Effects of Project based Learning Utilizing Design Thinking Process in Higher Education

This paper explores the benefits of empathy skill for school students. The encouragement of empathy skill in school was discussed in two situations: 1. Using design thinking approach for project-based learning and 2. Promoting as a classroom culture. Empathy is an act of understanding, being conscious and experiencing the feeling and thoughts of other people. It is the key to inspire social innovation and diminishing prejudice against others. Empathy skill has affected our feeling of wellbeing and human centeredness to provide an understanding of people’s needs. By integrating design thinking process in school, students will equip themselves with empathy-related skills such as communication, observation, decision-making and positive relationship with others as part of their active learning process. Adapting design thinking in project-based learning requires students to be aware and concern in exploring human-driven design which leads to user satisfaction for any problem’s solution. Empathy also has the advantage of forming a positive classroom culture and sustaining a good teacher-student relationship. This paper discussed how the design thinking process can promote empathy skill during project-based learning for humanizing decision-making and the opportunity for empathy integration in the classroom to engage in positive collaboration and teamwork. KEYWORDS: Classroom Culture, Design Thinking, Empathy, Project-Based Learning

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Prototyping and Student Engagement

Applying Design Thinking to the Measurement of Experiential Learning - Advances in Higher Education and Professional Development ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-7768-4.ch015 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 234-243

Author(s):

Karen J. Haley ◽

Randi P. Harris ◽

Lynell R. Spencer

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Student Engagement ◽

Student Success ◽

Design Thinking ◽

Service Improvement ◽

Thinking Strategies ◽

Thinking Process ◽

Career Advising ◽

Prototype Phase

Design thinking strategies are used to engage stakeholders to define a problem, inspire creativity in solution designs, prototype, iterate together, and implement solutions that reflect the community for which they were designed. Increasingly, these strategies are being used within student success and innovation work in higher education. The primary purpose of this chapter is to explore the importance of the “prototype” phase of the design thinking process when applied to designing co-curricular experiences through a case study of an institution that utilized design thinking and service improvement frameworks to design an academic and career advising system to best serve students.

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Re-Imagining the Future of Experiential Learning Through a Campus-Wide Design Thinking Initiative

Applying Design Thinking to the Measurement of Experiential Learning - Advances in Higher Education and Professional Development ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-7768-4.ch010 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 147-162

Author(s):

Karen L. Sanzo ◽

Tancy Vandecar-Burdin ◽

Tisha M. Paredes ◽

Lisa Mayes ◽

Brian Payne

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Experiential Learning ◽

Initial Data ◽

Design Thinking ◽

Learning Activities ◽

State Council ◽

Business Partners ◽

The Future ◽

Old Dominion University ◽

Thinking Process

In 2020, Old Dominion University was awarded a State Council for Higher Education for Virginia grant in order to re-imagine the future of experiential learning at the institution. This campus-wide effort is led by a taskforce to create a vision, framework, and plan for the future of experiential learning at Old Dominion University. The taskforce is composed of stakeholders that include students, faculty, administrators, and community and business partners. In this chapter, the authors report on process and progress, with particular attention to the first three phases of the design thinking process. In the empathy phase, they have engaged in design thinking sprints, hosted monthly taskforce meetings, engaged in an exhaustive review of current experiential learning activities, and deployed surveys of relevant stakeholders. During the defining phase, they analyzed initial data, synthesized their collective empathy work, and identified root issues to craft their “How might we” questions to inform the ideation work. In this chapter, they also share the results of the ideation phase.

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Using the Design Thinking Process to Co-create a New, Interdisciplinary Design Thinking Course to Train 21st Century Graduate Students

Frontiers in Public Health ◽

10.3389/fpubh.2021.777869 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Emily Rose Skywark ◽

Elizabeth Chen ◽

Vichitra Jagannathan

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Graduate Students ◽

Design Process ◽

Design Thinking ◽

Course Design ◽

Education Institution ◽

Work Skills ◽

Graduate Course ◽

Interdisciplinary Design ◽

Thinking Process

Background: Our instructional team at the The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill led an innovative project that used IDEO.org's design thinking process to create a brand-new interdisciplinary graduate course, housed in the school of public health, titled Design Thinking for the Public Good. We offer our course design process as a case study of the use of design thinking for course design.Methods: We collected data and generated insights through a variety of inspiration, ideation, and implementation design thinking methods alongside members of our three stakeholder groups: (2) faculty who teach or have taught courses related to design thinking at our higher education institution; (2) design thinking experts at ours and other institutions and outside of higher education; and (3) graduate students at our institution.Results: We learned that interdisciplinary design thinking courses should include growth-oriented reflection, explicit group work skills, and content with a real-world application.Conclusions: Our course design process and findings can be replicated to design courses regardless of area of study, level, or format.

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