Abstract

Student engagement is transforming towards students seeking more active and transformative roles in the co-creation of innovation, beyond simply sharing their opinions (Healey et al., 2014). New tools for decision making, problem solving, and ideation have been created in the business and digital realms to reflect the complexity and uncertainty brought about by the accelerated levels of innovation and change, which old management tools could no longer speak to (Ries, 2011).

These tools are also relevant for the higher education context. Design thinking is one example. The academic community is growing in familiarity in its uses of curriculum and learning design. Applying design thinking to student engagement however proposes new and exciting areas of innovation and research (Dunne, 2016). Used for student engagement it allows for the creation of a new space outside of the formal structures of the University and the Students’ Union, and of the tensions associated with these structures. Instead, it reimagines student engagement and creates a number of distinct affordances, such as in the case of the Warwick Secret Challenge (WSC). This chapter positions the WSC as a novel conceptual model for engaging students as partners in shaping their academic experience through design thinking.