Leading Large Scale Innovation: Building Institutional Flexibility

Abstract

RE-Engineered was launched at the University of Saskatchewan in 2021/22. It was designed to build community among our first-year engineering students with modularized courses, full integration across all learning outcomes and courses, competency-based assessment, introduction to 4 sciences instead of the usual 2, an Indigenous Cultural Contextualization module, and replacement of final exams in December with a week of experiential learning days across 5 engineering disciplines. The scale of the changes envisioned by the first-year team (Sean Maw and Joel Frey) was so large that it impacted most institutional support units and had substantial operational and teaching practice change requirements for two colleges. Over the four-year design process, it became clear that the curricular design required a parallel and intentional process of broad organizational change for successful implementation. From this realization sprung the Change Management Committee (CMC). This group has leveraged resources (financial, human, expertise), influenced key decision makers on campus, and facilitated deep organizational change.