In a rapidly changing world, to maintain relevancy in the face of competition, many businesses and sectors are re-examining how they develop the best product offering for their customers. This is especially true of the education system. Social trends and on-line connectivity are changing how people explore and experience the world, learn, interact, and work.

Inspired by how these changes are affecting the Informal Science Learning sector and it’s needing to evolve in front of looming disruption, this Major Research Project examines the implications of critical trends and how they can be harnessed to co-create new shared value not only in this sector, but more broadly and globally.

The research starts with an examination of the importance, nature, complexity and challenges of creating public offerings (informal learning based content) in the typical science centre. Using the Ontario Science Centre as a case study, critical trends that might lead to business model change were examined.

Critical trends included the globally growing network of science centres, the success of involving customers in co-creation and the continuing advancement of remote collaboration technologies and capabilities.
In order to unpack the current state and potential of remote collaboration, expert interview research was conducted focusing on collaborative tools and methodologies and best practices. Further literature research also noted the growth of on-line experience platforms, and a convergence of co-creation, learning and work.

Most importantly, the research concludes that technological advancements and successes in remote co-creation suggest an emergent model for the improved future of learning, work, productivity and the potential for the crowd to democratically self-assemble and engage in design and problem solving.