IDEATE Community
IDEATE Community
The Innovation and Design for Exploration and Analysis in Teaching Excellence (IDEATE) community collaboratively conducts research in courses across multiple disciplines to identify and refine both discipline-specific and generally-applicable evidence-based high-impact practices. All research conducted by this community uses design-based research methodology which involves grounding all learning experience designs in solid theoretical foundations, refining the designs over multiple iterations, and analyzing data to “speak back” to the theories in which they were grounded.
The IDEATE community is supported by the Center for Teaching Excellence at Texas A&M University as part of the Transformational Teaching Initiative. This community of scholars is dedicated to collaboratively conducting and disseminating Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research. The initial formation of the community of scholars launched in February, 2020. The community is structured around the IDEATE model (Donaldson & Choi, 2020) which was designed as a means of enabling faculty to take the lead in innovating and transforming practices in teaching and learning in a sustainable way while remaining grounded in literature from the learning sciences and evidence-based high-impact practices.
If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to us at: ideate@tamu.edu.
The IDEATE community is supported by the Center for Teaching Excellence at Texas A&M University as part of the Transformational Teaching Initiative. This community of scholars is dedicated to collaboratively conducting and disseminating Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research. The initial formation of the community of scholars launched in February, 2020. The community is structured around the IDEATE model (Donaldson & Choi, 2020) which was designed as a means of enabling faculty to take the lead in innovating and transforming practices in teaching and learning in a sustainable way while remaining grounded in literature from the learning sciences and evidence-based high-impact practices.
If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to us at: ideate@tamu.edu.
IDEATE Community Membership and Projects
The Innovation and Design for Exploration and Analysis in Teaching Excellence (IDEATE) community is made up of full-time faculty working in the Texas A&M University System. Our members currently represent the College of Science, the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the College of Pharmacy, the College of Engineering, and the College of Education & Human Development. We will be expanding over the next few years to include representation from every college and department.
We are currently in the process of developing a strong and sustainable IDEATE community core. According to the current expansion strategy, the normal route for faculty to join the community is to be invited to become co-investigators in specific research projects led by two or more IDEATE members. The second route is to express interest in joining the community during faculty development events such as workshops offered by the Center for Teaching Excellence.
Described below are some of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) projects conducted by members of the IDEATE community.
Students in the writing-intensive course RPTS 426 (Tourism Impacts) are undertaking a 10 week design thinking project addressing ways to make Texas A&M University more sustainable and carbon neutral. They focus on the main campus in Aggieland. The course is delivered online asynchronously. A pilot project was launched last year in a similar course that was highly insightful on the challenges and potential of design thinking for engaged learning (DTEL). We are conducting research to improve the engaged learning experience by facilitating more effective collaboration in the online student teams and better preparation to undertake the various steps of the design thinking process. Research on this project will help build on research results on various design thinking projects undertaken by SoTL instructors in other courses and enable continual refining and improvement in DTEL for this and other related courses. Furthermore, it will help complement a small Innovation [X] research project on the same topic that I am involved in along with cross-disciplinary students and team leaders from different areas of concentration across campus. The project is ongoing, but results from the previous semester illustrates immense potential for facilitating creative, collaborative engagement, as well as meaningful, praxis oriented learning and critical thinking.
Tazim Jamal
Professor, Dept. of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences (RPTS)
Tazim Jamal
Professor, Dept. of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences (RPTS)
Many of us who ask our students to work in groups are specific about the work that should be accomplished but not about HOW the work should be accomplished. Therefore, students often choose a cooperative approach by assigning individual tasks and combining the products from those tasks into a collective work. However, collaboration can produce much stronger learning because students are learning from their interactions with each other as they work together synchronously to build on each others’ ideas and create a cohesive final product. In Math 365 and Math 366, we are incorporating specific directions toward the use of collaboration in the project instructions and are asking students to reflect on their learning.
Tamara Carter
Instructional Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics
Tamara Carter
Instructional Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics
Students in the ALED 400 (Public Leadership Development) course engage in Design Thinking for Engaged Learning (DTEL) by addressing wicked problems either put forth by organizations in the Brazos County or wicked problems identified by Texas Speaks (a statewide needs assessment conducted by Texas AgriLife Extension to identify issues within Texas counties). Students work to identify and research the problem and then develop manageable solutions to the problem using the design thinking process. Some wicked problems students have addressed include: mental health for college students, healthy food choices for college students, disability awareness, and traffic issues on college campuses. We have been through multiple iterations and made changes after each iteration. Students complete reflections about the process and also describe how they develop in their problem-solving and teamwork skills. Students gain experience in a problem-solving process while working in a team.
Summer Odom
Associate Professor, Dept. of Agricultural Leadership, Education, & Communications
Summer Odom
Associate Professor, Dept. of Agricultural Leadership, Education, & Communications
Design Thinking for Engaged Learning (DTEL) was introduced to the Animal Science Capstone course (ANSC 498) beginning in the Spring 2021 semester. Students are split up into groups, and each group selects a problem related to animal science for which they want to provide solutions. Students directly or indirectly interact with industry stakeholders to gather information that relates to the industry's problem. The students conduct background research and use design thinking approaches to identify innovative solutions to the wicked problems. Students use Divergence and Convergence exercises to determine problem areas and develop solutions. As part of the prototype design process, teams build low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes and collect data to help improve their designs. Students developed multiple deliverables for different target audiences (Infographics, Public education videos, Scientific papers and presentations, Poster presentations). Throughout the semester, students reflect on the design thinking process and these reflections are analyzed to create design moves for the next semester. Additionally, we are identifying strategies that help students to reflect better by creating better reflection prompts, and guiding students through the reflection process so that they can become better thinkers.
Sushil Paudyal
Instructional Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Science
Sushil Paudyal
Instructional Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Science
Beginning in the fall of 2020, students in the introductory course in bioenvironmental sciences (BESC 201) participated in the Design Thinking for Engaged Learning (DTEL) process. Students in both the online section of the course and the face-to-face section of the course participate. Regardless of the section, students were allowed to form their own teams and choose the wicked environmental problem that most resonated with the team members. Instructions stressed that teams needed to research the problem from both an academic and a human-centric perspective, as the objective of design thinking is to provide innovative solutions for people experiencing the problem. Teams were also charged to narrow the scope of their project to meet the needs of an audience they could realistically reach, e.g. college students at Texas A&M, citizens in their hometown neighborhoods, staff and administrators at Texas A&M. Additionally, students were required to create a tangible solution that they could reasonably and realistically implement within about a 10 week time span during the semester. After teams researched their topics, they also conducted interviews with people who experienced the problem or who were experts in the problem. From there, students engaged in divergent and convergent thinking to brainstorm realistic and plausible solutions their team could develop by the end of the semester. Teams developed both low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes of their solutions, engaged in user testing, received feedback from their peers and class, and ultimately submitted their prototypes to the instructor at the end of the term. Data was gathered from students in the form of DTEL reflections throughout the project, which was later coded and analyzed to identify patterns and ways in which the project could be improved for the next semester. Examples of projects created by students include a proposal for a sustainable cemetery model, complete with a prototype sustainable coffin, Instagram accounts to raise awareness on a variety of issues, and a proposal for a Lights Out festival to educate Texas A&M students, faculty, staff and the community about light pollution.
Kati I. Stoddard
Instructional Associate Professor, Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology
Kati I. Stoddard
Instructional Associate Professor, Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology
Design Thinking for Engaged Learning (DTEL) was introduced to the Animal Science Capstone course (ANSC 498) beginning in the Spring 2021 semester. Students are split up into groups, and each group selects a problem related to animal science for which they want to provide solutions. Students directly or indirectly interact with industry stakeholders to gather information that relates to the industry's problem. The students conduct background research and use design thinking approaches to identify innovative solutions to the wicked problems. Students use Divergence and Convergence exercises to determine problem areas and develop solutions. As part of the prototype design process, teams build low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes and collect data to help improve their designs. Students developed multiple deliverables for different target audiences (Infographics, Public education videos, Scientific papers and presentations, Poster presentations). Throughout the semester, students reflect on the design thinking process and these reflections are analyzed to create design moves for the next semester. Additionally, we are identifying strategies that help students to reflect better by creating better reflection prompts, and guiding students through the reflection process so that they can become better thinkers.
Sushil Paudyal
Instructional Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Science
Sushil Paudyal
Instructional Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Science