Design Thinking via Flipped Classroom

A new generation of learners is growing up with information and communication technology (ICT) as an integral part of their everyday lives. They want to be active and experiential learners, proficient in multitasking, and dependent on communication technologies for accessing information and interacting with others. The old approach to education and training is ill-suited to the intellectual, social, motivational, and emotional needs of the new generation. In the 21st century, there is a need to fundamentally change that practice. These changes are also occurring in design education. This paper aims to describe a creative learning experience, based on the “flipped classroom” methodology and game mechanisms with role-play activities, developed by IDEActivity Centre to explore the Design Thinking (DT) process and tools. The workshop designed for flipped DT learning is an experiential format applicable in any context, whether educational or corporate, in a public or private institution. The learning experience was experimented in a didactic module of Product Design on a Master’s course at the Politecnico di Milano.