How Do I Understand Them? Integrating Empathy into Course Design through Personas

Literature from neuroscience and educational psychology are continuously underscoring the importance of emotion in learning, which brings considerable implications for education. While some areas, such as design thinking, have embraced empathy as a technique for better connecting design with user need, empathy as a construct still remains ambiguous. In addition, many course design theories and frameworks focus heavily, if not exclusively, on cognitive processes; apprenticeships of the head and hands. Educators hoping to intentionally and systematically engage in empathetic strategies, or apprenticeships of the heart, have little guidance from traditional course design models for doing so. The special session will introduce one tangible method to engage in and integrate empathy into course design.