There is an increasing interest in design and creative thinking processes in the Sciences, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and health education disciplines. Many new degree programs are integrating design thinking into their syllabi, with the intention of bringing creative problem-solving methods to these disciplines. In reality,…

In this paper we present a snapshot of the theories, intentions, practices and outcomes produced by a teaching and learning collaboration. This is located geographically and culturally at the University of Warwick, and temporally across the period 2020-2021 marked by the global pandemic. The case study illustrates how a designerly, flexible, open,…

The ambiguous identity of the digital media field, the ubiquity of media, and rapid and persistent technological change and innovation pose inimitable challenges for academic programs in digital media. Digitization of media is an underlying impetus for today's rapid innovation that compels related academic programs in higher education to…

This case study describes many changes to the curriculum of a design thinking for social innovation class at a private university in New Orleans that were prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pre-COVID version of the course offered a practical, experience-based introduction to design-thinking (DT) tools and methods. Students learned to apply…

Despite being an established practice in Higher Education (HE), the collection of feedback from students, to improve their university experience, has yet to find a unified format. Literature shows that, besides enabling collection of data on aspects of the university journey, feedback collection should also be an engaging experience for students…

Design Sprint is an intensive and innovation-focused framework based on Design Thinking principles. This study discusses the potential usage of the design sprint framework in industrial design education, and focuses on its strengths and weaknesses as an educational tool. Within this context, the study reports on a design sprint workshop involving…

Social design education has become a significant part of industrial design education, thus new methodologies are required and being developed. One of these societal problems is animal welfare and human interaction with stray animals that is not a common topic amongst previous studies. This study presents a toolkit for social design teaching,…

Architectural forms, architectural knowledge, design process, and design thinking are all changing with the use of computer-aided design programmes, and even traditional university architecture departments now wish to teach these programmes. However, it can be difficult to implement courses on such computer programmes because these departments…

Since the beginning of the 21st century, design education has been gaining momentum across disciplines as a means to equip students with skills relevant in the job market as well as to tackle wicked problems. One of the core assumptions behind integrating design education to other disciplines focuses on the need for hands-on and experiential…

This paper explores the ways in which the design thinking (DT) approach can be utilized in addressing the challenges of STEM education in K-12 education. The study is based on an extensive literature review about STEM education and the DT approach, and exploratory research conducted to understand the challenges and needs of STEM education in…

Can design education have a positive impact on primary school education beyond merely preparing designers? As designers, we know almost intuitively that design education is "good education", and most designers would affirm that it would be beneficial to expose children to design education, because of the benefits of the signature…

Design literacy is an emerging research field that is gaining attention among scholars today. Credit goes to the growing acceptance of design thinking in various disciplines beyond design. Design literacy develops natural abilities in everyone to solve real-world, wicked problems by supporting the cognitive development of concrete (making things)…

Threshold concept models offer a useful way of understanding aspects of design education. A threshold concept represents a gateway, or portal, to a more developed understanding and level of capability (Meyer, Land & Davies, 2008). Passing through a threshold can be transformative, irreversible, integrative and troublesome. Key transformations…

Experiential learning, which may include hands-on learning paired with observation and reflection, has been applied in several industries; however, the impact of experiential learning in design education is not well known. We investigated how the type of simulation-based learning could affect the acquisition of knowledge and the ability to…

Design and Technology education is potentially a rich environment for successful learning, if the management of the whole design process is emphasised, and students' design thinking is promoted. The aim of the present study was to unfold the collaborative design process of one team of elementary students, in order to understand their multimodal…