By Sabine Carton (University of Grenoble Alpes)

How to promote innovative educational spaces inside and outside Grenoble campus and get people involve in their uses? In June 2018, Promising[1] and several faculties used Open Walked Event-Based Experimentations (OWEE) approach at Université Grenoble Alpes. The event had two main objectives. The first one was external. We wanted to introduce campus innovative educational spaces to the local ecosystem of companies, collectivities, associations from Grenoble.  The second one was more internal. The idea was to share innovative educational initiatives between teachers, educational assistants and educational engineers in order to help people make evolve their practices.

 

Grenoble campus is an open space where companies, associations, are welcome to come and discuss with students and faculties. So an OWEE was a way to introduce innovative educational spaces to companies, collectivities, to the local ecosystem. We wanted to show innovative educational initiatives and their diversities, to external actors of Grenoble campus. As a matter of fact, Grenoble campus is not located in the city center. But it can be reached easily by tramway or bike. It is not a place people just cross to go elsewhere. So OWEE was a mean to attract people who were not used to come to the campus and to make them discover innovative educational spaces. Some of these spaces are indeed open to people who are not working in the campus. But few people know it…

 

The second idea was to share innovative educational initiatives between teachers, educational assistants and educational engineers.  OWEE can be a way of helping the transformation of organizational and educational practices. We used OWEE at Grenoble campus to make teachers, educational assistants, administrative staff aware of new practices. In the different spaces we visited, people had the opportunities to touch, ask, use, experiment. Between two spaces, the walk enabled us to discuss, share critical analyses and even co-imagine the design of future courses. Embodied practices in space (walk, sitting in specific chairs, or laying on mattress) participated to the reflection process of each participant, questioned existing practices and eventually lead to new ideas for the organization of student classes and lessons.

 

OWEE’s philosophy was also taken into account: the walk was held beginning of June and let time people to think of new ways of teaching during summer time, to possibly prepare a new course organization before the beginning of the academic year in September.

 

So OWEE was considered as a relevant and interesting tool to leverage local innovative initiatives to the benefits of interested university members. It was not only a tool for promoting, mixing different kind of audiences and meeting between people but also a way of contributing to reflexivity of faculties’ practices and initiating concrete actions to transform practices.

 

[1] Promising is a Grenoble university project dedicated both to a research program on innovation teaching skills and to the designing of innovating and original modules to inspire creative and innovative students, faculties, companies and more generally society. For more details, you an visit this website: https://www.promising.fr/promising/