Innovative Thinking Course Design

Written by Wuwei
(College of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, ShenZhen Polytechnic)

Background ：

Innovative thinking is a public course of Shenzhen Polytechnic, which is offered

to more than 170 majors and 8000 freshmen every year. The curriculum is developed

by the College of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and is taught by different

professional teachers based on the design thinking framework.

This course integrates the cultural self-confidence of "Everyone can Innovate",

the social responsibility of "Sustainable Development" and the spirit of the times of

"Brave to try" into the whole process of innovative education. The courses currently

taught in this course are divided into eight modules.

The whole learning process revolves around the innovative goals put forward by

the innovators. The task unit is not only an independent knowledge point, but also

reflects the overall innovation goal, which enables learners to form solutions to

innovative projects after learning.

 Research object:

1. Students who participate in the study (students who have taken the course and

students who will take the course) .

2. Teachers participating in the teaching.

3. Enterprise personnel involved in curriculum research.

Interview and observation:

1. Experience of students who have studied:

T: Which major are you from?

A: I am a student majoring in law. I have just finished the course of Innovative

Thinking this semester.

T: Would you please talk about your feelings about this course?

A: This course is very interesting. I heard from my senior fellow apprentice that

there would be a project assessment for this course. I thought it was a very difficult

course. I was a little nervous when I first came into contact with it, and I was

worried that I couldn't finish it. But it started with a small problem around us, and

the teacher introduced us a lot of solutions, our group also worked very hard, we

broke through many problems together, and finally completed a small work.

T: Why did you find it difficult at first?

A: Because we are only freshmen, we have not accumulated any professional

knowledge, so we think it may be very difficult to complete.

T: What was the final result?

A: Pretty good. Because we started with the problem we were familiar with, we
chose to solve the problem of the upper berth and stairs in the dormitory. At first,

we thought that this problem could only be solved by constantly complaining to the

dormitory management, but later we found that we could also solve it by ourselves.

Finally, we finished a work, and everyone was very excited.

T: How did you solve this problem?

A: First of all, we went to the dormitory to observe the elevated bed, and many

students went down the stairs again and again to feel the unreasonable place. Then

we went to many dormitories to find students to investigate, and the students

complained a lot. We have heard a lot of complaints, but we have not seriously

considered where the key lies. In order to study these unreasonable, we have

searched a lot of information and solutions on the Internet. Later, we went back to

the classroom with the collected information, and we sorted out the key

information together. Finally, we drew and designed a plan by ourselves, and then

completed the prototype of the plan with the help of some tools of the school's

maker space.

T: Are you satisfied with this plan?

A: It's not perfect. Although this solution can solve the problem, there are still many

technical problems that we can not achieve well due to professional limitations.

T: Can you explain?

A: For example, for some engineering structural problems, our whole group is all

law students, and we can't solve the engineering problems reasonably. In addition,

there are still some places that need to be used in circuit design in this scheme,

which we can not complete.

T: What are you going to do next?

S：We are very confident about this plan, because it is really designed based on the

needs of the students. Maybe we will take this winter vacation to contact the

students from the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and the School of

Architecture and Engineering to complete the follow-up optimization.

T：What does the inspiration for you?

A: First of all, for students majoring in law, the ability of empathy and information

integration is very critical, so the improvement of design thinking ability in the

course is of great help to the subseTuent professional learning. Secondly, the course

inspires us to explore the reasons behind the problems in depth, and let us know

that when we encounter problems, we should not only complain, but also take the

initiative to think about solutions. Thirdly, brainstorming can happen at any time,

and in collective discussion, we should listen to other people's views eTually and

accept all possibilities.

T: What do you think are the shortcomings?

A: We are freshmen, especially majoring in law, and we know little about some

cutting-edge technologies. If we can have a channel to learn more about

cutting-edge technology, maybe our solution can do better. In addition, in the

process of the project, we also need more technical support, if students from

different disciplines can participate together, the completion of the work will be

better.

2. Interviews with students who are going to study (1 to 2 interviews):

T: What are your majors?

S1: I'm an accounting major.

S2: I'm a student at the School of Artificial Intelligence.

T: What do you think innovation is?

S1: Innovation is to solve problems in a new way, right? I'm not so sure.

T: Why not?

S1: Because I don't think I'm innovative enough, and I don't know how to innovate

in accounting.

T: What kind of people do you think are innovative enough?

S1: Not sure. Maybe innovation generally needs to understand technology. Students

who study artificial intelligence are sure to be innovative.

S2: Not necessarily. I majored in electronics and information technology, but mainly

in the training of knowledge and skills. I don't have a particularly good idea about

how to break through and innovate.

T: What kind of ways do you think can help you really innovate?

S1: In fact, when we study accounting practice, we can still feel that the industry

really needs to get rid of the tradition to develop some innovative applications, but

we just don't know how to achieve it.

S2: Is it? Can you give me a simple example?

S1: For example, there are many inconveniences in the accounting bookkeeping

system. For example, manual input is still unable to avoid errors. In addition, there

are some differences between the real bookkeeping in the enterprise and what we

have learned in school. In addition, there is too much data in an account book, and

the layman is dizzy, and so on.

S2: These technologies are easy for us to implement, but we don't understand the

principles of accounting at all. Maybe we can study the usage habits of practitioners
together in the future and develop some new functions to help them solve

problems.

T: After listening to your conversation, I think everyone has been inspired. If you

start to learn innovative thinking next semester, what do you expect from the

course?

S1: I hope I can be more confident through learning. Maybe I am still in awe of

innovation. I always feel that this matter is still a little far away from me. But after

listening to what classmate B said just now, maybe I can have a try.

S2: I would like to have a list to let me know what problems exist. I am confident in

my professional ability, but I don't know where to start.

3. Interviews with teachers:

Q: How do you feel about teaching innovative thinking?

A: Everyone feels that this course is very helpful to students’ growth mindset, but

there are still some difficulties in teaching.

Q: Can you give me some examples?

A: For example, in the specific design of the course, we need to consider the

students' existing knowledge, challenges, and the degree of achievement of the

project. In addition, when leading students to do projects, sometimes it will exceed

the professional scope of the teacher, and need to rely on external forces. There is

also the evaluation of the curriculum, innovation ability can not be considered with

some concrete indicators, which is also a problem.

Q: What are the main ways you teach?

A: I will mainly let the students preview the basic knowledge according to the online
learning resources of the standardized course. After entering the class, we will

complete the research of a project in groups. In the standardized curriculum, there

are action guides and tool training tables designed for tasks, which are very useful,

can help students to clarify specific task objectives, and can also assist project

evaluation. In the final project, we will also design some road shows for students to

make speeches on the platform.

Q: What aspects do you think are the most difficult for students?

A: I'm a teacher at the School of Nursing. I think the insight session is the most

challenging. We have a technical background, and we are not particularly good at

fieldwork. Students will also be very confused about what is the real demand and

where is the standard? In fact, we do not have a clear answer.

Q: What do you think should be paid attention to if improvement is needed?

A: The resources of this course are very rich. In terms of specific project guidance,

teachers need more support, such as experts specializing in design thinking, project

technology experts and so on.

There is also the evaluation of students, which I think should be pluralistic. It

doesn't mean that you can get a good score after every class, nor does it mean that

you don't come to the class once, but you can get a high score because the team

project roadshow is well done. Special attention should also be paid to how this

process evaluation can be designed more scientifically.

The third is the matching degree between the results and the needs, which also

needs special attention. The so-called meaningful innovation should be based on

real problems, so the matching effect is difficult to see from the results of a course,

and it takes a longer time to verify.

4. The voice of enterprise mentor (Corporate Mentors for Collaborative

Innovation Workshops):

Q: Please briefly comment on the Innovation Workshop.

A: The innovative thinking course is very useful. It is synchronized with the project

of the enterprise, and the real problem is done, so that students can thinking based

on real problems. Student teams are also great, and cross-disciplinary teams are a

great idea. The completion of the project is also good.

Q: What do you think are the shortcomings?

A: The commercialization part is a little weak, which has a lot to do with the fact

that the students have no working experience in enterprises. For example, in the

design of prototype scheme, students generally do not consider the cost. When

prototypes are made, they seldom plan the path of their commercial operation.

Although the products of campus design will not be put into business so quickly,

conscious consideration of the overall situation can be conducive to the rapid

growth of the project.

Q: Do you have any suggestions?

A: It is suggested that the double tutorial system should be introduced into the

curriculum. The teachers of the school should guide the project and the tutors of

the enterprise should evaluate the project.

Empathy Map:
 Interesting Needs more Fear to lose
course support.

Don’t know
Meaningful
how to start.

Need confident
through to Make

Set up team. Combative

Observation and
Excitement
Interview.

Field experience
Dissatisfactory.
Nervous
Design scheme Prototype

helpful to the insight Curriculum is Useful.

students’ session is
growth the most The resources of this course are rich.
mindset challenging
Double tutorial system.

Needs more
thinking based on support.
real problems
Take a longer
the evaluation time to verify.
of students
Enterprise
preview the basic Mentor difficult to lead
knowledge
according to the
online learning worried
resources

make delighted
speeches research of
on the a project in
platform groups