EDU029100 Archives

Transdisciplinary Experiments: Research, teaching and institutionalisation explores how experimental approaches can reshape research, education, and institutions in higher education to better respond to today’s complex and interconnected challenges. The book is grounded in the idea of ‘the experiment’ as a way to open up new possibilities, whether in knowledge-creation, teaching and learning, or institutional structures and initiatives. It examines how these experiments can inspire meaningful change across disciplines, sectors and cultures.

International contributors – scholars, artists, scientists, teachers, curators, community and academic leaders – offer diverse perspectives blending practical strategies with theoretical insights. These contributions advance the framing of transdisciplinarity and its implications for practice. The book engages with project-based teaching, flexible course and programme designs, and new forms of organisation. In doing so, it converges on a common goal of rethinking how we create and share knowledge in ways that are more collaborative and adaptive, and aligned with the needs of a rapidly changing world. A section titled ‘Provocations’ offers further reflections from four contributors on leadership challenges, failures and possibilities for creative interventions.

By connecting curiosity with action and experimentation with institutionalisation, Transdisciplinary Experiments offers a vision of what higher education research, teaching, learning and leadership can look like when driven by creativity, openness and a commitment to building more resilient futures.

ABC Learning Design is a popular and effective rapid design method for developing educational programmes, modules and short courses. Created at UCL in 2015, ABC enables academic teams to collaborate in short, focused workshops to co-create visual storyboards of students’ learning journeys. Its ease of use, adaptability, and open licence have led to widespread adoption across the UK, Europe and beyond.

ABC Learning Design: Active, blended, connected and beyond introduces ABC to a new audience, adding insights from institutions that have localised and implemented the method in diverse contexts. ABC provides practical, ready-to-use tools, but it is often reframed as more than a set of resources. Its built-in flexibility not only allows for transferability but actively encourages creative modifications that respond to institutional needs. The core ABC workshop remains the heart of the method and is central to all implementations. Around this, institutions have built locally relevant adaptations that retain the method’s participatory ethos. This shared structure creates a design lingua franca that supports collaboration within and across institutions. Drawing on facilitator and participant experiences, the book reviews ABC’s key strengths and explains why it continues to inspire innovation. It invites a global conversation on enriching learning design for students, faculty, and institutions alike.