My OpenLearn Profile
Personalise your OpenLearn profile, save your favourite content and get recognition for your learning
Invention and innovation: An introduction
This free course, Invention and innovation: An introduction, is for designers, engineers, technologists and anyone interested in designing and inventing. It is also for managers and consumers interested in innovation and technical change. The course will show you how design and innovation can create a more sustainable future. It will also help you understand how innovation comes about and will encourage thinking about environmental and social challenges for the future.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
- explain invention, design, innovation and diffusion as ongoing processes with a range of factors affecting success at each stage
- explain how particular products you use have a history of invention and improvement, and appreciate the role that you and your family, as consumers, have played in this history
- define key concepts such as invention, design, innovation, diffusion, product champion, entrepreneur, sustaining and disruptive innovation
- explain the role of intellectual property in invention and innovation and list the various ways that inventors can protect their ideas
- identify the range of reasons that motivate individuals and organisations to invent.
First Published: 10/08/2012
Updated: 04/07/2019
Rate and Review
Create an account to get more
Track your progress
Review and track your learning through your OpenLearn Profile.
Statement of Participation
On completion of a course you will earn a Statement of Participation.
Access all course activities
Take course quizzes and access all learning.
Review the course
When you have finished a course leave a review and tell others what you think.
The course is really easy to understand and sparks passion in those who read it.