Nine design principles for teaching digital innovation skills through authentic learning

Design · All designs
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 1 study (1 design), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description

A pattern for designing learning environments that develop digital business innovation skills, refined over three DBR iterations at a South African university. The final principles are: "Ensure collaboration takes place", "Provide opportunities for students to find their own solutions", "Implement a working digital innovation in a business", "Incorporate a design-thinking ethos", "Ensure that students utilise interdisciplinary skills", "Implement a formal process of reflection", "Allow for experimentation", "Ensure that tasks culminate in a capstone project", and "Partner with entrepreneurs". Each principle is mapped to authentic learning elements (A1–A9) and skill sets (S1–S8) from the Kereluik et al. framework.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

• Industry partners willing to host student digital innovation projects
• A blended learning environment supporting online and face-to-face collaboration
• Assessment rubrics covering the entire process, not just the end product

Constraints

• Conducted at a single university, limiting generalisability of the findings
• The study's design and approach may not apply to other contexts or disciplines

Target Learners

• Information Systems students in higher education

Learning Goals

• Digital innovation skills
• Collaboration
• Design thinking
• Interdisciplinary problem-solving

Claims

• Anova Iteration1 Significant Skill Gains Except Cultural [+M]
• In iteration 3, when student teams partnered with start-up entrepreneurs, industry partners rated student conduct highest of the three iterations on 7 of 10 items, but innovation usefulness highest on only 3 of 10 [+M]

Related Designs

• Authentic learning environment framework for cultivating digital innovation skills

Examples

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Key Sources

• van den Berg, C., & Bozalek, V. (2024). Design principles to develop digital innovation skills: a design-based research approach. Education Tech Research Dev, 72, 947–972. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-023-10308-y

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	design
id	digital-innovation-skills-design-principles
title	Nine design principles for teaching digital innovation skills through authentic learning
description	A pattern for designing learning environments that develop digital business innovation skills, refined over three DBR iterations at a South African university.
status	review
generated	by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-28
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources	1 — van-den-berg-2024

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