Visual learning is the style of learning where a learner utilizes different visuals to enhance the learning process. It could be anything like a model, a graph, a diagram, etc. The idea here is that visual learning can be applied to one of the levels of design thinking to make the process of design thinking more effective. Design thinking essentially focuses on framing the issues and empathizing with them, before ideating a solution and developing a trial or prototype to solve the issue.

Here visual tools can be applied to frame the issue. A very interesting study has been conducted in California in this context. Teachers came up with a cross-curricular, cross-grade challenge for students to come up with a solution for the issue that they could relate themselves to the most. Students were encouraged to develop their own reference material to help understand the issue. This lays emphasis on using digital media and visual learning to put together the idea in the form of powerpoint or a diagram. Students were found to use a variety of mediums like blogs, music, write-ups, presentations to understand the issue. The fact that they were a very diverse group, in terms of their age and culture did not affect the learning process. In fact, teachers observed that the outcome of this method was more effective than any of the previous methods. This is an effective way of using not only visual learning at the ideation stage but also at the time of proposing a solution. Prototype building and testing is nothing but a visual representation of the solution. The audience can relate more to the solution that they can see and try out, rather than reading a proposal paper. Again, this can be molded to suit the level of the audience, and that is one more essential component of design thinking.

There is a lot of emphases, these days, on applying design thinking to come up with innovative solutions to any problem. This thinking can have tremendous potential in the teaching-learning space. This space is evolving rapidly with the use of digital media. An amalgamation of visual learning methods with these concepts is something that holds a lot of promise.

The following links have been used to come up with ideas presented in this write-up:

https://www.thoughtco.com/visual-learning-style-3212062

https://www.gettingsmart.com/2017/11/real-life-examples-of-design-thinking-in-the-clasroom/

https://learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/design-thinking-approach-to-elearning-emphasizes-empathy