The  Open Design School (ODS) project is an initiative from the Ministry of Education under the scheme for setting up of Design Innovation Centers across the country in the year 2017.

Principal investigators: Prof. B. K. Chakravarthy  IDC School of Design 

Co-Principal investigators: Prof. Nina Sabnani  & Prof. P. Kumaresan   IDC School of Design

The objective of the Open Design School (ODS) is to extend the reach of Design education through a combination of online courses and projects in a blended learning mode.  Hence it is a combination of MOOCs and Experiential Learning. The aims of the Open Design School are to bring design education to a large number of aspirants and to provide them with hands-on training in workshops all over the country under expert mentors.

Design faculty can use the online content and guide student projects locally combining the advantages of MOOCs and blended learning.

30% of the learning can be facilitated through theory and case studies presented via MOOCs and the remaining 70% could be in the form of experiential learning through projects wherein learners would benefit from interaction with both mentors and peers.

The courses developed under this initiative are currently offered on the SWAYAM portal and the  NPTEL platform of MHRD as Credit courses where the aspirants can give an exam at the end of a scheduled lecture and earn credits as well as Self-paced courses where the aspirants can learn freely at their pace. All the courses are free of cost and there is a nominal charge to conduct an exam for the credit courses.

Colleges can offer these courses to their students in their regular classes and grade them as per their own rules while feeling free to offer projects locally through local mentors.

The course Innovation by design was conducted in blended mode at IITB as an elective where both B.Des and B.Tech students joined and worked in groups.
 

For more detailed information on how we went about building the courses pl see the presentation on 
Introduction to the  Open Design school

Innovation by Design

This course takes the students through the rich details of several case studies that capture the process of design led-innovation. The course acquaints the students with challenges in the innovation process, a collaborative model of innovation and key concerns of innovation.

Scheduled Credit Courses: These courses are available for students and faculty as credit courses and recognized by the Universities.  There will be an online exam conducted by NPTEL at the end of the course and the certificates will be issued by NPTEL.  These courses are also approved for Faculty Development Programme. For registration to credit course of Innovation by Design:

Course name: Innovation by Design ( Last date of Registration 21st February 2022)

To Register as a credit course:  https://onlinecourses.nptel.ac.in/noc22_de04/preview

Faculty: Prof. B. K. Chakravarthy

Self-Paced Courses ( Always Open): The courses are available for students who want to learn at their own pace and for the benefit of the faculty members who would like to use these lectures during their regular course.  We also encourage colleges to offer the courses to their students online and grade them as per their own rules by conducting exams and project evaluations locally. For Registration to self-paced open-ended Innovation by Design course, please use the link: 
https://onlinecourses.swayam2.ac.in/aic19_de02/preview

Poster

Design Technology and Innovation

The course on Design Technology and Innovation portrays innovation as it weaves together a multitude of domains like design, technology, humanities and management. It brings professors from various departments who have toiled to take their research to innovation for the benefit of the community at large. Through the span of 8 modules we have professors who will narrate their stories of innovation.

As the professors walk you through their innovation success stories, you will be able to learn and understand the pitfalls of innovation and the stages of transformation of research into innovation.

Understanding Design

In this course, students get to study the basic concepts of design and understand how the design process works for different aspects such as Society, Sustainability, Industry, Collaboration, Innovation amongst others under seven detailed modules.

Demystifying Board Game Design

In this course, the students learn the basic principles of game design. The focus is on designing educational games, though it covers principles that are also involved in designing games for fun and entertainment. The course presents a step by step design process for evolving the new game ideas and for willfully controlling the game play to get the player hooked to the games.

Human Factors and Ergonomics

In this course, students learn human factors and ergonomics which is central to supporting the design, evaluation, operation and maintenance of human-centric systems in a variety of disciplines ranging from and not limited to design, engineering and management.

Understanding Ethnography

This course offers the learner a broad understanding of ethnography as a qualitative research method with a focus on its various tools, approaches and applications. Learners will be exposed to different ways of engaging with their participants: through observations, conversations, interviews, through images and artefacts. They will learn multiple ways with which to record, represent, and present their findings. Ethnography involves engaging with people in their 'real world'. Students of design, management, and engineering will find this enriching and enabling to understand the context of the people for whom they create products, communication media and services.

Understanding Incubation and Entrepreneurship

Course Name: Understanding Incubation and Entrepreneurship 

About the course: The course 'Understanding Incubation and Entrepreneurship' uncovers the basics of what it takes to develop an entrepreneurial mindset thereby encouraging the journey of transformation to convert an idea or a solution into a business. Professor Chakravarthy uses a blended learning approach that brings together inputs from various pre-incubators and incubators like GDC, BETIC, SINE, IITH and DSSE to help familiarize the entrepreneurial framework and the start-up projects which help them navigate through their own entrepreneurial journey. This eclectic mix of guidance from expert professors and entrepreneur stories collectively foster the critical skills needed to build your own startup. The course spans 12 weeks of talks, exercises and reading material combined with the classroom experience of students of IITH as they learn to form their problem statement, build teams, understand the rigorous customer discovery process and finally learn to use the Lean Canvas Model.