Abstract

In graphic design education, there is an increased need to integrate design thinking, with less focus on the designed ‘object’ and more focus on its message. Realities of the contemporary profession mandate the development of broad thinking skills; students need to begin viewing themselves as problem-solvers first, imagemakers second. The Alumni Mentor Initiative was devised to introduce beginning graphic design students to design thinking as it manifests itself in practice. Using the LinkedIn website, 80 alumni from the university’s graphic design program were identified and asked to participate in an online mentoring program. Each was matched with one beginning student, who posted three questions to a discussion forum. In this phase, 240 questions and responses were collected. This is phase one of a research initiative. In this phase, the questions and responses have been analyzed based on the following questions: 1) Will experienced design practitioners reinforce the need for abstract thinking skills? 2) Does discussion with alumni help students to understand the groundwork we are setting for advanced communication challenges? 3) Can students better integrate textbook knowledge of theory and methods through conversation with practitioners?

Keywords

Mentoring, social networking, design education

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 30th, 9:00 AM

Social Networking as a Mentoring and Engagement Tool Between Design Alumni and Early Design Students

In graphic design education, there is an increased need to integrate design thinking, with less focus on the designed ‘object’ and more focus on its message. Realities of the contemporary profession mandate the development of broad thinking skills; students need to begin viewing themselves as problem-solvers first, imagemakers second. The Alumni Mentor Initiative was devised to introduce beginning graphic design students to design thinking as it manifests itself in practice. Using the LinkedIn website, 80 alumni from the university’s graphic design program were identified and asked to participate in an online mentoring program. Each was matched with one beginning student, who posted three questions to a discussion forum. In this phase, 240 questions and responses were collected. This is phase one of a research initiative. In this phase, the questions and responses have been analyzed based on the following questions: 1) Will experienced design practitioners reinforce the need for abstract thinking skills? 2) Does discussion with alumni help students to understand the groundwork we are setting for advanced communication challenges? 3) Can students better integrate textbook knowledge of theory and methods through conversation with practitioners?

 

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