Abstract

Employability studies continue to highlight the fact that digital media design graduates may not be sufficiently prepared to bridge the gap between university and industry. In response, an alternative learning and teaching approach for digital media design education, the POOL Model framework, was developed and subsequently trialled at an Australian university. A broad underpinning strategy of the framework is to reflect industry practice through implementing workplace realities such as multidisciplinary teamwork. Introducing multidisciplinary collaborative practice into design education is identified as necessary; however, exactly how these collaborations can be managed at an undergraduate level is less well defined. This paper describes the design of a collaboration that engages undergraduate digital media design students in multidisciplinary teamwork with information technology students and subsequently multimedia journalism students as well. Can such multidisciplinary collaborations be beneficial for all participating students? Are there too many disciplines involved? Challenges that commonly occur when undergraduate design students engage in multidisciplinary collaborations with disciplines outside the creative arts were identified. These informed the development of strategies (pragmatic principles) which aim to facilitate the functioning of the POOL Model framework and the development of a sustainable solution. Findings from a three-year study are presented.

Keywords

multidisciplinary undergraduate design education, POOL Model framework, multidisciplinary collaboration

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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Jun 28th, 9:00 AM

Integrating multidisciplinary collaboration in undergraduate design education: Too many cooks spoil the broth?

Employability studies continue to highlight the fact that digital media design graduates may not be sufficiently prepared to bridge the gap between university and industry. In response, an alternative learning and teaching approach for digital media design education, the POOL Model framework, was developed and subsequently trialled at an Australian university. A broad underpinning strategy of the framework is to reflect industry practice through implementing workplace realities such as multidisciplinary teamwork. Introducing multidisciplinary collaborative practice into design education is identified as necessary; however, exactly how these collaborations can be managed at an undergraduate level is less well defined. This paper describes the design of a collaboration that engages undergraduate digital media design students in multidisciplinary teamwork with information technology students and subsequently multimedia journalism students as well. Can such multidisciplinary collaborations be beneficial for all participating students? Are there too many disciplines involved? Challenges that commonly occur when undergraduate design students engage in multidisciplinary collaborations with disciplines outside the creative arts were identified. These informed the development of strategies (pragmatic principles) which aim to facilitate the functioning of the POOL Model framework and the development of a sustainable solution. Findings from a three-year study are presented.

 

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