Pedagogical development and Design Factory creation in RUN-EU

Three years ago, Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK) joined the European University alliance ‘Regional University Network – European University’, better known as RUN-EU, together with six other European universities. HAMK has had the privilege to lead one of the work packages, namely ‘Future and Advanced Skills Academies – FASA’. The aim of FASA has been to 1) promote high-quality teaching and learning through enhancing teachers’ pedagogical understanding and competences, 2) foster future skills identification and integration in teaching, as well as to 3) support RUN-EU universities to adopt design thinking methodologies and build their own Design Factories.

Design Factory is an interdisciplinary learning environment and platform that connects students, teachers, researchers, and the world of work regionally and globally. Design Factories can operate inside RUN-EU universities with or without belonging to a global network of Design Factories. The Design Factory Global Network (DFGN) currently consists of 40 Design Factories around the world.

Promoting high-quality teaching and learning

During these years, FASA has collected data from RUN-EU students and teachers to understand their perceptions of best pedagogical practices and needs for the future. What has become evident is that the students of RUN-EU want to deal with real challenges and create solutions to problems and they want to learn to deal with conflicts and failure. They want to study in programmes having real life connections and close relationships with companies. Moreover, they want to have inspiring and supportive teachers with a passion for innovation, and they also want their teachers to have pedagogical training. They also want to study in a safe environment where emotions can be shown, and they want to have tools to enhance their own well-being, but also the well-being of others.

The ultimate question is how we can support the RUN-EU teachers to facilitate this kind of learning. FASA has fostered the development of innovative teaching by organizing face-to-face pedagogical development programmes for teachers, online pedagogical workshops and through co-creating a pedagogical framework for RUN-EU. FASA has worked on identifying future skills needed by the students, but more importantly, on finding ways to integrate the future skills in learning objectives as well as teaching and assessment practices. Six editions of Skills Bulletins produced by FASA, have addressed important future skills from the perspective of students, teachers and researchers, employers and policymakers.

Development of Design Factories and design thinking methodologies

In terms of Design Factory development, RUN-EU kick-started collaboration with two Design Factories belonging to the Design Factory Global Network, Future Design Factory in the Netherlands and HAMK Design Factory in Finland. As part of RUN-EU activities Design Factory Bootcamps for teachers and Design Factory Workshops for students were organised to support the building of new Design Factories and the adoption of design thinking methodologies. During five Design Factory Bootcamps good teaching practices were shared. Participants in the Bootcamps got to personally experience Product Development in three hours facilitated by HAMK and thus develop their own prototypes of Design Factory workshops for their institutions. As a result of the joint efforts, a third Design Factory in RUN-EU, FORGE Design Factory was established and became a part of the Design Factory Global Network (FORGE Design Factory, n.d.)

Also, HAMK Design Factory staff got the opportunity to learn new teaching practices from RUN-EU partners, such as, the 50+10 method from a Portuguese partner which helps teachers to integrate future skills in teaching, and Hot Air Balloon and Moonshot methods for future thinking from NHL Stenden. Hot Air Balloon is a metaphorical method that helps to think outside of the box by identifying strengths, weaknesses, external forces, stakeholders and goals related to a new venture using a well-structured process (Siintoharju, 2023a). Moonshot is tool for imagining 30–50 years ahead and ideating how to get there (Siintoharju, 2023b).

Teacher and researcher exchanges between HAMK Design Factory and Future Design Factory have been instrumental in the development of HAMK Design Factory’s design-based education model. Authentic challenges, university-industry collaboration and interdisciplinarity are in the center of the design-based education model in HAMK Design Factory, where students learn to work according to an iterative design thinking process (Lahdenperä et al., 2023; Jussila et al., 2023).  Research visits and exchanges made it possible to study learning experiences of students and how their generic competences and open-mindedness develop in DBE implementations both in HAMK and NHL Stenden. Sharing experiences between teachers following DBE model has been a great help in the development of teaching practices and uncovering better ways to support students learning.

An important learning was that although generic competences, such as, problem solving, interaction and negotiation skills, can be learned by doing and experiencing – students can benefit from exercises and interventions that target the development of these skills alongside project work that is typically for DBE and challenge-based learning (Lahdenperä et al., 2022). Targeted skill training, guidance and interventions are especially important for those students that have challenges with some generic competences, like self-management, teamwork and stress management, and maybe the key so that students can be successful in their studies and future working life in general.

Future of developing joint RUN-EU learning opportunities

The second 4-year cycle of RUN-EU will begin in January 2024. HAMK will lead a large work package ‘European Programmes Academy’ (RUN-EPA), which will include the pedagogical development and further development of Design Factories, but also a larger focus on developing RUN-EU’s joint educational offers, including fully online and blended learning opportunities. Development of pedagogical training programmes, qualifications, and workshops for teachers are critical activities for ensuring the quality of teaching and learning in RUN-EU. The coaching and support for joint educational offers will play an important role in shaping the future of education in RUN-EU.