Student group’s challenge

“The students noticed that older people often experience loneliness with various effects on their health. […] The students wanted to do something about loneliness among elderly people and they (students) came up with the idea of an app. Something like Tinder, but different, where the older person is one party and on the other side, a young person, student, or something like that, who wants to do something in the field of caregiving, play a game, do a task or something like that. And the students were really into that app, and it was very difficult for them (students) to get away from their idea of an app. […] Because the students were very focused on making this app. The students were already considering whether they knew someone to build their app. One of the students’ classmates from high school is studying computer science and might want to program the app for us. And the students came to me in this state in November. And it starts in November? Yes, and this was basically the introduction. So, the students were already fully invested in their solution, without having the problem clarified. […] However, then the students realized that an app is difficult for older people, and that it is likely that someone else has already thought of this idea. And then the students started to question their own idea. […] What the students did next is that they (students) said, we see that older people are lonely, including during this lockdown, and that high schools are running out of internships, social internships and so forth. What if we (students) talk to a high school, or to students in social studies, and these students can do something with an older person. So that we (students) do not develop an app, but as an older person, you can contribute to a high school students’ education, and a high school student can mean something for that older person. So, the app was never developed. […] I sometimes see this tendency among students—as is clearly evident here—to think they have an idea, the app, that is an idea. But there may be twenty more ideas to come up with. But students think that their first idea is good enough, so they will continue with it. While students could also say, it is an idea, it goes in the pool of ideas, and we add more alternative ideas to it. And then, we think and walk around this pool of ideas, and talk to each other about what we consider important criteria. And then you pick one idea out. And that is actually—what I think is—the best way. […] At the moments when the students started making contacts with stakeholders. […] That was during the lockdown period, so the students often did not get an answer. Or then the students were allowed to talk to someone once, and it was still canceled. […] And then I noticed that the students tended to go back to their first idea of an app. Because that idea was also in their innovation proposal, the students had already pre-sorted on the app” [T6 loneliness of the elderly].

Teaching activities

“Well, first I listen to the students, and then I told the students that the idea of the innovation project is not to come up with a solution and implement it, but mainly to go through the academic exercise. So, you move from practical to a theoretical framework of the problem. And then look for theoretical solutions. And then bring that back to reality. So, it is something to investigate, what lies behind the problem of loneliness? I then gave the students some literature suggestions, and also asked what they themselves could think of for ideas. The students came up with questions like, can we find statistics on loneliness, can we find stories about loneliness? Then I said, “I have an idea for a search term. Look for loneliness and health effects, there is a lot to be found about that”. […] It was the next meeting when I told the students, “if you put your idea of an app in the fridge, and look at it, we have now found several effects from loneliness among elderly people. We have learned something about diabetes and cardiovascular diseases”. The students then approached their problem like this. Sometimes they (students) came back because they were restless. They felt uncertain whether they would still have enough time for their app. […] In this way, I tried to give the students something to work with, some knowledge. There is—for example—a lot of literature about health effects. […] At some point, the question was raised, “could there be a barrier for older people to use technology (like an app)? And how can you make a solution from two problems? For example, that the flood simultaneously extinguishes the forest fire”. And then, the students came up with the idea of linking high school students to lonely elderly people. So, I pointed them (students) in that direction, but I did not dictate or think for them. I just guided students to look creatively and innovatively at what you can do. […] Letting go of what they (students) already think and looking again with a different lens to the problem. These conversations with students are always very interesting. Like, ‘okay, you have generated a solution, and we will not evaluate whether it is good or not. But are there more alternative ideas?’ So, first the focus on quantity and then quality. […] I also reward students for coming up with crazy ideas. Can you give an example? By acknowledging and telling students, like ‘wow, that is a really creative idea’. Sometimes I even challenge the students to make their idea even crazier. For example, with the problem of loneliness among elderly people, students were discussing how people in nursing homes are lonely. I asked the students, ‘who here lives in a student dorm, ad how is that?’ Students hang out in common rooms or in the kitchen and make small talk. I asked the students, ‘what if we turned nursing homes into student dorms? Because in that way, elderly people could live together’. I took students back to the innovation proposal in which they (students) had outlined the problem and explored possible solutions. I assured the students that if they went in a different direction, that this was fine too. That is part of the innovation process. I had to reassure the students a few times because they were getting worried that they were not getting any answers from stakeholders in the field” [T6 Elderly loneliness].