Erasmus+ project Design thinking in Higher Education started

06.11.2017

Design thinking in Higher Education – DesignIT project team. Photo courtesy: Kai Pata

Metropolia UAS, especially Mobile Solutions study line and Industrial Management study line, are involved in the Erasmus+ project DesignIT – Design thinking in Higher education (1.09.2017 – 31.08.2019). The project is coordinated by Senior researcher Kai Pata from The Center for Educational Technology of the School of Digital Technologies, Tallinn University.

The project aims at developing entrepreneurship competences in Higher Education by creating the gamified technology enhanced approaches for using design thinking in the student projects, thereby enhancing students’ creativity in thinking outside of the box while solving everyday challenges and problems. The project outcomes are better competences of students to fulfil their ideas in social enterprises and business. Project develops learners' ability to be active citizens through creative work. The staff of higher education institutions will be provided with design thinking based learning and teaching materials and scenarios, that use the gamification principles with technology. The project intellectual outputs will be tested in four higher education and applied higher education institutions in Estonia, Greece, Finland and Portugal.

Project partners are Tallinn University, Porto Polytechnic University from Portugal, Metropolia University of Applied Sciences from Finland, Center for Research and Technology Hellas and Thessaloniki University from Greece.

At the project kick-off meeting in Volos, Thessaloniki University (26-27.10.2017) the team discussed how to investigate the state of art of teaching design thinking in the partner countries. In Metropolia UAS the application field of design thinking is in interdisciplinary innovation projects, as well as in various project based courses. The team was planning how to gamify the empathization and ideation phase of design thinking. The first gamified design thinking practices will be developed by and tested in Fall 2018.

Contact: Researching lecturer Merja Bauters