SL Advanced Course on "Design Thinking for Problem Solving" in collaboration with Lingnan University in Hong Kong

In the winter term, “Special Studies in Service-Learning II” was offered. It is an advanced course that explores methods and effects of service-learning, and this time, we focused on "Design Thinking" as an approach for problem-solving.

In December, we had guest lectures from Lingnan University in Hong Kong, who have incorporated Design Thinking into service-learning. During the winter term, the students set a social issue to explore and found a local organization they would like to work with.

In the final presentation, the students presented their projects with the needs assessment, solution prototypes, and concrete plans for implementation.

Some ICU students commented;

"In this class, I learned the practical process of solving social issues, from the step of problem analysis to solution implementation. Now we feel a great sense of accomplishment that I was able to interview the organizations and individuals and propose my ideas for further collaboration.”

“I used to think about the same thing over and over again when I was trying to solve problems, and it was difficult to move forward. Now I got the confidence to draw satisfactory conclusions within a limited time.”

The ICU participants were able to learn about service-learning in a slightly different focusing on problem-solving. We hope to apply this newly learned approach to our programs of service-learning.