Educational innovation management in a Post Covid-19 Epidemic of higher education in Zhoukou under Henan Province

Abstract

The objectives were 1) to explore the components of educational innovation management in higher education and 2) to propose guidelines for educational innovation management in higher education in Zhoukou, Henan Province, in the post-COVID-19era. employing a mixed-method approach. The population consisted of 2,408 instructors from five higher education institutions in Zhoukou, Henan Province, during the 2022 academic year. The sample was 331 instructors using Krejcie and Morgan's table, selected through stratified random sampling. Purposive sampling was used to select 17 key informants for interviews. Key informant validation was conducted using the connoisseurship approach, involving 9 experts. The guidelines were confirmed based on their input. The research instruments included a questionnaire using a five-point Likert scale and a validation checklist. Statistics for quantitative data analysis were descriptive, and content analysis for qualitative data from in-depth interviews and expert evaluations. The results revealed that 1) the components of educational innovation management in higher education in Zhoukou, Henan Province, in the post-COVID-19 era, consisted of four key elements; target innovation, curriculum innovation, organizational innovation, and scientific and technological innovation; and 2) the guidelines for educational innovation management comprised eight main strategies; optimizing educational management, enhancing administrators’ learning motivation, managing and developing learning spaces, managing knowledge dimensions, improving management institutions, establishing and strengthening the management guarantee mechanisms in higher education, clarifying management objectives, and ensuring the ultimate goal of comprehensively improving the quality of educational innovation management in higher education is achieved.