How are Living Lab-based Classes run?​

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The living lab-based class run under IPAID’s project typically involve four different stages: first, the students identify local issues or problems; second, they have to prove and investigate why and how the problems they identify are important and serious; third, they study further as a team the causes and backgrounds of the problems; fourth, they seek and design potential solutions to the problems. At the end of the semester, the students present their work in the form of video recordings. These recordings are uploaded on the current website and shared among the partner universities. While actual implementation of the solutions is not normally expected to be feasible in a short time frame of a university module, the students are asked to design as precisely as possible how the proposed solutions would potentially work and what potential impacts they will have on real life. The teachers provide relevant supervision throughout all stages, giving feedback on whether the problems that the students identify have local relevance, their background study is relevant and adequate, and their proposed solutions are viable and implementable. The teachers also guide the students by providing information on various successes and failed cases as well as cases comparable to the projects that the students pursue.

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When the living lab classes are expanded to international partner universities, given diversity in administrative structures and available resources between the participating universities, some flexibility is allowed so that each partner university can run living lab-based courses in a way that is suitable for their respective conditions. At the initial stage, the host university (Yonsei University Mirae Campus) and a prospective partner university has a series of face-to-face and online meetings: the former provides a sample syllabus and manuals which can be modified according to the needs of the latter. However, minimum levels of coordination are required so that the prospective partner university is expected to include in its courses or modules five weeks/sessions dedicated to living lab activities – one week for introduction on living labs, three weeks for problem identifying, an in-depth study of the problems identified and designing solutions, and one week for presentation. Furthermore, to share the processes and outcomes of living lab-based classes, regular communication between the host university and international partners is expected.