During the last academic year, I have taken on a course coordinator role for the Diploma in Professional Studies, working with students across the Chelsea and Camberwell Graphic Design programme, and additionally, the Material & Spatial Practices, encompassing Product and Furniture Design, Interior Design, and the Interior and Spatial Design courses.
Whilst having worked on, and contributed to, the more established DPS LCC programme across an eight-course cohort, I am able to design a specific preparation delivery process as a course leader at CCW. Below is a brief insight into one of the learning tools I will introduce to my new cohort starting in April 2022.
Introduction to DPS
For the first session in the programme, students will evaluate a series of attributes likely to contribute to their DPS year. They will at various points in the programme, be invited to update, reevaluate or confirm their reflection or collation of, for instance, their creative output (deliverables) and their core target market (in this case, establishing who their work matters to).
Dall’Alba & Sandburg (1996) refers to the design of sequences of learning activities (as in my case, a course component or course) bringing forth a desire to learn in face-to-face or technology-mediated environments. The large transition from study to employment places a great weight on work readiness as an iterative process that does not overwhelm students, and is both tangible, and most importantly, applicable as a learning process.
Using a tool designed from my educational practice outside of UAL, the Let’s Be Brief Creating Value Canvas makes use of research garnered from interviews with creative practitioners of various disciplines to produce a worksheet to enable learners to identify key attributes and values. Helping to develop the key pillars of their value proposition. This is an interactive canvas designed for desktop or mobile, that students can type directly into, asking a range of questions pertaining to what matters to the student and their community, as they work towards unearthing the ultimate value of their creative practice.
Understanding values puts the student in a better position to be able to communicate those values to customers, audiences and employers: providing a succinct insight into their creative / brand ideology that over time, students will then demonstrate via a set of clear actions and consistent brand behaviour.