A hole in one: breaking barriers & creating communities by engaging product design students with creative model making & collaboration events

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Brook, E.E., Siena, F.L. ORCID: 0000-0002-6908-7365 and Riding, G.T., 2024. A hole in one: breaking barriers & creating communities by engaging product design students with creative model making & collaboration events. In: H. Grierson, E. Bohemia, L. Buck, J. Kim, I. Storer and T. Whitehead, eds., DS 131: Proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (E&PDE 2024). The Design Society, pp. 67-72. ISBN 9781912254200

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.35199/epde.2024.12

Abstract

Within product design education, encouraging collaboration, creativity, and a sense of community among students is vital, especially during the first few weeks of undergraduate study. Creating a student community in the early weeks is crucial for students to adapt to course cultures, adjust to new environments, and establish friendships. This is essential in creative disciplines where students must collaborate, serve as critical friends and network in a professional practice setting. Post-COVID-19 pandemic, students are increasingly anxious in new environments and often reluctant to engage in large events, which is problematic in a sector where ‘community’ is essential. Thus, it’s important to create a collaborative culture quickly within undergraduate programs, however, this is a challenging task with large student cohorts. A strong design community can serve as an incubator for creative ideas, peer learning, and emotional support, helping students thrive in an academic environment that often demands intense problem-solving and innovation. This paper introduces 'A Hole in One,' a Welcome Week project designed to promote student engagement through competitive model-making. Using unique innovative approaches, we introduce a set of core values to first-year Product Design students through experiential learning and collaborative design making. The core aim is to break down barriers and cultivate student communities by challenging student groups to construct a unique crazy golf hole in groups. The collaborative effort resulted in a crazy golf course being assembled for an end of welcome week student competition. Our findings offer educators/institutions guidance in promoting community-based teamwork within design programs, suggesting innovative pedagogical approaches to elevate the educational experience for product design students.

Item Type:

Chapter in book

Description:

Paper presented at 26th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (E&PDE 2024), Aston University, Birmingham, 4-6 September 2024.

Creators:

Brook, E.E., Siena, F.L. and Riding, G.T.

Publisher:

The Design Society

Date:

2024

ISBN:

9781912254200

Identifiers: