Dr.

Stefanie Panke
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
panke@sog.unc.edu
Where I am from, and what I do

The Association for the Advancement of

Computing in Education (AACE), founded in
As the largest university-based local
1981, serves the edtech community with
government training, advisory, and research
international conferences, journals, digital
organization in the United States, the
library and social media channels (AACE
School of Government serves more than
Review).
12,000 public officials each year.
Why I am here... - OER, Design Thinking, Digital Citizenship

Meet me on Flipgrid – and learn more about Flipgrid in the

AACE Review interview with Jim Leslie!

aace.org/review

http://www.aace.org/review/flipgrid-news-microsoft-buys-video-discussion-platform-an-interview-with-ceo-jim-leslie/
Overview
o Design Thinking
Background
o Workshop Examples &
Methods
o Two Recent Workshop Case
Studies
o Evaluation Results
o Discussion
What’s  
Design the  id-­‐
Thinking andea?  
Wicked Design  Thinking
Problems
Traditional Model:

Problem Problem “Tell me what

Definition Solution success looks like”.
(Analyzing) (Synthesizing)

Wicked Problems:
“The information needed to understand the problem depends upon one's idea for
solving it” (Rittel & Webber, 1973, 161).
Wicked Problem Checklist

https://goo.gl/AbwfWz
What’s  
Design the  idea?  Design  Thinking
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 Not directed toward a technological "quick fix” but toward new integrations of signs, things,
actions, and environments (Buchanan, 1992)
o Fosters civic literacy, empathy, cultural awareness and risk taking (Sharples at al., 2016)
Design Thinking and Cognitive Bias (Liedtka, 2015)
• Projection bias: People have a tendency to project their past experiences
and thus over-estimate the extent to which the future will resemble the
present.
• Hot/cold gap: People’s emotional state, whether emotion-laden (hot) or
not (cold), unduly influences their assessment of the potential value of an
idea.
• Egocentric empathy gap: People consistently overestimate the similarity
between what they value and what others value.
• Focusing illusion: People tend to over-estimate the effect of one factor at
the expense of others, overreacting to specific stimuli, and ignoring others.
Related Approaches: LEGO Serious Play
Lego Serious Play is a collaborative, creative method that uses Lego blocks
and figures to develop scenarios for organizational development, conflict
resolution or web design.
Characteristics:
• Strategic planning tools and systems
• Improve group problem solving
• Learning, listening and collaborating by making and creating
• Building solutions and prototypes using bricks
• Creating flow experience for participants
Related Approaches: Participatory Design
Participatory Design is an approach that involves the users of a product early
on in the development process.
Characteristics:
• Paradigm shift from ‘users as subjects’ to ‘users as partners’
• Based on participatory action research - empowerment
Barriers:
• Difficulties in organizing and expressing ideas
• Difficulties in harmonizing implicit design goals
• Difficulties in maintaining openness
Design Thinking

“Even  on  a  cursory  inspection,  

just  what  design  thinking  is  
supposed  to  be  is  not  well  
understood,  either  by  the  
public  or  those  who  claim  to  
practice  it”.  

Kimbell, 2011
Design Thinking: Resources

80 minute, interactive
video with individual and
partner activities, more at
https://goo.gl/LU8q8F

http://dschool.stanford.edu/dgift/
Design Thinking: Use Cases
Website Redesign Workshop
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)
Designing Web Apps / Tools
o Superior Court Judges Benchbook (2014)
o NC Finance Connect (2015)
Designing Courses / Curricula
o Public Executive Leadership Academy
course design workshops (2017)
Design Thinking Examples: Website Categories
Design Thinking Examples: Website as Museum (Flyer)

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: Content Types
‘Information Curators’ describe the content using visual building blocks provided
 Design Thinking Examples: Website Strucure with LEGOs
Groups structure the main areas of the website / navigation /
homepage
Content Sections

Annotate
Design Thinking Examples: Course Design Series
Design a one-day workshop for local elected officials
o Decide upon deliverables: learning objectives
o Decide what matters after the class: competencies
o Decide what counts: content
o Decide how to deliver: pedagogy

Plan and structure 6 hours of instructional activities

Design Thinking Examples: Course Design – Make it
relevant

What’s on your plate

right now?

Get input from participants on

problems they are currently working
on, present strategies on hoe to get
things ‘off your plate’
Build Course Strucure with LEGOs
• Work in groups of up to 5 people
• Use Lego bricks to build course structure
• Plan up to 4 hours per group
• Lego plates symbolize time
• Lego bricks symbolize group / individual
activities / structure
 Build Course Strucure with LEGOs

1 hour 2 hours
15minutes

30 minutes
Audience:  Personas
Personas
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.
Collaboration / Consulting Work at FH Münster, Germany

https://www.fh-muenster.de/wandelwerk/index.php
Case Study A: Inclusive Community Development
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 Part of the research cluster ‘participation and well-being’
o Participants: Faculty from different disciplines, city planners,
architects and students
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?
Results: Unexpected Barriers
‘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.
Personas
o Input: brief overview of statistical
data on typical demographics in a
German neighborhood
o Material: Posters with prompts,
variety of headshots
o Goal: Construct fictional biography
outlines and reflect on needs and
barriers for civic inclusion.
o Outcome: 11 personas
Design Thinking Cycle
(1) DEFINE & FOCUS: Pick one of the personas and
specify which social inclusion problem you want to
solve for this person.
(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 Outcomes
Case Study: Engineering Students As Teacher Candidates
o February 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
o Location: Innovation Lab
Draw Memorable Teaching & Learning Setting (Good or Bad)
Curricular Planning & Lesson Planning

Students worked in two

groups on lesson • One Topic (10-15 hrs)
planning for a curricular • First Lesson (120 min.)
unit (wood, concrete). • Curricular Unit (60hrs)
Personas
• Students worked in dyad
teams on personas
• Groups created worst case
teaching scenarios with
personas
• Personas offered foil to
discuss bias / inclusion
Threshold Concepts
A threshold concept is “a portal, opening up a new and
previously inaccessible way of thinking about
something” (Meyer and Land, 2003).
Curricular Unit o Transformative
o Integrated
Topic o Bounded
o Irreversible
o Troublesome
Design Thinking
After the curricular planning, we let each student draw a threshhold concept
for which they needed to develop a pedagogical approach using design
thinking as a technique.
Evaluation
o Qualtrics survey
o Total of 18 responses (both groups): 11 (15)
+ 7 (8)
o One binary, three Likert, four open ended
questions
o distributed by email with a personalized
invitation link
o Design Thinking book prize
Evaluation Results
How effective is design thinking….. (n=18, participants from both workshops)
Evaluation Results
How helpful did you perceive the prototyping aspect of design thinking? (n=18,
participants from both workshops)
Evaluation Results – Positive Aspects
o To receive impulses to think in other directions.
o Interdisciplinary approach
o The development of personas and the subsequent
prototyping
o The open approach and the integration of different
perspectives.
o Creativity, possibility to think through unconventional
ideas.
Evaluation Results – Negative Aspects
o It is unclear how to move from first ideas to further
development of innovative, marketable products / services.
o Unclear what is already on the market. That would need to
be researched in a timely manner so that ideas do not fizzle
out.
o It lacks the opportunity to research whether the imagined
solution already exists, and whether it makes any sense.
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’)
Lessons Learned: Personas
Give more specific prompts to target
diversity, e.g.:
o Create a persona that significantly
differs from your own background.
o What feels difficult about telling this
person’s story?
o What assumptions are you making?
o How can you learn more?
Make sure participants feel connection to
the personas they create
Lessons Learned: Design Thinking Cycle
o # of rounds: Make sure that participants do not get
‘tired out’, and feel their creativity whither.
o Deal with too fast/ too slow pace by manipulating
time
o Encourage participants to build upon each others
ideas
o Make sure that participants tackle wicked problems
o Structured Follow-up: Allow to further develop /
research ideas, share back with the group
o Time delayed two-day format, blended approach,
flipgrid?
(How) Will You Use Design Thinking?
Adapted from Sanders, Brandt & Binder, 2011 Panke & Harth (2018) Conference talk

Panke, S. & Harth, T. (2018). Design

Thinking for Inclusive Community
Handout Planning Design: (How) Does it Work?. In
Proceedings of EdMedia: World
Conference on Educational Media and
Technology (pp. 284-296).
Amsterdam, Netherlands: Association Special Issue
for the Advancement of Computing in Forthcoming
Education (AACE).

https://goo.gl/QyCQVP https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326331098