The Five Dimensions of Attaining Scale: Implications for Innovation in Higher Education

In education, unlike other sectors of society, the scaling up of successful innovations from a few initial settings to widespread use across a range of contexts is very difficult. Contextual factors in each local situation, such as instructional goals, student characteristics, and institutional resources, shape the desirability, practicality, and effectiveness of educational innovations. Achieving scale in higher education requires implementation designs that can flexibly adapt to effective use in a wide variety of contexts across a spectrum of learners and teachers. This session will describe a framework for evolving innovations to ensure effective adaptation.