Location, context, time, and duration
An instructor training event took place at the Software Engineering and Automation Lab, Department of Software Engineering of the National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences on December 22, 2022.
Participants
The event was attended by 10 higher education instructors from the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering of the National University computer and emerging sciences.
Description of activities
Participants had the opportunity to be exposed to design thinking and gamification principles, which are the backbone of the proposed ICT-INOV methodological learning approach for developing innovation skills in higher education.
Additionally, participants saw illustrations of exercises that may be used in the stages of the design thinking process that involve creating a team, encouraging creativity, identifying problems, empathetic problem-solving, redefining problems, ideation, idea selection, prototyping, and evaluation. At every stage of the design thinking process, they employed tools. During the team building phase, for instance, participants worked on a team canvas detailing collaboration guidelines, they created team logs and presented their teams, and they participated in creative exercises. They defined the problem space during the problem specification stage. They employed exercises like a neighborhood walk, which offers a variety of perspectives on a particular issue, during the discovery stage. To further understand consumer needs, they prepared further and conducted interviews. They created a user persona by mapping the results.
The attendees were given a demonstration of the ICT-INOV learning platform at the end. Participants were shown the instructor and student interfaces, to be more precise. The participants saw how to make an activity, how to post instructions for students to follow each step in the design thinking process, how to access the reference manual, the calendar of activities, the platform analytics, and gamification elements that encourage engagement through rewards. Participants also observed the platform’s resource library, which offers exercises that are recommended for every step of the design thinking process. Teachers can choose which exercises to incorporate into the activities they create for their students. Participants saw how students sign up for classes, form teams, and take part in design. Participants were further exposed to actual ICT-INOV learning activities developed for the Software Engineering and Technologies in Education courses. These activities have already been used in courses. Participants had the opportunity to see student canvas examples of good practice.
Feedback and web presence
The event was promoted via email to students and faculty members across departments. In all, it was a very productive activity that achieved its goal of promoting the update of project outcomes. The feedback from the participants was positive and they found it interesting to identify problems and their solutions using design thinking.
