Designing learning activities for experiential learning in a design thinking course

• Main Authors: GAN, Benjamin, OUH, Eng Lieh
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2019
• Subjects: Experiential learning; Design thinking; Learning activity duration; Instructional guidance; Databases and Information Systems
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/4629; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/5632/viewcontent/TALE2019_Designing_learning_activities_for_experiential_learning_in_a_Design_Thinking_course_v3.9.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

One experiential learning design challenge is the duration of learning activities. These learning activities take up time and effort for teachers to design and student to perform. Another design challenge is the minimum instructional guidance of these learning activities which potentially impact the learning effectiveness of novice students. In this paper, we describe our findings of applying experiential learning method in a design thinking course with a list of learning activities performed iteratively. Each of the learning activity varies in their duration required and level of instructional guidance. Our survey seeks to find out which of the learning activities are effective for the students to achieve their learning outcomes. The survey involves 104 undergraduate students who have performed these learning activities. Our survey results show that there is only weak correlation between the level of instructional guidance or the activity duration to their learning effectiveness. However, the results show the students prefer certain learning activities, fewer iterations and more time to focus on the learning activities within each iteration. We hope that these insights can help course designers to better design the learning activities in their design thinking courses.