EVALUATION OF WORKBOOKS AS AN ACTIVE LEARNING TOOL FOR INDUSTRIAL DESIGN ENGINEERING

Industrial design engineering combines technical rationality and reflective practice, to support students’ reflection on their design process a workbook approach has been developed. The workbook approach guides students to reflect on open-ended design projects through cycles of reflections. A typical workbook consists of both written text, i.e., literature reviews and methods employed, and sketches and photos illustrating the process and its results. The workbook approach is currently implemented in five compulsory and several elective courses at Industrial Design Engineering (IDE). During 2020-22 a project was performed to evaluate the implementation of workbooks and get feedback from both active students, alumni and the faculty. Results show that workbooks support students’ self-regulated learning, and the workbook’s guided reflection is a valuable tool for reaching higher levels of learning in design. However, it seems that there is a need for a workbook framework to support both teachers and students in how to use the workbooks throughout the programme.