I attended the KAOSPILOT Masterclass “The Art and Craft of Designing and Facilitating Learning Spaces”, an educational program from Denmark that educates leaders for the future that does not yet exist. This masterclass, offers a different approach to understanding and managing complex projects and problem solving.
My goal in taking this course was to gain inspiration and knowledge for a new way of working with students, facilitating lessons, and conceptualizing curricula. I also wanted to rethink how I make decisions—rather than sticking to the same approaches I was used to.
The entire KAOS program is built around playfulness, risk-taking, compassion, and real-world engagement.
One of the learning methods I learned, called backcasting, was something I could immediately apply to improve an existing semester. In this semester, design students are asked to create individual projects that represent them as designers, and to develop an idea for how they would like to explore professional practice – such as through an internship or alternative forms of collaboration with professionals.
In backcasting, you start by formulating the ideal future scenario (the desired situation) and then work step by step backward to the present.
I mapped out the skills that, according to professionals, students need in order to be hired for an internship, as well as the skills they are still lacking. For example, professionals often point out that students have insufficient knowledge of basic design principles—such as layout, typography, construction, motion, and modularity.
Working step by step backward, I then developed concepts for how this semester could better align with these skills. For example, by shortening the time the students work at their individual project, and offering more short, focused assignments through which students learn basic design principles.