Applying empathy-driven participatory research methods to higher education new degree development
Information Discovery and Delivery
ISSN: 2398-6247
Article publication date: 11 January 2019
Issue publication date: 22 February 2019
Abstract
Purpose
Innovation and entrepreneurship are economic drivers promoting competition and growth among organizations throughout the world, many of which would not exist without well-established new product development processes coupled with intentional and strategic focus on research and development. New product development processes, such as the lean start-up methodology and design thinking, are well-known and thriving as a result of empirically grounded research efforts. Unfortunately, educational institutions and educational researchers, alike, are lagging when it comes to new program/degree development processes. Although the quantity of new degree offerings has increased substantially over the past several decades (in particular for multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary programs), limited research has been conducted to document key procedures associated with the creation of new degree programs. The purpose of this study is to show one approach to how students can be involved within the new program development process.
Design/methodology/approach
This approach uses participatory research, wherein students act as researchers and actively participate in the data collection and analysis process. Under the umbrella of participatory research, the study uses photovoice, photoelicitation and focus groups for collecting qualitative data.
Findings
Results suggest that students in one transdisciplinary studies in technology program value the following key attributes: learning style (agency and choice, active hands-on learning and real-world applications) and learning context (technology and design-focused assignments, integration of humanities and self-selected disciplines of interest).
Originality/value
Recommendations are provided for various higher education benefactors of the user-generated data, including administration, faculty, marketing, recruitment, advisors and the students themselves.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper forms part of the special section “Higher education information discovery, analytics, and dissemination”, guest edited by Mounir Kehal and Dr Justin Zhang.
Citation
Bosman, L., Hammoud, A. and Arumugam, S. (2019), "Applying empathy-driven participatory research methods to higher education new degree development", Information Discovery and Delivery, Vol. 47 No. 1, pp. 17-24. https://doi.org/10.1108/IDD-09-2018-0051
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited