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

2022 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Rose Skywark ◽  
Elizabeth Chen ◽  
Vichitra Jagannathan

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.

Author(s):  
Orly Sela

This chapter discusses the issue of blended course design, with particular emphasis on a transcultural context. The chapter provides a description of a 3-dimensional model of TBLT curriculum design as implemented in a teacher education institution. The model comprises of a six-step instructional design focusing on the institution’s student population. Four examples of blended courses designed through use of the model and the design process are presented, with particular emphasis on the institution’s transcultural student population. A literature review on issues of blended learning in higher education institutions and transcultural learning is included. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how lecturers in higher education institutions may be able to use the model and design process to successfully construct blended learning courses within a transcultural context.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas Johannisson ◽  
Michael Hiete

Purpose This study aims to share experiences of an easy to adapt service-learning approach in a graduate course on life cycle assessment (LCA). Specifically, it reports on how students helped the university’s cafeteria to assess meals by conducting an LCA for 25 meals and identifying environmental hotspots. Design/methodology/approach A descriptive case study of a graduate course at Ulm University is presented. The course included lectures and problem-based exercises, both theoretical and software assisted. A course evaluation was conducted during the course and one year after completion to poll improvement potentials, as well as its impacts on students’ everyday life. Findings It was found that although it was the first LCA for all students, the resulting LCA information of 25 different meals were homogeneous, comparable to the scientific literature and beneficial to the cafeteria’s sustainable development strategy. The concept of service-learning had a higher impact on students’ motivation than a good grade and active-learning is explicitly requested by students. The course design sensitized students to the real-life problems of LCA and made their consumption patterns more elaborate and ecological. Furthermore, this digitization of higher education could be carried out with only minor changes in the present COVID-19 pandemic situation. Originality/value As the subject of service-learning in natural sciences is still expandable, this study presents an easy to adapt case study on how to integrate such an approach into university curricula dominated by traditional learning. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this case study presents the first published LCA university course explicitly describing and evaluating a service-learning approach. The topic touches the everyday lives of students, allows comparisons between different student groups, is easily scalable to different group sizes and credits, and supports learning both how to study in small groups and cooperation between groups to ensure comparability of LCA results.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hinck ◽  
Steven Davis ◽  
Justin Longmire ◽  
JB Byrnes

This paper examines how a U.S. Air Force (USAF) faculty team reimagined and redesigned an in-person Leader Development Course (LDC) to a virtual version (vLDC). Using the Design Thinking Process for Innovation (DTPI) and action research methods, a new, virtual course was imagined, designed, tested, and improved over a six-cycle-process. Data was collected via multiple sources from 121 participants (19 faculty/staff and 102 students) and analyzed using manual coding and NVivo Software. Results are organized into 22 categories under four themes (general course design, student experience, instructor experience and faculty development, and technology experience) showing a progressive refinement with key lessons learned that led to the final creation of the new virtual course. Of the five key features in action research (actions matter, context-specific research, multiple cycles and phases, inclusion of people as research target, and reflections), participants reported that multiple cycles and reflections were most important in relation to the DTPI so that change could be enacted that reflected participant voices in the design process of the virtual course. The application of the DTPI using action research methods produced results and lessons learned in the design process that contribute to the theory and practice on developing and teaching in a virtual learning environment. The study fills a gap in the scholarly field and informs other institutions on the process, failures, and successes of course redesign to a virtual version.Keywords: design thinking process for innovation, action research, USAF, leader development


Author(s):  
Olha Yeromenko

The article raises the topical issue of training competitive professionals capable of working under modern market conditions. The transition to market relations changes the education policy and the system of educational services provision. The professional destiny of a future manager and the success rate of an educational institution depend on the quality of providing educational services to graduate students specialised in educational institution management. The purpose of the article is to analyse the results of a survey of graduate students aimed at determining the status of educational services given within the specialty 073 "Management" (specialization "Educational Institution Management") in various higher education institutions of Ukraine. Monitoring the state of the educational services provided to graduate students majoring in educational institution management has been carried out on the basis of general scientific and empirical cognition methods: comprehensive study of quality training of master-course students, observation, survey in the form of questionnaires, analysis of graduate students’ responses, analogy. The criteria enabling graduate students to assess the quality of educational services provided by higher education institutions have been defined: the fundamental nature of training; level of knowledge and experience of teaching staff; organization of the educational process; culture and communication level of teachers; reaction of teachers and administration of higher education institution to further demands of graduate students, etc. On the basis of the analysis and generalisation of the processed material, the basic demands of master-course students majoring in educational institution management for increase in the level of educational services have been defined: decrease in theorising of educational material; practice orientation; increase in the use of interactive teaching methods by teachers; expansion of the list of optional courses; increase in opportunities for individual counselling at a convenient time; involvement of leading specialists, experts, experienced educational institution managers in teaching; improvement of facilities and resources of an institution; increase in the level of additional educational services provision in higher education institutions. According to the results of the study, it has been concluded that it is necessary to establish a flexible system of training master-course students majoring in educational institution management.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (24) ◽  
pp. 7179
Author(s):  
Daniel S. Oh

As the smart city concept and applications continue to evolve, traditional architects and urban designers are facing an increasingly uncertain future. This paper outlines an innovative educational format to bolster and perpetuate the interdisciplinary nature of architects and urban designers that resonates with both sustainable development (SD) and smart cities (SCs). By applying ‘connective knowledge’ to the concept of interdisciplinarity education, a method was established that uses the SC concept to expand upon and create a bridge between distant disciplines in the context of higher education sustainable development (HESD). As a complementary educational pedagogy to the ‘whole institution approach’ to reduce barriers in higher education institutions (HEIs), this paper highlights an opportunity to apply the SC concept as a basis to construct an interdisciplinary design workshop to focus on building inter-personal competence, targeting university-level students majoring in architecture and urban design. The design workshop used microcontrollers and sensors as these are scalable and easily learnt building blocks of the Internet of Things and SCs. The inter-disciplinary workshop ran for 16 weeks with 14 students majoring in architecture and urban design and electrical engineering. Based on interviews and course evaluations, the experiment was vetted using capacities of inter-personal competence in sustainable development. A series of insights and findings from the design workshop indicated positive initial outcomes that were used to form a set of working criteria for the interdisciplinary design workshop. Future work will include structuring empirical data collection and analysis and expanding collaborations with other distant disciplines such as public administration and social innovation, as delineated by the SC concept.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 196-235
Author(s):  
Marie-France Guénette

This article offers theoretical and pragmatic insights into the nature of technical translation course design. In so doing, I first provide a definition of specialized translation based on a survey of the literature in this field, conducted collaboratively with a research assistant. Then, I present a comparative table sourcing how technical translation has been taught, as a university course, across Canadian higher education institutions. Following this, I offer a rationale for student-oriented ways of teaching this course, all the while giving concrete steps to co-explore novel topics with undergraduate and graduate students. Finally, I generate a series of considerations and questions for further inquiry into the instruction of technical translation in Canada and worldwide. Keywords: technical translation, specialized translation, English-French translation, translation pedagogy, course design


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Ott

This thesis examines the ways in which fashion designers think about themselves, the design process, and the fashion industry. Recent interest in design thinking has brought decision making to the forefront in an effort to resolve conflicts between creative individuals and managers during the design process. Within the fashion design literature there are studies of processes in large fashion manufacturing enterprises but very little has focused on small-scale fashion design entrepreneurs. In this inductive, qualitative study, I use grounded theory as the methodology in the analysis of semi-structured interviews of twelve Canadian fashion design entrepreneurs. The findings explore their perceptions of their identity as designers, their perceptions of design process, and their relationship to their business. This research has developed the concept of “artisanal fashion design” as a distinct subset of design for further study and for consideration by organizations, the fashion industry, and educators.


2017 ◽  
pp. 450-473
Author(s):  
Julia Parra

With ubiquitous Internet and the related tools, including computational devices and cloud-based technology, has come public access to a world of information literally at one's fingertips. This has led to the increased use of cloud-based student collaboration as a key strategy for engaging students as responsible, creative, and productive participants in the learning process. For the purpose of this qualitative study there are three objectives: 1) update and revise a course design model for cloud-based student collaboration that uses phases and scaffolds, and includes an optimal cloud-based collaboration toolkit identified by graduate students, 2) describe an online course wherein this model has been applied, and 3) share exemplar course materials including guides, learning plans and directions, and content scaffolds in the form of templates, that support this model and can be repurposed by anyone using cloud-based student collaboration in higher education.


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