Education guide 'Eindhoven designs' - Technische Universiteit ...

Eindhoven designs / volume two 85
to have reached at the end of the first and
the last year of the ID Bachelor’s programme
as well as the last year of the ID Master’s
programme. The gradients in this figure show
that excellent students may well achieve
beyond the expected stage.
Stage 1 Blank
When students enter our department they are
like blank, unwritten pages with respect to our
view on designing, educational model and ID
competence framework. For them the design
process is probably just a phrase, a set of
unknown activities: one big blur. They do know
that our program is competency-centred, but
the majority of them do not have the slightest
idea what the notion of competency means and
what the ID competency areas entail.
Stage 2 Awareness
In the first year, students have performed a
number of assignments and projects. They
have received their first feedbacks, and
have written their first reflections on their
learning experiences within learning activities,
deliverables and competency development
achieved. They have built a showcase twice, in
which they reflect on their overall competence
of designing, on their design process(es) and
their growth as a designer. At the end of their
first year, students demonstrate awareness
of what the ten ID competency areas entail
as related to their own work, what their own
overall competence of designing is, what their
own growth as a designer is, how competency
development contributes to overall
development, and what a design process may
constitute. They have built awareness with
respect to interactive systems.
Stage 3 Depth
Depth is the expected stage for Bachelor’s
graduates. Students have years two and
three to achieve this. The stage of depth is
characterised by knowledge and skills building,
including experiential knowledge as well as
theoretical knowledge. Students demonstrate
depth in particular competency areas and in
their academic skills as a designer: making
(synthesising and concretising) and thinking
(analysing and abstracting), next to emotional
and social skills. Depth also shows in their
ability to integrate, and their professional
attitude and responsibility as a designer. In
their reflections they connect competency
areas to one another and establish
connections between competency areas, the
overall competence of designing and growth.
They have gained experience with the activities
within the reflective, transformative design
process, and with jumping from one activity
to another while reflecting on the previous
one. They demonstrate understanding of this
design process as a whole. They have built
an awareness of intelligent systems and
demonstrate depth in interactive systems.
Their showcase communicates (the beginning
of) a clear vision on designing developed over
time.