Global Classroom for Democracy Innovation: Designing Democratic Sustainability

This workshop series took place on 5 Fridays from September 23 – October 21, 2022.

Co-organized by the Vancouver Design Nerds, University of Toronto Scarborough, University West, Stellenbosch University and Participedia, the Global Classroom for Democracy Innovation (GCDI) brings together students from multiple global locations in a real-time collaborative online forum for cross-cultural engagement and global learning, rooted in design thinking. The series is framed around practically engaging with the concepts of democracy, sustainability, and inclusion; asking participants to explore their positionality and locality as they develop a group project proposal to be showcased at the end of the course. Participants are empowered to leverage what is learned in the classroom to address real-life issues.

This event incorporates design thinking to facilitate interdisciplinary student exploration and collaboration, project development, and problem-solving. It consists of one activist engagement session, two facilitated design workshops and one showcase workshop. Between design workshops, students work together in small global teams to expand on and test their design ideas. We offer office hours for the groups to provide guidance and feedback and help students prepare to present their work. Groups present their projects to faculty and civil society for real-world feedback.

Key Collaborators: Bettina Von Lieres, University of Toronto Scarborough; Matthew Wingfield, Stelenbosch University; Marco Adamovic, University of Toronto

VDN Leads: Jesi Carson & Mukisa Mujulizi