Innovation Corps for Learning (I-Corps™ L): Assessing the Potential for Sustainable Scalability of Educational Innovations

The Innovation Corps for Learning (I-CorpsTM L) is an initiative of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) in cooperation with the University of Minnesota, Arizona State University, Colorado State University, and Tufts University to apply the highly successful principles of NSF I-CorpsTM towards a culture that will sustain and scale educational innovations. The NSF I-CorpsTM program, on which I-CorpsTM L is based, uses established strategies for start-ups to build entrepreneurial skills in the engineering and scientific communities that encourage mainstream application of emerging technologies. The overriding purposes of the 8 week I-CorpsTM L course are to (1) provide a framework for each of the participating teams (typically 20 to 24 in a cohort) to assess the potential of their educational innovation for sustainability and scalability, and (2) foster an entrepreneurial mindset within the education community so that education products, programs, and services are designed and implemented in ways that promote widespread adoption. In this paper and poster we summarize the essential features of I-CorpsTM L, the changes made in the three iterations of the program thus far, and key evaluation results. We also present our assessment of the potential of the I-CorpsTM L to contribute to the transformation of STEM education through the sustaining and scaling of NSF-funded research-based ideas.