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- Invention and innovation: An introduction
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:
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
You can start this course right now without signing-up. Click on any of the course content sections below to start at any point in this course.
If you want to be able to track your progress, earn a free Statement of Participation, and access all course quizzes and activities, sign-up.
Course content
- Introduction
- Learning outcomes
- 1 Part 1 Investigating the innovation process
- 2 Part 1: 1 Living with innovation
- 3 Part 1: 2 Exploring innovation
- 4 Part 1: 3 Inventing the telephone and living with the innovation
- 4 Part 1: 3 Inventing the telephone and living with the innovation
- 4.1 An explanation
- 4.2 When and where was the telephone invented?
- 4.3 Who invented the telephone?
- 4.4 What was innovative about the telephone?
- 4.5 Was the telephone invented in response to a need or because of developments in technology?
- 4.6 Was the telephone an immediate success?
- 4.7 Has telephone design changed over time?
- 4.8 Has the telephone led to any related or spin-off products?
- 4.9 A consumer's experience of innovation
- 4.10 What has been learnt from the history of the telephone?
- 5 Part 1: 4 Key concepts
- 5 Part 1: 4 Key concepts
- 5.1 Introduction to key concepts
- 5.2 Inventors and inventions
- 5.3 Designs
- 5.4 Product champion
- 5.5 Entrepreneur
- 5.6 Improver
- 5.7 Innovation
- 5.8 Dominant design
- 5.9 Robust design and lean design
- 5.10 Radical innovation and incremental innovation
- 5.11 Sustaining innovation and disruptive innovation
- 5.12 Process innovation
- 5.13 Diffusion and suppression
- 5.14 Compact fluorescents and new developments
- 5.15 Intellectual property and patents
- 6 Part 1: 5 Dead certs and dead ends
- 7 Part 1: 6 Self-assessment questions
- 8 Part 1: 7 Key points of Part 1
- 9 Part 2: Invention
- 10 Part 2: 1 How invention starts
- 10.1 What motivates individuals to invent?
- 10.2 Scientific or technical curiosity
- 10.3 Constructive discontent
- 10.4 Desire to make money
- 10.5 Desire to help others
- 10.6 What drives invention in organisations?
- 10.7 Business strategy
- 10.8 Need to improve product or process
- 10.9 Opportunity offered by a new material, technology or manufacturing process
- 11 Part 2: 2 How the process of invention works
- 14 Part 2: 5 Self-assessment questions
- 15 Part 2: 6 Key points of Part 2
- 16 Part 3: Innovation
- 17 Part 3: 1 Overcoming obstacles to innovation
- 18 Part 3: 2 Diffusion of innovations
- 19 Part 3: 3 Sustaining and disruptive innovation
- 20 Part 3: 4 Phases and waves of innovation
- Part 3: 5 Self-assessment questions
- 22 Part 3: 6 Key points of Part 3
- Conclusion
- Keep on learning
- References
- Acknowledgements
- This site has Copy Reuse Tracking enabled - see our FAQs for more information.
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55 hours study
Level 3: Advanced
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