I-Corps: Design Thinking Mobile APPs for Instructors and Students

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

Design Thinking is ubiquitously taught and practiced across the Education Enterprise, ranging from architecture, engineering, and fashion; and through the Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. Mobile devices and their APPs are utilized around the globe by students of all ages to send messages, record daily activities, and document their world. Online courses are pushing the envelope of instructor and student engagement from passive to project-based and active learning. Districts are providing Tablets to their students to review digital material, document work, make measurements, and team-up on projects. Organizations are exploring competency-based Badging and Certification for College and Workforce Readiness. And finally, teachers are 'flooding' the online space with 'home brewed' Design Thinking lesson plans. These efforts, while commendable, are often applied locally or in isolation, and could benefit from a commercial product that aligns learning models; inter-connects technologies; provides standardized formats to exchange information; interlinks APPs to facilitate the Design process; and systematically awards credit. The proposed MyDesign family of apps seeks to address these transformational changes through a marketable product that provides a mobile platform for design while harnessing the power of other relevant 3rd party productivity apps. The MyDesign family of apps offers a common platform and interface 'look' for students, instructors, technical judges of design competitions, workforce managers, and design professionals. The apps are organized into a series of screens, guiding users through each of the twelve steps of design thinking. The mobile platform can be used anytime, anyplace, by anyone while broadening the participation of students, teachers, and professionals in the design process. The family of apps applies across a wide variety of grade levels including K-12, community colleges, undergraduate and graduate school as well as professions such as engineering, architecture, fashion design, and graphic design. The apps use a coding process that concisely captures user information, activities and progress as they proceed through the design process. The coding process supports a seamless credit recognition system that cuts across lessons, courses, competitions, game achievement levels, badges, certificates, and credentials.