| American higher education institutions, specifically public universities and colleges, have reached a key point in their histories and it is within this moment that these institutions must transform operations, deliver education in new ways, and demonstrate unquestionable social and economic impact. Universities and colleges must increase productivity and find new ways to lower costs, increase efficiencies, and improve quality while delivering education to a greater mass of people over a shortened period of time. "A Multicase Study Analysis of the Intersection of Institutional and State Policy and Educational Innovation" investigates the means by which public research institutions are attempting to address these pressures with technology-enhanced innovations, combined with supportive policies and effective business models. This research provides stakeholders with a greater understanding of the processes involved in innovation adoption, as well as the social, economic, and policy contexts of operation.;The researcher conducted a qualitative analysis of three institutional case studies, the Ohio State University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Texas at Austin, guided by research questions focused on how public research institutions and states develop policies to address higher education productivity challenges, the types of policies or policy amendments public research institutions and states adopt to address higher education productivity challenges, and how successful and failed educational innovations intersect with institutional and state policies. To generate the case studies, the researcher interviewed institutional leaders, staff, and faculty on each campus.;The research finds that the on-campus technological innovations are changing the higher education landscape regularly and quickly. The three institutions studied are navigating such changes through negotiated modernist and postmodernist approaches to institutional advancement and transformation. These institutions are stretching beyond their traditional policies and paradigms in order to be a part of the discovery process, sometimes voluntarily and sometimes as a concession for internal and external stakeholder pressure. The qualitative design of this study provides readers and researchers with an understanding of the institutional ecosystems and thereby establishes a foundation for future research focused on various dimensions of higher education policy and practice. |
