LEGO® for university learning: Online, offline and elsewhere

This book is the second edition of LEGO® for university learning: inspiring academic practice in higher education (Nerantzi and James, 2019). It is an updated practical guide, bringing together the thoughts and experiences of the editors and colleagues from the higher education sector. It focuses on their use of LEGO® bricks, and the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method in all aspects of higher education practice. We are updating it to reflect the continued growth in use of LEGO®-based approaches, particularly during, and after, a time of global pandemic.

While the use of LEGO® in some form is relatively commonplace now in higher education, there is still an appetite for guidance on how to use it. We hope that this revised book will help new and experienced practitioners and researchers in tertiary learning do this in face-to-face, online and blended settings. The second and third of these settings have become particularly important in a time of remote learning. The book is being revised with this in mind, and also to reflect the growth and variety in LEGO®-based applications since 2019 across disciplines, professional areas and geographical locations.

In particular, it considers the principles and structure of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and how using this creative method, and others inspired by it, can form part of our academic repertoire. As with any pedagogic resource or approach, judicious use of it and a clear sense of its academic purpose should be the main drivers. With specific regard to the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method or related approaches, we advocate taking care to allow enough time and space to reap its benefits, if you want to explore issues in depth. This does not mean that you cannot use LEGO® bricks for quick activities and simpler outcomes; just that such activities are different to LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® itself.

LEGO® and LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® are trademarks of the LEGO Group.

This book is not approved, authorised or endorsed by the LEGO Group.

This book is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons — Attribution Non- Commercial License 4.0 International (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits sharing and adapting of the material, provided the original work is properly attributed (see recommended citation), any changes are clearly indicated, and the material is not used for commercial purposes. This book is based on the first openly licensed edition  Nerantzi, C. and James, A. (2019) LEGO® for university learning: inspiring academic practice in higher education. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.2813448

Note: Part 1 of the original book was based on the following short paper made available under a creative commons licence CC BY for the OER14 Conference: Nerantzi, C and McCusker, S (2014) A taster of the LEGO® Serious Play® Method for Higher Education, OER14 Building Communities of Open Practice, Conference Proceedings, 28-29 April 2014, Centre for Life, Newcastle, United Kingdom.