Curriculum differentiation for masters in product development
Year: 2013
Editor: John Lawlor, Ger Reilly, Robert Simpson, Michael Ring, Ahmed Kovacevic, Mark McGrath, William Ion, David Tormey, Erik Bohemia, Chris McMahon, Brian Parkinson
Author: Jacoby, Alexis; Baelus, Chris
Series: E&PDE
Institution: Artesis University College Antwerp, Belgium
Section: Best Education in Practice
Page(s): 654-659
ISBN: 978-1-904670-42-1
Abstract
Based on the input from industrial competence centres and consultative group meetings with academics and practitioners, the product development department of the faculty of design sciences has developed a new masters programme giving students the possibility to differentiate by concentrating more on specific domains: interaction design, strategic design, advanced product design and systems design. Although the programme maintains the focus on the integrated approach of a development process for products and services, throughout the first masters year students will be able to gain more skills and competences on specific issues, in order to become more proficient and to adapt their skills to their future professional targets. The programme is to be implemented the coming years. This paper describes the new masters programme concept and goes into detail on the theoretical principles behind the programme, the approach, the nexus with the research programme and the consequences of this programme in function of the assessment of students in applied product development courses. Milestones and deliverables have been redefined in order to guide the studentâs applied development or research projects. New sets of criteria have been developed to assess the milestone and final deliverables throughout the projects.
Keywords: master programme, strategic design, product design, interaction design, systems design