Details

Design Thinking Foundations Digital Badge is open to all students.

This course is designed for those who wish to build their understanding and practical application of the innovative and design decisions that are led by empathising the needs and wants of individuals. You will learn about the principles of design thinking so you can develop your creative skills towards problem-solving.

At the end of the Module, you will be able to:

• Define the five steps of Design Thinking.
• Recognise the main principles for a successful implementation of the Design Thinking process. 
• Implement the appropriate tools for each of the Design Thinking steps.

The course is entirely online, allowing you to study at your own pace and convenience. It consists of interactive modules, practical exercises, and quizzes to reinforce your learning.

 

Calendar

It is a flexible course, you can join and complete the programme during the whole academic year.

 

Participants receive

• Online module materials and exercises
•  A TU Dublin accredited Digital Badge – Design Thinking Foundations.

 

Who can apply? 

• All TU Dublin students (from apprenticeship to PhD, full-time and part-time) can apply for Design Thinking Foundations Digital Badge.
• You can apply as individual or as a team.

 

How to apply

The programme is designed as an immersive learning process where you will have the opportunity to develop your ideas and solutions through Design Thinking Process.

Register you interest completing this form -> https://forms.office.com/e/WXsZkSSU5S

How to self-enrol

You can also now self-enrol in the course by using the information below:

Brightspace:

Module’s name and code: Design Thinking for Students GHUB001: 2024-25

Information on how to self-enrol for a Brightspace course can be found here

We look forward to working with you all over the next few months and we wish you every success with your Design Thinking journey.

If you have any questions or require further information, please feel free to reach out to growthhub@tudublin.ie . We are here to assist you.

 

 

 

 

Have you developed important Entrepreneurship competences such as opportunity recognition, creativity, planning and management, and the ability to influence and work with others?

Are you interested in having these competences recognised and accredited with the TU Dublin Digital Badge in Entrepreneurship?

Here is what you need to know

• The TU Dublin Digital Badge in Entrepreneurship recognises competences developed in a wide range of contexts. You may have been engaged in entrepreneurial behaviour in cultural, economic, social or sustainability contexts. You may also have developed your Entrepreneurship competences through participation in promotions and events, student societies, competitions, hackathons, etc.
• There is no additional coursework involved – the TU Dublin Digital Badge in Entrepreneurship recognises your achievement in a range of entrepreneurship competence areas. This involves completing an application workbook that documents supporting evidence of how you achieved these competences and what you have learned
• If you are a current full time student, submission for the TU Dublin Digital Badge in Entrepreneurship makes you eligible for consideration the TU Dublin GROWTHhub Entrepreneurial Student of the Year Award (closing date for 2024/25 to confirm)

 

Eligibility

To submit for the TU Dublin Entrepreneurship Digital Badge in Entrepreneurship, you must be either TU Dublin registered students, have graduated from TU Dublin within the previous 12 months, or be current TU Dublin staff members. All students and at every level of study level, whether full time or part time, are eligible to submit a completed workbook application. 

 

How to apply

• Complete the TU Dublin Entrepreneurship Digital Badge Application Workbook.  The workbook includes all of the information you need to apply including links for additional information on Entrepreneurship competences.
• Prepare your submission for the Digital Badge in Entrepreneurship. We have a two-step process that you can go through using the TU Dublin Digital Badge in Entrepreneurship Application Workbook.

Step 1 - Assess your level of competence for each competence area.  It is important to remember here that you don’t need to achieve all 15 competences listed in the workbook – to meet the Digital Badge requirements you should achieve at least 9 of the competences at the level of the badge. For each competence area a description of the competence is provided, and the self-assessment asks you to select your perceived competence with options at Foundation, Intermediate, and Advanced levels.

Step 2- Provide supporting evidence for your achievement of the different competences.  This evidence can come from your participation in entrepreneurship activities or activities where you behaved in an entrepreneurial way.  This includes participation in a wide range of activities, including but not restricted to the following:

1. 1. Participation in enterprise activities including your own commercial or social enterprise activities;
   2. Participation in a student society including planning, organising and promoting society activities, events or programmes of work;
   3. Participation in entrepreneurship or similarly focused competitions (e.g. Bolton Trust, Student Entrepreneur Awards, etc.);
   4. Participation in ideation and hackathon challenges (e.g. TU Dublin President’s Sustainability Challenge, AWS Hackathon for Health, etc.);
   5. Participation in design thinking workshops and activities; and
   6. Participation in entrepreneurship society activities (e.g. Enactus).

Note: The above list is not exhaustive,  and you may have acquired the competences in other types of activities not listed.  We encourage you to include these activity areas.

 

Important links:

• Workbook: Entrepreneurship Digital Badge Application Workbook
• Information Video: https://youtu.be/Et0vK8xJQoc
• TU Dublin Entrepreneurial Student of the Year Award

 

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is a Digital Badge? 

A Digital Badge is a visual indicator of accomplishment or skill that can be displayed, accessed, and verified online. They encapsulate knowledge, skill, competence, or achievement through formal and informal learning opportunities.  Digital Badges are portable and can be presented or demonstrated on social media, websites, and other forms of electronic communication. At TU Dublin, Digital Badges provide opportunities for engaging and motivating learners, recognising learning, encouraging behaviours that contribute towards learning (including effective engagement with the community and other external stakeholders), and implementing new assessment approaches that recognise alternative achievement.

2. What is the TU Dublin Digital Badge in Entrepreneurship?

The TU Dublin Digital Badge in Entrepreneurship recognises student achievement of entrepreneurship related learning outcomes.  The framework of learning outcomes is designed around the European Commission EntreComp framework which sets out the competences that make someone entrepreneurial, and is used for supporting entrepreneurial learning in different settings – this may include civil society, companies, education, youth work, communities, start-ups and among individuals.

3. Am I eligible to apply?

To submit for the TU Dublin Entrepreneurship Digital Badge, applicants must be either TU Dublin registered students, have graduated from TU Dublin within the previous 12 months, or be current TU Dublin staff members.  All students and at every level of study, including full time and part time, are eligible to submit a completed workbook.

4. Can I submit for Student Entrepreneur of the Year without applying for the Digital Badge?

Unfortunately not.  The Digital Badge application form doubles as the application form for the Student Entrepreneur of the Year.  This ensures transparency with the competition process and provides you with an opportunity to receive a Digital Badge that you can include on your CV in the future.

5. Do I have to start an enterprise to achieve a Digital Badge in Entrepreneurship?

Absolutely not.  The Digital Badge recognises entrepreneurial competences that you might have achieved.  By that we mean competences that support you to identify ideas and opportunities, gather resources, and make things happen.  You are more likely to have developed these competences in different ways.  Of course, you might have started an enterprise, but you may have also developed these competences through your involvement in a student society, working with a charity, or participating in student entrepreneurship competences.  These are only examples.

6. What types of experiences can I include as supporting evidence to demonstrate how I developed the competences?

The supporting evidence for your achievement of the different competences can come from your participation in entrepreneurship activities or activities where you behaved in an entrepreneurial way.  This includes participation in a wide range of activities, including but not restricted to the following:

1. Participation in enterprise activities including your own commercial or social enterprise activities;
2. Participation in a student society including planning, organising and promoting society activities, events or programmes of work;
3. Participation in entrepreneurship or similarly focused competitions (e.g. Bolton Trust, Student Entrepreneur Awards, etc.);
4. Participation in ideation and hackathon challenges (e.g. TU Dublin President’s Sustainability Challenge, AWS Hackathon for Health, etc.);
5. Participation in design thinking workshops and activities; and
6. Participation in entrepreneurship society activities (e.g. Enactus).

It is important to note that this list is not exhaustive.  We understand that you may have acquired the competences in other types of activities not listed.  We encourage you to include these activity areas.

7. Can I use learning from my programme coursework for my Digital Badge in Entrepreneurship application?

Unfortunately no.  Your programme award (e.g. your degree) will recognise your module learning.  The Digital Badge in Entrepreneurship provides you with an opportunity to recognise your achievement on a framework of entrepreneurship competences outside of the learner’s accredited programme curricula. 

8. What is entrepreneurship competence?

Entrepreneurship competence is a multidimensional issue consisting of combinations of various areas of knowledge, skills and attitudes.

It includes the following:

• Observing and seizing opportunities
• Ability to transform ideas into action that generate economic, cultural, social or societal value
• Ability to plan, set goals and manage activities to achieve these goals
• Creativity, innovation, risk management and responsibility

For the Digital Badge in Entrepreneurship, we use the EntreComp framework developed by the European Commission.  This framework sets out the competences that make someone entrepreneurial, and is used for supporting entrepreneurial learning in different settings – this may include civil society, companies, education, youth work, communities, start-ups and among individuals. At its very simplest level, EntreComp is made up of 3 competence areas: Ideas & Opportunities, Resources, and Into Action. Each area contains 5 competences, and together these make up the 15 competences that individuals use to discover and act upon opportunities and ideas.  Further information is provided on each of these competences in the Digital Badge in Entrepreneurship Application Workbook.

9. How many competence areas do I need to have to achieve an award?

We use the EntreComp Wheel as our framework.  This framework sets out 15 different competence areas and we need you to demonstrate through the workbook that you have developed competences in 9 areas.

10. How do I apply for my Digital Badge in Entrepreneurship?

To prepare your submission for the Digital Badge in Entrepreneurship we have a two-step process that you can go through using the Digital Badge in Entrepreneurship Application Workbook.

Step 1:

The first step is to assess your level of competence for each competence area.  It is important to remember here that you don’t need to achieve all 15 competences – to meet the Digital Badge requirements you should achieve at least 9 of the competences at the level of the badge.

Step 2:

For each competence area a description of the competence is provided, and the self-assessment asks you to select your perceived competence with options at Foundation, Intermediate, and Advanced levels.  To help you better understand how to evaluate your competence, you can use the competence level descriptions from the EntreComp framework (see pp. 23-35).  This gives examples for different levels of competence.

Using this workbook, assess your competence using the yes/no scale. Delete as appropriate.

Repeat this for each competence area.

After selecting your level of competence, you are then required to justify your choice and provide evidence of how you achieved this level.  To do this you are required to describe what kind of activities generated your competence level. 

In this section you can tell, for example, what you have done, what you participated in, and what you have learned and how in order to acquire specific competence and competence level.

You have a maximum 200 words to summarise your supporting evidence to justify your self-assessment for each of the competence areas.

11. What do I do when I complete the application workbook?

When you have completed the workbook, please submit to GROWTHhub@tudublin.ie using the following subject heading: DB_Entre_Application.Your application will then be reviewed by GROWTHhub to determine whether your self-assessment is supported by the evidence provided.  Following this review, GROWTHhub will communicate with you to confirm the approved level of competence based on the self-assessment and supporting evidence provided.  You will then receive your Digital Badge in Entrepreneurship at the approved level – Foundation, Intermediate or Advanced. 

12. How competences will be measured as achieved

It is important to note that you don’t have to have achievements in all 15 EntreComp competences – evidence of achievement in 9 competences is sufficient. Outcomes will be measured at the following g levels:

• Foundation level- Applicants are required to demonstrate a minimum foundation learning achieved in nine of these competency areas.
• Intermediate level - Applicants are required to demonstrate a minimum intermediate learning achieved in nine of these competency areas. 
• Advanced level - Applicants are required to demonstrate a minimum advanced learning achieved in nine of these competency areas.

13. If I receive a Digital Badge at Foundation level, can I apply in the future for a Digital Badge at a higher level?

Of course. You can even use the feedback from your first application to guide the competency areas that you need to develop for your next application.  You can also contact us discuss these areas and how you might develop competencies in them.

 

Submission and Closing Date

The workbook includes information on how you should submit your application.  Applications will be reviewed on a monthly basis but it is important to note that if you wish to be considered for the TU Dublin Entrepreneurial Student of the Year Award for 2022/23 you must have your application submitted by Wednesday 31 May 2023.