Description of the course
This is an introductory course on design thinking principles offered at the undergraduate level. The course is a direct result of project ICT-INOV. It was introduced into the formal curriculum of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the University of Thessaly for the first time in the 2023 – 2024 academic year. Similarly to Course MDE627: Design Thinking in Computer Engineering, the course aims to introduce undergraduate students to principles of design thinking for harnessing their power for innovation. The course introduces design thinking theory and practical applications of design thinking steps to challenge students to solve real-world problems related to entrepreneurship or social entrepreneurship.
Description of the participants
The course is an elective in the 4th year of undergraduate studies at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of Thessaly. In the fall 2023 semester the course was attended by 260 undergraduate students.
Description of gamified design thinking activities
The course is organized in the form of an active, hands-on workshop. Activities started by stressing the importance of innovative thinking for addressing 21st century challenges. Students were subsequently introduced to design thinking steps to address a challenge under the general topic of sustainability. The course had the format of a workshop. Students used the ICT-INOV digital learning platform throughout the semester to collaborate through design thinking towards introducing innovative solutions. Work was organized in the following steps.
Step 1. Team building.
Students were asked to select a team name and to design a team logo, which help create the team identity. In addition, they worked on a team-building exercise where they had to identify fellow students that had achieved specific tasks or had specific interests, such as mastered 2 foreign languages, travelled abroad, visited some of the Greek islands, have eaten pizza prosciutto, have designed a game, are eager programmers, and more.
Step 2. Problem discovery.
Students were guided through a series of exercises through problem research and discovery. They were asked to describe the problem with images, video, scientific articles, media articles, and other resources that they researched on the internet.
They were further asked to post ideas that describe the problem and to identify associations between the problem and people, the problem and places, and the problem and feelings.
Step 3. Problem re-definition.
Students were challenged to re-define the problem in a manner that allows the introduction of a rich pool of ideas before reaching a solution. They were encouraged to describe the problem with a verb, which reflects an action or challenge, rather than a noun, which reflects a solution.
Step 4. Interviews.
Students were challenged to organize interviews. They were asked to consider the arc of the interview, the space, the time, and the duration. They were challenged to interview at least 2 individuals. Students were then challenged to create interview questions. This process included questions for establishing trust between the interviewer and interviewee, questions for creating “color”, which encourage the interviewee to provide more detail, questions that encourage progress to additional subjects, and reflection questions.
Step 5. User persona.
Students were challenged to develop a user persona. The persona does not represent a real person. Rather, it represents a hypothetical person who shares the traits of a typical user. They were given a variety of tools for constructing a user persona, such as an empathy map, user journey, mind map, lists, and more.
Step 6. Ideation.
Students were challenged to introduce as many diverse ideas as possible towards a solution. They were guided in this process through exercises. They were asked to introduce ideas without specific guidance, which were followed by ideas the implementation of which requires a large budget, ideas the implementation of which requires a small budget, ideas that start from each letter of the alphabet, which help students use a different part of their brain in ideation, and ideas the implementation of which requires technology.
Students further performed the 6 – 3 – 5 exercise, in which each member of a 6 person team was asked to write 3 ideas within 5 minutes before circulating the paper to another member that performed the same exercise until the cycle was completed.
Other exercises performed by the students include negative brainstorming, or what would make the situation worse, figurative brainstorming, or how would a specific person solve the problem, and bi-sotiations, or combining 2 ideas to create a new one.
Step 7. Evaluation of ideas.
Students were asked to divide their ideas into three categories: “normal” ideas that are easily implemented, breakthrough ideas that can be implemented with present technology, and ideas for future application that require technology that is not yet developed. They were then asked to choose one of the most innovative but feasible ideas for prototyping.
Step 8. Prototyping.
Students were asked to create a prototype of their idea and to present it in class. They were allowed to use diverse tools for prototyping, such as: a digital application, a physical prototype with easy materials, a story board, or a solution poster.
Some of the projects that students worked on include:
- Addressing fast fashion. Students introduced ideas for addressing the challenge of fast fashion, which is a significant source of environmental pollution.
- Removing plastics from the sea. Students introduced ideas for removing plastics from the oceans.
- Addressing light pollution. Students focused on how light pollution can be reduced so that it affects both people and the ecosystems around cities and towns less.
- Forest fire management. Students design solutions for preventing and acting against forest fires through smart monitoring systems.
- Saving the bees. Students introduced solutions for saving the bees and their ecosystems.
- Addressing food waste. Students focused on how to address food waste at home and in restaurants.
- Reducing waste from cement products. Students suggested solutions for recycling construction building materials.
- Building smart roads. Students introduced ideas for reducing waste from road creation and maintenance.