Nordic Rebels Manual 2018-2019 by Nordic Rebels

NORDIC REBELS

MANUAL 2018/19 1

NORDIC REBELS MANUAL 2018/19 Miikka J. Lehtonen JiaYing Chew

Adithya Varadarajan Andreas Aasted Gjede

Layout: JiaYing Chew Visual design: Parvati Pillai Photo credits: the authors

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

MANIFESTO

NORDIC REBELS IS: LEARNER-CENTERED & INSPIRING Goosebumps. Passion. Provocative content.

INCLUSIVE & RESPECTFUL Leave no one behind!

TRANSDISCIPLINARY Innovation thrives when multiple disciplines converge.

EMPOWERING Experience. Reflect. Improve.

A PLAYFUL & SAFE SPACE Learn from and respect failures, combined with a pinch of fun!

EMBODIED LEARNING/ ACTIONABLE THEORY Articulate knowledge and train your muscle memory.

WHAT IS NORDIC REBELS? This isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a program like any other, this is a movement. A movement to create experiences that are not just engaging and inspiring but multisensory and cutting edge. A movement pushing the evolution of higher education by relying on some of the famed Nordic values and strengths: openness and trust, storytelling and cuisine, design, and pedagogical competencies. This movement would not be possible without collaborative efforts. Collaboration that spans across cultures, colleagues with different skill sets, communication around the globe, obstacles that do not respond to tried and tested methods. These are facts of our everyday and professional lives. Turning these contemporary complexities into advantages cannot be learned only through theory and text books â&#x20AC;&#x201D; it must be experienced, the Nordic Rebels way! By taking the university to where the students are, during the second half of 2018 we created a Finnish-Danish blended minor program that focused on service design and solving global societal challenges through transdisciplinary learning and design-driven methods and processes. As such, Nordic Rebels is a collaborative movement between Student & Innovation House in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Aalto Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s International Design Business Management graduate program in Espoo, Finland. This book documents our journey so that you can join the movement and get excited about Nordic Rebels. Are you ready to bend your skills?

SCETTING THE SCENE

Introduction: Transdisciplinarity as a triggering element for engaging learning Teaching in transdisciplinary environments, we often engage in discussions with our students about their professional identity. Such discussions are perhaps mainly created by two triggers: first, threshold concepts (Land, 2013) – or boundary objects (Star & Griesemer, 1989) – are of such nature in our transdisciplinary domain that they evoke uncertainty and confusion, and second, our field seems to attract people who are interested in exploring their identity. For example, ‘course’ is a concept often understood by the students as a packaged unit ready for them to digest, and once they understand this is not always the case tends to create tensions and anxiety. Or, in terms of professional concepts, designing services and products for people often situates the potential user / consumer in the centre of the process, but students often engage in the design process solely from their own perspective, and this shift takes a long time to learn. and ambiguity, which is why such discussions are bound to emerge. Connecting these two examples to the second trigger, by embracing ambiguity on both course design and content level slowly influences the students in that they also start approaching themselves as an open-ended and ambiguous project (Kosonen, 2018). Here, it has to be pointed out that this applies to both students and teachers who in this context are all soon as learners: we are all driven, whether consciously or subconsciously, by uncertainty But why should we pay attention to this issue? How does it relate to discussions on learner-centred culture? Reports issued by World Economic Forum (2016) and Institute for the Future (2011) both emphasize the importance of emotions in future workplaces: whether it is situated under the umbrella concept of emotional or social intelligence, it is nonetheless clear that both reports argue for the importance of emotions in future workplaces.

And here comes the connection to identity exploration: we believe that in the future, disciplinary silos will become more and more obsolete, and as such we all need to become more and more active agents in crafting our identity as well as equipping ourselves with tools to make connections between disciplines. As this applies to everyone, it implies at least two things: first, identity exploration becomes a fragile process that makes us vulnerable for others, and second, this vulnerability actually provides us with an opportunity to create learning spaces where we acknowledge our potential to contribute to our peersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; identity exploration. As a way to articulate this into an actionable framework for creating learning experiences, below we will introduce the Nordic Rebels SCET framework that has guided our design processes.

DESIGN

COMPLEX ISSUE

BUSINESS

TECHNOLOGY

Nordic Rebels SCET framework for engaging learning experiences As Nordic Rebels, we are driven by creating engaging learning experiences for our students as well as for ourselves. That is to say, we are firm believers of learner-centered approaches when it comes to designing courses and programs. In addition, we also believe in openness as a way forward in transforming learning in higher education institutions, which is why most of our teaching methods and contents can be accessed online, and in line with this, below we are elaborating on our pedagogical framework that illustrates the main building blocks onto which we base our initiatives. The SCET (Space - Community - Emotions - Transformation) framework is not to be treated as highly scientific framework; while it does resemble theoretical frameworks and is indeed partially based on empirical and rigorous research, it is nonetheless to be taken as a guideline-in-the-making. As such, it aims at articulating what we have learned and experienced so far (not only in Nordic Rebels but also in other teaching engagements all over the world) and in a similar vein, it also serves as the foundations for the next iteration. a. Learning is not restricted to a physical space we call â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;university campusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Proserpio & Gioia, 2007; Redpath, 2012) b. Learning is about leaving the ego behind: it is not a competition, but a collaborative effort to improve ourselves as well as our society (Bain, 2004) c. Learning is an emotional experience: getting your hands dirty, goosebumps, breaking away from existing patterns (Herrington, Reeves, & Oliver, 2010; Meyer & Turner, 2006) d. Learning is transformative, and as such it transforms not only you but also others around you (Mezirow, 1991; Taylor, 1997) More specifically, the following table fleshes out roles and responsibilities for both teachers and students in the Nordic Rebels SCET framework introduced before.

Dimension Space

Teacher

Student

Designing and identifying the learning spaces in and outside the campus

Participating in nurturing a good atmosphere in the space, reflecting on the meaning of space when it comes to each individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s learning

Community

Appreciating the knowledge and experiences students have, and attempting to active this in the learning process

Actively communicating about their knowledge and experiences to others, ensuring others are being heard

Emotions

Willingness to revise and develop the course after each iteration, reflecting on their own interests and competencies as a basis for new pedagogical content

Openness towards new ways of learning, respecting their peers, understanding that courses can be openended with the teacher merely designing the structure

Transformation

Appreciating change and embracing ambiguity, clearly communicating this in connection with the learning objectives to the students

Exploring their intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for studying and learning, trusting the teacher in that ambiguity and open-endedness in courses is in control

The thoughts fleshed out above have been formulated based on our teaching experiences in several countries (most notably Finland, Denmark, Singapore, India, Japan, and Russia), extant research, and engaging in discussions with our colleagues from different higher educational institutions over the world. Furthermore, as facilitators we cannot – and perhaps should not? – control what the students learn (this would imply control over their previous experiences), but we can draw on various methods and processes to enable the students take ownership of their learning. That is to say, as facilitators we serve as role models for our students, and hence not holding back our passionate attitude towards teaching and learning is something to which we pay attention. Not implying we are forcing ourselves to perform passion ‘on the stage’, but more in terms of not keeping it inside us.

Nordic Rebels: Creating a distinct and coherent brand identity Why on earth would a university course produce a vinyl for its soundtrack? What kind of a university course has a soundtrack in the first place? Or a strong visual identity, for that matter? This is a topic we could talk for hours and hours on end, but basically it is about two elements: creating a distinct, personalized, and coherent aesthetic identity and blending the boundary between the university and the surrounding society.

Nordic Rebels Vinyl

Elements we drew upon to create a coherent aesthetic identity: course handbook (i.e. syllabus), tote bags, sweaters, web site, slide template, video and audio episodes, posters for the final event, and the vinyl.

Top: Website Banner, Left: NR Sweater, Right: NR Tote Bag, Bottom: Screenshot of Course Handbook

The above mentioned elements were designed from the learnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s point of view; namely, when they experience the course, what are the touchpoints they interact with? Or in other words, how do we ensure consistency across channels? (we return to issues related to the amount of channels we utilized later on in this report). To illustrate the importance of consistency throughout these aesthetic elements, close your eyes and recall a brand you feel you have an emotional connection with. Why is that the case? Now think about the different channels you utilize to interact with that brand - do you think it is consistent? One example we thought of was BrewDog, but we would also like to hear about your examples. Regardless, emotionally laden and meaningful experiences are built, among other things, on consistency: the less head space you need to devote to dealing with inconsistencies, the more energy you have to figure out why you feel about the brand the way you do.

Season 2 Premiere Poster

This is exactly the kind of mindset we had in mind when we designed the Nordic Rebels aesthetic identity. Consistency. No assemblages of whatever there is at our disposal, but a carefully curated identity that communicates the same message throughout different channels. And this leads us to the second point: blending the boundary between the university and the surrounding society. Although we did ask the question â&#x20AC;&#x153;what if learning felt like Netflix and chill?â&#x20AC;? in our Season 2 World Premiere event visuals, we do not wish to advocate diluting the value universities and higher education institutions can create. On the contrary, by transforming our linguistic conventions we are aiming at making the university more accessible, more humane, whilst at the same time maintaining high intellectual aspirations. For us, and for many others, challenging existing linguistic norms and conventions does not mean neglecting academic rigor, but it allows us to engage in self-reflexive discussions on what role universities play in contemporary societies. With this in mind, let us return to the initial question set forth in the beginning of this section. We decided to produce a vinyl simply to see whether that would enable us to initiate discussions with new and existing stakeholders - could we articulate higher education value in such novel ways that would enable our stakeholders to get excited about learning again? And that is exactly the point here: articulation - learning is definitely present in and outside universities, but we are lacking methods and artifacts to re-establish those connections. While listening to the vinyl might not boost oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s learning, what it does, however, is it sparks conversation about learning in different contexts, and that is exactly what we are after. Sparking conversations about how and why we learn.

II.

SCET IN ACTION

From ideas to execution: blueprinting spaces for transdisciplinary learning For the 2018 iteration of IDBM Challenge, we wanted to approach the design process from the student’s point of view, which is why we utilized the service blueprint tool to better understand the student journey and what needed to be created from the instructors’ side to make that happen. Originally devised in marketing, service blueprint visualizes the service process from the customer’s viewpoint, and as such it is a useful method for understanding course spaces: namely, what happens before, during, and after the course. From the student’s perspective, blueprinting is made tangible through improved articulation of what happens during the course and for what purposes.

An Excerpt from our blueprint for IDBM Challenge 2018 edition

As the excerpt from our blueprint above illustrates, this tool brings together students’ and instructors’ efforts with outcomes in the middle making the process tangible. Although this was our first time using the tool for pedagogical purposes, it certainly holds great potential in transforming courses and curricula to be more student-centered.

IDBM Challenge or how to claim ownership of your learning

Besides being a multisensory learning platform for students in Denmark and Finland, it also functions as the introductory course for the new Master students of the IDBM Program (International Design Business Management). The 3-week intensive course brings together students from diverse educational backgrounds and nationalities, and provides a setting for combining theory with practice. Through practical experience and learning- bydoing, students acquire the skills to conceptualize, develop and introduce socially sound and commercially successful solutions. A total of 65 students took the course this year, including 13 who participated remotely. Seven based in Helsinki, were part of the pilot Slush Service Project (which we will be elaborating more about later), and six students from Student & Innovation House in Copenhagen, Denmark participated remotely in the first two weeks after which they joined the teams in Helsinki for the final week. This diversity in the student body illustrates that the course can be taken in diverse ways and locations. Fall 2018 marked the second iteration of IDBM Challenge, and as we tell students, the course is a living artefact that evolves based on their feedback and active involvement. We learnt from and reflected upon the input provided by the 2017 batch, then revised/ retained the elements to provide an even better launchpad for this edition. This structure provided a scaffolding, yet sufficient flexibility that enabled us to tweak the sessions based on the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; level of understanding on the topics, energy levels and emotions- something we find crucial for enabling the optimum learning environment, especially in inter-disciplinary teams like these.

Systemic Value In most higher education curriculums, the subject’s causality is clear, often accompanied with tried and tested solutions. Yet, the nature of society’s greatest challenges are complex, everchanging and cannot be definitively described (Rittel & Webber, 1973). Thus, at Nordic Rebels, we believe that it is of utmost importance to recognise that navigating through uncertainty is a crucial learning outcome of this course. Truly meaningful and innovative solutions stem from a good understanding of society and its challenges, but more importantly, recognising that one has the agency to be/ create that change. In addition, we adopted the Sanpo-Yoshi framework as a guideline for evaluating the concepts developed by our students, emphasising the importance of systemic value: us – client – society.

SANPO-YOSHI VALUE CREATION TRIANGLE CONCEPT

Client

Society

Originally devised by merchants in Japan during the Edo and Meiji periods, sanpo-yoshi is an approach to value creation that brings together the merchant (“us”), the client (“the user”), and the society to illustrate how businesses can operate in a way that creates value also outside their immediate surroundings. Although an old concept, sanpo-yoshi has been gaining currency amongst contemporary firms, but it is still far from being the de facto way of running a business. However, when it comes to creating a better world for current and future generations, concerted actions are needed, which is why sanpo-yoshi is a perspective that will surely come to resonate in the future with students, public organizations, and firms alike.

Changing Cities The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) were defined and agreed upon in 2015, and have since been seen as a shared blueprint for all the UN Member States to work towards peace and prosperity for all. Government agencies have since acted on these goals, and businesses have begun to take heed. On a university level, these goals have also been adopted as themes in research, curriculum syllabi and hackathons. Yet, the term “sustainability” often leads one to think environmental issues and the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle), and when developing solutions for the SDGs, topics are often focused on developing countries. Keeping relevant with trends, we adopted five UNSDGs as the challenge • • • • •

industry and societal out of seventeen of the for this year. They were:

#1: No Poverty #5: Gender Equality #10: Reduced Inequalities #11: Sustainable Cities and Communities #12: Responsible Consumption and Production

We also decided to include a twist, applying these SDGs to the context of first world cities, Copenhagen and Helsinki. We wanted to enable the students to break past the “savior” mindset that people can inadvertently slip into when talking about tackling wicked problems. The goal was to actively avoid students taking up challenges like “we want to tackle poverty in the global south” that, while much needed, can often lead to crafting flawed solutions that lack sufficient depth of knowledge about the context of the problem (like the PlayPump), and can often just be patronizing. Thus, by choosing these two cities, we wanted students to rethink how they thought about SDGs in a context that’s taken for granted and ponder questions like... “What does poverty look like in a first world country?” “With Denmark and Finland as one of the world’s highest ranking in terms of commitment in reducing inequalities, what exactly does inequality mean in these cities?” Two to three teams were randomly assigned to each SDG, and by focusing on cities in which we are located, we wanted to create a learning experience that would help our students claim ownership of their city. We often like to talk about countries such as Denmark and Finland as prime examples for other countries, and thus in the process forgetting that these countries, too, have their flaws that demand attention. Not only does this help generate new ideas and concepts in an overlooked context, but it also enables the students to engage in self-reflection: what can I do to contribute towards my city’s well-being and how do the SDGs help the students to see their city in a new light.

Practical Learning: Field Research, Organisation Visits & Hands-on Sessions While it is possible to read about these challenges/ issues in the news, or in textbooks, statistics and numbers do not provide the macro-view. Solutions generated only from desk research demonstrates a narrow perspective that are unlikely to resonate with users. Therefore, as part of their project and concept development, we emphasised the importance of field research and talking to actual users as we know that the only way to develop implementable concepts that are feasible and desirable, is to first understand empathise and identify pain points in context. In addition, to facilitate the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; understanding of how these issues apply to these first-world cities, teams had the opportunity to visit various organisations we partnered with. At each organisation, there was a sharing session, and teams had the opportunity to ask questions pertaining to the challenges these organisations are tackling. Our partners included: Inland Design (Migri), Uusix- Verstaat, City of Helsinki Youth Department, Plan International Finland and Ohjaamo.

A Team happy with their new dish at â&#x20AC;&#x153;Effectuation Cooking Slamâ&#x20AC;? hosted by alumna, Katharina Schilli

Guest Lecture: Dr. Ídil Gazilusoy (Aalto University) sharing about Sustainability Transitions

Guest Lecture: Tanja Jänicke (Mesanaatti.me) sharing about community-oriented events

We also had guest speakers that contributed to the course in diverse ways: some provided additional food for thought regarding research methods and creative exercises, others shared their academic expertise on sustainability, and other practitioners shed light on how they have already been contributing to the society. Keeping the education blueprint in mind, we curated the guest speaker lineup based on two criteria: first, are they comfortable with standing in front of an audience, and second, how each guest speaker’s content and perspective is aligned with that of others and the course’s learning outcomes in general.

Blended Learning Blended learning - combining analog and digital content or bringing together different disciplines - is by no means a new phenomenon; anyone lecturing with the help of PowerPoint slides, for instance, has engaged in blended learning. For anyone interested in digging deeper into some academic discourses on blended learning, we have shared a selection of relevant literature at the end of this book, and here we wish to elaborate on how we approached blended learning in our courses.

Lecture Sessions in Helsinki were livestreamed via Nordic Rebels Youtube page

To make it clear, technology is not an end in itself, but it is the story that counts. We are certainly not the first ones to make this claim, but we still reminded ourselves of this every time we created pedagogical content. Building on this, as one of our guiding principles is to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;take the university to where the students areâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, this implies tremendous amounts of testing new platforms, channels, and technologies to see what gets our students excited (our virtual reality discussion

paper aptly illustrates adopting new technologies in the classroom might not be an easy task, yet highly rewarding when it enhances the learning experience). So, blended learning for us means blending technologies, disciplines, and spaces. Podcast episodes, for instance, enabled our students to listen to course content while jogging or doing the dishes, and virtual reality collaboration in terms of planning the final event aimed at diminishing challenges brought by geographical distance (students in Copenhagen could physically access the final event venue only during the third and final week of the course).

Students in Helsinki watching a presentation by students in Copenhagen on screen

Outputs & Deliverables The journey with the Challenge ended in three steps, the first of which was the final event, an opportunity to showcase the incredible concepts the student teams came up with in Pecha Kucha style pitches. The event was entirely student run and organized and in keeping with the sustainable theme, featured food from Loop restaurant, who work to minimize food wastage by using ingredients from grocery stores that might otherwise be thrown out. There were also exhibits highlighting sustainable measures that exist in Helsinki, like the Alepa bike rental service, and in Copenhagen, that the audience could immerse themselves into before and after the pitches were done.

Final Event: Food Team preparing food with ingredients from Loop restaurant

The pitches themselves were excellent, reflecting the amount of work the students had put in, as well as how far theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d come from the first day where they knew little about their teammates and the topic at hand. It was clear by the end that the presentation tips gathered from the session with Ali Jahangiri had been taken on board and with the audience enthralled by both the quality of the ideas and the delivery, the event was certainly a great success.

Final Event: Addressing gender inequality through a Pecha Kucha presentation

Giveaways sponsored by Helsinki City Bikes

Waste to Taste: Sustainability in Action

Following the event, in keeping with our keen interest in ensuring that students become more reflective practitioners, we had one final session of reflection that brought together all the teams across Slush, Aalto and Copenhagen one last time. The teams were given a chance to reflect on their journeys and take some time to show their teammates some genuine appreciation for their efforts before parting ways. The only thing remaining at this point was to capture a reflection of their 3 week journey in a visual learning diary, an activity that was supported by the daily activities we had suggested on the website to gradually build these up alongside their work. The final submissions were as diverse as the students themselves, with several students genuinely opening up and committing to the reflective learning process while recognizing how this journey gives them a glimpse of what is possible through design.

Final Event: Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a wrap! A transdisciplinary community has been forged.

Slush Service Project Bespoke curriculum design for blending boundaries

“What if you could blend learning and something you feel passionate about?” Inaugurated in 2008, Slush is a student-driven, non-profit movement originally founded to change attitudes toward entrepreneurship. From a 300-person gathering, it has now grown to be one of the world’s leading tech start-up events, hosting more than 40,000 people all around the world. “What if…?” questions are amazing as they have the potential to take you to whole new universes, devoid of structures that we perceive as limiting our daily lives. That is also what happened with the Slush service minor program. Having followed Slush closely since 2013 (Helsinki and Tokyo), Miikka Lehtonen had become aware of the dilemmas and tensions experienced by students participating in Slush. While working for Slush is something that articulates the passion people feel towards creating a better world, consequently it also implies time off studies. But herein lies a curious paradox: although one misses lectures and puts studies on hiatus, at the same time, they also boost their learning by participating in Slush (just as they would in an internship). In other words, working for a cause you feel passionate about and thus learning along the way is not recognized as learning worthy of study credits by universities. This is but an exaggeration to justify why we started thinking about creating a minor program for people working for Slush. To summarize, the aim of this Service Minor pilot was to figure out, whether we could create a program based on IDBM content for Slush participants that would boost their learning by seamlessly integrating the content to what they are doing for and during Slush.

Delivering IDBM content, what does that even mean? When the Slush Service Project was first announced, we were faced with a challenge - how do we translate the content from the IDBM minor program in a manner that fits this service design project? What does delivering IDBM content even mean in this context? We first considered whether it would be possible to fit all the elements of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Classicâ&#x20AC;? Industry Project into a different, shorter schedule but from our understanding of the nature of Slush, there was a need for a more bespoke solution. The work done by the students for this minor was not one in a traditional consultant-client engagement that needed resolution, it was a lot more fuzzy and self driven than the standard Industry Project endeavor. We were aware that Slush is organized every year to great success and on further discussion with the organizers, were surprised that was currently done in a more ad-hoc manner that didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a rigid structure that guides how it needs to be done.

Taking the University to where the students are: Service Project Kick-off session at Slush HQ

It was immediately apparent that a traditional IDBM project structure when delivering a service design project and specifically service design at an event, would simply not work. We had to redesign this program entirely. Depending on the theme, different tools would work for different contexts and in the end, our approach is summed up best by this section from the handbook that was created for the course.

“This is a learning environment where you are the superstar! We are not shoving theories and concepts down your throat by claiming they are the only solutions to solving problems and increasing your understanding. No – we are exploring the world around us through a curated set of design-driven methods and pedagogical concepts with the aim of us becoming better versions of ourselves once we end the course. Some of the theories might speak to you, some of them might not. So, approach the contents and the experience with an open mind, and be inspired by theories and people around you. We have designed the content so that it supports your activities by collaboratively crafting a systematic learning framework. Or in other words, what you feel passionate about we want to support through this learning experience. This is not about forcing you to learn, but finding ways to inspire you to broaden your horizon.”

The handbook was the defining, “go to” document for all student needs during the course. It was provided to students as a guide for everything in the minor - from the schedule to learning goals to the content in the final deliverables.

Parallel timeline to Event Planning & Slush Schedule

Schedule in Slush Handbook showing an overview of program structure

In addition to ensuring that we successfully deliver the IDBM content, our most important consideration was that we offer the appropriate material at a time when it was most needed in the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; preparation for the event. To enable this, before the launch of the course, we had a session with organizers at Slush to get a better understanding of the timeline, key milestones and any other commitments that the students might have during their build up to Slush. This allowed us to make sure that we avoided conflicts in scheduling with the other courses that make up the Slush Minor - the IDBM Challenge course and the Slush Leadership course - as well as specific â&#x20AC;&#x153;productionâ&#x20AC;? days that might prove to have a higher workload than normal.

We were already aware that the main event of Slush was scheduled to be during Week 49 and since different students worked on different themes within the scope of the event, their varying timelines meant that we needed to provide them sufficient breathing room in the final weeks leading up to it. As such, the delivery of course content was structured such that by the start of Week 46, the core of the material that they would need their projects would have been covered, with the last sections being related to more about contemplating the consequences of design decisions, and presentation skills. The final session was scheduled for Week 47, giving two whole weeks before the event where they could focus on executing their projects.

Compact Schedule = Intensive Learning The traditional IDBM Industry project course takes place over a period of 5-6 months, almost 2 months longer than the time that the Slush students have to go through the service project course. In addition, since the Slush Service Project and the “Classic” track come together for the Challenge course, an intense 3-4 weeks needs to be reserved for that course and its deliverables in September. This meant that we had to streamline the structure of the service project to provide all the core tools and support the project work, while also accounting for these courses and providing sufficient time in the weeks closer to the main event of Slush to prepare for the event as discussed in the section on parallel timelines. To enable this, we looked through the updated syllabus and took the foundation of the various topics covered in the “Classic” version of the project. We then evaluated the relevance and importance of each topic from a service delivery context and how it fit the parallel timeline to the students’ preparation for Slush.

We then broke down the design process into three key phases understanding people, iterating between the problem space and possible solutions, and finally, execution and delivery of their concept. The topics were then divided among these phases and from here, once we had this structure for the phases, we were able to plan out the topics for each session and the sequence. This is where the blended learning aspect really enabled us to distribute the topics in a way that it fit the studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s schedules and routines without being dependent on a traditional classroom experience. Each week, the students were provided a podcast or video episode that showcased the relevant topic for that phase of the project. In addition, they were also given optional, academic readings that they could choose to go more in depth into depending on whether or not it was relevant to their work.

Students watching one of the S2 video episodes at Futurice office

These elements were supplemented by weekly workshop sessions which involved a group discussion and reflection on the material covered in the episodes using methods such as “save the last word for me”. This method allowed for students to raise relevant questions and also observe different perspectives on each topic, both from the instructors, as well as their peers, thus enabling an element of peer to peer knowledge sharing as well. While this checked all the boxes from the perspective of the content we wanted to provide to the students, we also realized that there would be a need for much more personalized guidance when applying the content towards their work for Slush. Thus, for the last few weeks before Slush, our team provided 1 on 1 mentoring to address the needs of their specific areas of responsibility. We started these sessions from Week 42, as it was at that point that each of the students had a strong sense of the specific problem space they were working on. As we got closer to the event, we did our best to be more flexible with our availability so that we could have these individual sessions at a time and venue that best fit their increasingly intense schedules. Ultimately, these sessions proved to be extremely useful as it provided the kind of focused guidance they might not get in a group discussion and an opportunity for them to figure out what to do next if they were stuck or get feedback on ideas. These sessions also provided an opportunity to offer more specific tools and methods that would be of use depending on the context of their problem space and approach. For example, one student’s approach required extensive qualitative research into feelings, emotions and perceptions - a tricky space but one that was tackled by successfully adopting a method like “5 Whys”.

Season 2: narrative-driven exploration of a design process One of the core components that allowed us to provide the intensive learning experience with the flexibility in how this was delivered was the set of episodes covering one perspective to design processes from team-building to evaluating and pitching design outputs. We had already seen the effectiveness of blending learning this way in the episodes from Season 1 which supported the Challenge course. We expanded on that structure and designated Season 2 as the supporting material such that the episodes were aligned the final set of topics selected for the more compact schedule in delivering the Slush Service Project. The journey of covering a design process was done in ten episodes, starting with a discussion on teamwork and going through a range of topics all the way to the consequences of oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s design actions, and speaking in public. The season was titled consequences and the focus was on covering a designdriven process from one perspective that at the same time covers diverse issues related to design. As the title implies, we focused on consequences: we wished to highlight that design as an activity and an outcome is always aimed at someone. This does not mean we adopt a cynical stance to design, but our aim was to make our students aware of their role and responsibility in

Season 2 Episodes can be found at our Vimeo page

design-driven teams. Design - or design thinking - is not an activity devoid of pitfalls or immune to critique, which is why we wish to emphasize that design should not be seen in the context of one organization, but as an activity that influences and transmutes systems. Thus, we also develop the design thinking discourse by holistically looking at design thinking. The discussion of these topics, which were recorded and edited over the summer, was presented as either podcasts or video episodes with a diverse and sometimes unusual set of experts who had valuable, real world knowledge to share about each phase based on their experiences in their respective domains. For example, the opening episode’s discussion on high performing teams included insights from a synchronized skating coach while the episode on prototyping design was discussed by experts from Flavor Ventures who specialize in prototyping flavors and culinary experiences. This went hand in hand with episodes from sources that are more traditionally associated with design and design process, like how the episodes on diversity and design research featured consultants from IDEO’s Munich reflecting on their experiences working on various projects. The episodes also had different formats in how the ideas were showcased, ranging from traditional 1 to 1 interviews to those that mimic a Q&A show where people can write in to have their questions on a certain topic answered. We even had an episode on Design Thinking that was showcased in a manner similar to “Comedians in Cars, Drinking Coffee” that proved to be as insightful as it was fun to setup and record. This sort of variety in style ensured that the episodes themselves weren’t monotonous and the range of experts helped to not just provide a wide range of perspectives but also gave the students a way to see how much they could learn even from seemingly unconnected situations, something they might have to do when organizing an event of such magnitude.

Outputs & Deliverables One of the key driving principles of Nordic Rebels has been to take education to where the students are, and this continued in how the deliverables for the Slush Service Project were set up as well. Just as the contact sessions were set up in a sequence that best supports in providing structure for the work being done for the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; respective domains within the Slush event, the key deliverable - The Service Design Handbook - was intended to act as the documentation of each step the process they were going through as they prepared for Slush 2018.

Slush 2018

In addition, in order to ensure that this documentation doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t interrupt their work, the handbook was built up with the output from every key activity that the students performed with the different sessions. For example, the session on Ideation went hand in hand with documenting the various ideas and design directions that were generated by the students to tackle their individual problem spaces.

To fit in better with their schedule, we wanted to ensure that there isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t the added pressure of a deadline for the handbook to go with the intensity of running the main event and set the due date to be 6 weeks after the event. This also ensured that the students had a chance to take some time to reflect on the process in the build up to the event and how it translated into action. Prior to this pilot, there was only some documentation that tracked the process of what was done the previous year - a brief one pager that covered any key insights or thoughts the previous team or group lead had about their area of responsibility. The service design handbook provides an additional benefit that would ensure that it can be passed on to future leads who will work on similar topics as a foundation to build on and iterate from. Since the handbook documents the process as well as key findings and reflections after the event, it helps ensure a more systematic approach to setting up future Slush events and gives the opportunity to replicate or exceed what is tried and tested rather than starting from scratch each time.

An excerpt from a participantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s handbook submission

III.

OUTPUTS & FUTURE

Activities/ Achievements In this section, our aim is to take stock on our activities and achievements during 2018 as well as provide glimpses on what to expect from us during 2019. For the reader, our purpose is to illustrate domains and contexts where we have been active, and for us this is a good opportunity to reflect on our journey so far. Covering conferences, blog posts, tangible brand manifestations, and outreach tools, we wish to draw attention to the myriad means that are required to advance movements like Nordic Rebels. This is based on the notion that when we talk with our colleagues all over the world, we have come to realize that higher education is transformed both bottom-up and top-down: for teachers, acquiring the top managementâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s institutional support is vital in terms of financial resources and technical skills, and for top management, actively working on changing institutional practices enables teachers to enact the broader vision and strategy. Thus, the activities and achievements described below shed light on what we, as instructors, have been doing to contribute Aalto Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s broader pedagogical vision, and as such it should inspire other academics all over the world to initiate discussions in their home institution on what kind of activities can inspire positive change.

Conferences & Competitions

Aspen Undergraduate Consortium Featuring the Business of Teaching (CBS, Denmark)

2018,

Copenhagen Business School (CBS) hosted this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Aspen Undergrad Consortium, and Nordic Rebels was invited to host a teaching demonstration on some of the methodologies we have been utilizing in designing our course content. This was the first time we from Aalto University and Student & Innovation House cohosted a session outside our course contexts, and we decided to focus on the education blueprint and how it could be utilized to create immersive learning experiences.

dmi: Design Leadership Conference 2018 (Mass, Boston, USA) The dmi:Design Leadership Conference #DLC18 hosted a series of thought leaders who shared their diverse perspectives on the unprecedented cultural and technological change that were indicators of trends that were to disrupt the industry. It was an immersive experience aimed at deepening the understanding of the power of design and innovation to sustain positive business, social and cultural value. Our rebels, JiaYing and Adithya were winners of the DMI Student Essay Competition, where a total of 11 exceptional students from 9 universities were chosen. They met with design leaders, attended sessions, and contributed to conference conversations about the future (and role) of design.

learnT, 3rd Conference on Digital Learning Technology (DTU, Denmark) Technical University of Denmark (DTU, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet) hosted learnT, 3rd Conference on Digital Learning Technology on 16 November 2018, and Nordic Rebels together with Aalto Online Learning were invited to give a keynote speech during the conference. Shedding light on the pedagogical philosophy behind Nordic Rebels as well as its outputs was well received and further helped solidify our position as one of the most inspiring higher education movements out there. What is more, learnT conference was also a good opportunity to further solidify our networks in Denmark as well as better understand what kind of activities our colleagues there are pushing forward.

SXSW-EDU 2019 (Austin, Texas, USA) SXSW EDU is a component of the South by SouthwestÂŽ (SXSW) family of conferences and festivals, the ninth annual SXSW EDU is held in Austin, Texas from 4-7 March 2019. Internationally recognized as the convergence gathering for creative professionals, we are thrilled that Nordic Rebels has been selected via PanelPickerÂŽ to deliver a case study panel session in the Higher Education track. We will be sharing about our Finnish - Danish collaboration, and what we aim to achieve via our movement, Nordic Rebels. We show how blending disciplines & technologies and allowing for reflection, enables students to reclaim ownership to their learning- as well as how our program is an open template for anyone, anywhere.

dmi:Design Management Conference Europe 2019 (London, UK) With the conference theme <The Designers Dilemma: Managing Disruption in an Uncertain World>, Nordic Rebels has been invited to share on the topic of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Effectively Combining Digital + Analog in Design Educationâ&#x20AC;?. We suggest that by blending disciplines and technologies, and allowing for reflection, students are empowered to reclaim ownership of their learning. Through case studies, we share our successes and work-in-progress on how to combine multidisciplinary teamwork, design workshops, and remote, multi-sensory learning. For us, this is a wonderful opportunity to share insights with practitioners in the design business who may also be partners in helping us shape our curricula better.

Danish Design Award 2019 Danish Design Award is the biggest Danish design event of the year. It is celebrating the most innovative design solutions and shows the many ways in which design can make a difference in our society. At the time of writing we have just received the news, that Nordic Rebels is shortlisted for an award in the category: Better Learning.

Website / Blog Our website and blog was designed based on the DAD principle: Document, Activate, and Disseminate. Documentation refers to us documenting our program design process: like our participants documented their journey, so did we archive our activities not only for ourselves but to whoever would like to know more about our journey. Inspired by Ferran AdriĂ â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s approach to documenting elBulli and video game postmortems, documenting embodied and designed experiences enabled us, through changing modality, to describe what we did in a way that aims at opening up discussions on transforming higher education. Website and blog also activated our broader community through invited blog posts on relevant topics. This is something we could have done more both in terms of diversifying the range of voices and perspectives present in the blog as well as extending our reach from confined course spaces. In addition to activating the broader community, we also wanted to activate the students involvement with 3 elements - the course material, the episodes and peer to peer learning that transcended their project teams. Finally, disseminating refers to us openly sharing our content and methods with anyone out there. In line with Aalto Online Learning initiativeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vision and values, sharing material has the potential to increase the impact Nordic Rebels movement has on higher education. In addition, the website also maintains a curated list of design toolkits to act as a starting point for anyone willing to adopt design methods into their problem solving process. We plan to expand this into a repository that includes multiple types of references - videos, blogs, books and more.

Episodes: Season 1 + 2 Perhaps some of our most visible achievements out there, season one focuses on teamwork through fifteen episodes and three podcasts whereas season two covers a design process through ten episodes ranging from teamwork to design consequences. While season one follows a somewhat similar aesthetic structure, in season two we both further emphasized the narrative structure and diversified the aesthetic direction. Both seasons are available on our Vimeo channel (https://vimeo. com/nordicrebels) along with supplementary material in the form of behind the scenes footage and trailers. One of the changes we made based on student feedback from our 2017 edition of the Challenge was to have two editions of the episodes - a full length one, and one that provided the core message in a shorter version that was 10-20 minutes in length. This allowed students to delve deeper into the episodes that they were most interested in while getting to the gist of what each episode talked about in the shorter version.

Academic outputs As of writing this manual, and in addition to the conference presentations and talks mentioned above, we have four article manuscripts and one book proposal in review. Co-authored by friends of Nordic Rebels, such activities are in fact highly crucial elements of our movement. One of our challenges has been that researching the courses we teach is somewhat tricky since we simply cannot switch between teaching and researching, which is why this is something we hope to tackle during 2019 and beyond.

Collaborations & Looking Ahead As has been mentioned throughout this book, we have no desire to stop where we currently are. On the contrary, wherever we talk about Nordic Rebels and what we do, we find resonance which is why we would like to find new collaborators from all over the world. We believe there are numerous like-minded instructors and change-makers out there, which is one of the reasons we wrote this book. By documenting our successes and failures, we hope to provide people with tangible evidence on how to transform and boost learning. When it comes to exploring new ways of designing courses or trying out new tools, methods and technologies, often we are being held back by the fear of failure. If something does not work, we are not only creating additional organizational anxiety but also, and perhaps most importantly, jeopardizing our own career advancement. At the same time, however, we all agree higher education institutions need to redefine and transform themselves, but often we simply do not have time to step back and see what could be done. Hence, in addition to taking stock on what we have done so far, we are also shedding light on what we would like to achieve during 2019 and beyond to show how you could get involved with us and become a fellow rebel.

How to get involved? We are always keen to explore collaboration possibilities with people and organizations that share our values! If the Nordic Rebels manifesto presented in the beginning of this book resonates with you, we should definitely talk more. Kindly refer to our contact information at the end of this book to use the channel of your choice to get in touch with us.

Check out: nordicrebels.com for more details on topics & roles!

a nordic rebels original series

s3: skills for the future

casting call: â&#x20AC;&#x153;auditionsâ&#x20AC;? spring 2019!

What are we looking for? While our most visible outputs are university courses, essentially we are crafting and researching engaging learning experiences, and that is why we are most certain you and us have many common touchpoints. For example, jointly creating Nordic Rebels episodes, researching student learning journeys, implementing our insights into your organization, or hosting your own Nordic Rebels courses are all examples of what gives us goosebumps. But we do not wish to limit your ideas - get in touch with us as we would like to hear more about what you would like to achieve.

Season 3 initial overview: Skills for the future While our first season focused on teamwork and the second season on a design process, focusing on skills for the future in the third season seemed more than natural. Or in other words: the first two seasons focused on past events and experiences, and now the third season will cover skills that will most likely become relevant in the future. This approach enables us to create spaces for students to claim ownership of their learning in completely new, yet complementary, ways, and we are equally thrilled about co-producing the third season with our partners and fellow rebels in Denmark and Japan. What is more, we will be further emphasizing modularity and storytelling: stronger narrative so we can continue blending the distinction between the university and the surrounding society, and through modularity we wish to make our episodes better available for anyone out there. Basically each episode would come with its own learning outcomes and methods so anyone not joining the full course experience would still be able to be inspired by our content.

Scaling the blended minor One of the positive challenges we currently have is related to our headcount: as our team is relatively small in size (<10) and limited in resources, scaling our activities is somewhat challenging although our content would already enable that. Having said that, one of our aims for 2019 and beyond is exactly related to scaling: namely, how to extend our movement by working with like-minded people. As of writing this book, we are crafting our roadmap for 2019, so more on this topic in our blog later on.

www.nordicrebels.com

hello@nordicrebels.com

@thenordicrebels

/thenordicrebels

A note to our pals

We’d like to say a huge THANK YOU to all our partners who have been supporting Nordic Rebels, powering our activities. Helsinki ThinkCo, Maria01, Flavour Studio, Futurice, Hellon & Games Factory for welcoming us with open arms- providing us with amazing venues to take classes to where the students are. City of Helsinki, Ohjaamo, Uusix-verstaat, Plan International & Inland Design for enabling our field research through visits and adding a layer of tangiblity and realism to the students’ understanding of the real societal challenges. Aalto Teaching Lab, Aalto Sustainability Hub and Sitra for sharing your perspective and tools for implementable outcomes. A!Ole for believing in our mission and for the continuous support. Kyrö Distillery for providing some stress relief. Tuborgfondet and Otto Mønsteds Fond for supporting Student & Innovation House’s work with prototyping and testing new ways of engaging student and creating innovative learning environments

Aalto University, Graduate Program in International Design Business Management International Design Business Management (IDBM) is an interdisciplinary graduate program at Aalto University. Since 1995, IDBM has delivered world-class multidisciplinary and systemic education in global business development through design and technology. A core aspect of the program is the strong element of diversity, as students represent multiple nationalities and disciplinary backgrounds, as well as have varying degrees of prior work experience. The programâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pedagogy has strong focus on challenge-based learning in the fields of management, business modeling, and product and service design. Students develop the skillsets and knowledge necessary to manage interdisciplinary teams dealing with complex challenges. The learning experience is supported by real-life industry projects in which students use their previously acquired knowledge and expand their professional capabilities through intensive teamwork. Partners of the program include the City of Helsinki, KONE, and Unicef. The International Design Business Management program is a joint offering between the Aalto University School of Art, Design, and Architecture, School of Science and School of Business. In addition, IDBM can also be taken as a minor program and in 2018 we piloted two new customized ways to attend the minor program: FITech (https://fitech.io/) and Slush (https://www.slush.org).

Student & Innovation House Student & Innovation House is a Danish association that consists of young professionals and students, that has the humble ambition to change the world through student engagement. In collaboration with Copenhagen Business School, they have bought the great old beautiful Police Station placed in the heart of Frederiksberg, Denmark and since then single-handedly fundraised a huge amount of money to transform it into a student-driven Innovation house. Today their focus is on building bridges between students from different universities and disciplines, as well as between students and the private, public, and civic sector. In other words, Student & Innovation House is a place where different learning formats, business models and partnerships are being developed, prototyped and scaled, in order to find out how to create the most positive impact in society. The house is supported by a range of different actors within the public, private, and civic sectors. In regards to the Nordic Rebels movement, the house has partnered up with Tuborgfondet and Otto MĂ¸nsteds Fond.

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