Applying empathy-driven participatory research methods to higher education new degree development

Purpose: Innovation and entrepreneurship are economic drivers promoting competition and growth among organizations throughout the world, many of which would not exist without well-established new product development processes coupled with intentional and strategic focus on research and development. New product development processes, such as the lean start-up methodology and design thinking, are well-known and thriving as a result of empirically-grounded research efforts. Unfortunately, educational institutions and educational researchers, alike, are lagging when it comes to new program/degree development processes. Although the quantity of new degree offerings has increased substantially over the past several decades (in particular for multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary programs), limited research has been conducted to document key procedures associated with the creation of new degree programs. The purpose of this study is to show one approach to how students can be used within the new program development process. Methodology: This approach uses participatory research, wherein students act as researchers and actively participate in the data collection and analysis process. Under the umbrella of participatory research, the study uses photo-voice, photo-elicitation, and focus groups for collecting qualitative data. Findings: Results suggest that students in one transdisciplinary studies in technology program value the following key attributes: (1) learning style (agency and choice, active hands-on learning, and real-world applications) and (2) learning context (technology and design focused assignments, integration of humanities, and self-selected disciplines of interest). Research Implications: Recommendations are provided for various higher education benefactors of the user-generated data including administration, faculty, marketing, recruitment, advisors, and the students, themselves

Developing the scales on evaluation beliefs of student teachers

The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to investigate the validity and the reliability of a newly developed questionnaire named ‘Teacher Evaluation Beliefs’ (TEB). The framework for developing items was provided by the two models. The first model focuses on Student-Centered and Teacher-Centered beliefs about evaluation while the other centers on five dimensions (what/ who/ when/ why/ how). The validity and reliability of the new instrument was investigated using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis study (n=446). Overall results indicate that the two-factor structure is more reasonable than the five-factor one. Further research needs additional items about the latent dimensions “what” ”who” ”when” ”why” “how” for each existing factor based on Student-centered and Teacher-centered approaches

Participatory design as an approach for work-integrated learning of digital competences: putting theory into practice

Technology is radically changing the healthcare sector. Introduction of technology demands new ways of providing healthcare services and the professionals will need new knowledge and competence to be able to do their job and to contribute to the continuous development of the sector. There is limited focus on digital competence and change-processes in the educations related to healthcare as well as in the workplaces. Applying work-integrated learning makes it possible for healthcare professionals to learn and develop their competence through practical work with examples from their own workplaces and empower them to maneuver the digitalization of the workplaces. Similar participatory design started as a movement to empower industrial workers to have a stronger voice during the introduction of new technologies at their workplace. As such participatory design is a design approach which promotes involvement of all stakeholders in the design of technologies that affects them. It provides a set of tools and techniques to enable active involvement in the design process. We use these tools and techniques to teach healthcare professionals digital competences needed in their workplaces, and we discuss opportunities of participatory design for work-integrated learning. Based on a set of three participatory design workshops, we present an approach that can empower healthcare professionals to maneuver the digital change at their workplace. We recommend continued investment in the development of work-integrated learning practices with a participatory mindset.publishedVersio

Creating personas for political and social consciousness in HCI design

Personas have become an important tool for Human-Computer Interaction professionals. However, they are not immune to limitations and critique, including stereotyping. We suggest that while some of the criticisms to personas are important, the use of personas is open to them in part because of an unquestioned focus on explicating user needs and goals in traditional persona research and creation. This focus, while helping designers, obscures some other potentially relevant aspects. In particular, when the goal of the product or software being designed is associated with social and political goals rather than with bringing a product to the market, it may be relevant to focus personas on political aspirations, social values and the will or capacity of personas to take action. We argue that it is possible when producing personas (and associated scenarios) to partially move away from representing needs and embrace personas which more explicitly represent political or social beliefs and values. We also suggest that a phenomenographic approach to user data analysis is one way to achieve this. We provide empirical evidence for our position from two large-scale European projects, the first one in the area of Social Innovation and the second in the area of eParticipation

Earning the MFA: Investigations of Curricula and Pedagogies as a Means of Developing Graduate Studio Art Students\u27 Sense of Self

This research study critically examined personal and professional issues related to visual arts MFA graduate students and myself as we participated in a course entitled, "Issues of Relevance and Character in the Fine Arts." The course explored a graduate student\u27s developing sense of self and its impact on the different roles he or she often embodies while pursuing an MFA (individual, student, artist, teacher, and future professional). Employing an educational participatory action research methodology, I was also a participant in the study and documented the oral, written, and visual data that emerged from the participants\u27 interactions. This paper briefly reviews studies conducted on graduate student development, students in MFA programs, and the historical development of the MFA degree. Findings indicated the following: First, strong convictions seemed to be intrinsic to the participants\u27 pursuit of their MFA degrees, and each participant expressed interest in teaching in higher education. Second, participating in the course seemed to offer a receptive platform to convey the voices of the "characters" the participants embodied as MFA students. Their personal and professional development was influenced by the complex relationships they shared with others in their MFA programs. A third theme addressed the impact of my participation within the study. With an established background in art making and teaching within Art and Visual Culture Education, the findings suggest that I was able to empathize with the three other participants on several fronts. The implications of this research study suggest the need for more action research studies of MFA graduate students

Exploring learning experiences of business undergraduates in Strategic Design module

The paper explores the delivery of a strategic design module within an undergraduate business education in UK. In light of the recent discourses to promote change in design education (Friedman, 2001; Cassim, 2013; Norman and Klemmer, 2014; Souleles, 2013), the learner’s journey and their decisionmaking process undertaken in the strategic design module are being investigated to highlight the potential of design process in contributing to business and management education. The paper follows participatory action research and draws on observations of learners’ engagement in a design process substantiated by insights from staff delivering on the module. The aim is to understand the nature of decisions the learners undertake in order to generate more effective learning and teaching strategies highlighting the value of strategic design. The insights gained illuminate learners recognition of the value of decisions grounded in empathy in addressing contemporary organisational challenges, whilst highlighting their avoidance of risk in decision-making and lack of perceived interconnectedness of those decisions. Thus, it is argued that the resulting awareness around decision-making can become a very useful tool in helping learners conceptualise what strategic design requires and understand their own learning experience

Exploring Business Undergraduates’ Journey and Decision-Making Processes while Immersed in Strategic Design Experience

The paper explores the delivery of a strategic design module within an undergraduate business education in UK. In light of the recent discourses to promote change in design education (Friedman, 2001; Cassim, 2013; Norman and Klemmer, 2014; Souleles, 2013), the learner’s journey and their decision-making process undertaken in the strategic design module are being investigated to highlight the potential of design process in contributing to business and management education. The paper follows participatory action research and draws on observations of learners’ engagement in a design process substantiated by insights from staff delivering on the module. The aim is to understand the nature of decisions the learners undertake in order to generate more effective learning and teaching strategies highlighting the value of strategic design. The insights gained illuminate learners recognition of the value of decisions grounded in empathy in addressing contemporary organisational challenges, whilst highlighting their avoidance of risk in decision-making and lack of perceived interconnectedness of those decisions. Thus, it is argued that the resulting awareness around decision-making can become a very useful tool in helping learners conceptualise what strategic design requires and understand their own learning experience

Envisioning Futures of Design Education: An Exploratory Workshop with Design Educator

The demand for innovation in the creative economy has seen the adoption and adaptation of design thinking and design methods into domains outside design, such as business management, education, healthcare, and engineering. Design thinking and methodologies are now considered useful for identifying, framing and solving complex, often wicked social, technological, economic and public policy problems. As the practice of design undergoes change, design education is also expected to adjust to prepare future designers to have dramatically different demands made upon their general abilities and bases of knowledge than have design career paths from years past. Future designers will have to develop skills and be able to construct and utilize knowledge that allows them to make meaningful contributions to collaborative efforts involving experts from disciplines outside design. Exactly how future designers should be prepared to do this has sparked a good deal of conjecture and debate in the professional and academic design communities. This report proposes that the process of creating future scenarios that more broadly explore and expand the role, or roles, for design and designers in the world’s increasingly interwoven and interdependent societies can help uncover core needs and envision framework(s) for design education. This approach informed the creation of a workshop held at the Design Research Society conference in Brighton, UK in June of 2016, where six design educators shared four future scenarios that served as catalysts for conversations about the future of design education. Each scenario presented a specific future design education context. One scenario described the progression of design education as a core component of K-12 curricula; another scenario situated design at the core of a network of globally-linked local Universities; the third scenario highlighted the expanding role of designers over time; and the final scenario described a distance design education context that made learning relevant and “close” to an individual learner’s areas of interest. Forty participants in teams of up to six were asked to collaboratively visualize a possible future vision of design education based on one of these four scenarios and supported by a toolkit consisting of a set of trigger cards (with images and text), along with markers, glue and flipcharts. The collaborative visions that were jointly created as posters using the toolkit and then presented by the teams to all the workshop participants and facilitators are offered here as a case study. Although inspired by different scenarios, their collectively envisioned futures of what design education should facilitate displayed some key similarities. Some of those were: Future design education curricula will focus on developing collaborative approaches within which faculty and students are co-learners; These curricula will bring together ways of learning and knowing that stem from multiple disciplines; and Learning in and about the natural environment will be a key goal (the specifics of how that would be accomplished were not elaborated upon.) In addition, the need for transdisciplinarity was expressed across the collaborative visions created by each of the teams, but the manner that participants chose to express their ideas about this varied. Some envisioned that design would evolve by drawing on other disciplinary knowledge, and others envisioned that design would gradually integrate with other disciplines

Assessing Service Quality in the Ghanaian Private Healthcare Sector: The Case of Comboni Hospital.

The healthcare industry has become a paramount concern for most people in Ghana and the quality of services rendered to the patients in the private hospitals cannot be overemphasized. Patients need quality of services most and are willing to seek better services. The government has been the main provider of health care services in Ghana but recently, some Non-Governmental Organization’s (NGO’s), private individuals and stakeholders also provide health care services which has surged the competitiveness in creating more healthcare facilities in Ghana. This study seeks to explore patients' choice of selecting quality healthcare services and the factors that affect patient satisfaction in private hospitals using the case of Comboni Hospital in Sogakope, Ghana. The study therefore used the quantitative research method to collect the data and SPSS version 22 was used to analyze the data on high-quality healthcare. The SERVQUAL model was used as the measurement scale. Multiple regression analysis was used to reveal the effect of the independent variables (reliability, responsiveness, empathy, assurance, and tangibility) on the dependent variable (patient satisfaction). A detailed description in the analysis and the data processing identified the main factors affecting the general perceptions and patient preferences about their healthcare in the private hospital. The study revealed that there exist a positive result and perception for quality healthcare services without a negative expectation of the patient healthcare being compromised. The study recommends that both the government and the private agencies should consider the important aspects of the hospital’s healthcare management and also the policy and decision makers should have an efficient and effective standard that impact the quality of healthcare assessment in Ghana

Resilience in interior architecture education: Distance universal design learning in the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected all levels of education all over the World. In Turkey, on March 16, 2020, the decision of distance education was taken in higher education sharply. This necessity had caused urgent adaptation to the distance education process, which resulted in changing the courses’ curriculums in parallel with the emergence of new teaching and learning strategies especially in applied programs such as interior architecture. This process has tested the ‘resilience’ of the education system explicitly. Resilience means an ability of a community, system, or individual to ‘adapt’ and ‘transform’ in the case of varied facts causing any disruptive situation in the existing system. The pandemic has taught the education community about ‘adaptation’ and ‘transformation’ through implementing diverse learning tools and responses to complex circumstances, especially in applied courses. With the end of the pandemic, the instructors experiencing the face-to-face education environment anew will sustain it with the lessons from the pandemic undoubtedly. This study aims to discuss the concept of ‘resilience’ with its basic dimensions, ‘adaptation’ and ‘transformation’, in interior architecture education by focusing on the experiences, limitations, and potentials experienced in the distance education process. It specifically dwells on teaching and learning experiences of Universal Design (UD) course conducted in the Department of Interior Architecture and Environmental Design, Atılım University, Ankara in the 2020 Spring term when the first and urgent adaptation to distance education had been experienced. The evaluation process is supported with the obtained qualitative data, with results suggesting that all students gained useful insights by experiencing multiple dialogue environments in various ways of learning into how they can incorporate inclusivity into future designs. This study displays that it is crucial that the distance UD learning process open to interactive dialogue among students, experts, instructors, and users to design inclusive spaces welcoming all people without discrimination. It argues that there have been potential improvements about adaptation and transformations of educational approaches within the pandemic, but in interior architecture education as applied design education, the importance and necessity of experiential learning in bodily and collective communication has been deeply proven