CSU, Chico Regional & Continuing Education

Online Program Curriculum

Each of the Design Thinking program’s eight modules is presented weekly, along with videos, references, assignments, chat, engagement exercises, and collaborative sessions.

Your online learning experience includes:

• 8 to 10 short videos per week
• Engagement activities and exercises that reinforce your new skills
• Interaction with peers and faculty through the online learning portal
• Participation in live virtual office hours with expert faculty and peers
• The Professional Design Thinking Capstone Portfolio
• Four weeks of post program mentoring

Module 1 ~ Introduction to Design Thinking

• Define Design Thinking as an effective approach to creative problem solving.
• Understand how human-centered design and methodology influence Design Thinking.
• Review of practices and case studies of Design Thinking in the real-world.

Module 2 ~ Designing for Empathy

• Identify effective approaches and tools for research.
• Design conversations and interviews that honor stakeholders.
• Frame problem statements that facilitate problem solving.

Module 3 ~ Introduction to Visualization

• Align the right visualizations to the right Design Thinking tools.
• Learn the visualization tools that best fit specific challenges.
• Explore the use of visualization tools in real-life scenarios.

Module 4 ~ Persona and Journey Mapping Design

• Create personas that describe stakeholder characteristics.
• Build journey maps that help define critical moments of truth.
• Identify the right tools for success measurement in customer experience.

Module 5 ~ Ideation in the Design Thinking Process

• Develop creative processes for developing new ideas.
• Understand mind-mapping and brainstorming approaches.
• Learn best practices for ideation workshops.

Module 6 ~ Prototyping

• Understand low and high-fidelity prototyping.
• Design approaches for bringing ideas to life.
• Discuss prototyping approaches and tools.

Module 7 ~ Validation

• Identify methods for researching and validating outcomes.
• Evaluate recommendations for stakeholder collaboration and participation.
• Develop considerations for design validation.

Module 8 ~ Design Thinking Implementation

• Develop processes for deployment and launch.
• Explore collaboration methods with stakeholders and success partners.
• Design plans for applying Design Thinking at your organization.

Capstone Project ~ Your Design Thinking Portfolio

• Completed project, from beginning to end.
• Custom templates and practices you can employ at your organization.
• Outcomes that are distinctive and measurable.
• ​Continued mentoring after the program concludes.