IGNITE is an EU-funded initiative that unites academic institutions and creative industry partners from three countries to create an open-source, online course which is available via the the #dariahTeach platform.
From April 2018 to January 2021, the IGNITE project developed a 20 ECTS course entitled ‘Design Thinking & Making in the Arts and Sciences’, divided into 5 ECTS units which can be taken together or independently. It has been taught within Masters programmes at Aarhus (Denmark) and Maastricht (The Netherlands) Universities. Several of the activities in the final dissemination stage of the project were reconceived during the Covid-19 lockdown, but in many ways, the online nature of the course offerings facilitated the pivot to an online conference in Spring 2020, a Summer School, followed by an Autumn School.
In reflecting on what IGNITE has accomplished, the core team, along with our students and our colleagues from around the world who participated in our conference, masterclasses, and Autumn School, has taught us how to facilitate new ways of teaching and learning which has proved resilient, useful, and most welcome, especially during the Covid-10 lockdown.
Our online offerings are demand-based and can be used in a variety of ways — within classroom settings or for lone learners wishing to upskill, learning from experts worldwide through our videos and case studies. The digital has allowed the IGNITE team to be imaginative about the ways we teach, to be creative in delivering content, as well as speculative in our design.
IGNITE is proud to have developed content for MA students which focuses on how to use technology in creative and experimental ways, enabling a new generation of arts and humanities studies to cross the digital divide, bringing their values and expertise to become players in tackling some of the world’s most persistent and prevalent issues.
And most of all — thanks to the European Commission , and specifically to the Creative Europe Directorate — this courseware is free. There is no profit motive behind what we offer, we are not monetizing our product or using it as an alternative PR modality for our universities.
For all of you who traveled this journey with us, we thank you. And for those of you who are just reading about our content now, visit the #dariahTeach site and take some of our courses. Follow us on Twitter @dariahTeach or sign up for our mailing list as we continue with the #dariahTeach project.