Design Thinking Portfolio

The Design Thinking Portfolio engages students in the design thinking process through problem-based and collaborative learning. The portfolio project starts with compiling things that students wish were better, then having them work across the spectrum of design thinking to sell their ideas though team pitches. Students use a design thinking mindset to solve a regional social or civic issue as social entrepreneurs. Coming together and sharing their own diverse backgrounds forces students to think outside of their own views to create an open and innovative solution. The portfolio project introduces several professional tools needed for finding the right problem in order to compile many solutions based on research, empathy maps, interviews, observations, identifying users and stakeholders, considering constraints, user needs, producing customer journey maps, creating prototypes and developing pitches to obtain the best solution. This portfolio will not only walk students through the process, but also serve as an artifact of their abilities to apply design thinking in revaluating complex problems.https://mds.marshall.edu/oa-textbooks/1818/thumbnail.jp

Next Generation Open Textbooks: A Case Study

Design Across the Disciplines: Learning the value of communication design through practice” is an OER (open educational resource), digital textbook under prototype testing in a media design course. The text is created in collaboration with a librarian, two faculty from different colleges and two students who have completed the course. This interdisciplinary team was formed with the directive to embrace the powers of design thinking through digital content to develop a product that truly recognizes the needs of the primary users, our students and key stakeholders, the faculty. Several semesters of student feedback provided the insights for considering textbook cost; the need for continual access to the text even after the course is completed; simplicity of use; and the need for multi-modal content. From this feedback, the design evolved to employ the chunking of content with scalable vector illustrations; limited and direct text; short, highly directive instructional videos; and assessments that provide internship and employment artifacts that are evidence of a student’s digital design capabilities. The design is a prototype in action being tested in class as well as through a research study on faculty perceptions to OER textbooks. The execution of this textbook is based not only in the empathetic approach to gathering user needs through the employment of several prototypes and observations, but also through student and faculty interviews to determine desirability, viability and feasibility conditions for success. This presentation shares what a librarian, marketing professor, design professor and graphic design student learned through a two-year process in developing a OER digital textbook

Creating a Student Driven OER Digital Textbook

Design Across the Disciplines: Learning the value of communication design through practice” is an OER (open educational resource), digital textbook under prototype testing in a media design course. The text is created in collaboration with a librarian, two faculty from different colleges and two students who have completed the course. This interdisciplinary team was formed with the directive to embrace the powers of design thinking through digital content to develop a product that truly recognizes the needs of the primary users, our students and key stakeholders, the faculty

New composite separator pellet to increase power density and reduce size of thermal batteries.

We show that it is possible to manufacture strong macroporous ceramic films that can be backfilled with electrolyte to form rigid separator pellets suitable for use in thermal batteries. Several new ceramic manufacturing processes are developed to produce sintered magnesium oxide foams with connected porosities of over 80% by volume and with sufficient strength to withstand the battery manufacturing steps. The effects of processing parameters are quantified, and methods to imbibe electrolyte into the ceramic scaffold demonstrated. Preliminary single cell battery testing show that some of our first generation pellets exhibit longer voltage life with comparable resistance at the critical early times to that exhibited by a traditional pressed pellets. Although more development work is needed to optimize the processes to create these rigid separator pellets, the results indicate the potential of such ceramic separator pellets to be equal, if not superior to, current pressed pellets. Furthermore, they could be a replacement for critical material that is no longer available, as well as improving battery separator strength, decreasing production costs, and leading to shorter battery stacks for long-life batteries

Demonstration of an Open Text

Marshall University Associate Professor Christine Ingersoll demonstrates creating and using and open text, which is housed in Marshall Digital Scholar

Immunogenicity of NVX-CoV2373 heterologous boost against SARS-CoV-2 variants

Abstract As part of a multicenter study evaluating homologous and heterologous COVID-19 booster vaccines, we assessed the magnitude, breadth, and short-term durability of binding and pseudovirus-neutralizing antibody (PsVNA) responses following a single booster dose of NVX-CoV2373 in adults primed with either Ad26.COV2.S, mRNA-1273, or BNT162b2 vaccines. NVX-CoV2373 as a heterologous booster was immunogenic and associated with no safety concerns through Day 91. Fold-rises in PsVNA titers from baseline (Day 1) to Day 29 were highest for prototypic D614G variant and lowest for more recent Omicron sub-lineages BQ.1.1 and XBB.1. Peak humoral responses against all SARS-CoV-2 variants were lower in those primed with Ad26.COV2.S than with mRNA vaccines. Prior SARS CoV-2 infection was associated with substantially higher baseline PsVNA titers, which remained elevated relative to previously uninfected participants through Day 91. These data support the use of heterologous protein-based booster vaccines as an acceptable alternative to mRNA or adenoviral-based COVID-19 booster vaccines. This trial was conducted under ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04889209