The document provides an overview of the author's experiences using design thinking in educational settings. It describes several design thinking workshops conducted at universities in Germany between 2013-2019. The workshops focused on topics like website redesign, course design, learning spaces, and social inclusion. Design thinking activities included brainstorming solutions with LEGOs, creating customer journey maps, and prototyping ideas. Student feedback indicated benefits like increased empathy and reduced biases, but also potential challenges like frustration and shallow ideas.

2. Where I am from, and what I do
The Association for the
Advancement of Computing in
Education (AACE), founded in
1981, serves the edtech
community with international
conferences, journals, digital
library and social media
channels (AACE Review).
As the largest university-based
local government training,
advisory, and research
organization in the United States,
the School of Government serves
more than 12,000 public officials
each year.

3. What’s the idea? Design Thinking
Design Thinking is problem solving
method geared to overcome wicked
problems.
o Transcend the immediate boundaries of the
problem to ensure that the right questions are
being addressed
o Analyze, synthesize, diverge, generate insights
from different domains
o Drawing, prototyping and storytelling (Brown,
2009)
o Constraints as inspiration (Brown, 2009)
o No technological "quick fix”, integration of
signs, things, actions, and environments
Design Thinking

4. “Even on a cursory inspection, just
what design thinkingis supposed
to be is not well understood,
either by the public or those who
claim to practice it”.
Kimbell,2011
Design Thinking

5. Designerly Thinking vs. Design Thinking
(Johansson‐ Sköldberg et al., 2013)
designerly thinking
scholarly discourse, analysis,
reflection of the professional
designer’s practice (skills and
competence)
design thinking
design practice and competence
used beyond the design context
(including art and architecture),
for and with people without a
scholarly background in design
vs
.

6. Related Approaches
o Participatory Design
o Bricolage or Tinkering
o LEGO Serious Play (LPS)
o Makerspace / Maker Culture
o Tacit Experiences
o Creative Empowerment
o Process and Product
o Users as Co-Designers
o Empowerment

7. Process & Mindset (von Thienen et al.,
2014)
o Address wicked problems where you will fail and experiment
first to become more successful later
o Mindsets and tools which save you from the impossible task
of finding ‘the correct problem view’ or ‘the optimal solution’.
o Draw attention to needs that await their fulfillment
o New interpretations of the problem
o Perspectives of different stakeholders
o Propel the process of problem solving in a productive
direction

8. http://dschool.stanford.edu/dgift/
90-minute,
interactive video
series with individual
and partner activities
Design Thinking: Resources
In 2005, the Hasso-Plattner-
Institute of Design at Stanford
University in California began to
teach Design Thinking to
engineering students.

9. Design Thinking For Education: Special
Issue
https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/edu/1/1/edu.1.issue-1.xml

10. Design Thinking Use Cases
Website Redesign Workshops
o School of Government
(2013/14)
o Carolina MPA Website
Redesign (2016)
o Center for Faculty Excellence
(2017)
o Center for Public Leadership
and Governance (2018)
o Development Finance Initiative
(2019)
Designing Web Apps / Tools
Designing Courses
o Public Executive
Leadership Academy
course design workshop
series (2017)

11. Design Thinking Examples: Website
Strucure with LEGOs
Content Sections
Annotate
Groups structure the main areas of the website /
navigation / homepage

12. Design Thinking Examples: Website
Strucure with LEGOs

13. 1 hour
30 minutes
15 minutes
2 hours
Build Course Strucure with LEGOs

14. Please think about
the website as a
museum. What are
10 things you want
to point visitors to?
(Really useful
resources,
interesting events,
services,
downloads,
projects…)
Design Thinking Examples: Website as
Museum (Flyer)

15. Design Thinking Examples: Content
Types
‘Information Curators’ describe the content using visual building blocks
provided

16. Audience: Pwebsite ersonas
Personas are fictional, yet data-driven, user biographies
that allow design teams to relate to the users’ point of
view instead of focusing on personal experiences and
anecdotes.
Understanding Audiences: Personas

17. o June 2019: Design thinking workshop at Kempten
University of Applied Sciences (Germany)
o 2 day workshop
o Workshop theme: Social Media
o 32 participants
Social Media for Public Health Students

18. Customer JourneyMap / SocialMediaPlate
Take 15 Minutes to
think about a typical
week day.
Map out the most
important places as
you move through
the day.
When and where do
you engage with
From waking up to
falling asleep, when
to you check social
media apps? Which
one?

19. Organizational Personas
Every organization has a
‘personality’, comprising of:
o Organizational culture
o Organizational Structure
o Behavioral patterns
o Trends and events that are
currently affecting the
organization.

20. Collaboration / Consulting Work at FH
Münster, Germany
https://www.fh-muenster.de/wandelwerk/index.php

21. o February 2018: Design thinking
workshop at Muenster University of
Applied Sciences (Germany)
o Workshop theme: Inclusive community
development - designing
neighborhoods for engagement, social
cohesion and inclusion
o 15 participants
o Part of the research cluster ‘participation
and well-being’
o Faculty from different disciplines, city
Research Workshop: Inclusive
Community Development

22. Ice Breaker: Tell Me About Your
Neighborhood – Who / What Is Not On
the Map?
o Draw a map of your own
neighborhood.
o What are some barriers to
inclusiveness and social
activities that you
experience?
o Who do you never meet in
your neighborhood? Why
do you think that is?

23. ‘I do not interact with
the people in my
neighborhood.
Everyone has a
house with garden,
every yard is fenced
in. And everyone gets
home from work to do
their own thing.
Results: Unexpected Barriers

24. (1) DEFINE & FOCUS: Specify which social
inclusion problem you want to solve.
(2) GENERATE & DEBATE Generate 3-5
ideas to address the problem with novel
solutions or disruptive technologies.
(3) SELECT & SKETCH Choose one of your
ideas and sketch it out in more detail
(literally).
(4) BUILD & PRESENT: Design a prototype
or three-dimensional representation of
your solution with the materials in the
room (card board, paper, tape, clay).
Design Thinking Cycle

25. Design Thinking Outcomes

26. o June 2018: Design thinking
workshop at Muenster
University of Applied
Sciences (Germany)
o Workshop theme:
Pedagogical Planning for
Engineers – training
engineering students to
become vocational school
teachers
o Participants: 10 Students
Engineering Students As Teacher
Candidates

27. Students worked in
groups on lesson
planning.
Students identified
threshold concepts.
Curricular Planning & Lesson Planning

28. Design Thinking
• We randomly assigned threshhold concepts.
• Students develop a pedagogical approach using design
thinking as a technique.

29. o June 2019: Design thinking
workshop at Muenster University of
Applied Sciences (Germany)
o Duration: 1.5 days, additional
preparation tasks
o Workshop theme: Ideas for new
learning spaces (day 1) and
curricular innovation with agile
techniques (day 2)
o Participants: 17 Students
o Location: Innovation Lab
Learning Spaces & Agile Curricula
http://www.learntechlib.org/
p/211093/

30. Customer Journey Maps
o Students used the photo
material that they collected
prior to the workshop.
o Students worked
individually.
o Each student presented
their map to the group.

31. Customer Journey: How does this person move through their day on campus?
Activities: What is happening in this situation? What is your persona doing?
Expectations: What does the person expect in this situation?
Opportunities: What opportunities does this situation offer? How can the School leverage them? Who has the option to implement changes?
Emotional state (red – negative, green - positive), Note down one emotion
Sketch: Scenarios, People, Places
Mind Focus: Is the person focused in this situation? Checking social media? Thinking about dinner?
Name

32. Results
o Predictability: Changes in schedule or additional scheduling
needs (based on group assignments) are challenging and can
be an excluding factor.
o Expectations: The more difficult it is for students to get to
campus - be it because of long commutes, child care or work
shifts - the higher are their expectations when attending
classes. Lecturers are typically unaware of these struggles
and likely cannot meet the heightened expectation of ‘this
better be good’.
o Distractions: Students switch to social media distractors
when feeling disappointed by the content or instructional
delivery, particularly in lecture halls. ‘I think pffh, and I start

33. Room(s) for Improvement

34. (1) DEFINE & FOCUS: Interview your
partner to make sure you understand the
problem
(2) GENERATE & DEBATE Generate 3-5
ideas to address the problem with novel
solutions or disruptive technologies.
(3) SELECT & SKETCH Choose one of your
ideas and sketch it out in more detail
(literally).
(4) BUILD & PRESENT: Design a prototype
or three-dimensional representation of
your solution by transforming a shoe
carton into a spatial model with the
materials in the room (card board, paper,
Design Thinking Cycle

35. Redesigning Learning Spaces
A total of eight teams derived 15 different solutions – one team
decided to merge their ideas and collaborate instead of developing
individual prototypes.

36. Resulting Design Ideas - Examples
1. Revived Registrar's Office: Physical space (a coffee bar, plants,
innovative furniture) plus digital tools (web queue for requests, mobile app
for scheduling).
2. Give me a break: Solution for busy campus learning spaces - ‘chill zones’
(with hammocks, beanbags, cushions, blankets), small group learning
spaces (2-3 people)
3. Climate challenge: Solution for too hot / cold classroom – Installing a
large table in the center of the room, flexible furniture, fans in the summer,
blankets in the winter, and a flexible blackboard.
4. DIY Wall Design: Improve lighting and atmosphere in classrooms - 'moss
wall', color effects, and LED panels, ‘do-it-yourself guides’ available online,
learning project for engineering students.
5. Lecture Hall of Requirements: Design that adapts to the fluctuations.
Reduces frustration because of a lack of attendance, intimate, interactive

37. What’sInfrastruct? Design Thinking
20 SPAGHETTI :: 1 MARSHMALLOW :: 1 YARD STRING::: 1 YARD TAPE
o “Build the the tallest freestanding tower you can that will
support the marshmallow in 18 minutes using only these
materials.”
Marshmallow Challenge

38. Marshmallow Challenge

39. Evaluation Results – Positive Aspects
o To receive impulses to think in other
directions.
o Open approach, integration of
different perspectives
o Creativity, possibility to think through
unconventional ideas.
o Personas allowed me to see my
students as real people for the very
first time
o I felt that my ideas mattered
"Teaching
is actually
a
marshmall
ow
challenge“

40. Evaluation Results – Negative Aspects
o It is unclear how to move from first ideas to
further development of innovative, marketable
products / services.
o Realistic assessments of models and ideas: all
comments and ideas were treated equal (both
strength and weakness), missing data (ideas
arise from a ‘gut feeling’)
o challenges for shy or introverted people
o negative team dynamics
o fading effectiveness if used too often

41. Literature Review: Panke (2019): Corpus
of 167 document
Predominantly single case
studies
Typical data sources:
observation, interviews,
analysis of artifacts
produced in the design
thinking process, survey
evaluation.

42. Panke, S. (2019). Design
Thinking in Education:
Perspectives, Opportunities
and Challenges. Open
Education Studies, 1(1), 281-
281-306.
https://doi.org/10.1515/ed
u-2019-0022
p.302

43. Potential
o Tacit experiences
o Increased empathy
o Reduced cognitive bias
o Playful learning
o Flow/verve
o Inter/Meta-disciplinary Collaboration
o Productive failure/resilience
o Surprising, delightful solutions
o Creative confidence

44. Limitations
o Lack of creative confidence
o Teamwork conflicts
o Anxiety and frustration
o Shallow ideas
o Idea creation over evaluation
o Lack of long-term impact
o Misalignment between learning content and design thinking
process
o Creative Overconfidence

45. Conclusions
Time is
magical.
Listening is
too.
It’s not the
end all be all.

46. StudentFeedback
The experience I gained in the design thinking class has had long-lasting impact. During my recent
internship I served at a huge vocational school over the course of five months. The school had over
3000 students and almost 200 teachers. Armed with spaghetti and marshmallows, I had absolutely
outstanding experiences with the students in the various courses.
The students did not take advantage of the unconventionally open structure, as the seasoned teachers
had predicted. Instead, they developed their results in both emotional and constructive discussions.
This led to a culture shift that teachers in other subjects noticed. They asked me what I had done.
Before, classes shifted between lethargic and aggressive and it was not possible to work. Teaching
was a struggle and at least one of student had to leave the room every hour. The activities changed
student attitudes.
In the course of the typical session, soda bottles flew across the room and the active participation
concentrated chiefly on students having conversations among themselves about the weekend.
Students were initially hesitant about the Marshmallow Challenge. Within moments, they were hooked.
In a subsequent series of lessons that incorporated design thinking elements we discussed what

47. Design Thinking is for YOU
What’s on your plate right
now?
Take 2 minutes to note down
what’s on your plate right
now.

48. Wicked Problem Checklist
https://goo.gl/AbwfWz