Change in Learning Motivation Observed through the Introduction of Design Thinking in a Mobile Application Programming Course

Tz-Heng Hsu,Aaron Raymond See,Gwo-Jiun Horng

doi:10.3390/su13137492

Tz-Heng Hsu, Aaron Raymond See + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137492

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Abstract

Traditional teacher-centered teaching focused on classroom lectures has met numerous challenges in recent years, which has motivated teachers to make use of design thinking for their classes. This study made use of design thinking in an iOS programming course to find ways to improve the students’ critical thinking, learning motivation and solve practical issues through mobile APP development. In the program, students were required to answer situational motivation questionnaires before and after design thinking is implemented in the course. Results showed that the values of the Cronbach’s Alpha for the initial course expectation in both iterations were reliable. Subsequently, when students feel that the solutions are recognized and supported by other students and teachers in the course, there is an upward trend in the curves of their external regulation, identified regulation, and intrinsic motivation. This study successfully designed the course content and evaluation methods that have shown significant increase in the students’ motivation through the incorporation of design thinking in the mobile application programming course.

Highlights

Passive learning is a traditional method utilized in schools where students receive information from the course instructor and internalize it passively without giving feedback.As a result of a lack in practical exercises and mechanisms for solving real problems, students lose the ability of aspiration and autonomous learning [1]
As for the teachers, we need to create a classroom culture of thinking to let students immerse themselves into the lessons and acquire the mental habit of creation [2]
The team is encouraged to experiment with their ideas early on, which brings in rapid prototyping

Summary

Introduction

Passive learning is a traditional method utilized in schools where students receive information from the course instructor and internalize it passively without giving feedback.As a result of a lack in practical exercises and mechanisms for solving real problems, students lose the ability of aspiration and autonomous learning [1]. Olin College of Engineering, adopted design thinking methods to teach students to solve engineering problems. (2) Rapid prototyping: Determining what works or not early can save valuable time and resources. (3) Humancentered design: It is imperative to have the user in mind before design begins It involves human-oriented design, which is the starting point of the process. It is thinking of a design from the user’s point of view, making people the source of inspiration and direction for solving design problems, and focusing on discovering users’ explicit and implicit needs. Use Auto Layout and stacked view to build adaptive User Interface

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