GOING BLENDED IN INNOVATION AND DESIGN EDUCATION: BENEFITS, CHALLENGES, AND LESSONS LEARNED

This paper describes the use of blended learning approaches in designing two courses in the two-years international master's program in innovation and design education. The paper discusses the benefits and challenges encountered during the implementation of the courses in a blended way. The guiding research questions for this study are: How can blended learning approaches be applied in innovation and design education? what are key benefits and challenges in designing and implementing blended courses in this education field? The paper is based on our three years' experiences in designing and implementing blended courses between 2016-2018. The Blackboard and Yammer micro-blog were used as the main course tools. Data was collected throughout the course periods between 2016-2018 from 55 students. The study observed following benefits with designing and implementing courses in a "blended" way: useful for learning different insights and perspectives, enables reflection and provide a good summary of face-to-face lectures, and fosters engagement and collaboration even outside the classroom. The identified challenges during the implementation of blended courses are students' limited engagement, errors due to technical, connectivity, and interfaces, new to the course management systems and blended courses, and difficulties to keep track and to follow-up over time. Moreover, the paper discussed six lessons learned in designing and implementing the blended courses in innovation and design education. The paper contributes to the blended learning research in soft-applied fields like innovation and design, where the blended studies are limited. In addition, the paper contributes to the discussion of using micro-blogs for designing blended courses in innovation and design education.