Abstract

Modern businesses are recognising the power of innovation through design thinking to sustain innovation and growth in today’s competitive markets. Design is now becoming a holistic process and there is emerging need for future business leaders to understand the underlying processes of design thinking in an urge to innovate. This paper introduces a framework in design thinking to encourage information systems (IS) and management students to foster their creativity and innovation capabilities, and also improve their metacognitive skills. The framework is used to develop and implement teaching methods that increasingly focus on agility and innovation. An exploration of steps of implementing this framework in teaching introductory to high level university subjects is discussed. One of the key goals of the framework was to ensure that students learn early in their studies that design thinking is not only about identifying new ideas, but how the ideas can be externalised and differentiated to get commercial acceptances. Idea management tools are introduced in some subjects to help students follow through their brainstormed ideas, building blocks management and on-going evaluations by peers. This process has helped to spawn new solutions based on what is discussed within their group. Through the use of these tools the experiential journey of learning in collaborative environment has allowed students to interact with their peers, encourage and motivate students to participate and learn better in an effective and efficient manner.

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