Design Thinking, an Examination of Epistemological Frameworks in an Area of Academic Study

The ambiguous identity of the digital media field, the ubiquity of media, and rapid and persistent technological change and innovation pose inimitable challenges for academic programs in digital media. Digitization of media is an underlying impetus for today's rapid innovation that compels related academic programs in higher education to re-examine themselves to keep pace and to better understand their epistemological foundations. Digital innovation helped spur renewed awareness of human-centered design to solve ill-structured, highly complex problems. Design and Design Thinking (DT) provide a potential framework to aid in academic program assessment. In this paper I explore precepts of design and DT as a potential frame of context to aid in curriculum design. I present a case study example that examines the process to assess a digital media curriculum using a DT framework, an iterative process involving students, faculty, and academic and industry partners.