Educational Hackathon : Innovation Contest for Innovation Pedagogy

This paper addresses the educational hackthon as innovation pedagogy method for teaching fuzzy front end of innovation (FFEI) in higher education institutions (HEIs). Specifically it focuses on the process design and execution. This study is based on the idea that educational hackathons are a specific type of innovation contest aimed at teaching and learning, thus incorporating a set of design variables. Therefore, the paper reports a case study according to those variables in HEI teaching in university-industrycollaboration. This paper presents both the process description along with students’ learning and feedback, i.e. the development suggestions for the method. Presenting conclusions for both academic use and practical design of hackathons in teaching, the paper clarifies the literature of educational hackathons as a type of innovation pedagogy method, for teaching FFEI in HEIs beyond IT-industry.