An adaptive and strategic human-centred design approach to shaping pandemic design education that promotes wellbeing

Mieke Van Der Bijl-Brouwer,Rebecca Anne Price

doi:10.4013/sdrj.2021.141.09

Mieke Van Der Bijl-Brouwer, Rebecca Anne Price

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4013/sdrj.2021.141.09

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Abstract

Positive student wellbeing is intrinsically connected to positive learning outcomes. Students learn more when they feel well, and the way we shape education influences the way students feel. The COVID-19 crisis has forced us to radically change our design education and is having a large impact on student wellbeing and learning. While some students manage well to adapt to the new circumstances, others struggle and face challenges such as risk of burnout, lack of motivation, and social isolation. In this paper we describe how we approached this challenge by applying methods and principles from strategic human-centred design and systems thinking. The strategic design approach included researching values and patterns in student and staff experiences. The systems approach meant that we saw the university as a complex adaptive system, which focused our activities on connecting staff and students who were and are running multiple creative experiments to promote student wellbeing. This approach is strategic because it supports continuous design and implementation of initiatives to promote wellbeing. While this is work in progress, we here present a number of design principles that we developed through this work that enable future designs that promote student wellbeing in (pandemic) higher education.

Highlights

The health and wellbeing of students while at university has gained more attention over the past decade, with various universities adopting a health promotion strategy and implementing policy and programs to promote wellbeing (Okanagan Charter, 2015)
As we are engaging in a continuous innovation approach, we are gathering insights while at the same time experimenting with new initiatives
We describe how we used the strategic human-centred design approach to draw out a number of themes, values and principles that provide input for the design of initiatives that promote student wellbeing

Summary

Introduction

The health and wellbeing of students while at university has gained more attention over the past decade, with various universities adopting a health promotion strategy and implementing policy and programs to promote wellbeing (Okanagan Charter, 2015). While many universities tend to enable student wellbeing through ‘separate services’ such as student psychologist and health programs, we argue that the way we shape education is a key factor to promote the flourishing of students, and teachers too. Positive student wellbeing is intrinsically connected to positive learning outcomes. Students learn more when they feel well, and the way we shape education influences the way students feel.

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