From Gut Feeling to a Structured, Summative Assessment of Design Competencies

DS 74: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Engineering & Product Design Education (E&PDE12) Design Education for Future Wellbeing, Antwerp, Belguim, 06-07.9.2012

Year: 2012
Editor: Lyndon Buck, Geert Frateur, William Ion, Chris McMahon, Chris Baelus, Guido De Grande, Stijn Verwulgen
Author: Schelling, Jasper; Leurs, Bas; Best, Saskia; Mulder
Series: E&PDE
Institution: 1: Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands; 2: Delft University of Technology
Section: Assessment
Page(s): 322-327
ISBN: 978-1-904670-36-0

Abstract

In the current work, we introduce a summative method for assessing the whole set of students’ design competencies demonstrated in their final design project when graduating an interactive media design course, and reflect on the use of this assessment method. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis methods are used; the deployment of the instruments is analyzed in a qualitative manner, and the scores underlying the final grade are analyzed in a quantitative manner using a custom-made visualization tool. Evaluations show that during the deliberation phase, the supervisory team concentrated on the discussion and assessment of the competencies rather than agreeing on a final grade. The visualizations of the scores enabled us to discern major patterns in the grading of our assessment, which in turn fed into adjustments of the assessment procedures as well as the curriculum in general.

Keywords: Design education, assessment, instruments, design competencies

Download