Purpose While creativity and innovation are found within many disciplines, the opportunity to develop a tangible skill set and share ideas with contemporaries can be limited within the siloed structure of many tertiary institutions. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a model that addresses the pedagogical challenge of interdisciplinary learning. Design/methodology/approach This paper adopts a case-based approach. The case subject is Aalborg University that founded an intensive entrepreneurial education workshop that incorporates a problem-based learning (PBL) approach. This paper evaluates the program design, development, and replication plus compares the motives and subsequent experiences between workshop participants in Denmark and Australia. Findings The findings of this case study validate the centrality of entrepreneurship education as a discipline which has the capacity to unite staff and students approaching problems from various fields. The workshop design was adapted to the changing needs and expectations of staff and students and was successfully replicated overseas. Originality/value Denmark established an innovative, intensive workshop which seized the opportunity to deliver an engaging program that unlocks untapped creative potential among students from diverse cultures and multiple disciplines. Overall, this research contributes toward the body of knowledge examining student engagement and the delivery of PBL activities within an interdisciplinary learning environment.
One of the structural challenges of educating industrial designers in a university setting is bridging the gap between the rigor of science in academia and the execution-oriented practice. In general, exemplary dives and conceptual proposals are completely acceptable within a project in the university. So how can the reality of product development and execution emphasis be introduced in an academic setting with low risk, while maintaining the academic requirement for knowledge creation and reflection? To accommodate the academic framework, the academic assignment was a short paper with reflections on methods and approached comparing the 'new' process to design and entrepreneurship methods, theories and practice. Then a simple but hard challenge was given: At the end of week three a "Designers Market" was to be arranged at campus. Each student (or pair of students) should design and manufacture 20 units of a product to be promoted and sold at the market. The experiment turned out to yield more benefits and effect than anticipated. The observed challenges faced by students during the approximately 10 working days were a small-scale version of the real challenges of defining, designing, manufacturing and marketing a product. The combination of informal and formal evaluation using theoretical reflection on practice-oriented execution seems to be useful model for introducing the full version of product development with very low risk and still adhering to knowledge creation of academia.
As a counter-reaction to the increasing speed at which products are consumed, companies have embraced the idea of designing products that last longer. To understand characteristics of long-lasting products, this paper examines the product categories and design properties of products that are inherited, and thus have a prolonged product lifetime. Based on previous research, we propose a theoretical framework with product categories and design properties for inherited products. We then deploy this framework on an empirical dataset of 175 inherited products that are identified through participants’ self-assessments. These are then analyzed in respect to 18 product categories and three overall groups of design properties: emotional properties (memories and brand), functional properties (functions), and aesthetic properties (colors and materials). Our study shows that the most inherited product categories are kitchenware (24%), furniture (21%), home decoration (14%) and jewelry (12%); it also shows that the reasons for keeping inherited products differ across product categories. However, inherited products commonly display honest and/or gracefully aging material, colors that reflect the material choice, single functions, and functional independency—that is, they do not rely on other products to function.
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