Priorities:Leuphana University of Lüneburg Student Priorities
Contents
Fall 2017
Strategy 1: Create a Digital Leadership Lab
The Digital Leadership Lab will prepare students and businesses for digital leadership and digital culture. The lab will examine how students and businesses can effectively operate in a modern, digitally networked work environment, and be used to train leaders and students as drivers of digital innovation.
Step 1:
Research companies with appropriate digital products (such as projectors, interactive whiteboards, telepresence robots) that help organize and increase the efficiency of remote and local teams.
Step 2:
Gauge the likelihood of receiving products from these companies [for free] in order to equip the Digital Leadership Lab for students and businesses.
Step 3:
Create a template letter / flyer in order to request products for use. Include information on the benefits that can be offered to the company (structured engagement and feedback from a consistent flow of users). Efficiently contact companies by order of the usefulness of their equipment and the likelihood of receiving it.
Step 4:
Research and understand legal requirements, liabilities, and campus rules for receiving and installing software or equipment.
Step 5:
Install and learn the technical requirements for all equipment.
Step 6:
Train other students to use, and teach others about, the equipment and space. Ensure that they are adequately trained and fluent in the technologies, then let them administer the space alone.
Strategy 2: Create a space for coworking / design thinking
Establishing an interdisciplinary work space that accomodates multiple teams and formats of co-working would help bring together various departments within the university that are currently not well integrated. While securing enough space for several teams is a longer term goal, we can currently utilize part of the digital leadership lab for design thinking and using physical materials.
Step 1:
Plan adequate room in the Digital leadership lab for a design thinking space. Need distance from expensive equipment to ensure room for movement and messes.
Step 2:
Talk to students about what kind of organizational / planning materials they would like to have for rapid prototyping and visualizing ideas.
Step 3:
Plan approximate costs for the usual physical materials as well as any innovative ideas that students may have.
Step 4:
Secure funding from internal resources as well as outside resources available to the university.
Step 5:
Search for a larger space on campus (preferably near the lab) specifically for design thinking and collaboration.
Step 6:
Request the eventual use of this space as the need for co-working spaces grows larger than what the digital leadership lab can accommodate.
Strategy 3: Connect students to regional companies and entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship and innovation require inspiration and support. We think it would be great to have a consistant partnership with a number of local companies in order to provide students a connection from theory to practice. Incorporating these companies into events and the digital leadership lab will ensure that students and companies will be well networked and have a good understanding of the local problems that they could solve together.
Step 1:
Leverage the technological offerings of the digital leadership lab as well as the opportunity to engage students in order to begin discourse with local businesses.
Step 2:
Ensure that there is at least one contact person, familiar to company representatives, regularly available for questions or ideas (preferably a student and an administrator so that companies have a contact that is knowledgeable on university bureaucracy and one that is excited to initiate new ideas).
Step 3:
Contact the appropriate university representatives to find out bureaucraticä pre-requisites for some sort of collaboration or partnership. (What are the rules for university / business collaboration?)
Step 4:
Create brainstorming sessions with both companies and students. Find out what topics for events / collaborations would most benefit students, and how to make sure that they would offer enough value to companies so that they will be enthusiastically involved throughout the process and in the future.
Step 5:
Organize events and use the resources and plan listed below in order to raise awareness and engage students. Use the possibility of thesis-collaboration to draw students towards innovative projects.
Step 6:
Perform survey with students about how effective they found the collaboration. Adjust future plans to best accommodate the students.
Strategy 4: Raise Awareness of the Lab and Leadership / Entrepreneurship Offerings on Campus
Simply creating these resources will not be enough. Students must be constantly informed of their presence and we need to make it clear what value we can bring to them. This will require the fundamental incorporation of student perspectives as well cooperation with other disciplines.
Step 1:
Share the Landscape Canvas with relevant university Stakeholders in order to request support in raising awareness. Understand which stakeholders are likely to be the most supportive in securing money / resources.
Step 2:
Brainstorm the information that is most important to share with students regarding the entrepreneurship environment and the lab. What is the most logical order for informing them? Is it better to have everything on one page or to separate it all? Which areas on campus are most seen by which types of students? Is there a need for digital resources as well (website, digital flyers, etc.)?
Step 3:
Recruit students from Marketing department to help make student body aware and get them involved in the new spaces and programs.
Step 4:
Collaborate with them on the most appealing way to design advertisements for the spaces and programs.
Step 5:
Record the amount of visitors to the lab at the opening and for a certain time thereafter.
Step 6:
Begin marketing activities and see if there is a large rise in the amount of students visiting the space. (How effective is the design? Is the message reaching students? Are they interested in getting involved or do we need to better market the incentives of visiting the lab and programs? etc.)
Related Links
Fall 2017 UIFs:
Christian Otto
Hannah Vergossen
James Long
Related links
