Scaling Pedagogical Innovation: A Tiered Collaborative Framework for Building Institutional Capability and Sustaining Digital Transformation in Higher Education

Abstract

Higher-education institutions increasingly need to improve digital learning while maintaining academic quality, disciplinary relevance and staff ownership. A persistent challenge is moving from isolated examples of innovative teaching to sustainable course redesign at institutional scale. This paper presents a practice-based case study of PowerUp: Time for Digital Transformation at Lodz University of Technology (TUL), a technical university connecting curriculum development and staff capability-building with digital transformation, enhanced learning experiences, global trends and labour-market needs. The initiative supports the redesign of 12 study programmes and their 216 courses and engaged 158 academics through a new Learning Design Studio capability. Its differentiated Mini, Midi and Maxi pathways provide progressively intensive support: targeted consultation and improvement planning; partial redesign incorporating flipped learning and active face-to-face teaching; and extensive redesign for fully online learning. The model combines academic subject expertise with learning-design and media support, using design plans, before-and-after mapping, workshops, professional learning and quality-assurance activities. Course redesign is guided by TUL Course Design Guidelines organised around Core and Plus practices, including learner-centred and inclusive design, programme-level coherence, assessment alignment, active learning, flexible access, student feedback and iterative improvement. Drawing on implementation data, participation records, course-design artefacts and staff-development activity, the paper examines the model’s reach, operation and emerging outcomes. It argues that sustainable digital transformation depends not only on technology or training, but on institutional structures that connect professional learning, collaborative redesign, shared pedagogical standards and ongoing evaluation. The TUL experience offers a transferable framework for scaling innovation while respecting disciplinary autonomy.