module specification

This Major Project module enables textile design students to prepare for independent practice in the workplace or to progress onto higher studies. It is the opportunity to syn-thesise specialist knowledge and skills and effectively communicate these.

Students will exercise and communicate their abilities in selecting, analysing and ap-plying knowledge, skills and understanding to a fully researched project in order to properly understand their strengths, interests and position in their field, and their poten-tial for future professional development. A negotiated and approved proposal will con-firm individual projects and direction.

Students will show an understanding of, and ability to negotiate the complex and changing nature of problems in the professional sector and will devise and apply real-istic strategies for constructing, applying and managing a process designed to provide solutions.

A professional standard of realisation, contextualisation and presentation will be ex-pected, providing the elements for a portfolio of practice with which students may enter the field of employment, self-employment or further studies.

Completion and pass (120 credits) of previous level.

Through a negotiated and agreed individual project, students will gain experience of planning, recording, managing and conducting a process for the production and completion of a researched proposal.  L.O 1

Students will align their skills and knowledge in various areas of exper-tise and endeavour – technical, intellectual, creative, organisational, critical and interpersonal – to the successful conclusion of an integrat-ed project.  L.O 2

Professional engagement, practice and process is experienced through the pursuit of the project with professional expectations of styles and quality of presentation.  L.O 3

Students will critically assess their own work against standards ex-pected in the field.  L.O 4

Scheduled teaching ensures that independent study is effective and addresses the learning outcomes and assessment tasks. Students are expected to, and have the op-portunity to, continue with their studies outside of scheduled classes. There will be a range of learning strategies deployed and individual learning styles will be accommo-dated. The module’s learning outcomes, its contents and delivery, have been scruti-nised and will be regularly reviewed to ensure an inclusive approach to pedagogic practice.

The module and course utilise the University’s blended learning platform to support and reinforce learning, to foster peer-to-peer communication and to facilitate tutorial support for students. Reflective learning is promoted through assessment items and interim formative feedback points that ask students to reflect on their progress, seek help where they identify the opportunity for improvement in learning strategies and outcomes, and make recommendations to themselves for future development. Throughout the module, students build a body of work, including reflections on pro-gress and achievement.

The School’s programme of employability events and embedded work-related learning within the curriculum supports students’ personal development planning. Through these initiatives, students are increasingly able, as they progress from year to year, to understand the professional environment of their disciplines, the various opportunities available to them, and how to shape their learning according to their ambitions.

At the end of the module, students will be able to:

1. Knowledge and Understanding
transform and realise the outcomes of a design research and development project into a holistic plan for the production of the outcome intended;

2. Cognitive Intellectual Abilities
work independently, managing complex problems and tasks, critically analysing their own work and defending it including in the context of ethical issues arising;

3.Transferable Skills
communicate their work in a fully contextualized way and to a professional standard, explaining or illustrating their position in their field, their strengths and interests and how they can continue to develop their professional capacity;

4. Subject Specific Practical Skills
achieve professional standards of project management and realisation/ visualisation as appropriate and expected in the discipline.

At regular critiques or tutorials students are expected to produce a coherent account of their project progress, together with critical evaluation of successes and failures to date. Formative feedback will be given in response to the project plan. The final mark is giv-en at the end of the module, following assessment of a comprehensive portfolio of all relevant developmental and presentation work and the final outcome itself.

All students are required to undertake formal interim presentations with evidence of continuous reflective journals responding to studio critique and tutorial guidance. Work presented will be subject to formal studio feedback from a panel of disciplinary special-ists. This will inform final assessment marks and must be considered and acted upon by the student.

Work must be carefully organised and presented to indicate the development of work and the content clearly labeled. Students are required to attend timetabled studio and workshop sessions.

Portfolio:

A portfolio of student–produced 2D and 3D work addressing the tasks and criteria as set in the studio brief, including research proposals and presentation of outcomes.
The work can be presented in a range of ways includ-ing display/exhibition, port-folio and presented 3D work with additional blogs/websites & presenta-tions

Boyle, G. (2003) Design Project Management, Ashgate
Cooper, R. and Press, M. (1994) The Design Agenda, Wiley
Sedler, D.R. and Korte, A. (2009) Hand Drawing for Designers, Bloomsbury
Archer, M. (1997) Material culture: the object in British art of the 1980s and ‘90s, South Bank Centre

Some of these books are available as ebooks: http://catalogue.londonmet.ac.uk/