Understanding by Design and Design Thinking

Here at the Allversity office, we often discuss how to create education for today’s world. There are a lot of serious problems, and traditional education doesn’t always directly address those problems. How can we build courses that promote understanding of core concepts - not just memorization of details and facts? We like to think about two related, but separate ideas when we plan our courses: understanding by design, and design thinking.

What is understanding by design?

Understanding by design, also known as ‘backwards design’, is a curriculum-building and teaching practice that starts with fundamental understandings or learning goals. Instead of starting with materials (activities, textbooks, etc.), a teacher who practices backwards design identifies specific goals for the course and only then chooses the appropriate materials to help students reach those objectives.

In creating our courses, we use backwards design in the traditional sense, deciding how the course is structured, but also in determining which courses to create. Our process goes as follows: we carefully research the findings of professionals in the entrepreneurship, agriculture, health, and human rights sectors, identifying big problems. We then single out areas where a small amount of knowledge would go a long way. From smart agricultural practices to the basics of business, gaps in knowledge that prevent people from living life to the fullest exist everywhere. We then create a course that addresses this gap, and provide people with the tools they need to create a stronger society.
Photo credit: Dietmar Temps

   Photo credit: Dietmar Temps

What is design thinking? And can we use it to build education that addresses specific problems?

According to the folks over at IDEO, a renowned design firm that pioneered the development of design thinking, it incorporates a “more collaborative, human-centered approach that can be used to serve a broad range of challenges.” Emphasizing teamwork, optimism, and the wisdom of the crowd, design thinking is taking the world by storm. Allversity embraces this philosophy, which is why we nurture a broad range of creative partnerships. We love people who are passionate, and even more, we love teaming up and collaborating with folks to create courses that solve real-world problems.

For example, we recently launched an exciting new course, Understanding Soil. Created with several experts and enthusiasts over two weeks at the Summer of Soil conference in Järna, Sweden, the course addresses the problem of global soil depletion. A collaborative project at its core, this course teaches several important understandings: that soil is living, but in danger. Most importantly, the course teaches specific practices to enable us to save soil.

Have something you’re passionate about? Want to collaborate on creating a course for Allversity? Get in touch!


Post by Sabra Melamed