IA40460 Design Thinking for Life

Academic Year 2019/2020

The aim of this module is to enable students to plan and reflect upon their learning, career and life goals using a Design Thinking approach.

Design Thinking, is a human-centric creative problem-solving process. It offers a proven methodology and repeatable approach that can be used to identify new opportunities, solve problems, and develop innovative solutions. While it has usually been applied to the development of products and services, in this module, participants will apply the approach to design their own career and life goals.

Over the course of the module, participants will reflect on their life so far, their values and sense of purpose. Using a combination of creative and analytical tools they will work to develop insights into themselves and to map out their way ahead, acquiring a toolkit that can be used at any point in life to identify, evaluate and make informed career and life choices. Along with this, participants will meet guest speakers from a wide range of sectors who will share their own journeys and lessons learnt. Participants will also develop a community of peers in which to share ideas and hear how others are thinking about their own life and career questions.

Our team of Entrepreneurial Specialists will introduce the students to the processes and tools that will enable the students to make creative and informed life and career choices for themselves.

Please see http://innovators.ie/phd-modules/ for more information on all our modules and for dates when this module will run.

At the UCD Innovation Academy, we are a group of Educator Practitioners with extensive real-world experience as academics, business and social entrepreneurs, tech thinkers, creative professionals and design thinking practitioners.

We take an action-oriented approach to learning, with a combination of individual, group and class tasks and activities, including discussions, presentations and reflection. All of our teaching is grounded in academic rigor, but our focus is on ‘learning by doing’ in a real-world context.

**Enrolment on an Innovation Academy module means a commitment to active participation and engagement, which necessitates attendance at all scheduled classes**

www.innovators.ie

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

• Understand the five stages of Design Thinking for Life and their interdependence
• Understand the appropriate application of Design Thinking for Life and develop an appreciation for its benefits and limits across disciplines and sectors
• Add value to the Design Thinking for Life process by applying practiced skills of empathy, creativity, idea selection, facilitating teamwork, rapid prototyping, iterative design, pitching and story-telling
• Develop and apply reflective practice to identify lessons learnt about the project, the process and the teamwork.
• Make Decisions regarding timing, process and number of iterations of Design Thinking for Life appropriate for a particular problem.

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

10
Small Group

30
Specified Learning Activities

25
Autonomous Student Learning

35
Total

100
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
All Innovation Academy modules take a learning by doing approach, combining, individual, group and team activities, tasks and projects including presentations, discussion and reflection:

• Active/task-based learning
• Peer and Group work
• Reflective Learning
• Enquiry & Problem-based learning
• Student Presentations
• Case Study Learning
 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Incompatibles:
IA20090 - Design Your Life (UG)

 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Assignment: Reflection Report Throughout the Trimester n/a Pass/Fail Grade Scale Yes

30
Presentation: Participants will present their Life and Career Plan and Options to their Class Throughout the Trimester n/a Pass/Fail Grade Scale Yes

30
Attendance: This modules requires active participation and engagement, which necessitates attendance at ALL scheduled classes.

(80% attendance is required to pass this component)		 Throughout the Trimester n/a Pass/Fail Grade Scale Yes

40

Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 
Remediation Type Remediation Timing
In-Module Resit Prior to relevant Programme Exam Board
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Feedback will be given to students upon request. This will include feedback based on their participation through out the module and their deliverables

Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.  
Autumn
      
Workshop Offering 1 Week(s) - 5 Fri 09:00 - 16:50
Workshop Offering 1 Week(s) - 5 Mon 09:00 - 16:50
Workshop Offering 1 Week(s) - 5 Thurs 09:00 - 16:50
Workshop Offering 1 Week(s) - 5 Tues 09:00 - 16:50
Workshop Offering 1 Week(s) - 5 Wed 09:00 - 16:50
Autumn