scholarly journals IMPROVING OUTCOMES IN STUDENT DESIGN COURSES THROUGH QUALITATIVE USER RESEARCH AND CONTEXTUAL IMMERSION

Author(s):  
Florin Gheorghe ◽  
Antony J. Hodgson ◽  
H. F. Machiel Van der Loos

Shifting from the course-based mindset into the real-world context of the user is a challenge that students often face during design courses. This can result in designs and proposed solutions that do not fully meet the technical and business needs of the client. This paper proposes a greater use of qualitative methods, paired with a deep immersion in the user environment, and highlights the value in design education through a case study example. A focus on qualitative user-studies in the discovery phase of design helps to give students perspective on the unique characteristics of users and the design context. The Engineers in Scrubs Program, in collaboration with the Uganda Sustainable Trauma Orthopaedic Program (USTOP), at the University of British Columbia is highlighted as one such example.

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 12-18
Author(s):  
Kevin Lamoureux ◽  
Jennifer Katz

In Canada, inclusive educators wishing to design education for all, must consider one of the most excluded groups in our schools and our society - Indigenous students and peoples – in their efforts to design for diversity. This article is based on a keynote lecture given by the author at a conference, Exploring Intersectionalities for Leadership and School Inclusion, held at the University of British Columbia on June 1, 2019.


1996 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheldon I. Green

The SAE Aero Design Competition is an annual model airplane competition sponsored by the SAE. The purpose of the competition is to design and build a model airplane, given certain constraints, that is capable of lifting the greatest possible payload. A team of students from the University of British Columbia entered, for the first time, the SAE Aero Design Competition in 1992. The UBC airplane lifted the most weight overall and won first place in the competition against a field of 60 competitors from the USA, Canada, and Europe. In 1993 a UBC team competed again, this time with a significantly improved entry. The team again lifted the most weight and again finished first. For the third year running, the UBC aircraft lifted the most weight at the competition held in 1994. This paper documents the team's experiences in these competitions, and emphasizes how the design of model airplanes for the competitions served the important didactic purpose of introducing aircraft design to the students.


Author(s):  
Peter Wylie

This chapter recounts recent experiences of the author with the University of British Columbia (UBC), its Faculty Association (FA), this association's relationship with the author's campus administration at UBC Okanagan campus (UBCO), and the relationship of the campus administration with the senate of the campus. The chapter is a case study of academic mobbing. The author's targeting, exclusion, and ostracism is fully documented in the chapter and fully explained by the concepts of academic bullying, harassment, and mobbing. It is a case study of where an elected union representative of faculty members and an elected senator was targeted, excluded, and ostracized by the powers that be in the union and university administration, working in collusion and complicity.


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