Project Name: Honors Colloquium: Design Thinking Courses

Project by Faculty Innovation Fellows Candidates Pamala Heard

Why is this project important to you, your department, & your Fellows?

Design Thinking courses are important for undergraduate students in our Honors program at Jackson State University. These courses can enhance the overall educational experience, foster innovation, and prepare students, faculty, and staff for the challenges and opportunities of the future. It can also promote a culture of continuous improvement and problem-solving within the university.

Description

Design Thinking courses for Honors students can be structured to provide a rigorous and enriching learning experience tailored to our high-achieving students' unique needs and aspirations. We plan to offer courses that follow our competencies for our Honors College. Some components are civic engagement, critical thinking, problem-solving, effective communication, and global citizenship. We will develop and design three courses for Du Bois- Harvey Honors College students, integrating real-world challenges and ending with a capstone project. Also, we will be developing workshops for our faculty and students to develop these skills to help make this a transformative educational experience. We want to facilitate the collaboration between different majors and departments. We want to start with the Introduction to Design Thinking, Advance Design Thinking, and Service Design or Innovation. The workshops for faculty and staff will touch on all different topics and how they relate to their area of interest.

Stakeholders served

JSU Du Bois- Harvey Honors College Students
JSU Faculty and Staff
Professional Development for Educators

Key Milestones

December 2023: Develop/Design the 1st 16 week Class- Honors Coll: Design Thinking
March 2024: Implementing the Course
June 2024: Develop/Design Workshops and more Classes to be offered in the Fall 2025
September 2024: Implement 2nd Class; develop some relationships with industry to have some real-life problems to develop as a team ( class)
December 2024: Develop and Design 3rd class, start developing workshops for Faculty and staff for professional development
March 2025: Implement 3rd class and start implementing workshops for faculty and staff.

An Innovation Portfolio

Curriculum Guide
Slides
Activities
Worksheets
Projects
Case Studies
Innovative Solutions
Design Thinking Process
Video Demonstrations

Project Name: GRIT Workshops

Project by Faculty Innovation Fellows Candidates Shirley Burnett

Why is this project important to you, your department, & your Fellows?

This project is important to me, my department, and my Fellows because it aims to investigate noncognitive factors that will increase the academic success of students thus increasing persistence and retention rates. GRIT are workshops that intentionally get students ready to be successful in college.

Description

A problem in higher education is very low completion rates. Some of the reasons that students stop out and drop out of college include an array of things, such as poor academic performance, imposter syndrome, issues with socialization, either poor social skills or too much, mental issues, and insufficient finances. There is a vast amount of research that shows factors that positively affect these areas, such as intelligence, achievement, self-awareness, self-efficacy, motivation, and social engagement. However, the research is inconsistent with the reasons some students perform well academically while others do not. To understand this issue, the research suggests investigating several factors, such as cognitive and non-cognitive factors to view the indicators of success from a holistic perspective. The focus of this project will be noncognitive skills to increase the academic success of students. The proposal will call for a partnership with various departments across campus and throughout the community to conduct GRIT workshops that will help students with noncognitive factors that impede their success in College. The workshops will include topics on growth mindset, grit, design thinking, self-control, self-discipline, Mental Health, counseling, career planning, internships, student engagement, moral excellence, etc. We will also use Grit and mindset assessments to determine the degree of grit of students as well as their mindset. We will collect data to determine the impact on the academic success of the students. In addition, the GRIT workshops will also provide opportunities for junior faculty and students in the target audience to engage in research and scholarship of teaching and learning (SoLT) as well as design thinking.

Stakeholders served

The target population will be freshmen and sophomores who were admitted to the University based on the NCAA Division I standards for student-athletes who are “full-qualifiers” or academic redshirts” and/or who submitted ACT scores or less than 17. This population addresses several of the subgroups identified under the definition of Underserved students. The subgroups include the following: students living in poverty, students who are served by schools with high concentrations of students living in poverty, students of color, students with disabilities, first generation college students, students working full-time, students who are Pell eligible, and adult students in need of improving their basic skills.

Key Milestones

December 2023: IRB for Proposal; Collaborate with Partners to Schedule Workshops
March 2024: Conduct Workshops; Engage Junior Faculty and Students in SoTL
June 2024: Collect and Analyze Data; Write manuscript of Practices and Outcomes; Continue to Collaborate to Offer Additional Workshops
September 2024: Workshops; Collecting and Analyzing data
December 2024: Evaluate Practices and Make Adjustments as deemed necessary
March 2025: Continue Workshops; Manuscript of Practices and Outcomes