18–53 55–57. The median number of individuals participating in designathons was 49 (IQR 34–90, range 6–434), and the median number of teams was 8 (IQR 5–14.5, range 2–40).…”

“…In total, 37 studies (88%) reported the duration of the intensive collaboration part, ranging from 3 hours to 7 days (online supplemental table 3). 7 8 18 21–24 26–29 31–53 55–57…”

“…In total, 28 studies (67%) reported the number of final outputs developed during the event 7 8 18–20 22–27 29 30 35 36 38–40 42 44–47 50 52 55 57. The median number of outputs was 8 (IQR 6–13, range 2–40).…”

Looking to the Future: Reimagining Pedagogy in Health Promotion and Public Health

“…Borrowing two techniques from the technology industry-Hackathons and Innovative Time Off-to facilitate creative problem solving among graduate students in a social psychology and public health nutrition course (Shonkoff et al, 2021).…”