SID has a unique Induction and Orientation program for newly admitted students. It is well known that transition from school to university/college is one of the most challenging events in a student’s life. When new students enter an institution, they come with diverse thoughts, backgrounds and preparations. The Induction and Orientation Programme at SID is designed to help in the whole process of integrating new students with the academic and administrative systems of SID. The Orientation program is usually scheduled across one week with a student engagement of at least 30 hours.
The objective of the orientation is to educate the new entrants about the environment of design education, and connect them with the people in the SID ecosystem. During the Orientation programme, the new students undergo various activities that help them break away from the general shell they had of their earlier experiences. Students meet other new students, senior students, student’s council members, faculty, technical staff members and administrative staff members. Lectures by eminent designers are arranged along with visits to various departments in the college and campus. Students are exposed to the governing rules and regulations, student support and various committees. Students get an experiential learning like experiencing small-group activities, physical activity, creative and performing arts, literary activities, universal human values, etc.
List of activities to be included:
Design pedagogy or design education may be defined as the set of practices and systems for the training in the field of design; the ways and methods of teaching for the acquisition of necessary knowledge and skills in order to practice the design profession. Internationally, there is nowadays a variety of design schools, public and private, whose character and curricula reflect the complex origins and nature of the design domain. Peripheral countries have been heavily influenced by developments in major design centres, in particular England, France, Germany and the U.S. and, depending on local conditions, they have been contributing their own variations of design education, which remain however largely unrecorded. Numerous schools all over the world follow an “art and design” pedagogy, whereas others are positioned within the engineering spectrum. The increasing diversification of the design domain and the introduction of specializations related to new technologies have introduced further complexity into the design education landscape.
The students continue with the class room teaching method where theoretical information on any subject is imparted by a faculty who teaches the students by presentations and also use audio, visual aids like videos, movies, clips (audio, visual)etc. Thus the lectures are interactive in nature and induce student response.
Research related to design education suggests that a studio-based pedagogy is one method for cultivating students’ identities as designers, developing their conceptual understanding of design and the design process, and fostering their design thinking. The studio based pedagogy encourages group discussions leading to formulation of a problem, then exploration of solutions through mind mapping &research-based activity, followed by problem re-examination, and finally to work out a design process for any problem statement. It usually leads to researching concepts and ideas and working out a procedure for a final outcome. The first three steps are recycled until a satisfactory solution is realised before proceeding to examination.
The practical pedagogy sessions aim at conversion of a design process into an actual product. The practical sessions are conducted in the laboratory of the college which has state of the art machinery, latest software and computers required for conversion of the design idea into an actual product. For this purpose, the college is equipped with, Photography lab, Film Making, Editing and Sound Recording Studios, Usability Lab, Model making in Metal Working, Plastic, Wood and Clay Studios, Digital Simulation Studio, Material Store cum Library, Draping Studio, Garment Manufacturing, Pattern Making and Fashion CAD Labs. All the Computer Labs have branded computers with many of the specialized application software titles that design students need to be successful in their academic career.
These informal sessions provide practical demonstrations of innovative pedagogical tools in practice as well as creating opportunities for discussion. The practical pedagogy sessions will be presented by individuals with expertise and experience in designing, developing, and delivering online and face-to-face courses. This pedagogy aims at demonstrating a particular skill or craft which the students will learn by observing and will try to replicate later.
Film screening sessions are done at SID as ways of making an intervention into the ways in which students and teachers conceptualise pedagogy represented in film, while seeking to establish the importance of film as a vehicle for discourse, debate, research and learning about the process of design in its multiple forms. The use of film narrative as a source of learning about educational processes adds to a growing repertoire of multimodal models of knowledge transfer activities in both Faculties. As means of teaching the students are made to see a relevant film in its entirety and then discussions are held regarding the historic perspective, socio cultural and the design context of the film.
During the course students get the advantage of visiting various corporate and industrial houses and factories and get a feel of working environment prevailing there. The visits are aimed at making the students able to correlate academics with the practical world. The students can understand the actual working of machines, processes and functioning of the industry in real time. These sessions ensure that the students understand the design industry in not just its theoretical context but are also exposed to the actual industry with its real issues and processes which will enable them to acclimatize well once they are working in the same industry.
Cultural visit sessions at SID are aimed at the student understanding design from a socio cultural point of view. These visits lead to a study of the Indian cultural traditions and heritage and to strike a balance between preserving its own cultural traditions and developing an understanding of those of people from other countries by using design as a medium.
Case study pedagogy at SID is based on the principle that real education consists of the cumulative and unending acquisition, combination and reordering of learning experiences. There are two fundamental principles underpinning the case method. First, the best-learned lessons are the ones that students teach themselves, through their own struggles. Second, many of the most useful kinds of understanding and judgement cannot be taught but must be learned through practical experience. While reading case studies, students reach a deeper understanding of the concepts and ideas than they would have if they only read the text or listened passively to lectures. Case method teaching extends this principle to make preparing for class and the class session itself an active learning experience for students. By using complex real-world problems as the focus, it challenges students to learn skills that will be appropriate to deal with the practical problems that they will face as economists, civil servants or private managers.
These sessions are helpful in developing the problem solving ability of the students. These sessions are intended to reduce the social inhibitions that occur in groups and therefore stimulate the generation of new ideas, solutions and opinions by discussion. Group discussion sessions foster new ideas and enable the students to formulate a design process in conjunction with others in a group.