Welcome to the Capstone course for the Coursera Specialization on Creativity, Design, and Innovation. Prof. Guadalupe Vadillo, from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and I, Prasad Boradkar, from Arizona State University - would like to thank you for being part of this global and innovative project. In this Capstone course, you will practice the application of the various concepts and procedures presented in the three courses that are part of this Coursera Specialization. Specifically, the goal is to apply the design process in order to find an innovative solution to a problem of your own choosing. At the end of this course, you will have a solid understanding of the design process and should walk away with a concrete proposal to solve your problem. Specifically, the course modules are designed to guide you through three main things: 1. Go through the activities that are part of the design process, 2. Review critical information of the previous three courses, and 3. Prepare an Innovation Proposal to describe your innovation. Please keep in mind that due to the limited length of the course, you will not need to actually implement your innovation; however, you are highly encouraged to seek ways to do so. Before you get started, I wanted to highlight a few key expectations for this course. Most importantly, this is course focuses on a project of your choosing. The activities are designed to guide you through the design process. So, it is really up to you to decide what you want to get out of this course. We designed this course on purpose in such a flexible manner, so that you can decide how deep you want to dive into the material to really meet your needs. Secondly, this course is self-paced. This means you are responsible for estimating time requirements, comparing it with your activities outside this course, and completing the course on time. Thirdly, due to the sheer size of this course - there are thousands of participants in this Specialization - feedback from the instructors of the course is limited; however, we have designed the activities to actively assist you in helping you through the project. We highly encourage you to seek and provide feedback to peers. Often, these are opportunities to gain new perspectives and ideas. The Design Process is collaborative! As always, please be respectful to your peers when providing feedback. Finally, I want to spend a few minutes describing the outcome for this Capstone. We already mentioned that this is an open-ended project with room for flexibility and creativity. In short, you will need to identify a project or problem that needs an innovative solution. You have ownership of your own learning in this course and, therefore, are responsible for making the course valuable to yourself. When selecting a project, it is quite possible that you will also not find a working solution by completing this course. Consider it to be start or an exercise in which you apply concepts and strategies learned in this Coursera Specialization. To help you have a positive experience in this course, we recommend that the project or problem you choose should: ● be meaningful to you ● be from your immediate context or a global issue ● pose a challenge to your knowledge and skills ● require an innovative solution (i.e. there is not a straightforward solution) ● be relevant today or in the future. ● have a feasible scope for this course (i.e. not too small, not too large) ● involve evidence of a divergent-convergent thinking cycle ● show evidence of research in real life (e.g., actual data) ● require evaluation and testing of potential solutions ● explore feasibility, sustainability, and social value. ● help you reflect on your experiences throughout the specialization. ● be original! This might seem like a lot, but don't worry, the activities in this course will help you address these criteria. This is an opportunity to investigate a solution to a problem that you might have have always wanted to address but never found the time! Thank you! With this in mind, Prof. Vadillo and myself hope you find the overall experience of this Coursera Specialization meaningful and - maybe - you also learn something new. We appreciate your interest and your honest feedback which many have been sharing already. Thank you for giving us this opportunity.
