Innovating amidst a COVID-19 world

Welcome!

This certificate course was created to give people like you concrete methodologies that you can use to create effective social innovations during the COVID-19 pandemic. This whole course was designed to be completed in two weeks, with the first week focusing on understanding the social or environmental problem that you want to solve; and the 2nd week focusing on creating innovations that solve the problem.

This lecture is conducted by Marjorie Muyrong, an Economics professor in the Ateneo de Manila University. In this video, Marjorie will explain the context of the economy in the new normal. She tackles on different aspects of dealing with the new normal:

1. The necessity of social distancing in the wake of COVID-19 becoming a global pandemic has led to various forms of lockdowns across countries around the globe.

2. Given these restrictions required by lockdowns around the world, the COVID-19 has not only become a public health emergency, but it has also become an urgent socio-economic issue.

3. What the new normal is requiring now is for people to start envisioning a new and better normal.

4. The new normal requires social innovators who can think outside the box and respond to these new requirements--to find new ways of doing things by tweaking existing models and systems already in place in the market so that it works better for everyone.

5. Social innovation therefore requires that we understand the context we now face in this new normal brought by the global pandemic.

This lecture will cover a brief introduction to social innovation. Its definition, some examples, and practical application.

Social innovation: A novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, and sustainable, or just than existing solutions for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals.

How do we navigate in this new normal? How do we design solutions that are adapted to the needs of the people suffering the most?

In this lecture, Angeli Recella, the Startup Incubation Manager of makesense and Quentin Frecon, the founder of school lab Vietnam will talk about the design thinking methodology, a methodology that has been used by startups, NGOs, government, and businesses for ideating to any type of problem.

Using design thinking to create impactful solutions is all about creating something that is desirable, viable, and feasible. Doing this will require you to empathize with the people you’re designing for; be creative in your approach to solving the problem; and be rationale enough to design something that can actually be built, and can gain acceptance from your target users.

This video is going to focus on how you can use design thinking to analyze the problem you want to solve, so that you can identify how exactly you should go about solving the problem.