2021 Feb. 04 - EdTech challenge: Design the 2025 Campus

encognize delivers CREATOYO 2021 Business Innovation Award

"What Higher Education-related problem can you solve using digital technologies, turning your solution into a responsible business by 2025?"

This is the question that participants of Creatoyo 2021, an annual one-week interactive event organized by the Department of Global Innovation Studies (GINOS) Toyo University Japan, in collaboration with MOSAIC, the creativity and innovation hub from HEC Montreal, Canada and BETA from Strasbourg University, had to work on in a team setup.

For this Creatoyo 2021 Business Innovation Award program fully designed and delivered on-line by encognize, the 5 teams competing for the award could get expert insights and learn from professionals drawn from the entire innovation ecosystem in Japan (Corporations, startups support structure, coach, VC...).

Knowledge sharing sessions from the selected Business Innovation Award mentors covered themes such as how to define your market, the importance of developing soft skills, design thinking and related tools, PR/FAQ innovation mechanism, the role of VC and key criteria for a VC investment decision.

As part of encognize commitment to support the development of responsible X-Tech digital businesses, this EdTech challenge looking at the near future of Higher Education has suggested to the participating teams to focus on one of the following subthemes:

• Campus 2025 - a democratized access to higher Education

Higher education should not be exclusive; where you come from and who you are should not matter to access higher education.
Can you propose solutions based on digital technologies that will give access to higher education regardless of the student social condition and location?

• Campus 2025 - an inclusive campus adapted to any student

Whether you are a non-traditional learner or have specific physical or mental conditions, higher education should remain accessible.
How can digital solutions help offer an inclusive access to higher education?

• Campus 2025 - the gateway and highway to employment

Upon graduation, the 2025 Campus should give the student a quick access to employment by developing the necessary skills needed today by employers.
What type of solutions based on digital technologies would you propose to improve the students access to employment?

• Campus 2025 - an engaging place to learn

How can you design a campus (whether physical, virtual or hybrid) that will allow a maximum engagement between students and professors?
Which approach, which tools, which type of content, which evaluation methods can you create to provide the highest level of engagement?

• Campus 2025 - an "agile" campus

Our world has never been changing so fast. This creates a lot of opportunities and challenges for the society, including for higher education.
How can digital technologies help create an "agile" campus that evolves as our world and societies evolve?

While all teams have come up with different business ideas, we could also see some recurring themes emerging during the ideation phase of the program. As a large part of higher education has moved on-line due to the on-going pandemic, the need to create better social links with peers, to feel part of a class or group especially for 1st year students, to interact with tutors or professors in order to get advise or help has been debated by all the teams. Additionally, with limited real-world social interactions, the topic of how to improve mental health for university students was discussed by several of the teams. At last but not least, the importance of improving higher education in order to support a quick access to employment upon graduation has been studied by some of the groups.

Award selection by our jury composed of the mentors, Toyo University professors and students themselves was based on 5 criteria:

1. business potential of the solution
2. uniqueness / innovation of the solution
3. positive societal impact of the solution
4. feasibility and path to delivery for the solution
5. presentation pitch quality 

Congratulations to Team Bright who won the award with a platform-based solution aimed at putting in touch students with certified professors and educators across the globe in order to increase tutoring and exchange of ideas in a cross-cultural approach.

Objectives for the participating teams were:

1. experience the entrepreneurial journey from "inside"
2. learn how to present business ideas succinctly and professionally in front of decision makers
3. get first hand insights on innovation, entrepreneurship, startup, business... from experienced professionals
4. for the Award Winning team, get an additional success story to enrich their resume

Based on the post-event survey results, we can proudly share that our goals have been reached.
We would like to thank here Toyo University Imamura-sensei and Professor Carraz, the mentors, the organization support team and of course all the students for making this Creatoyo 2021 Business Innovation Award a successful and enjoyable event!

If you are interested in knowing more about this challenge or would like to run your own innovation challenge, do not hesitate to contact us here.