Pinterest as a Teaching Tool
This redesigned student affairs course is taught at the end of the second year in a two-year masters-level program. Students graduating from the program acquire various student affairs professional positions throughout institutions of higher education including residence life, academic advising, student activities and leadership, judicial, campus recreation, and admissions staff positions. The course focuses on understanding and considering ways to take disruptive innovation theory and put it into practice as student affairs professionals within higher education. Innovation has historically disrupted the shaping of higher education, and in many ways innovation is what those within higher education today are being asked to engage in through the accountability pressures they are experiencing (Cohen & Kisker, 2010; Schmidtlein & Berdahl, 2011). For example, pressure exists for institutions of higher education to meet the needs of increasingly diverse students, while also maintaining affordable costs. Innovating processes and practices within higher education is a way to respond to such pressures. Examples of disruptive innovation from the past include the credit hour and the academic calendar structure (Christensen & Eyring, 2011). More recently, advancements in technology are perhaps the most easily identifiable way the structure of higher education is being disrupted by an innovation (Straumsheim, 2013). The assignment for the course discussed in this article derived from a desire for students to become comfortable with incorporating the process of disruptive innovation into their practice so that they are prepared professionally for change within higher education.
