Teaching Design Thinking through Gamified Learning

Hariklia Tsalapatas

, Olivier Heidmann

, Kai Pata

, Carlos Vaz de Carvalho

, Merja Bauters

Spyros Papadopoulos

, Costas Katsimendes

, Christina Taka

and Elias Houstis

University of Thessaly, Argonafron & Filellinon, 38221 Volos, Greece

Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, 6

klm Harilaou Thermi Road, 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece

Tallinn University, Navra Road 25, 10120 Tallinn, Estonia

Porto Polytechnic, Rua Dr. Doberto Frias 712, 4200465 Porto, Portugal

Metropolia University, Bulevardi 31 A, 00180 Helsinki, Finland

Keywords: Design Thinking, Higher Education, Active Learning, Creativity, Innovation, Gamification, Engagement.

Abstract: Entrepreneurial capacity has long been considered as a key transversal competency applicable in all subjects

and educational levels. It empowers individuals to explore their talents, to introduce creative ideas, and to

take action towards turning ideas into viable solutions that contribute to business growth and social well-

being. Design thinking is a human-centered, solution-oriented approach to entrepreneurial innovation that

aims at introducing solutions to business as well as social issues by better understanding how a user

experiences a proposed service or product. This paper introduces the design and implementation of active

learning digital services supported by gamification principles in learning contexts that facilitate the

introduction of design thinking to higher education engineering students. The proposed learning intervention

engages students in the design thinking processes of empathizing, ideating, designing, and validating

through an on-line learning platform that promotes collaboration in and across teams, brainstorming, and

peer reviews of designs allowing students to learn from experience through cases inspired by real world

challenges.

1 INTRODUCTION

Innovation is a key driver of economic growth. If

facilitates the implementation of ideas into services,

the delivery of those services to market, and the

support of business operations after launching,

creating jobs throughout this process. By driving

economic growth innovation facilitates higher living

standards and promotes social cohesion. In today's

business environment, where unemployment reaches

high levels at 6.7% in the general population and

14.9% % among youth in EU28. (Eurostat, 2018),

innovation and entrepreneurial thinking can be a

catalyst for growth helping curb unemployment by

facilitating the pursuit of emerging business

opportunities, contributing to the raise of GDP,

making good use of human capital, and promoting

the wellbeing of society.

In order to put ideas into life it is important to

understand the needs and desires of the target group

that will benefit from a product or service and the

design of a product the perspective of consumers in

order to best address those needs. On the other hand,

social entrepreneurship, namely using

entrepreneurial thinking for introducing solutions to

social challenges, is of key importance for today's

youth that will be faced with significant challenges

as a result of global population growth and its

consequences, including shortage of resources,

poverty, need for access to education by all, and

more. Social entrepreneurship often involves finding

solutions where none seems to exist to address

complex issues. Using basic field knowledge in

combination with entrepreneurial capacity and

innovative thinking can lead to social interventions

that powerfully address these challenges.

Building the skills that can shape ideas into

viable solutions is as important in higher education

as developing core knowledge on a specific field.

Without those skills ideas will remain ideas and

never reach the targeted sector. For this reason,

entrepreneurship education is important in higher

education curricula. It typically involves basic

principles such as performing a feasibility analysis

and building a business plan. However,

entrepreneurship higher education often lacks the

278

Tsalapatas, H., Heidmann, O., Pata, K., Vaz de Carvalho, C., Bauters, M., Papadopoulos, S., Katsimendes, C., Taka, C. and Houstis, E.

Teaching Design Thinking through Gamiﬁed Learning.

DOI: 10.5220/0007697402780283

In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2019), pages 278-283

ISBN: 978-989-758-367-4

equally significant social dimension. As a result of

this significant omission, society as a whole misses

the opportunity to put the fresh, open young minds

of students to work towards addressing social

challenges, to build social entrepreneurship

mindsets, and to build related practical skills that

will empower students to be active in the future in

civic matters.

2 DESIGN THINKING

Design thinking is a user centred approach in design

that aims to introduce fitting solutions to business or

social challenges by best understanding how a user

experiences a proposed product or service. In

business, it aims at enhancing customer experiences

helping a company grow. In social entrepreneurship

it aims at introducing economically viable solutions

to challenging social issues.

While user centred design has been applied in

diverse principles for some time, design thinking

innovates by introducing a methodology for more

accurately addressing user needs. Design thinking

differs from traditional analytic user centred design

methods by focusing on “going broad” at the initial

stages of design (Baeck and Gremett, 2011) without

evaluating at that stage potential solutions. The key

idea of design thinking is that by fully understanding

users, accurately defining a problem statement, colla-

borating, and thinking out of the box designers may

be able to introduce solutions to “wicked” problems

to which none appears to exist at first glance.

Varying approaches to design thinking have

been introduced; most have as common activities

empathizing with users, getting inspiration, ideating

for generating a broad range of potential solutions,

creating prototypes that a user can interact with, and

validating solutions with the engagement of users.

3 A GAMIFIED LEARNING

PLATFORM FOR DESIGN

THINKING

This work aims at facilitating design thinking in

higher education by introducing an active,

experiential learning approach that engages students

with design thinking principles towards building

their capacity to act as innovators in business and

civic contents (DesignIT project, 2018). This is

facilitated through a the design and implementation

of a digital platform that allows students to

experiment with design thinking practices by

working on problems inspired by the real world

(DesignIT project, 2017).

3.1 A Problem-based, Active Learning

Methodology for Teaching Design

Thinking

Problem-based learning promotes the development

of knowledge through active approaches that expose

students to problems, often inspired by real life.

Problem based learning is part of wider active

learning models that support the notion that learners

learn better by doing as opposed by being the

passive recipients of information. This links problem

based learning to constructivist learning design that

advocates that knowledge is synthesized rather than

transferred. Various approaches to problem based

learning are used in practice; however the core

principles of identifying a problem, breaking it down

to components, solving those, and synthesizing a final

solution from parts are often part of a problem learn-

ing environment. In additional to core knowledge,

problem based learning supports the development of

transversal learning skills such as analytical thinking,

creativity, ability to collaborate, and others.

This work deploys active and problem-based

learning design by exposing students to real-world

problems that they are asked to solve by applying

design thinking principles (Tsalapatas et. al, 2018).

Students are exposed to a challenge that is based on

the principle of study and has learning objectives

related to curricula work. The challenge is

introduced by the instructor; in some cases, the

challenge may be introduced by an external

company that seeks the innovative mindsets of

young engineers to introduce a potential solution to

actual business challenges within design thinking

practices. Examples of challenges include:

• The design of an e-commerce platform that

allows the marketing of goods and services in

remote areas while at the same time it helps

create sustainable jobs for young individuals.

• The design of a digital learning application

that enriches interactivity and engagement in

high school STEM education.

• The design of a social game for carers.

• The design of a game for raising awareness

on forest fires.

• The design of a user friendly application for

local touristic guides.

Teaching Design Thinking through Gamiﬁed Learning

279

• The design of a digital service that supports

pervasive learning, i.e. learning that can take

place interactively anytime, anywhere by

exploiting smart devices, geolocation, and

increasing network bandwidths.

• The enhancement of digital communication

in business.

• The development of innovative search

mechanisms for huge image databases.

• The support of communication among

construction workers speaking multiple

languages.

• The design of smart and sustainable learning

ecosystems in schools.

• The design of digital learning ecosystems that

promote wellbeing and health.

3.2 Gamification in Learning

Serious games are games, in digital application or

other form, which are designed for a purpose other

than entertainment. The broader term of

gamification refers to the deployment of gaming

elements in non-learning contexts, ranging from

business to education and training (Huotari &

Hamari, 2012, Robson et al, 2015). According to

Gartner, gamification elements are deployed in

business process management for engaging workers,

promoting creativity, understanding customer needs,

and meeting objectives (Olding, 2012). In

professional training, serious games, often used as

simulations of the real world, may be deployed for

building skills when training is expensive or

involves training in risky procedures. Examples

include building personnel skills in a simulated

environment for avoiding downtime of production

facilities for training purposes, building piloting

skills in the safe environment of simulators, or

building the skills of medical personnel in emerging

medical processes.

In education, gamification is deployed in broader

blended learning activities as a tool contributing to

the achievement of learning objectives. Gamification

mechanisms may include rewards, a sense of

affiliation, a sense of purpose, access to additional

content upon completion of tasks, assuming roles,

group collaboration, competition, social recognition,

social sharing of achievement, and others.

In order to be successful, gamification design

needs to be linked to educational goals. The exact

blend of mechanisms to be deployed depends on the

learning scenario and the target group. To ensure

that gamification is effective as a learning tool, it

must be embedded into wider learning design that

includes debriefing and feedback processes for

assessing behavioural changes related to learning

outcomes (Garris, 2002). The potential that well-

designed games offer for instilling positive

behaviour has led to the emergence of persuasive

games, which aim to provide positive influence in

social issues, e.g. promoting healthy lifestyles,

training educators to act towards suicide prevention,

raising awareness on poverty and homelessness, and

more.

3.3 Platform Design and

Implementation

Design thinking is a process that requires effort and

experience. This work presents a digital platform

that facilitates design thinking in learning contexts.

3.3.1 Learning Objectives

The implemented digital platform targets higher

education engineering students and has the

following high level learning objectives:

• To digitally support broad learning processes

that introduce design thinking in engineering

and wider contexts.

• To allow flexibility to educators on

integrating diverse design thinking practices

in the classroom.

• To promote long-term learner engagement

with educational activities related to design

thinking.

• To enhance collaboration and communication

in an active, digitally enabled classroom by

providing easy to use facilities that foster

ideation, brainstorming, and peer reviews.

• To provide educators with information in

individual and team achievement within

design teams.

3.3.2 Main Functionality

The platform is designed for deployment in blended

learning classroom activities on design (DesignIT

project, 2017).

Each class is assigned a “lobby” accessible by its

members only. Students work in teams, each of

which focuses on a specific challenge. The platform

offers flexibility in terms of the organization of the

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280

challenges. Each team may work on a separate

challenge, all teams may work on the same, or

groups of teams may share a challenge. This

flexibility is allowed to support classes in which

diverse challenges may be introduced by the

instructor or other stakeholders, or teams may wish

to define their own challenges.

Figure 1 below demonstrates the entry page of

the service.

Figure 1: The DesignIT platform entry page.

Figure 2 below demonstrates an example of a

lobby corresponding to the “Technology of

Education” course of the Department of Electrical

and Computer Engineering of the University of

Thessaly. In this example, identical challenges are

allocate to all participating teams. Students may join

the challenges that interest them to collaboratively

work with others on designing a solution.

Figure 2: The lobby of the “Technology in Education”

class at the University of Thessaly, Greece.

By joining a challenge, a student sees in the form

of an arrow at the centre of the screen the list of

design thinking activities defined by the challenge

creator, who often is the instructor.

Notably, design thinking steps are only presented

by numbers as opposed to descriptions. This is a

design choice that allows instructors to apply

different design thinking paradigms without being

restricted to a specific format. The instructor may

define the objectives of each numbered step that the

students are expected to follow in the design

thinking process. For example, step 1 may

correspond to ideation, step 2 to reviewing, step 3 to

brainstorming, step 4 to refining a solution, step 5 to

validating. This is demonstrated below in Figure 3.

Design thinking steps demonstrated as numbers for

flexibility.

On the main working screen, students work on a

canvas on which they introduce “notes”, as

demonstrated on, which corresponds to the main

working page for a student where she may add notes

on ideas towards a potential solution to the

challenge. The main working screen is shared by all

challenge members, who see in real-time additions

and modifications made by team members and

further have the option of processing each other’s

additions.

Figure 3: Design thinking steps demonstrated as numbers

for flexibility.

On the main working screen, students work on a

canvas on which they introduce “notes”, as

demonstrated on Figure 4.

Figure 4: A canvas that supports ideation as a group

activity.

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281

Each note may include plain text, an image, or a

video highlighting concepts related to the challenge

or desired characteristics of a proposed solution. The

canvas represents a board of ideas that support

ideation created by all challenge members. Notes

may be coloured for demonstrating grouping of

functions, implementation priorities, or other desired

characteristics that team wishes to convey. Team

members may also delete notes.

A team may request feedback on a canvas that is

work in progress by other students or by the

instructor. This can be done in one of two ways:

The team may “Ask for Brainstorm”, a function

that opens the canvas to students external to the team

to edit the challenge canvas by adding notes with

ideas. In addition, a team may “Ask for Review”

which calls the instructor and external to the team

students to provide feedback on the canvas.

Feedback may be either in the form of text or

“upvoting” or “downvoting” of ideas, a function

similar to “liking” in social media contexts.

The brainstorming and review processes are

important in design thinking as they promote idea

validation. The facilitate collaboration not only

within a team but also across teams in a class

introducing valuable information towards the design

of a solution that best addresses user needs.

3.3.3 Integrated Gamification Elements

Student engagement is promoted through

gamification elements integrated into the platform.

The elements offer a sense of competition through

rewards and recognition of achievement.

Figure 5: Student rewards: rank, experience, reviews

performed, content uploaded.

One form of rewards is coins, which students for

participation at the global level, which refers to

overall engagement, and at the challenge level,

which refers to engagement in a specific educational

activity. A student receives coins for uploading

content into the platform, reviewing the work of

peers, and receiving reviews.

Students furthermore build experience for

participating in learning, for example for joining a

challenge, reviewing, asking for help, participating

in a brainstorm, and other activities. Students are

ranked by experience, which adds a further element

of competition.

Figure 6: Student achievements for reaching milestones.

Another form of reward is achievement trophies

that student receive upon reaching a milestone such

as creating a challenge, completing a challenge,

completing 10 challenges, completing a challenge

with only positive reviews, reaching the highest

levels of the rank, and more.

4 CONCLUSION

This article presented the design and

implementation of digital services that support

learning processes on design thinking. A flexible

tool has been implemented, aiming to promote

student creativity and collaboration towards

innovative and entrepreneurial thinking. The tool

has been designed for deployment in broad design

thinking activities that empower students to see

opportunities and turn ideas into action. The tool

further promotes the capacity of educators to

introduce innovative learning interventions into the

classroom through emerging technology supported

active learning frameworks. The tool is currently

being evaluated in learning experiments taking

place in higher education institutions in Greece,

Estonia, Portugal, and Finland. Early feedback is

very positive, with students and educators

highlighting the added value of enriched, real-time

collaboration that is facilitated through digital

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services making design thinking activities more

active, engaging, and participatory.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work has been funded with the support of the

Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission,

project ID 2017-1-EE01-KA203-034889.

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