Florida Virtual Campus Leverages Popup Labs and Design Thinking to Increase Bachelor’s Degree Attainment
Tampa, FL (December 15, 2019) – Florida Virtual Campus announced today that it has initiated a series of popup innovation labs designed to increase the percentage of students in Florida that graduate with a bachelor’s degree. The labs are specifically designed to pinpoint challenges and cultivate ideas to overcome obstacles students face while completing their degree. Feedback and insights are being captured primarily from students at Florida’s public colleges and universities, but also from employers, recent graduates, advisors, and high school counselors, to ensure that ideas are developed from multiple points of view.
The popup innovation labs leverage a problem-solving methodology called design thinking. The methodology approaches problems with a foundational goal of understanding the wants and needs of customers. These insights are used to develop ideas that directly address perceived issues and quickly prototype solutions to determine their effectiveness. Design Thinking is used by some of the world’s most innovative companies including Apple, Pepsi, IBM, Nike, Procter & Gamble, and SAP.
Florida Virtual Campus partnered with Stonehill to design and implement the popup innovation labs. Stonehill is one of the leading design thinking firms in the United States and was recently recognized by the United States Chamber of Commerce as Emerging Business of the Year. They are headquartered in Tampa, FL and have completed projects for many national organizations including Melting Pot Restaurants, PODS, Girl Scouts, Florida Aquarium, Oregon Tilth, Dover Corporation, and Valley Bank.
“Florida Virtual Campus is constantly looking for innovative ways to capture feedback from students, parents and business leaders,” said Robin Colson, Director of Research & Innovation at Florida Virtual Campus. “Design thinking and pop-up labs provide us with an inexpensive, but effective channel, to discover what is important to our customers.”
About Florida Virtual Campus
The Florida Virtual Campus (FLVC) was created in 2012 by the Florida Legislature and comprises the Distance Learning and Student Services workgroup and the Florida Academic Library Services Cooperative. The mission of FLVC is help Florida’s education institutions develop innovative strategic solutions at a shared statewide level, eliminating the need for individual institutions to purchase these services individually. Today, the Florida Virtual Campus works collaboratively with Florida’s 12 public universities, 28 public colleges, and 74 K-12 school districts to provide shared educational services for the state of Florida.
About Stonehill
Stonehill is a strategy and innovation consultancy. As recognized experts in Design Thinking, Business Intelligence, and organizational development, Stonehill helps companies to identify opportunities, create change, and accelerate growth. Stonehill’s teams consist of an innovative blend of creative, strategy, technology, and change management experts, giving us the ability to unite the functional silos of business in the common objective of creating differentiated customer experiences. Stonehill has been recognized by the US Chamber of Commerce as the Emerging Business of the Year, Great Agencies as one of the Top Business Intelligence Consultants in the United States, and CIO Review Magazine as one of the 20 Most Promising Performance Management Providers.
