OKIO Annual Report

Transcription

1 OKIO Annual Report

2 Introduction The OKIO (Opleidings Kommissie Industrieel Ontwerpen) is the combined programme committee of the four educational programmes provided by the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) of the TU Delft: BSc in Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) MSc in Integrated Product Design (IPD) MSc in Design for Interaction (DfI) MSc in Strategic Product Design (SPD). Legal task of the OKIO The legal task of the programme committee is to advise on the educational programme. The advice given comprises requested advice on teaching and examination regulations and requested or selfinitiated advice on the quality and execution of the educational programmes. Composition OKIO is composed of five members from the teaching staff and five students; it is supported by a professional secretary. One new staff member and four new student members were appointed at the start of this academic year 2014/15. Teaching Staff Students Iemkje Ruiter Chair Esther Bosman Vice Chair Marc Tassoul BSc IDE portfolio Koen Fraijman BSc IDE portfolio Ingrid Mulder MSc DfI portfolio Marga Uña Borras MSc DfI portfolio Silje Dehli MSc SPD portfolio Annelijn Vernooij MSc SPD portfolio Wilfred van der Vegte MSc IPD portfolio Stefanie Smithuis/Arthur Vogel MSc IPD portfolio Professional secretary Manon Borgstijn Meetings The OKIO held 14 scheduled 90 minute meetings between 15 September 2014 (OKIO 401) and 22 June 2015 (OKIO 414) and a BBQ meeting on 30 June 2015 to close the year (OKIO 415). To these meetings the OKIO has invited a number of guests: Dean, Ena Voûte, 1 time Director of education, Jan Schoormans, 2 times Coordinator of BSc IDE, Henk Kuipers, 2 times Coordinator of MSc IPD, Arjen Jansen, 1 time Coordinator of MSc DfI, Pieter Desmet, 1 time Coordinator of MSc SPD, Dirk Snelders, 1 time Educational adviser, Nel Pouw, 1 time Coordinator of Research, Pieter Jan Stappers, 1 time Coordinator Academic writing, Laurent Willemsen, 1 time

3 Activities of the OKIO OER/TER It s the OKIO s legal task to comment on the Onderwijs en Examen Reglement (OER) and the Teaching and Examination Regulations (TER). The final version of the OER/TER has been approved by the OKIO. The OKIO discussed the drafts of the OER/TER for the academic year and sent its comments to the Dean. Requested comments The OKIO received two documents for comment: Concept of a Manual for Education Committees of the TU Delft (sender: Ellen Bos, Education and Student Affairs) Strategic plan Internationalisation (sender: Willemine Biemond, International Office) Both documents have been discussed and comments have been sent. The OKIO appreciates the effort of the University to develop a Manual for Education Committees. Apart from this five OKIO members were interviewed about the Quality Culture in Higher Education. This was an initiative of the Onderwijsraad. Self initiated advise The OKIO has sent a letter concerning the increase of the numerus fixus to the Director of Education. The OKIO expressed its concern about this increase in combination with the reorganisation of the DE Department. Guests The OKIO invited a number of guests to discuss several topics: Director of Education (Jan Schoormans) The following topics were discussed: Plans for education for the near and further future Facilities Research in education Funding Honours Programme UTQ and level of English of the teaching staff Continuity of in house knowledge in the DE department Educational advisor (Nel Pouw) The OKIO received the report Tijdschrijven in de Bachelor and discussed the following: Criteria for the selection of the courses What has been / will be done with the results Publication of the results Value of the outcome of the study

4 Dean (Ena Voûte) and Director of Education (Jan Schoormans) The Dean and Director of Education were invited to discuss the following topics: DE reorganisation and the effects on the quality of education The problems with embargo / non disclosure requirements from companies (and how does this influence the involvement of companies in courses) Bachelor Coordinator (Henk Kuipers) and Research Coordinator (Pieter Jan Stappers) The bachelor coordinator and the research coordinator were invited to discuss the following topics: The research culture in the bachelor and the master programmes How research is defined in the bachelor and master and the creation of a common language for research in the design process within our education Making research and its role in the design process more explicit within the courses and programmes The critical reflective attitude of students and the lack thereof Coordinator Academic Writing (Laurent Willemsen) Yhe coordinator Academic Writing was invited to discuss the following: The plans considering the academic writing learning line The involvement of the teaching staff in the assessment of the writing skills The development of a database with all relevant documents and presentations, accessible for both staff and students Coordinators of BSc and MSc programmes Every year the OKIO invites the coordinators of the bachelor and the three master programmes. What has been discussed in these meetings can be found in the respective chapters of this report.

5 Bachelor Education in general Both the Director of Education and the Bachelor Coordinator assured the OKIO that the reorganisation of the DE department will have no influence on the courses taught by DE department members Technology Some minor changes have been made in courses that are part of the technology learning line. A major change to be expected is the disappearance of the Modelling course (the course content will be implemented in other courses) and the start of the new course Towards Circular Product Design/ Sustainability. Design drawing Koos Eissen retired this year, Jan Willem Hoftijzer is the new coordinator of Design Drawing. The OKIO advises the Bachelor Coordinator to discuss with Jan Willem to include visual communication in the drawing programme. Design & Experience Ger Bruens, responsible for the formgiving learning line, is retiring. The OKIO is concerned that, after the retirement of Ger Bruens, formgiving will not receive the attention it needs. Henk Kuipers informs us that a professor in this area will be appointed in the near future. This might be a good moment to discuss the position and the importance of formgiving in the bachelor education. Design Coaches The OKIO wonders what the idea and strategy are considering the ratio of internal and external design coaches. The OKIO expresses its concerns about the continuity of the long term expertise of the design coaches and the IDE design culture, would the number of internal coaches drop below a critical level. The faculty does need to guarantee the continuity in our approach to design education and project coaching. Research In the Bachelor Final Project it became clear that students lack research skills. Students are not aware of the various types of research they learned during their courses and are not able to apply the research skills they have. The OKIO advised the Bachelor Coordinator to make the research learning line in the bachelor more clear to students as well as teachers. Following this, the Bachelor Coordinator asked the coordinators of the bachelor courses to describe the various types of research in their course. A similar approach would be recommendable for design methodology, to provide teachers and students with an overview of the various methods. Attitude A problem that has been addressed a number of times in the discussions is the change from a university attitude to a school attitude. Students tend to tick boxes instead of having a critical and

6 investigative attitude. This is partly caused by the way courses are constructed. The course coordinators in the bachelor should try to prevent this behaviour as much as possible. Points of attention / actions next year Monitoring the effect of the reorganisation of the DE department on education Monitoring the formgiving learning line. Discussing the drawing learning line with the coordinator. Discussing the (lack of) attention to Graphic Design in the Bachelor Programme. Monitoring the research learning line. Update on Towards Circular Product Design. Prevention school attitude

7 Bridging programme From the concept of the OER 2015/2016 the OKIO learned that the Bridging Programme will switch from the first semester to the second semester. The OKIO would like to know who initiated this switch. What are the implications of this switch for the courses that can be taken as part of the bridging programme? And how was this communicated to the ones involved? The OKIO wonders who is responsible for the bridging programme. The bridging programme is a bachelor level programme, but it is not clear whether the bachelor coordinator or the master coordinators are responsible for the programme and who is responsible for the overall coordination of the bridging programme. Points of attention / actions next year Next year the OKIO will invite the Director of Education to discuss the Bridging Programme and the timely communication about changes in the programme to those involved.

8 Masters in general Research The OKIO is concerned about the link between research and education. Students who already know that they want to do research usually find their way, but students who might be interested in doing research do not know where they should go. The faculty should improve the communication towards students about research and promote it more, for example by showing interesting examples of research projects in GPS and by making the students more aware of the available graduation projects in research. Moreover, students tend to see design and research as two different entities and often do not see their close relationship. It should be made more clear to students what research is and how research connects with design. Also the perception of what research can entail is not always clear. In the meeting with the DfI coordinator, Pieter Desmet considered the idea of making a big visualization that maps all the research going on in the faculty at the moment. The OKIO supports this idea. According to the IPD coordinator research has full focus, and the lacking knowledge in the field of research is currently being addressed during various courses. Graduation The process of finding a graduation project/coach has been discussed with all master coordinators. The OKIO emphasized towards the IPD coordinator that the communication about how to find graduation projects is not clear. Students informed the OKIO that some professors in the DE department decline graduation requests from students (even though it is a mandatory part of their job). The SPD coordinator is working on creating an overview of the various options for graduation projects. However, the possibilities are so diverse it is almost impossible to cluster them into clear directions and definitions for students. It would be a good idea to select a number of projects typical for each master and provide these descriptions to students and staff. The graduation rubric is not specified for each master and therefore very generic. Using the rubric will show whether it is a good instrument to assess research master projects. The OKIO would like to know what the developments are considering the plans to appoint a graduation course coordinator. Electives Problems still occur with enrolling for electives. Students enrol for more electives than needed and afterwards select the ones to really attend to. This creates uncertainties for both staff and students. Often it is not clear how many students will attend and therefor it is hard to organize courses correspondingly in terms of rooms and staff, to name but two aspects. Students attitude and knowledge There is a difference in motivation and maturity level of students when entering the master. International students need to prepare and take some important decisions before moving to The Netherlands. This makes them more conscious and consequently more proactive in their studies than students from our own bachelor. This should be a point of attention for tutors of group work.

9 There also is a difference in knowledge between students from the Delft IDE bachelor and the students from abroad or from other Dutch IDE Bachelors. Not only should the coordinators of the master courses be aware of this and deal with it in their courses, they also should provide course material to enable students to fill gaps in their knowledge or get familiar with the Delft methods. Points of attention / actions next year Monitoring the use of the graduation rubric Monitoring the making of an overview of typical graduation projects for each master Monitoring the availability of graduation tutors Monitoring the electives enrollment How to deal with the mind set of students from our bachelor when entering the master, in comparison to other master applicants How to deal with the variety in knowledge of the master students Profile of the Masters Graduation coordinator

10 Master Strategic Product Design Vision on the future Master SPD In the discussion with SPD master coordinator, Dirk Snelders, he shared his vision in general of the master programme as it is in a revision state. The role of strategic design in business is shifting. More diverse job positions are available for strategic designers next to the traditional product manager position, and the industrial design domain in general is changing towards more product service systems. Dirk will keep a focus on this changing role of strategic design in society and will try to adapt the content of the master accordingly. Strategic Product Design is often seen as valuable and present at the beginning and at the end of the product development process (fuzzy front end and muddy back end). However, it is important to make clear that strategic design is valuable throughout the whole process. Strategic product designers also play an important role during concepting, embodiment and manufacturing, and this makes the students unique in comparison to business students from Universities like Erasmus (Rotterdam). Some of the plans for the near future of the SPD master are discussed below. Discrepancy in workload and thematic semesters Like in previous years, the discrepancy in workload between the fall and spring semester is a point of attention. In the revision of the master Dirk wants to improve this by introducing thematic semesters where the fall semester is active and focusses on strategic design and the spring semester is reflective and focusses on research and positioning. However, this means that the spring semester will still contain a lot of research which is experienced as heavier by the students at this moment. Design skills Within the courses Dirk wants to integrate techniques to improve the visualization skills of SPD students as these skills are different from those developed in the bachelor. Dirk wants to include a broader perspective of media, like movie, illustrative drawing, photography and prototyping. Also in the bachelor the SPD related courses should include more use of design skills customized for strategic design. Furthermore Dirk wants to strengthen the role of technology in the master as he sees that SPD students can be of high value for companies because of their ability to create innovative directions based on technological developments in combination with their expertise in brand strategy. Change in courses Some electives in the SPD program, like Service Design and Creative Facilitation, are way more popular than others. Dirk is aware of this and is considering to make these courses mandatory. Product service systems play an increasingly important role in society and also in the SPD master. There are no plans to change the existing compulsory courses. The first year of the master should consist of mandatory courses and within the second year students should be able to choose an SPD direction, e.g. Brand Design, by taking electives. Group work Like last year, students complain that group work in all courses makes it hard to schedule meetings, especially when group members are doing different electives. Working with smaller groups or

11 individual assignments could be an option but the PIM department lacks capacity to realize this. The capacity of the department has not grown with the number of students in the master. Smaller groups and individual assignments should remain a point of attention within the constraints of the department as it would test the individual level of students in a better way. However, group work reflects the future way of working for SPD students well. Student distribution The aim is to keep the number of students at the current level but to increase the percentage of international students and students with work experience. As Dirk wants to increase the percentage of students with work experience he is working on a plan to enable these students to do more individual work as they can be hampered by group work. In that sense the master would become more customizable than it is at the moment. Points of attention / actions next year Monitoring the effect of the capacity of the PIM department on the education Monitoring the revision of the master o Introduction of more individual assignments o workload/motivation in the spring semester (with the theme Research)

12 Master Design for Interaction (DfI) Program setup According to the DfI Master coordinator, Pieter Desmet, DfI is doing fine in general, and the programme structure is well designed. During the assessment in 2014 DfI was set as a leading example in the world, the program is unique. There is a clear link between research and education which works both ways, which is a special strength of DfI. Pieter thinks students who graduated from DfI easily find jobs. The coordinator explains that nowadays there are two main concerns in the program that have to be evaluated. On the one hand, the strong need for internship room and on the other hand the high amount of overlapping courses for students starting in the fall semester. Students experience difficulties to do an internship. Pieter is looking for ways to create more space in the curriculum. Internship space can be created by replacing or by rearranging credits of the Joint Master Project (JMP) in the third semester. One idea could be to shorten JMP, another to choose either JMP or an internship. This could be applied in all three master programmes. An idea to avoid overload for students starting in the fall semester is to increase the amount of credits in the Master specific project Exploring Interactions (EI) and eliminate the electives option. Company involvement Pieter says there is already a lot of collaboration with companies and there is no need to increase that, but it could be improved. It is well balanced as it is now, although students would prefer to have more collaboration. Pieter thinks companies still do not know what design is and what design can do for them. DfI is more about designing solutions for problems. It is difficult to explain what DfI means. Also to the students in the bachelor. Maybe the program can be better promoted by showing examples of DfI graduation projects and DfI students telling about their experiences. Pieter is happy to see that DfI alumni who have been working for some time are now hiring new DfI alumni. This will change the way companies look at DfI but it takes time. Course skills preparation Bachelor students have different skills or a different level of skills than for example international students. Pieter thinks it should be clearly communicated which skills are needed, but it is the responsibility of the students to teach themselves the needed skills. Points of attention / actions next year Monitor the overload reduction plans; proactive ask about the extra ects to EI

13 Master Integrated Product Design Integrated Product Design (IPD) The contents of the IPD master programme offer a student the ability to master most aspects of the embodiment phase. Students are prepared well enough to design products (and systems & services) at a professional level. However, during the meeting a number of aspects of the IPD master programme have been addressed that will require attention in the coming years. Courses During the meeting with the IPD coordinator, Arjen Jansen, the implementation as well as the content of the courses have been discussed. The OKIO pointed out that the implementation of mainly large courses during the master can have a considerable downside on the personal expertise of a student. All four main courses, ACD, AED, JMP, and graduation, are taking a half year to complete and are awarded with at least 18 ECT. The decision to fail a student after a half year of work can be hard for a tutor. Many of these courses involve group work, which make it hard to verify whether an individual student meets all requirements to complete a course. AED The OKIO has expressed its concerns on the way AED is implemented. The sub courses in AED are not always relevant to the main design project and the amount of deadlines of sub courses increase the workload too much. The choice to integrate almost all competences that need to be taught into the large main courses seems to have forced the curriculum builders to incorporate topics that do not really fit into these courses. If topics taught in these non conforming sub courses are indeed considered indispensable, that would be yet another motivation for reconsidering the concept of arranging the whole programme around large main courses. The changes to the SST sub course that have been made since last year are deemed an improvement, yet how to implement electronics in a design project is still not educated well enough. The lectures during AED still repeat a lot of knowledge from the bachelor. This, together with the high workload of all sub courses, causes many students to not attend (all) lectures. Advice towards the IPD coordinator Further improve the SST and CPS courses in a way that students acquire the knowledge how electronics are implemented in a design project. Increase continuity by reducing repetition from the bachelor. Monitor workload / reducing workload Points of attention / actions next year Workload during AED and ACD Reduction of the amount of repeated material from the bachelor