Aligning teaching and learning approach and assessment method to enhance the quality of higher design education

The design of modern higher education programmes in the field of industrial and product design must strive to meet the career expectations of both employers and students. How educators attempt to match the expectations of both students and industry is of critical importance to the knowledge-driven UK economy. Recent research indicates that skills, knowledge and creativity (SKC) are equally important for both seasoned designers and graduates alike (Guo, 2011). These attributes are important, but not enough; the ability to manage, liaise with clients and apply real-world experiences are required by most employers (Zerillo, 2005). There is, however, a mismatch between employer’s expectations and the abilities of graduate students in a number of areas. In fact a staggering 21% of UK-based design consultancies said they were 'not at all satisfied' with the skills of the graduates they were employing in the areas of design skills, literacy, mathematical ability and, perhaps most importantly, business awareness. Teaching is the delivery or transmission of information/knowledge to facilitate students’ learning through growth or by changing their conceptions of the subject matter. This is done by a number of established teaching paradigms and learning models (Fox, 1983; Martin, 1990; Dall’ Alba, 1990; Samuelowicz and Bain, 1992). The teaching and learning methods employed at university levels 4 and 5 (years 1 and 2) are often rote and peer-based communication models as delivered in most secondary schools. In the final year of a degree, the teaching and learning style is often more aligned with the self-directed method, giving students greater freedom to select their preferred direction and equipping themselves to meet the requirements and needs of industry. The method of assessment plays a significant role in a student’s education: many students tend to place great emphasis on passing a module without first seeking to understand the content. Intelligent selection of assessment method is therefore critical in ensuring students are strategically steered towards learning the new skills and knowledge laid out in the syllabus. This paper shows that both the teaching and learning approach and the method of assessment method are of equal importance in curriculum/module design. Furthermore a roadmap, an idealized “learners journey” is presented for studies at the higher educational level. This model is considers student aspirations, university/HEIs’ curriculum design, skills expected of students to fulfil career goals and the needs of the product and industrial design industries

Students' uses and gratifications for using computer-mediated communication media in learning contexts

Despite a growing stream of research into the use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) media in higher education, there remains limited understanding about the students‘ motivations for using CMC alongside non-CMC media within a learning context. This article identifies seven dimensions of motivation from the perspective of uses and gratifications (U&G), including information seeking, convenience, connectivity, problem solving, content management, social presence, and social context cues. It was found that each CMC satisfied different motivations for its use, and that overall CMC best fulfilled information seeking, convenience, connectivity, and content management motivations. This study also identifies a number of similarities and differences between CMC and non- CMC media in terms of the motivations for their use. Finally, the study concludes with a discussion of the implications for Information Systems (IS) researchers, higher education, and organizations

Logo Design

A logo design for an AHRC-Newton Fund Projec

Experiencing the History and Cultural Heritage: The Tourist Centred Map Design of Liverpool City

The tourist maps are geographic maps designed for tourists that indicate the narrow course of tour itineraries such as foot routes, automobile or railroad travel routes, or some combination of these. Specialised maps serve as advertisements for tourism and as a means to publicise vacation spots, sightseeing landmarks, and tourist attractions. A good specialised tour map may combine both the functions of guiding tourism and broadening tourists' horizons of regional culture and historical attractions. A usable product can assist people in decision-making process, thus, taking account of users’ requirements to create an ‘Simple Interface’ is the strategy of this map design. This paper introduces the concept of a thematic tour map design that bases on the regeneration of Liverpool Albert Dock, to reveal the scenic spots in the regenerated post-industrial zone of the city. As one of the cultural products developed in the urban regeneration project, this knowledge-oriented map design takes account of human-centred design (HCD) approach, aimed to enhance the user's interactive experience, and add commemorative value to the product. Following the theory of three levels of design: function, form, and user experience (UX). The design focuses not only on: (1) the function of the map, such as illustrating geographic/transportation information and rendering regional cultural/industrial heritage attractions, but also (2) the aesthetic styling of the product to satisfy the commemorative/collection demand of tourists; and in particular, the design emphases (3) to improve the UX through creating an ergonomic user interface (UI). Applying product semantic/semiotics principle, this tourist-centred map design has proposed to create a simple interface of the map, and with the aesthetic form of graphic presentation, thereby, to provide the users an intuitive interaction with the map that enhances the users’ experience. In this map design, the tourist information of the city was highlighted to focus on regional culture and industrial heritage presentation. The contents were categorised into geographic information and knowledge sections. The map consists of Liverpool Attractions, City Centre Map, Mersey Rail Map and Albert Dock History. Having applied the foldable concept and 3D aerial style in the map design, the product helps the users to easily carry and use. In addition, the iconic post-industrial architectures of the dock and the colour of Liverpool urban landscapes were extracted, abstracted, and applied to the map design, aimed to add commemorative value and to reflect Liverpool’s distinctive scenic spots. Having targeted both to satisfy the functional requirements of the users and to introduce necessary/relevant knowledge of the city, this knowledge-oriented thematic map design offers accurate and humanised service, so as to improve the user’s experience in travelling. This paper expects to provide designers or researchers with an example of future map design, through employing the HCD approach to create a knowledge-oriented map with an improved user experience

Towards an Ergonomic Interface in Ship Bridges: Identification of the Design Criteria

Despitecontemporaryadvancementsmadetosafetyandassistivetechnologieswithin the maritime industry, approximately 80% of the accidents are attributed to human errors. One of common causations of human errors are the result of distractions produced by increasing cognitive load and inadequate working environment, which impact seafarers’ decision-making abilities. Great efforts have been made to expand the technology-centred design over the last decade, however, ergonomic considerations of safety and comfort in seafarers’ workplace conditions and procedures were not improved. This paper aims to study the design criteria of an ergonomic interface for a human-centred design solution to address these ergonomic issues in vessel operations, in particular the physical ergonomic and anthropometric specifications. In addition, the project seeks the assistance of digital technology to upgrade the interface design of current workplace, and further, to facilitate the design of ‘a product of future ship bridge’ generated for bettering seafarers’ wellbeing in their workplace

Identification and analysis of genomic islands in Burkholderia cenocepacia AU 1054 with emphasis on pathogenicity islands

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Concept of a Self-Learning Workplace Cell for Worker Assistance While Collaboration with a Robot Within the Self-Adapting-Production-Planning-System

For some time, the focus of past research on industrial workplace designs has been the optimization of processes from the technological point of view. Since human workers have to work within this environment the design process must regard Human Factor needs. The operators are under additional stress due to the range of high dynamic processes and due to the integration of robots and autonomous operating machines. There have been few studies on how Human Factors influence the design of workplaces for Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC). Furthermore, a comprehensive, systematic and human-centred design solution for industrial workplaces particularly considering Human Factor needs within HRC is widely uncertain and a specific application with reference to production workplaces is missing. The research findings described in this paper aim the optimization of workplaces for manual production and maintenance processes with respect to the workers within HRC. In order to increase the acceptance of integration of human-robot teams, the concept of the Assisting-Industrial-Workplace-System (AIWS) was developed. As a flexible hybrid cell for HRC integrated into a Self-Adapting-Production-Planning-System (SAPPS) assists the worker while interaction

Image-Based Research Methods for Mapping Tourist Behaviour: Smart Photos

Conventional research methods for understanding tourists’ behaviours need to be more practical and accurate when tracking tourists’ movements within a destination. In recent years, technological development has offered advanced technical approaches for data collection and analysis. Taking account of the tourist experience in post-industrial landscapes, this study introduces an image-based methodology to explore tourists’ movements at industrial heritage sites. Preliminary results are presented, using Liverpool’s Royal Albert Dock as an example of detecting tourists’ movement through use of a drone. The findings demonstrate that the selected method- Smart Photos- effectively maps tourists' behaviour and movements, and that this provides researchers with a simple, fast, and accurate data collection and analysis tool. method

Consideration of Human Factors in a Design of Fire-rescue Window

Fire-rescue window is a NPD (new product development) project that aims to increase the successful rate of fire rescue. The concept attempts being used in residential buildings and public constructions. The project places greater emphasis on providing a safe space for sufferers such as elder people, children and disables. It intended to insulate people from a fire through easy operations and to enhance safety and usability. After several tests, it is proofed that the product appears to be an effective and creative solution in fire rescue. Human factors knowledge has been considered over the NPD process at both physical (anthropometric) and psychological (cognitive) levels. Based on background research and application of new material & technology, the concept learned from mechanism principle and assimilated into understanding of environment/system design, Kansei engineering and material technology. Driven by user centred design, the design conducted various research methods in terms of observation, recording and analysis. Sufferers’ data and information have been discovered/ collected, in particular disables. This helps to determine a proper route of escaping. A prototype of concept simulated the window’s covetable structure and function, as well as testified the rationality of special usage. The fire-rescue window is named as - ‘Harbour’, which won the gold medal of ‘Janus Design Award 2016’ in France. ‘Harbour’ has been recognized as one of the successful solutions in the field of fire rescue. It also passed the ergonomic evaluation and is expected to satisfy various rescue requirements precisely and efficiently

On Major Issues and Countermeasures of the Regeneration of Former Industrial Sites in China

China is experiencing a fast-speed urbanization, which has brought many social and urban problems such as social exclusion, gentrification and pollution. Urban regeneration has been employed by many countries and regions to solve the problems arising during the urban regeneration, in particular the regeneration of former industrial sites. Many issues such as environmental protection, social inclusion, public participation, infrastructure construction and innovative regeneration forms all have a great impact on the sustainable regeneration of former industrial sites in China. This paper mainly summarizes the major issues of the regeneration of former industrial sites and proposes some countermeasures to the urban regeneration in China. It is expected to provide some useful suggestions to the core stakeholders of the regeneration of former industrial sites