Welcome to our Design Thinking Modules! We are excited that you are here! This website is dedicated to learning about Design Thinking. From our perspective, we see Design Thinking as a systematically iterative approach for addressing “wicked” problems that impact society. Given different people with diverse experiences may come to explain the Design Thinking in their own words, we chose them because they capture the three elements – systematic, addressing, and wicked problems – that to us really make Design Thinking standout as the crucial element needed for innovation to occur. By completing these modules, we’ll lead you through activities about Design Thinking along with thought exercises that to apply Design Thinking to one of your wicked problems.
When we designed these activities, our purpose was not only to teach about Design Thinking, but also demonstrate strategies for:
“Flipping” instruction, so students have initial learning experiences outside of the classroom that the instructor then builds off of during the next class meeting;
Develop asynchronous online courses that include student-centered, collaborative learning experiences;
Using educational technologies (edtech) that are external to learning management systems and can be accessed on the web without cost;
Integrating frameworks for both designing instruction and blending edtech with content and teaching strategies to produce high-quality, digital learning experiences for students; and,
Having you help us continue prototyping this course (you’ll see what we mean at the end!).
There’s more information tucked into the website too! Have fun, we hope this is beneficial, and you can always contact Dr. Melda N. Yildiz with ideas, questions, and comments at Melda.Yildiz@Fulbrightmail.org.
(One last thing, though the edtech was free access to when these modules were developed, you will need to create some user accounts.)
Resources here are curated by https://designthinkingmeite.web.unc.edu/