This professional development on design thinking principles is suitable for a diverse range of individuals within the higher education sector. Anyone with an interest in exploring innovative problem-solving methodologies, regardless of their specific role in higher education, can find value in understanding and applying design thinking principles. This is truly calling all curious minds.
 

Day 1: Introduction, and Why Design Thinking?
This lesson will introduce users to the instructors Garret Westlake, Associate Vice Provost of Innovation and the Executive Director of the da Vinci Center at Virginia Commonwealth University, and Stephen Whitehead, Head of Practice for Academic Innovation at Academic Impressions, while emphasizing the five steps to design thinking:

• Empathize: Develop a deep understanding of the problem, and of the needs and experiences of the people who are affected by it. 
• Define: Synthesize your research and define the specific problem that you want to solve. 
• Ideate: Generate a wide range of potential solutions to the problem. 
• Prototype: Create low-fidelity prototypes of your best ideas. 
• Test: Iterate quickly by testing your prototypes with users and stakeholders. 

 

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Day 2: Design Thinking in Action    
This lesson will present a problem to explore through the design thinking process and provide you with the chance to practice the design thinking steps (Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test). After you practice each step of the design process, we will highlight a group of students from VCU who are practicing the same step—not simply for comparison, but also to allow the opportunity to explore the design process from a different perspective.   

 

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Day 3: Empathy in the Design Thinking Process
Now that you’ve experienced the five-step design process, it’s time to take a deeper dive into each of the steps. We’ll begin with step one, “Empathize.” Empathy requires us to purposefully put aside our learning, culture, knowledge, and opinions, in order to understand others’ experiences. Users will learn how to be empathetic observers and how using the “Ask the 5 Whys” approach is a simple but effective way to dig deeper into the heart of an issue. 

 

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Day 4: Define and Ideate
A deep discussion of the second (“Define”) and third (“Ideate”) steps of the design thinking process will occur in this lesson. By analyzing the data collected during the “Empathize” stage, users can define the core problem requiring solution. We will introduce the Worst Possible Idea Technique here as an example of ideation.

 

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Day 5: Prototype and Test (Evaluate) / Closing
We will discuss the final steps in the design thinking process, “Prototype” and “Test.” We will review types of prototypes, the pros and cons of each, as well as guidelines for prototyping in the conclusion of the course. 

 

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Design Thinking Practitioner Certificate
The practitioner certificate builds upon the skills gained from the video lessons for a deeper level of learning. Participants will need to hold themselves accountable to apply the application, gain feedback on their workbooks, and participate in a virtual session to further discuss with the presenters. Upon successful completion of this certificate, participants will be prepared to apply a design thinking technique on their own campus.