MADISON, FL – Students at North Florida Community College will have the unique opportunity to take a ground-breaking new course in January, 2012. Set to begin Jan. 9, Exploring Innovation in the 21st Century (SLS 1001) is the first of its kind at NFCC. A team of instructors has come together and designed a course that will educate students about the importance of understanding the innovative process.
Led by Dr. Greg Molnar, nine NFCC instructors will help students develop the key skills for the course: creativity, critical thinking and entrepreneurship. This combination of skill sets may even result in business opportunities for the students and the community.
“I read an article that polled many business leaders who ranked innovation as the number one factor most likely to develop good jobs and to stimulate the economy,” said Dr. Molnar. “The conclusion was jobs will follow innovative ideas.” Molnar found it bizarre that “we talk about innovation, but somewhere we have failed to establish any classes to teach our students the process of innovation” and recognized he needed help to make such a course a reality. “I realized early that I didn’t have the skill sets required to teach all the components for the class. “
Multiple instructors were asked to be responsible for various segments of the class and to work with students and each other throughout the course. Tara Orlowski, Institutional Effectiveness Coordinator at NFCC, was instrumental in bringing the instructors together: Marie Guest, Graphic Design; Lisa Barden, Art; Tolu Jegede, Creative Writing; Kay Hogan, Library Science; Greg Molnar, Critical Thinking/Green Technology; Doug Brown, Sociology; Claire Mitchell, Sustainable Agriculture; Kim Halfhill, Student Services; and Orlowski, Book Studies.
”Using this team approach to teach allows the students the opportunity to hear different perspectives,” said Orlowski. “This class is also a great model for students who will have to use teamwork to bring their innovative ideas to life, which is an important skill in the business world.”
The course, to be held Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:30-1:45 p.m. at NFCC, will provide students with fundamental steps involved in creating and implementing innovative ideas into reality. Students will strengthen their critical thinking skills through a variety of activities and experiences and will work toward developing an original idea into a project, based on a potentially viable, marketable product.
“The course is an innovation in and of itself,” said Brown. “We are stepping out with an experimental elective course that will most assuredly be different than anything the student has ever experienced. I truly believe that this course will be the first of many that will involve collaboration and experiential/project based learning.”
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