Online Learning

The Center for Socially Engaged Engineering and Design offers several opportunities to learn and practice the skills of socially engaged design.

Introduction to Socially Engaged Design Online Course (Coursera)

Engineering courses often focus on technical skills and processes, leaving students with few examples of how to apply these skills in the real world. With “Introduction to Socially Engaged Design,” you’ll learn about this essential engineering and design framework, strengthening the connection between your work and its impact on individuals, societies, and the environment.

Developed by expert faculty at the University of Michigan, the Socially Engaged Design model shows engineers and designers to explore the broader societal implications, outcomes, and potential unintended consequences early in the product design process. You’ll learn to explore, develop, and iterate on your solutions to make equitable, evidence-based decisions. You will better understand how your experiences shape your work and explore how power, privilege, identities, and cultural contexts can shape your approach and impact. The course draws heavily on real-world examples of product design solutions that enhanced and deterred the progress of individuals and communities. In addition to these concepts, you’ll learn how to effectively work with stakeholders to bring a design solution to life.

By understanding design solutions’ economic, social, and environmental impacts, you can develop better product and engineering design solutions for current and future generations.

Socially Engaged Design Academy (SEDA)

The Socially Engaged Design Academy (SEDA) uses a learning block model and combines online learning with face-to-face, hands-on coaching. Each learning block begins with questions about a learner’s existing knowledge before moving into studying core content on topics from multiple disciplines and sources. Afterwards, you meet in person with a coach for active practice and real-time feedback before reflecting on what you’ve learned.

SEDA’s learning blocks cover a variety of topics to help designers through the socially engaged design process. Read below to learn more about these topics and how they fit into the socially engaged design process.