The Effects of Design Thinking-Based Interdisciplinary Course on Academic Crafting, Collaborative Self-Efficacy, and Convergent Problem-Solving Ability among Nursing Students

This study examined the effects of a design thinking-based interdisciplinary course on academic crafting, collaborative self-efficacy, and convergent problem-solving ability among nursing students.Data were collected from September 1 to December 7, 2023, and the participants were 43 firstyear nursing students enrolled at D University.The course included nine teams, each of which autonomously selected a topic, defined a problem, and explored solutions.Professors from both disciplines provided continuous team-based feedback through team-teaching, delivered both face-toface and online.The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and paired t-tests with SPSS version 29.0.The results showed that academic crafting significantly increased from 3.51±0.48to 3.72±0.51(t=-2.624,p=.012).Among its subdomains, task crafting significantly improved from 3.44±0.63to 3.73±0.59(t=-2.507,p=.016), whereas cognitive and relational crafting did not differ significantly.Collaborative self-efficacy also significantly increased from 2.69±0.47 to 2.90±0.58(t=-2.271,p=.028).Among its subdomains, opinion integration significantly improved from 2.70±0.56 to 2.95±0.67(t=-2.216,p=.032), while leadership, opinion exchange, and opinion evaluation did not show significant differences.Convergent problem-solving ability did not show a statistically significant change.This study provides empirical evidence that interdisciplinary courses can enhance academic crafting and collaborative self-efficacy among nursing students.Future research should test the effectiveness of teaching and learning methods that allow more in-depth application of design thinking to improve convergent problem-solving ability.