Investigating the benefits of a secondary education interaction design thinking course inside and outside the classroom

In this study we investigated how an interaction design-thinking course benefited secondary school students in grades 9 and 10. This study investigated the benefits for students within the classroom and unlike previous studies, it also articulated the potential for students to utilize their skills to interpret and apply or transfer knowledge in the service of solving issues in everyday life situations or non-design courses. As part of a multiple case study, we developed, implemented, and studied an interaction design course for secondary students. We gathered research data through interviewing the students and teachers after completion of the course, and observing their activities and performances during the course. The findings of this study showed the benefits of the course for students in three main themes: 1) interaction design thinking as open exploration, 2) interaction design thinking as connected activities, and 3) interaction design thinking in real-life challenges. The findings indicate that the course was beneficial for students in transferring their knowledge gained from the educational context to everyday life situations. Such pedagogy helped students to develop their own design-based meta-cognitive strategies that enabled them to solve unknown problems.