We are at a critical point where rapid change is forcing us to look not just to new ways of solving problems but to new problems to solve. – Tim Brown
Though you will experience the Design Thinking Studio in Social Innovation as one start-up-like experience, you will register for three individual “Social Innovation Lab” courses: COR470, IDS 470, and IDS 471.
These are the official catalog descriptions for the credits you will earn in the program:
COR 470 Social Innovation Lab: Applying Design Thinking to Wicked Problems (ELR) 4 s.h.
As part of a 16-credit immersive semester, students will work collaboratively to address a social issue in a dedicated experiential learning environment. This experience will bring together theories and practices of design thinking and social innovation to address a “wicked problem” affecting our local community. Students will draw from cross-disciplinary expertise to define the problem as a group. Within the 16-credit framework, students will have the opportunity to deeply engage with this issue, generate multiple possible approaches, prototype and test the most promising, and iterate with feedback from stakeholders and those affected by the issue. Students will define and approach the issue; lead extensive inquiry, both qualitative and quantitative; and bring their unique disciplinary perspectives to bear throughout the project. Students may create artifacts ranging from research plans, reports, proposals, grant applications, usability reports, documentation, presentations, videos, and regular reflections. This course is writing intensive. Open to students in the third or fourth year of study. Counts toward Women’s/Gender Studies minor. Counts as one unit toward the ELR. Co-requisites: IDS 470 and IDS 471.
IDS 470 Social Innovation Lab: Design Thinking and Social Innovation 4 s.h.
As part of a 16-credit immersive semester, students will bring together theories and practices of design thinking, social innovation, and community engagement, working collaboratively with their peers, faculty guides, and community change agents to articulate a wicked problem in the local community and address this problem from multiple angles, all to be defined during the experience itself. Throughout the semester, students will read and discuss foundational texts in the areas of design thinking, Agile project management, creativity, collaboration, social innovation, and civic engagement to inform their perspectives on our program’s chosen local wicked problem. Portions of this learning may be flipped using IDEO U’s innovative online courses on ideation, prototyping, and storytelling in combination with hands-on exercises to strengthen creativity, ideation, collaboration, and civic-mindedness. Counts toward Advanced Studies and Professional Writing Studies minor. Co-requisites: COR 470 and IDS 471.
IDS 471 Social Innovation Lab: Civic Writing and Rhetoric 4 s.h.
As part of a 16-credit immersive semester, students will bring together theories and practices of design thinking, social innovation, and community engagement, working collaboratively with their peers, faculty guides, and community change agents to articulate a wicked problem in the local community and address this problem from multiple angles, all to be defined during the experience itself. Writing to understand and writing to encourage action will be priorities in this experience. Students will read and discuss foundational texts about deliberative and civic rhetoric, professional communication strategies, document and visual design, user-centeredness, and genre. Students will also be introduced to a variety of writing technologies and “learn how to learn” these technologies when called for in a rhetorical situation. Counts toward Advanced Studies. Counts toward Professional Writing Studies minor or as an elective in the Professional Writing and Rhetoric concentration of the English major. Co-requisites: COR 470 and IDS 470.