Using Entrepreneurship & Innovation to Redesign Composition’s Social Future Scott Wible University of Maryland, College Park

Lean Startup and Design Thinking

Design thinking methodology’s active orientation toward defining and solving problems can deepen our understanding of how writers and writing create and shape knowledge. My “Fearless” Claim

General Education Writing Courses at the University of Maryland Academic Writing is a process-, rhetorical-based course that helps first-year students to develop skills in reading, researching, and writing academic arguments. Professional Writing is a process-, rhetorical-based course that helps third- and fourth-year students to develop skills in reading, researching, and writing a variety of workplace genres.

Linked Professional Writing Assignments at UMD Project #1: Situation analysisProject #1: Topic Proposal Project #2: Causal analysisProject #2: Stakeholder & client analysis Project #3: Evaluation paperProject #3: Feasibility study of solutionsProject #4: Proposal: PrintProject #5: Proposal: Oral

Design Thinking Process A human-centered methodology that designers use to approach and solve complex, multi-dimensional problems. Public health: “How might we get school children to eat more vegetables?” Environmentalism: “How might we encourage more people to recycle in the tailgating lots at Maryland football games?” Education: “How might we redesign introductory, large-enrollment courses to promote more active learning?” Public safety: “How might we create a safer environment for pedestrians in downtown College Park?”

Writing Assignment Sequence integrated with Design Thinking Methods 1.Understanding the History of a Local Health Problem (Empathy) 2.Identifying Stakeholders in the Local Health Problem (Empathy) 3.Defining the Community’s Health Problem (Define) 4.Brainstorming and Sorting Potential Solutions (Ideate) 1.Prototyping a Potential Solution (Prototype) 2.Testing and Analyzing the Solution Prototype (Test) 1.Technical Description of the Group’s Proposed Solution (Test) 2.Report for Decision Making

Ideate Mode A semi-structured, team-based approach to generating a lot of ideas and possible solutions.

Ideate Mode A semi-structured, team-based approach to generating a lot of ideas and possible solutions. “How Might We?” Questions 1.HMW get college students to talk openly about mental health? 2.HMW make learning about mental health issues a positive experience?

Idea Selection Identifying those ideas with the greatest potential to move forward in the design process. Criteria used to select the best ideas are critical. The results of robust, fruitful brainstorming sessions can be lost when students move too quickly to a common evaluative criteria: feasibility.

Idea Selection Criteria for capitalizing on robust, fruitful brainstorming sessions include the ideas Most likely to succeed Most likely to delight Most likely to breakthrough if...

Writing Entrepreneurship & Innovation Pedagogy into Rhetoric & Composition Studies 1.Expand students’ repertoire of research methods 2.Heighten students’ sensitivity to the challenges of defining complex problems 3.Emphasize and provide more support for learning how to invent solutions, not simply advocate for them 1.Amplify our rhetorical approach to writing

Using Entrepreneurship & Innovation to Redesign Composition’s Social Future Scott Wible University of Maryland, College Park