Design thinking in higher education for promoting human-centered innovation in business and society Erasmus Project

Project Title

Design thinking in higher education for promoting human-centered innovation in business and society

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

Rationale:
Entrepreneurial capacity is long considered as a key transversal competency applicable in all subjects and educational levels (ET2020). It empowers individuals to explore their talents, to introduce creative ideas, and to take action towards turning ideas into viable solutions that contribute to business growth and social well-being.
Design thinking is a human-centered, solution-oriented approach to entrepreneurial innovation that aims at better understanding of how a user will experience a proposed solution. Design thinking can help find solutions through empathy for understanding actual issues, creativity for innovation, prototyping, and testing with users to ensure that proposed services work (Stanford). The approach is successful both in making businesses successful through offerings that best meet client needs and in solving social issues in social entrepreneurship contexts by introducing solutions through creativity where none may appear to exist. These entrepreneurial skills are particularly relevant for today’s young generation in the face of emerging societal challenges related to population growth, poverty, unemployment, and more.

Objectives:
DesignIT aimed at introducing innovative design thinking interventions into entrepreneurial higher education towards preparing students to enter evolving economies by being adaptive, resilient, innovative, and creative and by possessing the practical entrepreneurial skills that will allow them to put ideas into action in business as well as social well-being contexts.
The project targeted the educational needs of students by introducing design thinking skill building activities that can be integrated into wide subjects and help learners understand the core design thinking concepts as well as explore its practical applications in diverse contexts.
DesignIT further targeted the needs of educators by introducing instructor support content for integrating design thinking into learning by challenging students to generate new ideas and bring them into life.
Methodology:
DesignIT applied accepted active learning methodologies that help students learn by doing and building experience. The project promoted collaborative and explorative learning approaches and exploited the advantages of gamification – the deployment of game elements in learning contexts, towards promoting student engagement, motivation, evaluation, and step-by-step scaffolding of knowledge – in developing the DesignIT tool.
Design IT gamified learning environment encourages learners to apply design thinking methods towards solving non-trivial business and social challenges. Students can be exposed to the entrepreneurial concepts of desirability of a solution (i.e. how well it addresses user needs), technical feasibility, and business viability (IDEO) in DesignIT activity phases. Specific learning scenarios inspired by real-world case-studies were designed around clear educational objectives, namely the promotion of soft skills such as creativity, group-work, and customer understanding along with practical capabilities such as designing a working and viable basic business offering. The scenarios were integrated by HE teachers into the proposed gamified learning environment in DesignIT tool, each scenario challenged students to generate ideas and solutions through team work, cultivated a design thinking culture and encouraged out-of-the-box thinking, and promoted social responsibility in entrepreneurship.
The collaborative DesignIT gamified learning tool was designed as a complementary educational tool in wider blended learning activities classroom during which learners will have the opportunity to learn from each other and from the teacher through peer idea evaluation as well as the evaluation of the viability of the proposed business solution.
Outcomes:
– An active learning framework for promoting design thinking entrepreneurial education through exploration, collaboration, and creativity
– A proof-of-concept gamified learning environment DesignIT (https://designit.e-ce.uth.gr/#/) that familiarizes students with design thinking concepts and helps build practical skills
– Educator support in learning scenarios and best practice guidelines for fostering the integration of proposed methodologies and tools into classroom practices towards promoting entrepreneurial student skills
Impact:
DesignIT helped modernizing HE by integrating emerging design thinking approaches towards building entrepreneurial skills, contributing to employability and sustainable growth through innovation. The project contributed to active citizenship by empowering tomorrow’s professionals to apply their talents towards addressing social issues through entrepreneurial solutions, contributing to social well-being and cohesion. It helped building the capacity of educational institutions and educators to adopt emerging design thinking methodologies in their courses for linking learning to educational goals.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 232710 Eur

Project Coordinator

TALLINN UNIVERSITY & Country: EE

Project Partners

• INSTITUTO POLITECNICO DO PORTO
• ETHNIKO KENTRO EREVNAS KAI TECHNOLOGIKIS ANAPTYXIS
• PANEPISTIMIO THESSALIAS
• METROPOLIA AMMATTIKORKEAKOULU OY