Embracing Ambiguity: A Framework for Promoting Iterative Design Thinking Approaches in Open-Ended Engineering and Design Curricula
Engineering students and design students approach projects with different mindsets. However, despite their differences, students in design and engineering often exhibit similar behaviors throughout the design process with a proclivity to quickly converge on a final solution, often motivated by an attempt to escape the ambiguous user-research phase of design. The authors believe that as instructors acknowledge and encourage students to explore open-ended projects, students will have a higher likelihood that they shed the fear and anxiety that often comes with these unknown project outcomes.
This paper will explore successful engineering and design case studies, taken from coursework and curricula at Ohio State University as well as at Columbus College of Art & Design. These stories and challenges will be explained to highlight what can emerge from creating curricula around open-ended design pedagogy, which serves to mimic real world, often ‘wicked’ scenarios. By describing engineering and design programs doing similar pedagogical activities, the authors will reflect on their own classroom experiences, discuss lessons learned, and propose a framework that instructors can call upon to encourage students to embrace ambiguity, thus becoming more agile and resilient in the future.
Each author has taught the case study courses for several years and each has noted the pattern of pedagogical challenges that have come up while conducting open-ended, ambiguous design projects. These patterns were the motivation for exploring a framework that could better support learning outcomes and further to develop the students’ abilities to iterate and think through critical problems and ambiguous scenarios without getting caught on initial design solutions. This framework could be applied by other instructors in a range of course settings across engineering and design disciplines.
Annie Abell is an Assistant Professor of Practice at The Ohio State University in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. Abell received her BS in Mechanical Engineering from Valparaiso University and a MFA in Design Research & Development from The Ohio State University with an emphasis on Industrial Design. She teaches project-based, product design courses to senior-level and graduate engineering students, as well as an interdisciplinary product development course for entrepreneurship students who come from across OSU.
Kelly DeVore is an Assistant Professor and Chair of Interior Design at The Columbus College of Art and Design. DeVore received her Bachelors of Architecture from Iowa State University and a MFA Design Research & Development from The Ohio State University with an emphasis on Higher Education. DeVore currently teaches interior design senior capstone studios, has developed a course on design for social change, and mentors graduate students in the new MDes program in Integrative Design.
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