DESIGNING AND DELIVERING A VIRTUAL DESIGN THINKING COURSE

PROJECT BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

In 2021, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, I conceptualized, designed, and implemented the inaugural online, semester-long Foundations Programme in Design Thinking at Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika at the University of Cape Town.

I developed all the course content and created the tools to facilitate team collaboration. During the delivery phase, my responsibilities included introducing participants to the Design Thinking process, its mindsets, principles, tools, and methods. Additionally, I led a team of coaches whose role was to guide their respective student teams throughout the project.

The programme comprised six teams, consisting of final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students from diverse disciplines across various South African universities. To ensure the teams worked on authentic, real-world challenges, we partnered with Velokhaya, a local NGO and cycling academy. Velokhaya provided a current, pressing challenge they were facing, which served as the foundation for the students’ projects.

PROGRAMME VISUALS & ARTEFACTS

Due to confidentiality reasons, I am unable to share the specific content and tools I developed for this programme. However, below are visuals from the d-stories booklet that illustrate various activities, provide an overview of the programme, showcase the participants, outline the challenge brief and proposed solutions, and highlight the coaching and leadership team.

Credit: All visuals and artefacts belong to Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking at the University of Cape Town (UCT d-school).