Postgraduate Course: Designing for Change: Projects and Practices (DESI11177)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course will introduce students enrolled on the MA Design for Change programme to project-based learning perspectives. It shall prepare students for their individual dissertation, by encouraging their critical and reflective engagement with methodological approaches fostering design-led change.
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| Course description |
This course will provide students on the MA Design for Change programme opportunities to examine, in depth, methodologies and practices intended to foster change across social, technical and environmental dimensions. The course is intended to prepare postgraduate students for their individual design-led dissertation projects by allowing them to develop a deeper understanding of project and challenge-led perspectives and approaches, whilst exploring a range of associated methodological perspectives. Engagement takes place through participatory lectures and 'flipped learning', workshops and seminars emphasising a range of methods and approaches relevant to social, technical and environmental change projects. Assignments will foster students' abilities to review theoretical perspectives and construct appropriate methodological plans suitable for postgraduate dissertation projects in design-driven domains. The course is delivered through weekly half-day sessions.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 31 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 21,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 6,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 6,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
163 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
This course has 2 components of assessment.
Component 1: Case study analysis (2,000 words) Week 6 (50%).
Component 2: Change Action Plan (2,000 words) May Exam diet (50%).
Component 1 will require the student to produce a detailed analysis of an example of a design for change project. The submission should include a written and illustrated evaluation of the chosen project's aims and objectives, its methodological approach, and the context in which it operates or seeks to operate, as well as the student's own critical reflections regarding potential alternative approaches to the same issue. This assessment will be assessed equally against LO1 and LO3.
Component 2 will require students to identify potential goals for their design-led dissertation and map out a clear rationale for how and why you might work toward achieving these. The plan should elaborate on the kind(s) of change(s) that the students' project is designed to produce. It should outline a clear, step-by-step process and include reflection upon potential practical and ethical challenges that might arise during the project's development. Assessed equally against LO1, LO2, and LO3.
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| Feedback |
Formative feedback:
Feedback is regularly communicated through the course. This takes a number of forms, including verbally through group sessions where work and ideas are discussed with both peers and tutor. Two formative feedback events will take place in the lead up to, and preparation for, the summative submissions: a first one at the mid-point of the course (Week 5-6) and a second one at the end (Week 10-11). The particular format is outlined in the relevant course handbook and the course Learn VLE.
Summative feedback:
The summative feedback for component 1 will feed directly into component 2.
Students will receive individual written feedback and grades on their summative submissions, which will be provided via Learn VLE as per university regulations.
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Describe, critique and discuss methodological approaches and examples of practice that their research has shown are relevant to their design for change interests and commitments
- Plan, theorise, synthesise, and organise a design-led project of suitable scale and reach for a postgraduate student-led dissertation
- Communicate complex information and concepts to relevant audiences clearly and effectively, using appropriate modes and media;
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Reading List
Escobar, Arturo. (2018). Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds. (Durham: Duke UP).
Gaver, William, Boucher, Andy, Pennington, Sarah & Walker, Brendan. (2004). Cultural Probes and the Value of Uncertainty. Interactions 11 (5): 53-56.
Koskinen, Ilpo K., Zimmerman, John, Binder, Thomas, Redström, Johan & Wensveen, Stephan. (2011). Design Research Through Practice: From the lab, field, and showroom. (Waltham, MA: Morgan Kaufmann/Elsevier).
Lury, Celia & Wakeford, Nina, eds. (2012). Inventive Methods: The Happening of the Social. (London: Routledge).
Noel, Lesley-Ann (2023). Design Social Change: Take Action, Work Toward Equity, and Challenge the Status Quo. (Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press).
Simonsen, Jasper & Robertson, Toni. (2012). Routledge International Handbook of Participatory Design. (New York: Routledge).
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
This course will allow students to foster key competencies involving the practice of designing for change through a critical application of a range of skills, techniques and practices. The topic and structure of this course is designed to help equip students with the following graduate attribute skills and mindsets:
Communication skills:
To communicate to varying audiences, through a range of ICT applications, the outcomes of design practice addressing issue-based approaches to problem-solving.
Generic cognitive and subject specific skills:
To examine complex issues through an inquisitive mindset and a critical appraisal of specific contexts of practice.
Professional skills:
To effectively plan, develop, and deliver project-based interventions by using appropriate research methods and participatory approaches.
Transferable skills:
To exercise substantial autonomy in addressing the nature of wicked problems through a project-based approach involving design practices.
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| Keywords | Design Studio,Design Studies,Design for Change,Project-Led Dissertation,design methodology |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Giovanni Marmont
Tel:
Email: gmarmont@exseed.ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Emili Astrom
Tel:
Email: rstrom@ed.ac.uk |
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