In 2025 Swinburne Edge designed a highly customised Organisational Development program to support an industry-first initiative aiming to drive the uptake of innovation practices among university academics.
The eLearning solution, ‘Courageous Innovation’, was developed as a 'choose your own adventure'-style program to inspire academic staff and help them understand the university’s new workload policy, which enables academics to allocate 10% of their time to innovation and engagement activities.
Developed as a 30-minute, interactive microlearning experience, this training empowers academics to be ‘courageous innovators’ and fosters a culture of curiosity, experimentation, and real-world application.
Courageous Innovation highlights
Innovation and engagement in practice
The program defines innovation and engagement within academic work, in the Swinburne context.
Expands on teaching and research
Supports academics to explore how innovation and engagement activities build on and complement their teaching and research.
Video case studies
Showcases academics at Swinburne who have successfully embarked on innovation and engagement activities.
Personalised action plan
Supports learners to develop a personalised action plan to take advantage of the new workload allocation.
The solution
Respecting users’ time constraints
Recognising that Swinburne’s 700 academic staff must balance teaching, research and administrative commitments, the course was designed as a self-paced and asynchronous program, allowing staff to engage at a time and pace that suited their needs.
To encourage deeper engagement, the course embeds a range of real-world case studies relevant to users’ professional goals and contexts, so every learner’s experience feels personalised and meaningful.
The learning content is equally accessible across disciplines, campuses, and time zones, while also scaling effectively to a large and diverse cohort.
The Solution in Brief
Self-paced
Real world context
Scalable
‘Choose-your-own adventure’ approach
The team developed a learner experience that was modelled on a ‘choose your own adventure’ format, offering:
- a non-linear design that enables learners to choose a pathway on innovation and another on engagement, revealing the two case study topics that best align with their professional interests
- a highly interactive, targeted learning experience that overturns expectations associated with traditional compliance training
- a level of agency that also respects the time of academics, who have many competing priorities.
Establish core concepts and activities that all learners encounter before choosing a pathway.
Learning content and case study videos created with Swinburne academics and leaders from Innovation and Entrerprise.
Academics build innovation and engagement into their Performance and Development plan.
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“What makes this program exceptional is its gamified, 'choose your own adventure' format, which allows participants to tailor their learning journey to their unique interests.”
Dr Werner van der Merwe, Vice President of Innovation and Enterprise
Project outcomes
By embedding principles of active learning, high learner agency, and digital interactivity, Swinburne Edge created a customised learning solution that builds capability and models innovative practice in its design.
This project is a strategic investment in building a culture of innovation and helps Swinburne meet its goals by supporting academics to build on and extend their reach and impact. It also supports the university’s mission to advance knowledge, societal impact, and deliver high-quality research and teaching.
Award-winning eLearning
Courageous Innovation was recognised for excellence in learning design at the 2025 LearnX Global Awards. It won Platinum honours in two categories:
- Best Custom/Bespoke Learning
- Best eLearning Project.
Need a workforce training solution to empower your staff?
Contact us on 1800 633 560 or via edge@swinburne.edu.au. We’d be happy to answer your questions and talk further about your training needs.