The Key with Inside Higher Ed Ep. 163: Campus Culture Eats Innovation Strategy for Breakfast
Jul 3, 2025
Kevin Yee, a leading expert in AI integration at the University of Central Florida, and Maricel Lawrence, an innovation catalyst at Purdue Global, dive into the dynamic intersection of campus culture and innovation. They highlight how bottom-up leadership and human-centered approaches can spark creativity in higher education. The discussion touches on the challenges and opportunities of integrating AI and new teaching methods, as well as the importance of collaboration. They advocate for engaging faculty fully in this transformative process, fostering vibrant learning communities.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Innovation Needs Culture
- Innovation means trying new things or creating new ideas that add value and solve problems.
- Culture is key; it empowers risks, values people over processes, and supports iteration.
Culture's Power Over Innovation
- Culture is an invisible shared belief system that can either support or hinder innovation.
- Change agents leading from any level are critical to evolving culture, though resistance is common.
Purdue Global’s AI Foresight
- Purdue Global anticipated AI's emergence by exploring GPT-2 in 2021, years before public hype.
- This foresight allowed them to quickly launch AI task forces and develop guidelines when ChatGPT debuted.