Solving Design Problems in Different Cultural Contexts

Posted
August 21, 2020

 

headshot of Abimbola Asojo

Abimbola Asojo, professor and associate dean in the College of Design on the Twin Cities campus is passionate about helping her Interior Design students understand how to solve design problems in different cultural contexts. Abimbola incorporates Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) into her courses, assigning her students research projects where they learn about Nigerian culture and architecture, propose a design for individual lighting projects, and receive feedback from Nigerian students and faculty during virtual presentations. 

One of Abimbola’s students reflected on this global learning experience in the course, saying:

“The opportunity to interact with and learn from students of a similar professional background on an international level is quite amazing. I have learned that you can propose and execute projects in any part of the world without having to be there physically, through the use of technology.”

She has published a paper on this new curriculum innovation, along with her collaborators in Nigeria and Yuliya Kartoshkina from the GPS Alliance. The paper, entitled Multicultural Learning and Experiences in Design Through the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) Framework, was published in the Journal of Teaching and Learning in Technology.

Abimbola has also taken this collaboration outside of the classroom to work with her colleagues at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Osun, Nigeria, on developing the first interior design program at a Nigerian university. This collaboration was recently featured in a Minnesota Daily article. The final project for Abimbola's lighting design course in fall 2020 will have UMN and Obafemi Awolowo students working together on a project in Nigeria to promote deeper intercultural sensitivity in design.

Abimbola participated in the 2011-12 cohort of the Internationalizing Teaching and Learning program and the 2017-18 COIL program, and served as a mentor for the 2018-19 ITL Faculty Cohort Program.

exterior of the new interior design school in Nigeria