Podcast
Unlocking the Potential of Innovation and Education: Ellen Sullivan, Director of the Learning Innovation Lab at Melbourne Business School
Ellen Sullivan from Melbourne Business School shares her insights on the future of learning and how it can be applied to the startup world.
About the guest
Ellen Sullivan
Director, Learning Innovation Lab at Melbourne Business School
Ellen Sullivan has spent a decade at Melbourne Business School, where she pioneered its online learning capability and has impacted more than 10,000 learners over five years. As the founding Director of the Learning Innovation Lab, she is building an incubator focused on solving big problems in lifelong learning and workforce development, backed by a team of five and the full institutional weight of one of the world’s leading business schools.
Episode overview
Recorded at Melbourne Business School’s studio, this episode features Ellen Sullivan, the newly appointed Director of the Learning Innovation Lab. Ellen and host Steve Grace cover the lab’s mission, the edtech landscape in Australia, a soon-to-launch virtual classroom that can hold 84 learners simultaneously, and why Ellen describes the whole thing as “audacious.” It’s one of the more forward-looking conversations in the Give It A Nudge archive, sitting at the intersection of education, startup thinking, and institutional ambition.
A startup inside an institution
Ellen is direct about her unusual position: she’s been at Melbourne Business School for ten years, but has operated more like a serial entrepreneur than a career academic. She built MBS’s online capability from scratch, reaching 10,000 learners in five years. The Learning Innovation Lab is her next chapter: a dedicated team of five, with an incubator model, a venture partnerships function, and a community manager already in place. The lab is due to launch publicly in the first quarter of the year after recording.
“Our mission is to be a catalyst for trailblazers to solve the biggest learning problems and launch innovations for curious learners and organisations to grow.”
Ellen Sullivan 23:00
The virtual classroom
One of the most concrete deliverables discussed is a wall-of-screens virtual classroom being installed next door to the recording space. The room holds 84 people, gives session leaders real-time analytics on participant engagement, and is designed to bring the best qualities of in-person and online learning together rather than treating them as opposites. Ellen’s view is that seeing the whole person, not just a face on a video call, changes the quality of interaction.
“We’re all a bit sick of that Zoom call and just seeing the face. We want to see the whole person, we want to see the movement, we want to see the energy.”
Ellen Sullivan 12:00
The problem spaces worth solving
Ellen describes the learning problems the lab is specifically targeting: inclusive and equitable learning experiences, alternative funding models where outcomes rather than experiences are paid for, lifelong learning and career reinvention, and the impact and recognition of learning. She’s explicit that the lab wants to go further than the existing edtech startups in these areas, not duplicate them. Australia’s edtech sector is already second only to fintech in startup count, and Ellen expects it to overtake fintech within five years.
“These are big problems that haven’t been fully explored. There are some great startups doing incredible work, but we want to take it further.”
Ellen Sullivan 17:00
Key takeaways
Chapters
0:00Introduction and Ellen’s role at Melbourne Business School 3:00Ten years at MBS as a serial entrepreneur 6:00Australia’s edtech ecosystem and the $7 trillion market 9:00The Learning Innovation Lab and its structure 12:00The virtual classroom and immersive learning 15:00Going global vs staying local 17:00The problem spaces: equity, funding, lifelong learning 20:00Wellbeing and learning in a hybrid world 23:00The lab’s mission and how to get involved
Mentioned in this episode
Frequently asked questions
What is the Learning Innovation Lab at Melbourne Business School?
The Learning Innovation Lab is a new initiative at Melbourne Business School focused on solving the biggest problems in lifelong learning and workforce development. It operates as an incubator, bringing together the MBS partner ecosystem, alumni, the startup community, and global institutional connections to prototype and launch education innovations.
What problems is the Learning Innovation Lab trying to solve?
The lab is focused on four main problem areas: creating more inclusive and equitable learning experiences, exploring alternative funding models where learners pay for outcomes rather than experiences, redesigning lifelong learning and career development, and reimagining how the impact of education is measured and recognised.
What is MBS’s virtual classroom and how does it work?
Melbourne Business School is installing an 84-person immersive virtual classroom featuring a full wall of screens, real-time engagement analytics for session leaders, and structured breakout functionality. The goal is to combine the energy and presence of face-to-face learning with the accessibility of online participation, rather than treating them as separate modes.
How big is Australia’s edtech sector?
Australia has over 600 edtech startups, making it the second largest startup sector behind fintech. Ellen Sullivan expects edtech to overtake fintech within five years, driven by the global education market projected to reach $7 trillion by 2050.
How can startups get involved with the Learning Innovation Lab?
Ellen is actively inviting contact from edtech startups, VCs with relevant portfolio companies, and anyone interested in contributing to or collaborating with the lab. The best route is through LinkedIn or through the Give It A Nudge community, as the lab’s team includes a dedicated venture partnerships and community role.
Topics discussed
Full transcript
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Show full transcript (26 minutes, 5 sections)
0:00 Introduction and Ellen’s background
Welcome to the show. I’m Ellen, I’m the Director of the Learning Innovation Lab at Melbourne Business School, which is a big, bold, maybe even audacious new concept for the school. We’re looking at setting up an innovation team and next year we’re looking to launch an incubator focused on the transformation of learning. I’ve been at this organisation for 10 years. I started the online capability for learning at Melbourne Business School and with the teams I’ve built, we’ve impacted over 10,000 learners in the last five years. Now we’re trying to increase that number at a much faster, audacious pace.
5:30 The edtech opportunity
Education is going to be a $7 trillion global market by 2050. In Australia, edtech is just behind fintech with over 600 edtech startups, and I expect it to overtake fintech in the next five years. It’s a space that is most certainly being transformed by startups. Our digital campus is evolving at a rapid pace. We’re going to launch Australia’s first virtual classroom, and the lab is focused on how we actually launch innovations that can do something meaningful about the biggest learning problems.
11:00 The virtual classroom
It’s a very immersive space, the size of this room but with a wall of screens. It can hold 84 learners. We’re all a bit sick of that Zoom call and just seeing the face. We want to see the whole person, the movement, the energy. The analytics and the way people interact and break out are much more immersive. It’s taking the best of both worlds of face-to-face and online and bringing them together.
16:30 Problem spaces and the lab team
We’re focused on launching innovations for curious learners and organisations to grow. The problem spaces include inclusive and equitable learning experiences, alternative funding models where you pay for outcomes rather than experiences, lifelong learning and career growth, and the impact and recognition of learning. We’ve recruited a team of five: a head of strategy and innovation, head of venture partnerships, a community manager, and an innovation manager.
22:00 Mission and how to get involved
Our Dean has described the lab as a big, bold experiment and we don’t know where it’ll end up, but that’s the fun of it. Our mission is to be a catalyst for trailblazers to solve the biggest learning problems and launch innovations for curious learners and organisations to grow. If you’re in edtech, if you’re a VC with portfolio companies, please reach out. We expect to launch publicly in quarter one next year.
About the host
Steve Grace is the founder and CEO of The Nudge Group, a technology-focused recruitment and advisory business. He has built and scaled companies across Australia and the US, and hosts Give It A Nudge to spotlight founders and operators building something meaningful.
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