Social Innovation Coursework

Graduate Course on Social Innovation

The Price School’s graduate-level course in social innovation provides students with an overview of social innovation processes that can help to spur more equitable and inclusive solutions to complex social problems.

PPDE 580: Social Innovation_syllabus

As an example of the work done in the graduate level social innovation class, masters students Marianna Jordan and Joelle Montier engaged with the social innovation process through proposing the use of a Collective Impact Framework to decrease sexual assault on college campuses. This pressing issue, which universities nationwide are struggling to properly address, persists in part due to a lack of accurate statistics on the prevalence of sexual assault. This stems from inconsistent definitions of sexual assault, underreporting and/or lack of reporting, existing incentives for universities to underreport, and ongoing cultural challenges that society as a whole must examine.

To design appropriate interventions to solve this problem, Jordan and Montier proposed combining Collective Impact methodology with evidence-based prevention strategies to decrease sexual assault. Collective impact initiatives consist of five characteristics that create the groundwork for lasting social change. These characteristics include: 1) a common agenda; 2) shared measurement systems; 3) mutually reinforcing activities; 4) continuous communication, and 5) a backbone support organization. The power of this framework lies in its ability to organize a variety of key stakeholders and partner organizations into a cohesive group with a well-articulated vision, which supports effective coordination of activities, data collection, and policy mobilization.

“A collective impact framework can help us learn how to engage community voices, institutional leadership, and existing research to problem solve for an entrenched and complex issue like sexual assault” said Jordan. “I’m grateful that this class expanded my thinking on the tools and processes that we can utilize to create systemic change.”

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Undergraduate Course on Social Innovation

In this course, undergraduates across the university gain an introduction to the field of social innovation, including the models and processes used to advance more equitable and inclusive solutions to complex social issues.

PPD 478: Social Innovation_Duquette syllabus

PPD 478: Social Innovation_Graddy-Reed syllabus

Explore past undergraduate student coursework below.