Abstract:

There is growing concern among university professors regarding recurring problems such as absenteeism in lectures and dropout rates. This scenario raises essential questions:
- Are there flaws in the methodological strategy?
- Are there underlying problems that we are unaware of?

To answer these questions, it is essential to have a thorough understanding of the student's academic context, their difficulties, and educational needs. Based on this, it will be possible to design effective teaching methodologies that ensure the quality of knowledge transfer.

Furthermore, Design Thinking (DT) is an ideal methodology for the creative resolution of complex problems, placing people and their needs at the centre of the process. For this reason, it has been chosen as the working method for this research.

Methodology:
The DT is divided into five stages of work: ‘Empathising’ with the user; ‘Defining’ their problems or needs; ‘Ideating’ solutions aimed at resolving them; ‘Prototyping’ the most viable ones; and ‘Validating’ their effectiveness by assessing them with the user. This research focused on the development of the first two stages through a training workshop with 14 professors from the University of Extremadura (UEx). This sample included professors from degrees ranging from Social Sciences (Business Administration and Management, Law, Tourism) to Engineering (Forestry and Environmental Engineering), from three different faculties.
The activity was conducted synchronously on the Teams platform, using structured brainstorming, collaborative tools such as the digital whiteboard, and small work rooms (3-4 people) to encourage participation.

It was divided into two activities:
- Activity 1: Symptom Detection and Problem Synthesis
The objective was to identify and synthesise specific educational problems, applying the DT technique "Saturate-Group" in three phases: diagnosis of symptoms or problems, grouping by affinity, and synthesis into headlines.
To carry this out, participants were randomly divided into three virtual rooms. After the discussion, a total of 24 symptoms (post-its) were written on the whiteboard, grouped into 8 headlines of central problems. These included, among others, "lack of attention in class," "excessive memorization," and "misuse of Artificial Intelligence,".
- Activity 2: Identification of Causes and Hypotheses
The objective was to associate each problem headline with its possible causes. Through brainstorming, a total of 30 hypothetical causes were detected. For instance, distraction from mobile devices was identified as a potential cause of inattention.

In a subsequent asynchronous phase, a questionnaire was designed to validate or refute these hypothetical causes among the students. Twenty-two questions were drafted, and participating professors were asked to select the most relevant through individual voting.

Conclusions and Next Steps:
The methodology enhanced participation and raised awareness of common and transversal issues, regardless of the degree or faculty. The next phase of the research will be to apply the questionnaire to obtain quantitative data to validate the hypotheses formulated, as well as to continue with the following stages of DT to complete the creative process.

Keywords:

Design Thinking, Teaching innovation, Empathy, Educational Needs, Questionnaire.