Conference Agenda

This study explores the integration of ChatGPT as a facilitative tool in complex design processes within a project-based Transformative Design course. Student teams collaborated with external partners on projects concerning democratization of trading, democratization of local manufacturing processes, and promoting social inclusion. The inquiry observed if ChatGPT positively contributes to such processes and, if so, in what ways. We focused on its impact on teamwork, creativity, and informed decision-making. Data collection involved recording design sessions with automatic transcription, conversation logs from ChatGPT, semi-structured team interviews, observations and an anonymized questionnaire. Our findings point to ChatGPT’s ability to offer better assistance with real-life design processes - not as much in terms of creativity, but the ability to learn and get the information needed for design in complex and often novel domains. They also point to a shifting perception of human, technology, and world relationships.

This paper reflects on the increasingly blended (online and in-person) nature of the traditional campus-based design studio and its pedagogical implications. Despite the widespread digitalization of learning and architectural design and construction practices and the post-COVID intensification of remote and hybrid operations, the architectural design studio is taught in predominantly in-person or campus-based mode. Post-COVID interviews of undergraduate and graduate students (N=27) and instructors (N=32) of US architecture programs indicate a continuing preference for in-person or campus-based studio teaching and learning to maximize tactile, social, and vicarious learning experiences. However, the participants also favored small but meaningful blending of online and in-person practices for office hours, lectures, group critique sessions, final juries, etc. Thematic analysis of the interviews suggests blended practices in campus-based programs deepen learning by extending students' and instructors' social, cognitive, and teaching presence and fostering relational proximity and a learning community amongst studio participants.

Designers change existing situations with a focus on changing the behavior of artifacts. When designers aim to intentionally change the behaviors of individuals, organizations, or social systems, practitioners use specific approaches. Strategy (strategic design) and futures (design futures) are two alternatives for designers working on complex situations that require intentional change. This paper presents and reports three editions of a course titled Strategic Design Futures that address this type of situation. The course includes a seminar and a project component, which are structured into six design activities: sense-making, participatory visioning, designing futures, designing strategy, participatory evaluation, and design implementation. The course has ambitious goals, and students can only learn initial competencies. After three iterations, the course has focused on participatory visions and designing futures. The initial competencies the course provides are seeds for complex design situations of the real world requiring strategic and futures-oriented design skills.

This paper considers how we can adapt HE design pedagogies in response to the emergence of generative AI (GenAI) tools. We focus on the authors’ own HE institution and describe our work through the first half of 2023 to understand the impact of these tools on how our students approach their work, and to adapt our design pedagogies in response. This paper includes accounts of student attitudes to these tools, and the outcomes of our own experimentation with contemporary GenAI tools (ChatGPT4, MidJourney5). We identify 12 challenges for design pedagogy that span assessment, student learning and teaching deliver which our design pedagogy and foreground the unique ways GenAI tools could disrupt the learning that takes place in a student design project. We respond with adaptations adopted by our institution for 2023, and speculate about how future pedagogic design projects could be structured to best support student learning augmented by GenAI.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are technologies that impact the skills and practices of the next generation of designers, presenting the chance to reimagine 21st-century design education. Having a structured knowledge that stands as a multidisciplinary reference for design education is still a challenging aspect of this re-imagination. The paper presents a design-stage-oriented framework for introducing AI and ML into design education. The framework structures taxonomies of AI tools, data types performed by these systems, AI capabilities and the stages of a design process. It leads to an interactive user workflow, serving as a foundational component that enables teachers and students to explore the broad possibilities of co-design with AI tools. The paper discusses the potential impact and implications of the framework on design education and the initial validation in a workshop involving multidisciplinary teachers and students.

As Chinese higher education adapts to the changing landscape, heavily influenced by Western paradigms, design education also undergoes significant transformation. To enhance design teaching quality, teachers should employ innovative approaches; however, existing research lacks focus on reflective teaching techniques. This study, employing surveys and in-depth interviews with design teachers, unveils several key insights: confusion often arises between "reflective teaching" and "teaching reflection"; there's a prevalent focus on static content, neglecting dynamic teaching processes; pre- and post-lesson reflection is favored over in-action reflection; teaching methodologies are subject to various influences; teachers must acknowledge the inherent value of reflective teaching. Subsequently, drawing from Donald Schön's reflective action theory and J. W. Brubacher's theory of three-step reflection, an integrated theoretical framework for reflective teaching is proposed. This framework holds significance not only for Chinese design education but also offers insights for design teachers worldwide seeking to enhance their educational practices.