Enhancing Sustainable Design Thinking Education Efficiency: A Comparative Study of Synchronous Online and Offline Classes

As online education advances, there is a growing interest in conducting various online courses. However, design thinking education, which heavily relies on active interactions and discussions among team members, has predominantly taken place in offline environments. This raises the question of whether online design thinking education can be equally as effective as offline education. To address this, our study conducted comparative research between offline and synchronous online design thinking classes to investigate how these different environments contribute to developing design thinking mindsets. The acquisition levels of seven design thinking mindsets—ambiguity, curiosity, empathy, experimental spirit, integrative thinking, open mind, and teamwork—were used to measure the efficiency of the design thinking classes. The research involved a 15-week project-based course provided to 126 engineering students at a university, examining the differences in design thinking mindsets before and after the completion of the process. The study’s findings demonstrated that synchronous online classes favorably influence the cultivation of design thinking mindsets, exhibiting efficiency comparable to that observed in traditional offline courses. Specifically, synchronous online classes were found to be more effective in cultivating empathy, integrative thinking, and open mind, while experimental spirit showed more significant development in offline courses. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the potential of synchronous online design thinking education and contribute the development of sustainable and effective online learning environments.