If you could design a social innovation course that addressed your local community’s wicked problems, what would it look like? For us, we wanted motivated problem-finders. We wanted to use design thinking and sprints to build quickly and often. We wanted to do away with grades. We wanted students to focus only on our course, nothing more. We wanted students who brought disciplinary knowledge to work across majors. So, in Spring 2017, a faculty team from Elon University designed a huge 16-credit-hour “social innovation lab” course with the goal of enacting real social change in the local community. We succeeded, we failed, and we’re ready to share our lessons learned from when we tried to break free from the structures of academia.

1. The Design Thinking Studio for
Social Innovation
An Immersive Semester Pilot Program

2. Rebecca William Phillip Joel
Pope-Ruark Moner Motley Hollingsworh
Professional
Writing & Rhetoric
Communications Communications Computing
Sciences

3. 6,709 enrolled students
Liberal arts core + professional schools

4. Why are we so frustrated by
project-based courses?

5. RIGIDITY
Disciplines & requirements +
Majors & minors +
Seat time requirements +
Rubrics & “checkbox” learning +
Credit hours & 4-year plans +
Course scheduling +
Academic calendars =
INFLEXIBILITY

6. LACK OF CONTINUITY
Projects driven by faculty,
typically a single course
project with students in a
particular discipline
Projects lose momentum, are
short term, leading to
student turnover which
requires retraining

7. LACK OF COMMITMENT
Students do not have the time in
their schedules to commit to a
deeply engaged experience
Students do not feel invested in
the project because they did not
help to define the project

8. DESIGNING A WAY FORWARD
What would the ideal project-based course look like?
What could a cohort of students do in a project structure
where they fully commit to outcomes?
How can we get students to engage in problem finding
rather than simply problem solving?

9. REDESIGNING EVERYTHING
Use design thinking
principles and methods
to address a
wicked problem in the
local community as
determined by the
students

10. REDESIGNING EVERYTHING
A studio-based
social lab model that
values collaboration,
iteration & social innovation
A startup agency
environment focused on
UX & human factors

11. BUILDING A PROGRAM
What? Where?
HOW?
Who? When? How
Much?

12. DESIGN THINKING
STUDIO IN SOCIAL
INNOVATION
IMMERSIVE SEMESTER EXPERIENCE
equivalent to four full-credit courses

13. REDESIGNING EVERYTHING
SOCIAL
INNOVATION
MULTI-
DISCIPLINARY
AGILE +
DESIGN
THINKING
FACULTY
TEAM
LIBERAL ARTS
CORE
FAILURE AS
DATA

14. BLENDING HIGH IMPACT PRACTICES
CAPSTONE/
COLLABORATIVE
PROJECTS
COMMUNITY-BASED/
SERVICE LEARNING
DIVERSITY/
GLOBAL LEARNING
UNDERGRADUATE
RESEARCH

15. BUILDING COMPETENCIES
Tools
Design thinking,
Agile project
management,
collaboration
models,
creative thinking
strategies
Products
Idea generation
and refinement,
web content,
sustainable
social innovation
community
projects
Research
for Action
Interdisciplinary
research,
problem
articulation,
iteration and
adaptation

16. EASY, RIGHT?

17. SO. MANY. OBSTACLES.
RECRUITMEN
T
INSTITUTIONCURRICULUM

18. SO. MANY. ALLIES.
FUNDINGCATLPROVOST
CORE
CURRICULUM
REGISTRAR
SERVICE
LEARNING

19. SO. MANY. DECISIONS.
HOW DO WE
RECRUIT THE
CRAZY ONES?
HOW DO WE
COMPROMISE
WITH OTHER
PROGRAMS?
WHAT DO WE
OFFER TO
STUDENTS?

20. WE FOUND
THE CRAZY
ONES!

22. Anthropology • Arts Administration
Communication Design • Computing Sciences
English / Creative Writing • Entrepreneurship
Environmental Sciences • Media Analytics
Professional Writing & Rhetoric
Public Health • Strategic Communications

25. LEAP OUTCOMES
Engagement with big questions: Wellness, Eudaimonia
Inquiry, critical and creative thinking, communication, research, teamwork,
problem solving
Personal and social responsibility via civic engagement
Active involvement in challenges that synthesize across disciplines

26. PRINCIPLES OF EXCELLENCE
Teach the Arts of Inquiry and Innovation
Connect Knowledge with Choices and Action
Foster Civic, Intercultural, and Ethical Learning
Assess Students’ Ability to Apply Learning to Complex Problems