The Sustainable Products Development Course (Diplomado en desarrollo de productos sostenibles) has been conceived as a design education strategy that offers last year university students the opportunity to develop a final undergraduate project through a real-life scenario, addressing sustainable development problems by designing sustainable products. Additionally, it provides an alternative way to major in a design career under the COVID-19 pandemic context.

This course looks to complement, reinforce and deepen the students' knowledge of the Universidad de Nariño's Department of Design programs and subjects, focused on product development through the implementation of contemporary tools of ideation, conceptualization and environmental criteria, being eco-design the centric innovation tool. The above implies a great challenge: adapting concepts to the discipline so that its main development axes go beyond commercial and aesthetic aspects, and embrace new priorities for decision-making around product development. In this sense, it is essential to increase awareness and reconsider the effects of "doing", and promote a design practice that revolves around ethical values instead; "... the ultimate responsibility of the designer is to contribute to the production of a livable world."

The challenge for CORD, the research team in charge of proposing the course at Universidad de Nariño Design Department, was to offer a structured course that embed the tools and relevance of designing sustainable objects for today's needs. By doing so, the course aimed to submerge students in product development through the application and implementation of Creative Problem Solving Strategies (CPS), conceptual development and sustainability. The outcome of this is to show different conceptualization and eco-innovation alternatives that focus on the incorporation of environmental criteria in product design and development.

There is a significant difference between the past courses and the Diplomado en desarrollo de productos sostenibles course: it was held through August to November 2020, in the middle of a global and national pandemic crisis. Despite the limitations related to online connectivity, and physical data and project resources gathering, the outcome of the course materialized in eleven final degree projects in which sustainable product solutions range from a home potable water device to a hybrid dehydrator for vegetables and fruit waste.

The Sustainable Products Development course (Diplomado en desarrollo de productos sostenibles) has been conceived as a design education strategy that offers last year university students the opportunity to develop a final undergraduate project through a real-life scenario, addressing sustainable development problems by designing sustainable products. Additionally, it provides an alternative way to major in a design career under the COVID-19 pandemic context.

For contextual purposes, a diplomado is a 180 hours postgraduate course focused on updating and developing specific topics aligned to a discipline or area of study that leads to a certificate upon completion. Under certain circumstances, it can be offered to undergraduates as a project degree, as it is in this case at Universidad de Nariño, a public university located in Pasto, southern Colombia. The university has offered this modality to Industrial Design and Graphic Design students several times before.

This course looks to complement, reinforce and deepen the students' knowledge of the Universidad de Nariño's Department of Design programs and subjects, focused in product development through the implementation of contemporary tools of ideation, conceptualization and environmental criteria, being eco-design the centric innovation tool. The above implies a great challenge: adapting concepts to the discipline so that its main development axes go beyond commercial and aesthetic aspects, and embrace new priorities for decision-making around product development. In this sense, it is essential to increase awareness and reconsider the effects of "doing", and promote a design practice that revolves around ethical values instead; "... the ultimate responsibility of the designer is to contribute to the production of a livable world". Therefore, it is of utter importance that a sustainability model is matured through product development and the practice of eco-design, embedding environmental awareness in a practice that can be carried out in a wide range of Industrial Design professional fields.

The challenge for CORD, the research team in charge of proposing the course at Universidad de Nariño Design Department, was to offer a structured course that embed the tools and relevance of designing sustainable objects for today's needs. By doing so, the course aimed to submerge students in product development through the application and implementation of Creative Problem-solving Strategies (CPS), conceptual development and sustainability. The outcome of this is to show different conceptualization and eco-innovation alternatives that focus on the incorporation of environmental criteria in product design and development.

There is a significant difference between the past courses and the Diplomado en desarrollo de productos sostenibles course: it was held through August to November 2020, in the middle of a global and national pandemic crisis. Despite the limitations related to online connectivity, and physical data and project resources gathering, the outcome of the course materialized in eleven final degree projects in which sustainable product solutions range from a home potable water device to a hybrid dehydrator for vegetables and fruit waste.

By identifying and analyzing problems in diverse contexts, 22 Bachelor of Industrial Design candidates due to graduate in March 2021, applied several sustainable design tools and developed 11 product solutions presented below:

"Ziembra". Self-farming: initiative of educational, social and economic development for low-income families through public schools in San Juan de Pasto

Authors: Paola Santacruz / Juan Sebastián Parra

A design kit to stimulate children's approach to self-farming techniques from school to home.

"Raíz". Crops with a purpose.

Authors: Karen Rosales / Andrés Castro

A set of products aimed to enhance and improve countryside farming maximizing the use of small areas.

"MOD". Circular system for the collection, separation, transformation and commercialization of products from solid usable waste for the social and economic benefit of recycle-collecting families of San Juan de Pasto

Authors: Sara Veloza / Karen Apraez

Modular container wall kit produced from plastic bottle waste collected by recycle-collecting families.

Transformation system for reusing plastic wastage from agrochemicals used in coffee production in La Unión, Nariño

Authors: Camila Rosas / Alejandro Ortiz

Low cost machine to repurpose agrochemical bottles into coffee growing tools.

"BIO +". Actions to minimize deforestation impact generated by carbonization in El Encano, Pasto (Nariño)

Authors: Naslhy Palacios / Lizeth Chamorro

Collection of biomass generated from agricultural residues such as onion and dried coffee pulp, to replace coal and firewood used for home heating and food cooking.

"Sior". Functional organic fertilizer compacting system for corn, potato and vegetable crops in Genoy, Nariño.

Authors: Luis Muñoz / Camila Vallejo Zapata

Mechanic device to compact and transform crop waste into fertilizer bars.

"Clean Water". Design of alternatives to improve quality of water consumed by the inhabitants of the El Rosario village, Jamondino district, Pasto

Authors: Alexander Bolaños / Leidy Tapia

Home drinking water filter made with supplies available at any hardware store.

"Bi Filtro". Hydrocarbon collection system for Lake Guamuez pier in El Encano, Nariño

Authors: Jaison Martinez / Jimmy Burbano

Filters for collection of gas oil waste generated directly from boat engines and in surface water.

"Latir Pacífico". Traditional music learning instrument.

Authors: Erik Sánchez / Mario Segura

Children's assembly kit to build and play a marimba, a traditional xylophone from the Colombian Pacific coast.

"Fruvec". Alternative use of organic waste in the El Tejar market square, San Juan de Pasto

Authors: María Fernanda Coral / Amanda Lucía Mora

Hybrid dehydrator for the use of fruits and vegetables discarded due to their appearance.

"Green Hive". Thermal and environmental system for beehives in San Juan de Pasto

Authors: Gabriela Moreano / Alejandra Tovar

Device for beehives passive heating and local feeding that seeks to reduce the death of bees caused by climate change.

The projects listed above address the following sustainable perspectives from SDG (Sustainable Development Goals):

- Number 2: Zero hungry,

- Number 6: Clean water and sanitation

- Number 7: Affordable and clean energy

- Number 11: Sustainable cities and communities

- Number 12: Responsible consumption and production

- Number 13: Climate action

In an intrinsic way, they also allude to aspects related to the rest of the goals.

In most of the projects, a high-resolution prototype was developed; in those without a prototype, a high-fidelity specifications design and render were produced.

Finally, it is expected that more editions of the Diplomado en desarrollo de productos sostenibles will be held in the near future, continuously adapting to new guidelines to impart distance learning in design. This education experience posed a complex challenge for both students and teachers involved, reaching an interesting level of project proposals that went beyond expectations; the projects not only allowed students to graduate despite the COVID-19 global pandemic, these also developed sustainable-centered products and solution systems that address diverse problems and challenges in the regional context.