Integrated Design Thinking to Improve Pedagogical Practices in Creative Engineering Design

Abstract

Repeated testing, revision, and verification make products have market value and the commercialization of creative ideas reflected in the product. In the model, product and industrial designs present actual cases so that students are trained from scratch to clarify problems, identify needs, establish functional structures, and evaluate the creative design and engineering design. A good design plan includes market and user demand analysis, creative thinking, concept formation, and actual prototype making. Thus, students need to learn how to simulate the actual product design and development process through design protection and complete design planning. Therefore, taking creative engineering design courses as an example, this study aims to introduce various design methods into interactive teaching by using the problem/project-based learning (PBL) and science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) model. In industry, the methods are expected to simulate how a product design engineer faces the market and consumers. The results reveal the following. Students prefer to focus on hands-on practice and ask for examples and supplementary reference materials and a diversified interactive learning model. They like to work in groups and interact with peers and teachers to learn in real-time, hoping to know their levels and thoughts. They hope to apply what they learn for future career development. The education model integrates academic theory and industrial practice to reduce the gap between learning and practice in the industry.