Author: JD

In the article “Sharpen Your Skills: The Value of Multidisciplinary Design” designer Peter Varadi mentions that designers only benefit their careers when they dare to venture beyond boundaries of their own disciplines. ‘Learning about different methods, tools, and skills’ he goes on, ‘helps broaden our internal problem-solving libraries and provides us with deeper decision-making context’.

Martin Temple, chairman of the UK Design Council, points it out that ‘the economic goal of generating more wealth from new science demands multidisciplinary teams of designers, engineers and technologists designing around the needs of customers.’ As their National Survey of Firms shows, 45% of firms in the UK that don’t use design compete mainly on price, while just 21% of firms where design is significant do so. Research has also shown that between 1995 and 2004, the share prices of design-conscious companies outperformed other firms by 200%. Therefore, the use of design is linked to improved business performance including turnover, profit and market share. On top of that, design can enhance the outcomes of numerous innovation activities, through increased quality of goods and services, improved production flexibility and reduced materials costs. The role of design in mobilising innovation is constantly increasing as well.

Therefore, the goal of design education today is to train specialists with broad set of skills, ‘who can turn ideas into working products’, as Sir James Dyson puts it. To which multidisciplinary approach to design education is the answer.

According to the report by the UK Design Council, unlike ‘interdisciplinarity’ which attempts to integrate or synthesise perspectives from several disciplines, ‘multidisciplinarity’ describes situations in which several disciplines cooperate but remain unchanged. This is the case with the ongoing attempts to teach design and creative problem solving alongside business and management education and/or technical and science subjects (the so-called STEM subjects).

Despite the fact cross-disciplinary practice has been embedded in universities for more than 40 years, it is only over the last decade, leading higher education institutions have grown to be actively engaged in developing new curricula, which enable design students to work in collaboration with other disciplines. In some cases this has led to the formation of new teaching and research centres, while in others the focus has been on integrating design within existing courses.

Design schools in the UK and USA have been integrating design and business education for years. For example, Kingston University which was named by the Guardian the best university to study design in in 2020, offers a suite of Masters in Creative Economy (MACE) courses. These multidisciplinary, one-year full-time (two-year part-time) courses are directed by the Faculty of Business and Law in partnership with the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture and cover five areas of study: Built Environment, Design Industries, Heritage and Visual Arts, Performing Arts, and Media.

Similarly, the Royal College of Art in London has announced plans to expand its science and technology programme, adding courses focused on topics like nano-robotics and machine-learning, as well as embedding scientific collaboration into its existing postgraduate programmes. Aiming to ‘transform the accepted paradigm of an art and design university’ and ‘reverse the current orthodoxies’, RCA also plans to strengthen ties with Imperial College and other London institutions offering science and engineering courses. ‘This is a move away from the paradigm of the 20th-century art school to a 21st-century trans-disciplinary graduate school,’ said the college’s vice-chancellor Paul Thompson. ‘Our academic vision brings creative arts and design together with science, technology and medicine.’

Finland with its pioneering role in developing education in Europe has started Aalto University, an entirely multidisciplinary university that brings together the University of Art and Design Helsinki, the Helsinki University of Technology and the Helsinki School of Economics. Offering multidisciplinary courses including the International Design Business Management programme, the university has also established an experimental platform for multidisciplinary education and innovation, the Design Factory, which is designed to enable conversations, connections and creativity between business, design and engineering.

More recently, Asian countries have been investing in multidisciplinary design education. Design is the third most popular university subject in China after English and Computer Science. For instance, South Korea has set up a Convergent Design Education Programme, aimed to develop multidisciplinary activities in eight universities. The leading industry players of the country, such as Samsung, are also involved in design education, funding multidisciplinary programmes and supporting main design universities to embed such initiatives.

As the industry’s leading minds agree that most wanted nowadays are the so called T-shaped people, who combine depth of highly trained specialists with understanding of other disciplines and professional contexts, it is crucial that multidisciplinary courses and projects help design students develop this sought-after mix of skills. The offered experience of working with business schools, science, technology faculties and engineering courses should not only broaden design students’ skills sets but also better prepare them for working in the industry. Among other benefits of multidisciplinary approach to design education, it is important products designers understand materials and production methods as well as be able to decide where it is appropriate to shift away from traditional tooling towards rapid manufacturing, and this is only possible  while working with engineering students, materials scientists and computing specialists. Similarly, working with scientists and technologists will broaden design graduates’ knowledge of emerging technologies, to say nothing of complex global issues, such as climate change, which can only be addressed by teams whose members understand issues outside of their individual field of specialization. Last but not least, tomorrow’s designers need to be able to understand their clients’ businesses and the markets in which those businesses operate. Having design students work in multidisciplinary teams, especially on real-life briefs, helps them to develop a deeper understanding of business contexts.

Multidisciplinarity is by no means a one way street. Other disciplines, particularly business, computing and science, engineering and technology subjects, also benefit from connecting with design disciplines. Such collaborations between institutions as Design London building on heritage of cross-institutional collaboration between Imperial College Business School, Imperial College Faculty of Engineering and the Royal College of Art, and Centre for Competitive Creative Design (C4D) is a partnership between Cranfield University and the London College of Communication, University of Arts London, enable students of other non-design disciplines to develop design thinking and creativity.

It is obvious, that with developing and converging of industries, traditional education will fail to supply them with people who have an appropriate and useful mix of skills and experience. It is also no secret, that a team of differently skilled people working together and bringing into the project the mix of their skills drives innovation. As UK Design Council reports, skills that are increasingly valued by companies in all sectors include creativity, flexibility and adaptability, communication and negotiation skills, and management and leadership skills. All of those are the main focus of multidisciplinary courses and programmes that exist today and are yet to come, for being a designer means being able to push past obvious answers in order to create solutions that enhance the human experience.

Mobile learning is getting prevalent in today’s world. It is the result of the ever-changing era of the digital world. But, everything has two sides. There are some pros and cons of mobile learning.

Mobile learning is very prevalent in the current scenario. Mobile learning is also known as mLearning and is a new way to get access to a variety of content available online through the use of a mobile. Mobile learning is the easiest way for students to get help.

Many schools and colleges are supporting the concept of eLearning and mobile learning. They distribute mobile phones and laptops to students and encourage them to use them for educational purposes. Although mobile learning may be fun for the children if it’s used in the right way, it can be very beneficial for the students and adults.

There are many educational apps available online, and they are also gaining huge popularity among the school and college students. It is even useful for teachers/professors/instructors, they can learn a topic or provide notes, examples, and also refer these apps to the students when or if needed.

The best part of mobile learning is that many sources are present online. So, if you don’t get it from one place, you can search for it from some other site. Even while using the app; if you do not understand you can easily send your feedback and discuss your query or suggestion with the app developer or app developing company.

Now that you have understood what mobile learning is, let’s discuss the pros and cons of mobile learning!

Advantages Of Mobile Learning. Mobile learning is very popular and in the past few years, its use has increased extensively. Mentioned below are 5 advantages of mobile learning and why it should be used:

1. Access anywhere and anytime
   Since mobile learning is all about studying through mobile using the internet, it can be accessed from anywhere in the world and anytime.
2. Covers a huge distance
   The main benefit of mobile learning is that it covers a huge distance, so even if you are in Canberra, Australia or in California, United States of America, you can access the same content or tests at the same or different times. Distance is not an issue in mobile learning.
3. Variety of content
   A lot of content is present online. Due to its huge variety, it becomes very easy for people to access it; and also, a huge amount of people from different corners of the world can access it for different topics or related to different subjects.
4. Encourages students
   There are many educational apps that use online quizzes to keep track of your progress (daily, weekly or monthly, depending on firm to firm). The study is presented in such a way that it attracts the students; hence, there are game quizzes that encourage students to perform better from their previous score.
5. Tests your knowledge
   As discussed in the above point, online quizzes are made and solving these quizzes, puzzles or riddles helps you expand your knowledge. Apart from just study material, there are different types of other quizzes, puzzles, multiple-choice questions, etc. that are available on the internet; playing these games you can test your knowledge and even increase your IQ level.

Disadvantages Of Mobile Learning. As good and alluring as the advantages sound, there are also disadvantages of mobile learning. Every coin has two sides, so, here are 5 disadvantages of mobile learning, listed below:

1. Software issues
   Software is an application that runs on a device according to the instructions embedded in the software at the time of coding. Even though it seems like the life of software is smooth, there are other external factors that hinder its smooth life span. These external factors are changing trends in the field of IT. Software compatibility issues, not upgrading to a new version, regular system crashes, etc. are some of the issues that hinder the working of the software, thereby interrupting your smooth mobile learning experience.
2. Hardware issues
   Unlike the software, hardware uses physical devices. The physical devices used can wear out after a period of time. They can wear out due to overuse, dust, using the device roughly, etc. These are some factors that interrupt the smooth working of the mobile or other devices.
3. Distraction
   Using mobile learning, also, creates a lot of distraction. Many students open the mobile to learn something and end up using social media websites, chatting, sharing pictures or playing video games. These types of distractions waste one’s time, which could have been used to perform a meaningful task.
4. Misuse
   Many students also misuse the device for different purposes. Some misuse it just for fun, and some have secret, evil intentions which are definitely not good and need to be prevented.
5. Lack of internet connection or electricity
   This can be a problem in rural areas and in areas where the usage of the internet and electricity is not yet prevalent. When you have a device, but you do not have the electricity or the internet required for you to run the device and avail the facility of mobile learning, then what’s the fun? In order to enjoy your experience of mobile learning, make sure you have met all the requirements needed to have the best experience for mobile learning.