FLEX - Design Thinking Cards for Developing Flexible Curricula
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The FLEX card set enables the development of curricula that address the ever-increasing diversity of students, including their various life circumstances, expectations, needs, and challenges, through formal, spatial, temporal, content-related, and methodological flexibility. This supports the design of future-oriented higher education. The card set serves as both an idea repository and a tool for structuring and assessing the feasibility of flexibility concepts at universities. The focus of the design process is on a multidimensional concept of flexibility, allowing for the exploration of various forms and models of flexibility. FLEX combines established strategies for curriculum development with the principles of Design Thinking—where analytical thinking in complex matters intersects with creative processes in team collaboration.
Contact: Dr. Claudia Schmieder and Solvejg-Marie Langer Mail to flex-karten |
What is Design Thinking?Design Thinking is a method for developing innovative ideas that integrates the creative (right-brain) and analytical (left-brain) aspects of thinking. Originating from the private sector and inspired by design methods, this approach to product development emphasizes aligning customer and user needs with feasibility and practicality through an experimental and iterative process from problem identification to solution within an interdisciplinary team. The design process, which requires a degree of tolerance for errors due to its heuristic problem-solving approach, involves a combination of insight, observation, defining perspectives, ideation, prototype development, testing, and reflection. For the creative ideation process, it is crucial to free oneself from prejudices and expectations and to remain open to new possibilities. Only with an open mindset can ideas, often prematurely dismissed in academic contexts as "too wild," "too crazy," or "not feasible," be tested for their potential and pave the way for innovation. |
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