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Design Thinking in Education & ResearchCase Studies from the Inspire Centre for Education and TrainingMatt BaconFaculty of Education, Science, Technology & Mathematics, University of CanberraDesign Thinking 2016 CONFERENCE, 29th June, SYDNEY AUSTRALIA

Good afternoon everyone. My name is Matt Bacon Im the lead UX designer at the Inspire Centre. Im an Industrial designer by training and have worked in the fields of furniture design, graphic design, multimedia and Web design before moving into the Educational sector.1

OverviewInspire Centre, University of CanberraUsing The Design Canvas in Education and TrainingCase Studies Include:AR Studio Augmented RealityLocation Based Education Services Cultural InstitutionsNSW Police SimulationsLearning Space Design - SingaporeDrones United Arab Emirates

This afternoon I want to introduce you to the Inspire Centre and its work in education, technology, and research.Ill be discussing our process of design, where we started and where weve come to with a main focus on design canvass. I then want to take you through a number of case studies of design thinking which cut across a broad spectrum of projects within our Inspire community.2

ConclusionsDesign thinking is not a fad but an ongoing mindset.a habitual mental attitude that determines behaviour and outlook - Macintosh

Design Thinking is an educational transaction.

Trust the Design process.

So, lets start at the end. The 3 main lessons weve learnt and which I think are worth passing on.

Design thinking is not fad, it is an ongoing mindset Ewan Macintosh defines Mindset as a habitual mental attitude that determines behavior and outlook. At Inspire we have found that Design Thinking is not a once off experience for practitioners or participants but an on-going iterative discipline which may be practiced anywhere, any-time as an individual or as a group. Design Thinking is a educational transaction Not only do we get a result out of design thinking but we engage people in a learning experience that can build capacity in peoples skill sets, tool sets and mind sets (Covey 2005)Trust the Design process At Inspire we have found that the design thinking canvas has successfully enabled user-centered solutions across a broad range of projects, learning domains and organizations and has the flexibility to be implemented short or long, to many or few and across age groups.3

Inspire Centre University of CanberraAn applied design-research centre for innovation in education and training. Working from the learning sciences, our primary interests are in how technologies and learning spaces can improve education.

So who are we and where do we work. Here's the Inspire Centre. Its relatively new, completed in November 2011 as a joint venture between University of Canberra and the ACT Department of Education and Training. We are part of the faculty of Education, Science, Technology and Maths.

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Inspire Learning SpacesFlexibleActiveConnectedCollaborativeFlexible Furniture, Idea Paint, Short throw projectors.Mobile and Tablet ready

One of the hallmarks of the Inspire Centre are its technology enabled work spaces that empower active learning, collaboration and co-design. Active learning is very important to us. We have good research (Freeman in 2014) to show that students are 1.5 times more likely to fail in a standard lecture delivery compared to active learning modes.

Our spaces at Inspire have been used by other groups to run GovHacks, Service Design Jams, 1 day Design competitions, as well as more traditional teaching methodologies.

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T.E.A.L Room

I want to run you through some of our spaces at Inspire as they tie-in with the way we work in active learning, design thinking, and in the technology and education space.

T.E.A.L Room, which isnt actually green, but stands for Technology Enhanced Active Learning We love this room because of the floor to ceiling writable walls. 4 Short throw projectors that can be accessed independently and which are also hooked up to enable users to throw content from mobile devices, tablets and laptops onto the walls.6

Flexi-space

Flexi-Space - Atrium space situated in the middle of the building. Hiperwall 16 55 Samsung screens which has every pixel addressable making it useful for large scale data visualizations and multiple video link-ups.7

Studio 1 & 2

Podcast/Multimedia studio

Two twin mini studios with writeable walls, projectors and 55 mobile workstations.

A Podcast Video recording studio with green screen capability to get students and staff in to create multimedia content.

So thats the spaces we have available to us and it only makes sense that we use processes and methodologies that make use of the affordances of those spaces.

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http://cargocollective.com/central/The-Design-Squiggle

The Design Squiggle Damian Newman

Research is often about finding the right questions in order to re-frame our knowledge to find meaningful answers.

For us Design Thinking at the Inspire Centre is about understanding complexity through user-centred research, ideation, rapid prototyping & iteration.

We have found that Design thinking is a reliable process that enables new ideas. It helps us make sense of the messiness and complexity of learning and research and helps us connect with people to make our research impactful.

Damien Newman's Design Squiggle is a great visual reminder of how the process often begins and inevitably plays out.9

The Design Canvas Tools to think withIDEO Design Thinking for Educators

IDEO Design Thinking For Educatorshttp://www.designthinkingforeducators.com/

While there are many different design thinking tools and processes out there available to us. At Inspire we consistently come back to three design frameworks which we pull apart, blend and amalgamate to meet different needs. These include;

IDEO Design Thinking for Educators. A terrific manual to get started in design thinking and for us as its a story of working with teachers and schools was really hit the mark.10

Stanford D.School modelhttp://dschool.stanford.edu/dgift/

2. Stanford D.School model. Which we heard about yesterday. And their design challenge canvas.

Both IDEAO and Stanford have similar models. Both provide a foundation for human centered design. Theres initial phases of understanding people and their needs, an interpretation and defining stage and an ideation and prototype stage and a time test and evolve.

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Business Generation Model Canvas - strategyzer.com

Over time we have brought in the Business Model Generation canvas, and its little brother Value Proposition design, as mechanisms to refine and translate the more fluid design stage into a more formal business aesthetic. More on that later.

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Inspire Design Canvas

After some experience with these other models we then went onto develop our own canvas. The Inspire Design Canvas. Which provides us with a slightly more linear progressive model.

We define Canvas as a visual means of planning new developments, finding value propositions, and seeing how the all the parts will connect together.

Generally the idea of a canvas ties in closely with our educational concepts of making learning visible. By putting interconnected parts in the one space we allow everyone involved to see the total environment in which they are working.

lets look at some of our case studies to look in practical application.13

Case Study 1

Problem: How to create opportunities for multimodal layered learning through Augmented reality?

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Case study 1 The AR studio

A Two year government funded research project to investigate the potential use of Augmented Reality in Higher Education. In a collaboration between UC, ANU, and Macquarie University. Started in late 2011.

Definition of AR: Overlaying of data, audio, video or 3d objects into the real world and accessed through a mobile device or headset.

Our aim was to use Design Thinking processes to create a collaborative environment to focus expertise, develop practice, provide resources and build capacity for effective implementation of AR technologies in education. We deliberately named the project as a studio to straight away lay out the way in which we wanted to run the research project and the idea of combined design and studio practice have long had a close relationship going back to the 1920s German Bauhaus design movement.

We embedded our Design Thinking workshops into two 2 day AR Camps which brought in developers, industry partners, academics and students to generate prototypes of AR in higher education and as a means to disseminate knowledge of AR by allowing a play based approach to demonstrating the uses of Augmented Reality.15

This is what our Canvas looked like for the Augmented reality workshop. We used a hybridized IDEO model peppered with and called it a Mini Design Challenge;

Some practical points about the actual running of the workshops:1. We enabled more collaboration and activity by printing the workshop sheets large, ie. A0 format. By designing the canvas the way it is you are making people physically react as they are forced to clear tables of any other gear and bringing them together around the problem at hand. That physicality is very important to activate learning.2. Each section of the process is strictly timed with an audible alarm and we display the countdown on projector or TV screen for all to see. This working at speed provides some creative constraints which push people to bypass the analytical side of their brains to stay with the essential and not get bogged down in small detail. 3. There is always a Pitch. At the end of the workshop each team gets 3 mins to pitch their idea back to the room. 4. We made it competitive. After the pitch we hold a blind vote. Everyone votes, you get to vote once, and you cant vote for yourself. Handed out high stakes prizes such as fantails and snakes, but it always works.16

This is some of the outputs and a visual presentation of what the design thinking workshop and AR Camps looks like.17

A scalable processUK, NZ, Fiji, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne.

BIGSMALLSHORTLONG

45mins1 month

CAL801

We ended up running these workshops across different locations and countries.

We have run them in a short compressed format of 45 mins up to 4 weeks. In that case it was with the Queensland VET sector and we ran a two day face-to-face workshop and then the participants went off and did a 3 and half week action research project which we supported via online tools, video conferencing etc.

It can run big to small, from workshops of up to 80 people, or for one where the individual problem solves for themselves.

A point to make here is that the tools for each workshop is slightly different. As Part of the design process of designing the process We tweak and change the canvas to align with the groups we are working with.

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Business ModelTranslation

Design

Toward the end of the AR studio project, we found a need to extend the design workshop so that the prototypes developed by participants could be taken into other forums as a tangible business plan. We used the Business model canvas as a translation device to move peoples prototypes from the abstract to the concrete. It gives you solid foundation from which to have better conversations with those who hold the purse strings.19

A seeding model of innovation

To wrap up case study one, unexpectedly, one of the successes of this model was the ease with which participants could take the skills learnt and apply them time and again into other problem solving ventures without the AR studio team being there. We coined this the seeding model of innovation.

One story to illustrate this; Ian Thompson a k-10 school teacher came to work at Inspire as a leading teacher in innovation and technology, After being exposed to this Design Thinking process took Design Thinking back to his school, and used it with his yr 9 & 10 students to design a in-house student-led IT support service. From there, one of those students, who has a part-time job in a restaurant, when the boss said they needed to re-design the menus had enough knowledge of a design process to have a moment of creative courage, to say we could use Design thinking to do that and he got a couple of them to sit down and work through a basic process to find a solution to that problem. So, not only had he learnt new skillsets and had enough of a toolset he had also had a change of mindset to enable him to become a leader in that moment. 20

Case Study 2

Problem: How to design a better student experience for school visitors to cultural institutions?

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Designing Location-basedEducational Services for School Students at Cultural InstitutionsNational Portrait Gallery

Questacon - National Science and Technology Centre

ARC linkage grantWorking with Museums & Cultural institutionsUsing iBeacons and Mobile devicesTriggering learning events anywhereProviding analytical data

Three year research project, Starting in mid 2012, working with the Questacon National Science and Technology Centre and the Portrait gallery.

Part of the work here is to staff to understand how information technology can augment the visitor experience, and how to engage with their visitors to design programs that will meet visitors expectations for greater interaction. Using an iterative, design based approach, coupled with design thinking workshops bringing stakeholders together, we showed how location-based educational services coupled with mobile apps on handheld devices could be designed to enrich the experience for school students visiting the National Portrait Gallery of Australia.

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As part of the project we ran four Design Thinking workshops.

One for each of the institutions involved and one for each student focus group.

Workshop 1 and 2: Was run using the same design process used in the AR studio case study. Using the broad extra large canvas.Workshop 3 and 4: Used the Stanford D.school process.

As well as the teams for Questacon and the portrait gallery we brought in outsiders from other professions for example designers and teachers who had had experience in being part of a design thinking workshop. This allowed the individual workshop teams to hear user experiences from those outside of their own domain for cross pollination of ideas.23

Workshops using the Mini Design Challenge canvas produced a working app prototype. We re-worked the Business model Canvas to give us an App Specification Framework which could be used to plot in detail the app requirements.24

Workshops using the D.School Design challenge model were aimed toward the school students as it was a little more structured and suitable for that cohort.

This is the first time we ran the design thinking process through such a young audience with an average age of 12. Students tested a prototype app that we had designed at Inspire using the Evernote application. They then proceeded to complete our design workshop to design to create a new and improved app.

The real app, YOU2 is going live in 2 months.

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CASE STUDY 3

Problem: How to choose the right simulator for staff training?

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NSW Police TrainingTraining and Tactics SimulatorsDesign Thinking for needs analysisSimulations for better decision making

Due to our work in AR and a cross-ovesr into Virtual Reality and Simulations we were invited by the NSW Police to assist in working out their needs and core dependencies in training simulations.

I have to admit that I was a little skeptical about the veracity of using this design thinking methodology in this context. Theres a moment when your handing out fluro pink Post-it notes to big burley blokes in combat fatigues with guns, tazers and night-sticks saying lets ideate that you begin to question your design process. But at the end of the day the commanding officer wrapped up by saying. When we started the day I thought this was going to be a complete waste of time. But I think its been one of the best things weve done.

So the design process lives to fight another day.27

The great thing about the Business model canvas is its adaptability. In this case to a gamification model canvas specifically designed for simulations. The police appreciated this model because it allowed them the ability to clearly visualize the cost and benefits for different platforms they were investigating.28

Case Study 4

Problem: How to design next generation learning spaces that work for teachers and students?

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Learning Space Design (Singapore)

Download the worksheet (ver 1.1): http://bit.ly/learningspacecanvas

Given Inspire Centres central interest in innovative learning environments, that is, how and why learning spaces impact student outcomes. We were invited to the Next Generation Learning Space conference in Singapore.

The canvas you see here allows participants to use structured educational taxonomies to discover gaps in the formal and informal learning space types within their institutions. It then allows them to formulize a value proposition and business rationale for how and why new spaces should be constructed for their own student and teacher needs.30

Case Study 5

Problem: How to use drones to positively impact society?

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Drones for Good - (UAE)

The final case study Drones for Good.

Our colleague Danny Munnerley left Inspire and frosty Canberra for the United Arab Emirates. In an attempt to explore the positive benefits of drones, for example the use of drones to 3D map deserts for re-generation or to track large numbers of camels across vast spaces who cause degeneration.

In February he ran a Design Thinking exercise on how drones could be used for good. He kindly sent me his new Drone Design Canvas. Just another example of the adaptability of the canvas and design thinking process.32

Design Thinking the UAE way

He also kindly sent me a photo of his new working environment.

So looking back across these case studies. I think that these processes have let us connect to important concepts. Scott Belsky, in his book Making Ideas Happen said that Most ideas are born and lost in isolation. We need others to help make our ideas happen and we need a certain amount of structure to focus our creative energy. Once again Belsky says that Structure enables others to relate to our ideas.

Where are we going now? Well, if you had seen an earlier version of the conference program youd know that my colleague Rob Fitzgerald was supposed to be here in stead of me. Hes not here because hes in China talking universities about design thinking methodologies

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ConclusionsDesign thinking is not a fad but an ongoing mindset.a habitual mental attitude that determines behaviour and outlook - Macintosh

Design Thinking is an educational transaction.

Trust the Design process.

As we finish-up. Lets recap. The 3 main lessons we have learnt.

Design thinking is not a fad, it is an ongoing mindset At Inspire we have found that Design Thinking is not a once off experience for practitioners or participants but an ongoing iterative discipline which may be practiced as an individual or a group.Design Thinking is a educational transaction Not only do we get a result out of design thinking but we engage people in a learning experience that can build capacity in peoples skill-sets, tool-sets and mind-sets (Covey 2005)Trust the Design process At Inspire we have found that the design canvas model has successfully produced solutions across a broad range of professions and organizations and can be implemented short or long, to many or few and across age groups.34

Inspire.edu.au or @inspiredu2Arstudio.edu.au

Matt.Bacon@canberra.edu.au@mattbacondesignThank You

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