Copyright (c) 2009 Sheffield Hallam University All rights reserved. http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session7/track_e Recent Events in Learning en-us Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:28:30 PDT 3600 http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session7/track_e/4 http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session7/track_e/4 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:00:00 PDT The aim of this study is to analyze the structure, role, and effectiveness of a design student's "process book" as a method of capturing and facilitating design thinking. The "process book" includes all of the work completed during a design project such as written notes, drawings, and research. This study poses the following research questions: 1) What role and value does the process book have to design students and instructors? 2) How can the process book structure help to reduce a student's cognitive load, yet allow for the spontaneous actions involved in graphic thinking? This mixed-method research study includes an analysis and exploration of interior design student and instructor perspectives of the process book artifact and tool. The data collection and analysis involves two main components. The first includes an investigation of student and faculty perspectives of the structure, role, and effectivenss of the process book obtained from semi-structured interviews. The second part is an online student survey questionnaire of sophomore, junior, senior, and graduate student perspectives. One interior design program in a large Midwestern university was selected. All students within the undergraduate and graduate program were invited to participate in the survey questionnaire and all faculty were interviewed. Interviews were audio-taped and later transcribed for coding and interpretation. This study serves as a case study and pilot study to provide a foundation for a larger-scale future research initiative. Results from this study will inform two future initiatives: 1) design of a larger-scale research design involving a multi-university sampling frame, and 2) development of a "digital process book" research study. Keywords: Design Process, Design Education, Drawing Research Lori Brunner http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session7/track_e/3 http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session7/track_e/3 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:30:00 PDT According to Schon (1987), professional education should be centred on enhancing the practitioner's ability to reflect before taking action. This is important to the designer for two reasons. The first of these concerns real world professional situations, which are rarely clear and lack 'right answers', the successful professional requires the ability to learn by doing in order to handle complex and unpredictable problems with confidence. The second concerns the nature of the designer's relationship with design problems themselves. The designer's exploration of his/her own awareness develops in parallel with problem definition. Dorst and Cross (2001) describe this as a co-evolution of problem and solution and English (2006) argues that we cannot frame the problem without including in that design space the person who designs. Thus the process of engaging with a design problem involves a journey of self-exploration for the designer who needs to be appropriately equipped for unknown terrain. A distance learning Masters programme was validated in 1999, supporting professional designers to develop as reflective practitioners. The course has run successfully for eight years with students based in Brazil, Canada, UK and Ireland, Holland, Greece, Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and China. The author draws on the experience of delivering this programme to describe two approaches that have evolved in parallel to nurture the development of the reflective practitioner. The first of these encourages students to develop an action research process by applying reflective practice models as organising tools and recording templates. The second clarifies direction and focuses action to address fully and precisely the individual student's aims, insights and motivation. Both these approaches encourage a synergy between practice and theory and involve visual modelling and collaborative reflection through communities of practice. The application of these approaches is shown to generate fundamental insights that positively influence the future actions of students in professional practice. The paper concludes that the consciousness of the expert designer is a critical element of design space and summarises how the disciplined process and clear focus of the approaches discussed contribute to the development of personal confidence and awareness. Keywords: creativity; reflective practice; design process ; design processes Stuart G. English http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session7/track_e/2 http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session7/track_e/2 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:00:00 PDT With the recent developments in communication and information technologies, using Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) in design activity has experienced a remarkable increase. In this paper we present a collaborative learning activity between the University of Sydney (USYD), and the Istanbul Technical University (ITU). This paper shares our teaching experience and discusses the principles of collaborative design learning in virtual environments. Followed by a study on students' perception on the courses and collaborative learning in both universities, this paper also suggests future refinements on the course structure and the main areas of collaborative design learning. Keywords: Collaborative Design; Collaborative Virtual Environments; Design Teaching And Learning Leman Figen Gül http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session7/track_e/1 http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session7/track_e/1 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:30:00 PDT The area of graphic design has expanded since digital media was introduced, and it requires new creative thinking skills in the design process. This paper proposes a design process for a graphic design graduate class using activity theory as a theoretical background. This design process consists of three phases to solve the design problems within diverse design projects. Each phase was examined in terms of how the elements of activity theory could apply to the design process. As a research method, Engeström's activity system model was adapted and explored in the design processes. A case study is presented to see how the proposed design process applied to a design project. Keywords: Graphic Design Project, Design Process, Activity Theory, Prototyping Sunghyun Kang