In today’s rapidly changing world, characterised by digitisation, complexity and information overload, design thinking has evolved as a powerful tool for human-centric design and innovation. It can help identify, empathise with, address complex problems and guide change across different facets of life. Since its inception, design thinking has emerged as a framework not only for creating effective or efficient outcomes but also for cognitive and effective outcomes. In this process, it is also recognised as an effective educational change-maker. Design thinking can emerge as a vehicle for developing an inclusive and equitable learning ecosystem and drive student-centric design to offer creative and collective collaborations with the objective of creating and delivering a big impact. By empathising with students and drawing on the philosophies and practices of design, the design thinking process can understand and articulate the problem clearly, ideate and co-create with learners to achieve maximum impact.
The stages do not follow a linear process, but rather an iterative one, essential to promote inclusion and enable a learning ecosystem that supports diverse learners. Along with this, by integrating the universal design for learning framework into the educational system, learners can access, engage with and demonstrate learning through flexible, inclusive and evidence-based teaching strategies. Design thinking also emphasises the importance of co-creation, collaboration and reflection to identify and address social and environmental challenges. This approach can foster and promote a sense of community and belongingness among learners. Rather than adopting and accepting a fixed curriculum, the design thinking framework allows learners to explore their diverse needs and thereby design learning environments appropriate to them.
Universal design learning aims to motivate learners to engage, create and sustain interest to continue and foster meaningful collaboration. This is often done by providing choices, integrating learning with the learner’s interests and promoting autonomy. The learning framework should also present information and materials in multiple formats (such as visual, audio, interactive and graphic materials) to ensure accessibility and readability for various learners. Designing learning through multiple levels of engagement could be applied through gamified learning, interactive discussion or real-world problem-solving. This can simplify complex concepts while providing scope to meet diverse cognitive needs. Additionally, the design thinking learning framework would allow learners to demonstrate and understand their learning outcomes in various forms, such as creative projects, digital media, oral presentations, etc. This provides the flexibility to showcase different learning styles and their individual strengths, while offering varied learning outcome content. This is aimed at enabling students to be strategic and resourceful in this process of learning.
Also Read: Karnataka Partners with Naukri.com to Offer 90-Day Free Hiring Support for New GCCs
Thus, an inclusive design framework is not one-size-fits-all, but rather a dynamic and evolving framework that adapts to new insights, research and feedback from learners and educators. Such a framework can enable inclusive solutions in the classroom, curriculum and institutional practices that emphasise equitable and accessible education for learners from diverse backgrounds.
Views expressed by Dr Subhalaxmi Mohapatra, Associate Professor, Anant National University
