Learning
Designing new methods, structures and tools for learning.
Learning Made Better
We are a dynamic and internationally-engaged research hub for design learning. Our researchers aim to push the boundaries of design education and learning, and foster innovative modes of engagement and impact beyond the academy.
Why design and learning
As design educators and practitioners we see research as a site of learning.
The structures of learning, research and practice are being transformed by a number of internal, external, and contextual factors, and we need to ensure that education is equipped to anticipate and respond to future challenges.
Our research and who we work with
Our research considers the diverse ways learning occurs both within and beyond design studio, community and industry settings. We recognise the overlapping and intertwined engagement between teaching and research, creating space for new language and models that are central to evolving learning.
In partnership with academia, industry, government and wider society we explore:
- design methods and tools
- the future of design education
- studio pedagogy
- learning cultures and environments
- work-based learning
- experiential learning
- live projects
- professional development
- creativity
- feedback and assessment
How we work
At the heart of everything we do is a desire to learn. We actively engage our students, industry and the public with our design research into learning through collaboration, co-creation and critique.
We work in partnership with others to develop impactful research, advocating for design led learning, and shaping policy. We have a track record of successful collaborations with many national and international academics and higher education institutions, and with organisations in the public, private and third sectors.
Projects
The Learning Lab seeks to support, inform, influence and enhance the quality and profile of designerly learning through a diverse range of projects and activities.
Creative Futures Academy
The academy aims to empower creative practitioners from a range of disciplines, and at different stages of their learning, with the sustainable and adaptable skills and attributes that they will require to shape the future of Ireland’s creative sector.
Enhancing Real World Learning
This project sought to enhance the collaborative links with industry that underpin NCAD’s recently established Studio+ programme, researching, developing and delivering new forms of real world learning.
Practice-based Experiential Learning Analytics Research And Support (PELARS)
Creation of a multi-modal learning analytics system for use in practice-based learning of STEM subjects
Designing Designers
This ongoing research has sought to produce definitive guides to product design and research methods for product designers, aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate learners.
Design Skills
This project focussed on the digital, product and strategic design skills required by enterprise in Ireland over the period 2020-2025; identifying, developing and delivering a series of initiatives that could drive the change required to address the gap between skills demand and supply.
Outputs
Members of the Learning Lab have authored and/or contributed to the following outputs:
- Together for Design: Digital, Product and Strategic Design Skills of the Future
- Design Skills Implementation Group: Year in Review 2020-2021
- Design Skills Implementation Group: Year in Review 2021-2022
- Research Methods for Product Design
