Course work in detail
What assignments are there?
There are various assignments you are required to fulfil individually or as a team. Please read the explanation of how to actually 'hand in' your work in the general information section. In industry getting the right information in the right place at the right time is a basic necessity for effective product development. By following this system for submissions you will experience the discipline required in a professional environment.
The assignments are:
- Weekly Insights 7% (7x1%)
- Team progress Blog 9% (3x3%)
- Studio Session assignments 6% (3x2%)
- Idea Generation presentation 6%
- Iteration #1 12%
- Iteration#2 16%
- Iteration #3 22%
- Reflections on Learning 22% (6% + 16%)
For all assignments you must read the description in the task. It may differ from this explanation and if it does you follow the assignment requirements listed in that task. you'll find the tasks under 'My Tasks' (see top right). The following is provided as a general guide.
weekly insights (Individual)
For seven of the weeks you are required to explain how you might use at least one experience from the Studio Session and one from the Lecture in your project work. This is not an essay it is a brief bullet pointed or simply written explanation. No introduction just straight to the point.
You must use an Item to write this insight do not upload a file. If you have written it in Word or some other application copy and paste your text into the Item you create in the website.
Submissions are due 5pm the Monday following the Studio Session and the Lecture. The weeks these submissions are required for are weeks 2,3,4,5,7,8,11. Check the Task deadlines for dates.
TEam Progress Blog (individual) 3% every 3 weeks
Only one team member per week (for four people teams if your team is not four people see below for details) is required to and is allowed to submit the Team Blog. This is a journal account of the happenings of the team from the individuals perspective for one week. It must include at the very least one image of the team in action or research material (internet picture, photo of prototype, test etc.) and one picture of hand drawn sketches or notes. In addition it must have an engaging and personalised account of the teams activties written in such a way as to invite comment from others. This submission (but NOT the mark) will be visible to the rest of your team, the tutors and the industry partner. As wil all comments.
You must submit your blog on the specified deadline and no more than two days before and it must cover only the activities not mentioned in previous Team Blog entries which should be essentially the activities of the week before the submission deadline.
In the case of a team having more or less than four members each must submit the Blog on the submission date which may be more or less than a week since another team members post.
Studio session (individual and team)
Relax these are fun and easy. There are a number of studio sessions where there are assessments so don't miss any! The assessment is more a demonstration of taking part in the activities. The studio session assessment is very similar to the blog entry explained above. You must submit a one paragraph explanation of what you did and what you learned from a specified studio session along with one photo of you with your work. Only your best three submissions will count towards your final mark. You will find about five assignments relating to studio sessions. If you do more than three these are available for yor portfolio. Your submission (but NOT your mark) will be published and everyone will be able to see it.
Someone will be on hand to take photographs and all these will be made available online. You need to select one that shows you with your work to put into your submission at the top. If you plan to make a submission for a particular session AND you know that the session has a possible assignment make sure you have your photo taken. It is your responsibility to make sure it is. One mark is for the photo evidence and one for the written account. You can take your own photo or get a team mate to do so and upload it yourself if you prefer.
Idea Generation Presentation (Team)
The Friday lecture session in week three is set aside for the teams to present to the industry partner. Everyone in the team must present and you will have 10 minutes for presentation and taking questions. The marking of the presentation will be as follows:
- Quality of insight into the idea - why does it have merit? 50%
- The clarity of the story and how compelling the reasoning. 20%
- Presentation technique. 10%
- Confidence in the team to champion the idea through to a concept. 10%
- The techniques or perspectives used to generate the ideas. 10%
These marking guidelines will be discussed the day prior in the studio session and the class will be marking each team on it's performance against these guidelines. These marks will be considered with the tutor assessments to derive the final marking of this assignment.
Iterations #1, #2, #3 (Team)
Each iteration is presented in a report that suits an industry format. This will be fully explained for each. In summary the emphasis is on short concise reports that get straight to the point, put forward a substantiated argument that is rich in facts with no waffle or padding. The report should be full of things the reader does not know. You are telling them about your discoveries and your future plans using the 4Cs framework explained in the week two lecture. The use of tables, charts, diagrams and pictures is greatly encouraged.
Reflections on learning (individual)
These assignments have virtually no constraints or guidelines. They force you to truly reflect on what you have actually experienced with the team and with your own knowledge of the development process. It has been seen time and time again that some key learning achievements are not realised until you are forced to put these reflections down in writing. You will know when you have done a good job because you will have been honest and insightful and the statements you make will complete a clear story and make sense to you and the reader. More guidance of these two reports are provided in Studio Sessions.
