Description of the course
The course develops understanding on how to build an information system step by step. It further addresses agile development, user requirements analysis and project management. In addition, the course develops skills on using designing tools, analyzing and designing accurately, then applying the design on implementation. Normally, this course is delivered in person. However, due to COVID-19 restrictions classes were conducted virtually in semester 2 of academic year 2021 – 2022.
Description of participants
This is an obligatory course that addresses undergraduate students from the Department of Information Systems, Faculty of Information Technology, Hanoi university. Approximately 150 students in the 4th year of studies enrolled in the course in the 2nd semester of academic year 2021 – 2022.
Description of gamified design thinking activities
Students created accounts on the ICT-INOV design thinking platform and joined the class virtually. Upon joining a class, students had access to several available activities. They were encouraged to select the activity of their choice, provided that the maximum number of allowed participants in the activity had not been reached. Work was structured in the following steps.
Step 1. Problem discovery.
Upon joining an activity on the ICT-INOV digital learning platform students could see a short description of the activity theme. Subsequently, they were encouraged to research the theme and discover challenges and opportunities for improvement through information technology.
Step 2. Empathy.
In order to thoroughly understand the problem, students identified stakeholders and created a RACI matrix. The RACI matrix helped them to define roles and responsibilities of stakeholders, contributing to student understanding of challenges and needs. Teams conducted research and interviews to understand users’ needs. They set aside assumptions to obtain insights into the users’ world by observing and engaging with users, building understanding of users’ experiences, motivations and problems.
Step 3. Problem definition.
Students defined an accurate problem statement based on the research they conducted in the previous steps. They formulated the problem definition in a “who, what, why” statement.
Step 4. Ideation.
Students were encouraged to brainstorm, introducing as many solution ideas as possible. The goal of the activity was to create a broad solution space, with quantity and diversity of ideas. Subsequently, they analyzed ideas and grouped them into categories, such as ‘’can do”, “will do”, “good to have” and “can’t do”. From the broad repository of ideas and analysis, students selected one for prototyping.
Step 5. Solution synthesis, prototyping, and evaluation.
Students created a visual prototype of their idea using AdobeXD® for the benefit of the customer. Students posted the prototype image and link on the ICT-INOV design thinking platform. They discussed the idea in their groups and sent the final outcome to stakeholders for validation. Stakeholders provided feedback, which the development team consulted for refining their designs.
