(2018-07-13) Craig Work Backwards A Design Thinking Approach To Higher Education

Ryan Craig: Work Backwards: A Design Thinking Approach to Higher Education

Three articles

1. Employers Can’t Find the Skills They Need

46% of U.S. employers say they can’t find the skills they need – up from 32% in 2015.

2. Little Progress Retaining Students (DropOut)

[At Texas A&M-Texarkana], 55 percent who started in 2015 were gone by the following year… That’s up from 44 percent two years before.

‘life gets in the way’ of a degree for too many students, particularly those in greatest need of a credential

3. Faster + Cheaper Alternatives to College

EdSurge interview on upcoming book A New U: Faster + Cheaper Alternatives to College.

In my copious spare time, I enjoy compiling a list of bad ideas for universities.

While the order isn’t set, somewhere on this list you’ll also find a more fundamental characteristic of America’s colleges and universities: building forward from K-12 education.

Forward works for some, but not nearly enough. With close to half of students who enroll in undergraduate degree programs failing to complete, alternatives are desperately needed. Enter Design Thinking

A Design Thinking approach to higher education works backwards from the first job, not forward from high school

Start with the requirements of entry-level positions in key skill gap areas (in IT, data analytics, healthcare, biotech, finance, energy, sales, digital marketing) and design pathways that directly address student and employer needs.

There are a couple of immediate implications.

The first is a rethinking of general education (liberal arts)

But explaining why doesn’t go nearly far enough. Real curricular changes are required.

Calculus is what we get from building forward; statistics is what we get when we build backwards

Beyond curriculum, a Design Thinking approach to higher education is likely to impact an institution’s structure. Because prioritizing first jobs means helping place students in jobs much more effectively than the loose connection currently performed by career services departments, the most successful postsecondary institutions or organizations will be those that not only make a connection between students and employers, but that provide a friction-free pathway for both students and employers.

Most currently employed at colleges and universities will disagree with a Design Thinking approach. They will say that a great deal will be lost by working backwards from the first job. And they’re right. In my upcoming book, A New U: Faster + Cheaper Alternatives to College, I mourn these losses: discovery, serendipity, and fun.

While these risks are sobering, I’ve always believed in triage when confronted with a complex problem

Another benefit to a Design Thinking approach is simplicity

radically simplifies the question of measuring quality. Either graduates are getting good first jobs (which we define as full-time, $50k+ starting salary, in a growing sector of the economy, leading to numerous career paths), or they’re not. A Design Thinking lens doesn’t account for all the outcomes we want from higher education, but in terms of evaluating quality, it’s a much clearer starting point than what we have now i.e., myriad mindless college rankings.