Category: Design education

  • Innovating Pedagogy – Virtual Studios

    Innovating Pedagogy – Virtual Studios

    The Innovating Pedagogy report for 2019 has just been published by The Open University (IET) in conjunction with the Centre for the Science of Learning & Technology (SLATE), University of Bergen, Norway. The Design Group have one of the sections on Virtual Studios (Section 7!) So I thought I’d share a couple of the stranger […]

  • Play, Wonder, Empathy – Educational trends from the Innovating Pedagogy 2019 report

    Play, Wonder, Empathy – Educational trends from the Innovating Pedagogy 2019 report

    The seventh Innovating Pedagogy 2019 report from The Open University highlights ten trends in teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world. One of these may be of interest to designers, since it considers how studio pedagogy is becoming more prevalent, through the use of Virtual Studios. The report has been written in collaboration with […]

  • The U101 Welcome Pack Incredible Give Away Competition Event Thing

    The U101 Welcome Pack Incredible Give Away Competition Event Thing

    Lola herself has been in touch with the Design Group and asked that we spread the cheer of U101 at this time of year. She has donated a number of U101 Welcome packs to give away to at least 7 lucky recipients. Just look at the creative goodness on offer, each object a portal to […]

  • Design Museum: designs of the year 2018

    Design Museum: designs of the year 2018

    On Saturday, a group of 22 Design and Innovation students (and their friends and family) joined the Qualification team and two Associate Lecturers on a tour of the Design Museum’s permanent exhibition ‘Designer Maker User’ and the Beazley’s Designs of the Year 2018 exhibition. Andy, a U101 student, gives a good summary of the rundown […]

  • It was a PIG of a Game!

    It was a PIG of a Game!

    PIG – the Problem Identification Game – from the OU Archive  PIG was part of the module T262 (1975-1982) entitled Man-made futures: design and technology, a 30 credit module students typically enrolled on after completing their Level 1 study, which then was two foundation modules (60 credits each) such as  The man-made world: a foundation […]

  • Envisioning Futures of Design Education

    Envisioning Futures of Design Education

    Do you know how design should be taught in the future? Our recent paper in the journal Dialectic reports on a workshop we held with a group 6 design educators and 40 international participants to explore the future of design education.   To spark off the discussion, the 6 design educators presented 4 provocative future […]

  • Learning about design and technology

    Learning about design and technology

    Learning about design and technology:  It is not true – there is such a thing as a free course! Design and technology are increasingly ubiquitous concepts.  This is reflected in several recently launched free OpenLearn Courses in areas relevant to engineering, software and industrial design. ——-Find out more TT284 An introduction to web applications architecture An introduction […]

  • Design Star Methods Day

    Design Star Methods Day

    For the last two years we’ve hosted a research methods day for the AHRC funded Centre for Doctoral Training  ‘Design Star‘. This year we focused on exploring the relationship between ontologies, epistemologies and methodologies in our own research  … through the making of personal ‘thinking positions’ pyramids and placing them on a landscape describing different paradigms of approaching research, […]

  • End of Year 2018 exhibition

    End of Year 2018 exhibition

    Creating an exhibition of Design and Innovation undergraduate students’ work has been one of the most rewarding experiences I had for a while. We called for contributions to an End of Year design exhibition. Having an ‘Annual show’ has a long tradition in other design schools, but we never had one at the OU. This […]

  • Facing austerity with clever design

    Facing austerity with clever design

    Braving a snowstorm and impending TMA deadlines, three students and a visitor joined us to explore the Imperial War Museum’s exhibits in the North. We investigated the effects austerity measures had on the designs and designing throughout the 20th century. The scarcity of materials and resources, and resulting inventions of new materials and production techniques, was […]