Design Thinking in Designing Academic Curriculum – Visualization 

 Challenge 

 Being a management student at a premier B School in India , I have to go through intense rigour of   completing pre - class assignments , readings , submissions , quizzes , assignments , projects , mid - term   and end - term exams , let alone non - academic events and activities . At times , for the sake of meeting   deadlines , submissions are done without a comprehensive grasp and understanding of the issue or   the subject at hand . Regardless of the grades received , there is always an uneasiness about the control   on the subject , and it perturbed me a lot . Expecting that all the students have gone through the pre- read assignments and readings , the professors did not start from the basics , thus further compounding   the issue and uneasiness . We used to get lost in the trees , not knowing the extent of the woods . 

 I felt that there was a need to re - design and re - orient the course curriculum in a way that the students   receive a visual representation of the same , making it not only more effective but also time - efficient .   I , along with my friends , too a test - subject , an existing course , and realigned the same as per the   principles of Design Thinking . 

 The Tool 

 Take for instance the subject of Corporate Finance or Financial Management . An organization faces a   numerous issues when it comes of Financial Management , but , during the course , we were not able   to fit all the understanding of those issues into bigger scheme of things . This is where the Visualization   tool came to our rescue . It helped us to re - orient the course curriculum of Financial Management in a   way that we had a better grasp of the issue and how to navigate through those “ trees ’ , while still   keeping the extent of “ woods ” , at the back of our head . 

 Application 

 We created various categories , or , as we used to call them , baskets , for each and every topic in the   course of Financial Management . Then we not only identified the common threads , linking those   baskets , but also the sequence of those threads in that network . 

 For instance , take the issues of “ stock buyback ” and “ dividend pay - out ” faced by any publicly listed   organization . We were taught there two issues separately in the Financial Management class , without   knowing that they come under the broad umbrella of “ problem of excess cash reserve ” , which further   came under the umbrella of “ distribution of funds ” . Through a network of “ common threads ” ( paying   money back , in this case ) , we were able to eliminate or merge these fragmented baskets and were   able to conceptualize the entire Corporate Finance as Raising of Funds , Investing of Funds and Paying   Back of funds . This simple visualization helped many a student , fresh off the undergraduate college to   understand the elusive corporate finance as nothing but the aforementioned three simple decisions ,   with sub - categories in them . 

 Insight and Approach 

 I think Design Thinking helped me “ restructure ” the problem at hand in a way that the issue is   addressed from the most fundamental level ; it made me think from the most elemental aspects and   employ a bottom - up approach to the problem , something which I was missing earlier . As far the   challenge , is concerned , it is no longer a challenge anymore . 

 The applicability of Design Thinking cuts wide areas , and I could not have thought that it could be   applied even to re - design or re - orient an academic course curriculum . I am looking forward to use this   experience and apply the same to other courses as well , even recommending the faculty members   about it positive reception among the students , thus bridging the learning gap we all were facing . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Design Thinking in Designing Academic Curriculum – Visualization 

 Challenge 

 Being a management student at a premier B School in India , I have to go through intense rigour of   completing pre - class assignments , readings , submissions , quizzes , assignments , projects , mid - term   and end - term exams , let alone non - academic events and activities . At times , for the sake of meeting   deadlines , submissions are done without a comprehensive grasp and understanding of the issue or   the subject at hand . Regardless of the grades received , there is always an uneasiness about the control   on the subject , and it perturbed me a lot . Expecting that all the students have gone through the pre- read assignments and readings , the professors did not start from the basics , thus further compounding   the issue and uneasiness . We used to get lost in the trees , not knowing the extent of the woods . 

 I felt that there was a need to re - design and re - orient the course curriculum in a way that the students   receive a visual representation of the same , making it not only more effective but also time - efficient .   I , along with my friends , too a test - subject , an existing course , and realigned the same as per the   principles of Design Thinking . 

 The Tool 

 Take for instance the subject of Corporate Finance or Financial Management . An organization faces a   numerous issues when it comes of Financial Management , but , during the course , we were not able   to fit all the understanding of those issues into bigger scheme of things . This is where the Visualization   tool came to our rescue . It helped us to re - orient the course curriculum of Financial Management in a   way that we had a better grasp of the issue and how to navigate through those “ trees ’ , while still   keeping the extent of “ woods ” , at the back of our head . 

 Application 

 We created various categories , or , as we used to call them , baskets , for each and every topic in the   course of Financial Management . Then we not only identified the common threads , linking those   baskets , but also the sequence of those threads in that network . 

 For instance , take the issues of “ stock buyback ” and “ dividend pay - out ” faced by any publicly listed   organization . We were taught there two issues separately in the Financial Management class , without   knowing that they come under the broad umbrella of “ problem of excess cash reserve ” , which further   came under the umbrella of “ distribution of funds ” . Through a network of “ common threads ” ( paying   money back , in this case ) , we were able to eliminate or merge these fragmented baskets and were   able to conceptualize the entire Corporate Finance as Raising of Funds , Investing of Funds and Paying   Back of funds . This simple visualization helped many a student , fresh off the undergraduate college to   understand the elusive corporate finance as nothing but the aforementioned three simple decisions ,   with sub - categories in them . 

 Insight and Approach 

 I think Design Thinking helped me “ restructure ” the problem at hand in a way that the issue is   addressed from the most fundamental level ; it made me think from the most elemental aspects and   employ a bottom - up approach to the problem , something which I was missing earlier . As far the   challenge , is concerned , it is no longer a challenge anymore . 

 The applicability of Design Thinking cuts wide areas , and I could not have thought that it could be   applied even to re - design or re - orient an academic course curriculum . I am looking forward to use this   experience and apply the same to other courses as well , even recommending the faculty members   about it positive reception among the students , thus bridging the learning gap we all were facing .
### Output: 