Enhancing Real World Learning

Impact

Studio+ is an optional additional year between Year 2 and Final Year of NCAD’s Art and Design BA programmes that offers students an opportunity to immerse themselves in real-world work environments locally and/or internationally.

The project outcomes were significant, and have enabled the Learning Lab team at NCAD to:

• Develop an enhanced pedagogical framework for real world learning.
• Enhance ‘placement practice’ within NCAD, guiding our development of teaching content and practice in support of student learning in industry settings.
• Provide an evidence base for a robust ‘Creative Internship Framework’ that is deliverable, reflects best practice, and is sustainable from the perspective of all stakeholders – students, industry partners and academia.
• Evaluate Studio+ from a broad stakeholder perspective, and work with our industry partners to develop an evidence-based enhancement plan for learning and teaching within this structure.
• Expand the range of industry partnerships through which Studio+ is delivered.
• Develop the kinds of real world learning opportunities offered to students.
• Grow the number of staff engaging with Studio+ as a real world learning structure and environment.
• Develop a series of case studies for wider dissemination, advocating for real world learning, and testing new learning modes, tools and techniques.

Challenge

The project sought to explore how we can enhance collaboration with Professional Bodies and Industry Partners, and embed real world learning within and across Art and Design Disciplines

Process

The €25,000 funded project enabled us to undertake a deep dive research, development and engagement process with industry partners and students to enrich our understanding of each other’s expectations and understandings, and test how our approaches meet student need.

The project focused on two strands of pedagogical research and enhancement within our Studio+ programme.

1. Creative Internships
2. Design Bureau and Embedded Micro-Studios

Output

The project helped establish a new pedagogical framework, with new and enhanced modules, learning outcomes and internship learning agreements rolled out. A series of case studies are in the process of being written up for wider dissemination, and the Studio+ year is now seen as an exemplar of embedding real world learning into an undergraduate provision, with a number of national and international institutions developing similar provision based on the Studio+ framework and ethos.