After a semester of research, prototyping, and planning, we synthesized all of the data that we collected and created our first course, “Foundations of Innovation”. Based on staff feedback, we chose to make the course span 1.5 months with classes once a week on Fridays. Staff preferred to have class during normal work hours, so we selected 9am – 12pm as our class time. As we began recruitment, we worked to get manager approval for employees to designate these hours as professional development.
Through surveys and emails, we recruited 14 individuals for the course. We partnered with an Organizational Psychologist to help create our course content and structure each class. The curriculum focuses on key design thinking principles and allows participants to practice these skills on a real-world problem within the City of Raleigh. Participants were presented with a problem regarding paratransit services in the city and asked to collect information on the user experience to inform the creation of a prototype for the solution.
The course is currently underway, with updates to come!