Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education - Volume 4, Issue 2, 2005

The Cultural Studies Department at London College of Fashion introduced an Oral History unit in the Summer Term 2003, offering students the opportunity to engage in primary research by conducting oral history interviews, and develop critical arguments around their interpretation and analysis. The unit aimed to contribute to a more culturally diverse curriculum, and enhance the learning experience and outcomes of participating students by offering a tangible demonstration of both the relevance of such research to the study of fashion and dress, and of the students' own contribution to its furtherance. This article reflects on this experience; suggests some of the ways in which oral history assignments might stimulate critical thinking and independent research; explores how oral history methodology can be situated in relation to an interdisciplinary concept of ‘research’; outlines how a dialogical approach to theory and practice might address student approaches to research and critical thinking in an interdisciplinary context.

The purpose of the present article is to examine how virtual design studio environments can be used to aid collaborative designing and to describe some of our experiences in supporting collaborative design with such environments. The authors will introduce three design projects. These were projects, respectively, for designing clothes for premature babies; conference bags; and tactile books for visually impaired children: they constitute a continuum in terms of being design experiments, each of which highlights certain perspectives on the virtual design process. Our approach, in which the first author was acting as a teacher in each project, made it possible to address current problems faced in the field of virtual designing. The purpose of our design experiments is set up, foster, and investigate an iterative design process, in which previous observations and lessons can be applied to the enhancement of educational settings and practices. The authors examined how participants create shared design ideas, to what extent users can be involved in the design process (participatory designing), and how expert knowledge is utilized. According to our experiments, the progressive inquiry model can fruitfully be applied to collaborative designing to facilitate participants' interaction processes of developing design ideas and sharing their expertise through the virtual design studio.

The aim of this article is to discuss the current challenges facing higher education in terms of graduate employment, with a particular focus on the issues affecting higher education institutions offering fine art programmes of study. The government agenda on widening participation in higher education has meant that graduate employment has now become a fiercely disputed topic across the subject disciplines. More specifically, fine art has its own very particular set of issues in relation to the employment agenda and what this article aims to debate is whether institutions offering fine art courses are currently doing enough to support their graduates in understanding what their possible employment routes may be.

This article has been developed from an internally funded educational research project undertaken to address the needs of a specific institution, namely Southampton Institute. However, the key issues described, which include learning contracts, information and communications technologies (ICT), accreditation of prior experiential learning (AP[E]L) and placement schemes, have relevance to other higher education institutions (HEIs) associated with introducing work-based learning (WBL) within the design curriculum at postgraduate level. The article includes a review of recent government documents, reports, websites and conference papers. The article not only locates the importance of design as a key player within the creative industries but also suggests how the postgraduate design curriculum can provide a viable opportunity for developing important employability skills. Finally, the article discusses the background to, and definitions of, workbased learning, and concludes with an analysis of some the challenges and benefits involved with developing an effective and alternative mode of learning.

Managing Educational Development Projects: Effective Management for Maximum Impact, Carole Baume, Paul Martin and Mantz Yorke (eds), (2003). London: Kogan Page, 224 pp., ISBN 07494 3882 7, Paperback, £22.50

Teaching for Quality Learning at University, John Biggs, (2003), 2nd edition. Buckingham: SRHE and Open University Press, 304pp, ISBN 0-335-21168-2 (pbk), £25