Combining Challenge-Based Learning and Design Thinking to Teach Mobile App Development

This paper describes a set of practices, techniques and conceptual tools that were tailored by combining ideas from Challenge-based Learning, Design Thinking and Lean Startup. While the former focuses on intrinsically motivating the students to engage in the learning process by tackling real-world problems aligned with their sense of purpose, the latter emphasizes aspects of the system being built, such as feasibility, viability, and desirability. The framework conception is as an innovative approach for mobile application development in long-term courses (1- or 2-year) involving programming, design, and business. We applied the methodology in the context of a regular undergraduate course including students with a diverse computing and non-computing backgrounds and collected their feedback during the process.