Design and Experimentation in Educate!

It is quite unique for an organization to have such a solid D&X function as we do in Educate! We want to ensure that our programs achieve meaningful impact and all departments play a vital role in ensuring this success. D & X specifically has the task of ensuring our curriculum and other program components are shaping a learning experience that equips our learners with all necessary leadership and entrepreneurship skills.

To us design is a discipline, it is not a one of activity but a core function of the organization. Therefore, Educate! invests in this unit through hiring highly skilled designers, providing continuous professional development, facilitating cross-country sharing, investing in pilots and participatory design processes, etc.

What makes Educate! D&X unique?

The design process we use is inspired by two important schools of thought. One is 'Understanding by Design' introduced by Wiggins and McTighe, similar to their backward design approach, we design towards a specific set of skills and results. The second school of thought is 'Human centered design', an approach developed by Ideo. This second approach promotes keeping the people who are affected by the problem at the center of the problem solving process. Refining principles from both approaches further to our organisational mission and context, we established the following cyclical design process.