Reconstruction of a Product Design Course for Engineering Students based on Human Centered Design Concept (II) -- Project-oriented Curriculum and Learning Effectiveness

Today's domestic industrial development requires not only engineering talents with the ability to "solve problems", but also talents who can "propose problems" and "define problems". In view of the fact that the courses "Product Design Methods and Internship I & II" taught in the past did not enable students to grasp the core of the problem at the early stage of design as expected, this two-year project will re-construct the mentioned product design courses, based on the core of design thinking, namely Human Centered Design concept. In this year’s plan, based on the results of project in 2021, the various work stages of the design project will be constructed to connect various course unit modules with case study and method exercises to establish a complete project-oriented learning structure according to three groups of courses, namely "product design and technology development", "value finding and product definition", and "concept development and prototype verification". At the same time, work guidelines for each phase of the design project will be compiled so that students can grasp the key points of the design project phase. The interaction and performance of the students in each group will also be observed in the project to understand the influence of the teamwork behavior characteristics on the design project. During the semester, the planning of the design project will be also revised according to the explored learning effectiveness of students under this framework and the experience and feedback of graduate students from interviews. As re-construction of product design courses for students with engineering backgrounds in the project, it is expected to strengthen students' ability of speculation and argumentation. At the same time, it will also produce a variety of product design-related project planning and modularized teaching material under "human-centered design", which can be used as reference for relevant teachers.