Undergraduate Course: Design Work-Based Placement: Reflecting on Design Professions (DESI10132)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
| Course type | Online Distance Learning |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 40 |
ECTS Credits | 20 |
| Summary | This 40-credit Semester 2 course allows you to replace core studio based teaching with a course that includes time in a professional work environment. The course is intended to develop your awareness not only of current working methods and practices within your discipline, but of the ways in which design organisations embody cultural values, are subject to external drivers, and are situated within a larger landscape of professional practices.
This course can only be taken when a placement has been agreed with your Programme Director and the Course Organiser. This should be done at the end of Year 2 or beginning of Semester 1 of Year 3. You should aim to spend between approximately 150 and 300 hours with the host organisation over the course of the Semester. |
| Course description |
Through the undertaking of a work-based placement with an organisation relevant to your core discipline, you will gain first-hand experience of current working methods and practices in the field. You will experience and critically reflect on a relevant professional working environment, helping you to map the organisational structures and professional working practices within your subject domain. You will be able to build on your existing professional and interpersonal skillsets, and better position your personal practice within the wider context of the discipline. You will learn about the Business Model Canvas, a tool used in industry to position organisations and business offers, and use it creatively to analyse your specialist sector, and your host's position within it.
Undertaking this course will develop your planning, organisation, documentation and presentation skills. You will be responsible for identifying and approaching relevant host organisations, and will lead on agreeing the times and dates to be worked. Together with your host organisation contact, the Course Organiser and your Programme Director, you will define the type and quantity of work to be undertaken. By week five, you will have identified a research theme to be agreed with the CO and Programme Director. This topic will help you focus the scope of your final hand-in, a creative and analytical 'map' of your host orgainsation, and the sector, and a reflective essay (approx. 2500 words).
Responsibilities once the Work Based Placement has been agreed:
Responsibilities of the Student:
Professional conduct, in accordance with the standards of respect identified in University policies and the host's employment rules and etiquette.
Work the agreed dates and hours. Any changes in the schedule must be authorised in advance by the host and course organiser.
Be punctual and inform the host and course organiser if unable, for whatever reason, to attend work.
Maintain confidentiality concerning the host organisation's work as required.
Be committed to carry out the tasks / projects (including written work) specified by the host organisation.
Planning and organising any travel and accommodation associated with the placement.
Responsibilities of the Course Organiser:
Be available to discuss any issues or concerns that students and hosts may have regarding the work placement.
Support the student during the work placement via email and a series of online/telephone meetings.
Provide the student with feedback on mid-semester assessment submission which reflects on the progress of the work placement.
Support the writing of assessments and agreeing presentation timing and format.
Responsibilities of the Programme Director:
Agree students placement proposals in Semester 1.
Be available to discuss any issues or concerns that students and the Course Organiser may have with regards specific placement opportunities.
Work with the student and the Course Organiser to define the type and quantity of work to be undertaken.
Provide sector specific guidance on any relevant ethical position the Programme, School/Subject Area or ECA may take, eg through the signing up to pledges or membership of professional bodies.
Through regular online tutorials, students will relate their placement-based learning back to their core discipline and ensure it is in line with the aims and objectives agreed with their Course Organiser and designated programme staff. Students are expected to take a pro-active role in organising and fulfilling any online tutorial commitments.
It is the responsibility of the individual student undertaking a work-based placement course to document and present the learning experience and outcomes of their placement according to the assessment requirements stipulated by the course document as communicated in LEARN.
N.B. When relaying any information pertaining to their placement, or information or visuals pertaining to the work completed on placement/specific pieces of work created during their time on placement, it is the responsibility of the student to ensure they meet the terms of any Non-Disclosure Agreement agreed between themselves and the host organisation.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | This course is only available to students on a Degree Programme in the School of Design |
| Additional Costs | Students should be aware of any additional costs they are likely to incur through organising a placement, for example travel, accommodation and subsistence and discuss these with the Course Organiser and their Programme Director. The School of Design is particularly keen to support paid placements, and may advise against some unpaid internships. |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2022/23, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 2 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
400
(
Lecture Hours 2,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 1,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 1,
Summative Assessment Hours 1,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 8,
Placement Study Abroad Hours 150,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
237 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
a) A critically annotated visual map of the professional disciplinary domain using the Business Model Canvas or other creative tools. This should be prepared at a large scale (suggested A1 minimum), and may be approached as an interactive presentation or installation. Whatever format is chosen, it should be translatable into a digital form that can be uploaded to the VLE for assessment (LO1).
b) A reflective essay (approx. 2500 words) that applies contemporary themes in cultural industry research and theory to personal experience. (LO2).
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| Feedback |
Students should formulate a research theme in consultation with the Course Organiser during the Week 5 feed-forward meeting. This question will relate to an issue pertinent to the host institution and informed by your reading. Example themes may include topics such as: technology as a driver for change, the management of creativity, or communication of organisational values.
Formative verbal feedback and feed forward on this theme will be given during pre-arranged online meetings while the student is on work placement.
Each Learning Outcome is worth 50% of the course grade. Written summative grading and feedback will be given at the end of the course within 15 days.
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Critically map and analyse the professional landscape of a design domain.
- Apply academic knowledge in reflection on experience in a professional work environment.
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Reading List
Barton, G. (2016). Don't Get a Job, Make a Job. Laurence King Publishing.
Bilton, C. (2007). Management and Creativity: From Creative Industries to Creative Management. Oxford: Blackwell.
Desmondhaulgh, D. (2018). The Cultural Industries (4th edition). London: Sage.
Osterwalder, A. and Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley. [essential] |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Awareness of the wider discipline and possible positions within it.
Self-motivation, responsibility, initiative and planning skills.
Formal and informal presentations to a range of audiences.
Documentation, record-keeping and visual presentation skills. |
| Keywords | design industry,professionalism,initiative,values |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Miss Collette Paterson
Tel: (0131 6)51 5812
Email: |
Course secretary | Ms Stella Bray
Tel: (0131 6)51 5926
Email: |
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