Shooting for the Stars: Collaborative Design for Space Education
Abstract
This paper demonstrates how the purposeful application of design thinking, as a participatory research method for envisioning and developing education, can shape important educational outcomes. A diverse team of scholars and practitioners used the design process to research, create, present, and re-research Professional Military Education (PME) with the newly-formed U.S. Space Force (USSF) as the community partner. As an emerging skillset in military affairs, design thinking was used to meet the USSF’s current environmental and organizational challenges, to develop and support innovators, and to emphasize key mechanisms for maintaining continuous advantage. Over ten weeks, the interdisciplinary team used a design research approach to form, develop, and refine space education concepts and systems with rapid iterations of search and research, sketching and discarding, redistributing, and incorporating community feedback. This paper presents the theoretical advantages to a design approach, challenges identified in existing PME, and how a design research process is well suited to meet the specific challenges of complex, interdisciplinary, and rapidly evolving research areas. The bulk of the paper outlines how the Research Lead assembled the Design Research Team, the rinse and repeat of the furiously-paced research process, the “undisciplined” approach to ideas, and how the Team engaged with stakeholders and the Community Partner. The case study provides a “nuts-and-bolts” account of how to successfully build a team-of-teams from networks of scholars and practitioners and, in a short amount of time, provide community partners with well-researched, stakeholder-informed, viable options for innovative education. Insights from the design research process include the lesson that strategic innovation is possible and an inherently human-centered endeavor. Furthermore, partnering with academic and practitioner networks allows community partners to focus their scarce resources on their most pressing needs. Finally, the design process is ideal for community-engaged research; however, the design process can be uncomfortable for participants accustomed to working alone, with longer timelines, or with more institutional direction.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Nov 17, 2021
- Source ID
- 10.35844/001c.29671
Entities
People
- Jason Trew
- Lina Svedin
Organizations
- Air University
- University of Utah