Keep Online Design Thinking Alive: a Case Study in Indonesia

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the way teaching and learning have been conducted at the university in Indonesia. None of us have experienced tackling this extraordinary situation. Prior to the pandemic, face-to-face learning mode has been the primary preference in university education. Some universities in Indonesia have used online mode as a support for the main offline teaching and learning, but the focus was more on administrative activities, such as: submitting assignments, sharing resources, and sending announcements. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has left the universities with no choice, but to switch their education from offline to fully online. However, in the case of Design Thinking courses, offline interaction might not be the best as intense interaction is required to achieve the goals. This study investigates the challenges and potentials of conducting online Design Thinking courses, which is in this case, the Design Research course. Using the Design Thinking 2.0 framework, we have analyzed and identified several interventions that we propose in this paper to leverage and transform the current course.