Design in Collaboration
About the course
This course is for students who have completed 4 semesters within a design education and want to use their skills and collaborate to solve assignments for external actors. It is a project-driven course where the students work in interdisciplinary teams with cases from external actors. The course is based on research-based design methodology to work holistically with real issues in dialogue with external actors and stakeholders. The actors can be companies or organizations that have clarified a problem area. In the course, students develop and deepen design principles to work with problems and challenges in different fields, and they will gain a better understanding of their own skills in a professional environment.
Course content
The course is project-based and engages students in interdisciplinary teams to work on briefs and challenges
defined by external actors. Using methods from design research, students will develop and test proposals to respond different challenges. The course will also include lectures and seminars with experts in project management, intellectual property, and other themes that might be relevant for students’ future professional life. The course consists of three parts. The second part consists of individual work and is planned to allow for students to travel and work individually for a period during the course.
Part 1. Understand the challenge. Team work with an assignment from an external actor in focus, which ends with
a group presentation.
Part 2. Individual written reflection. Individual assignment, reflecting on the experiences from part 1, contextualized and discussed with references to course literature.
Part 3. Articulate possible ways forward. Concepts are developed in teams in dialogue with the case owner. This
part ends with a group presentation and an individual comment on another group's work.
Syllabus and course literature
You can find a list of literature in the syllabus, along with other details about the course.
Entry requirements and selection
Entry requirements
120 hp in design, communication or equivalent.
Selection
Upper secondary grades 20%, University credits completed 60%, Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test (SweSAT) 20%
Course evaluation
Malmö University provides students who participate in, or who have completed a course, with the opportunity to express their opinions and describe their experiences of the course by completing a course evaluation administered by the University. The University will compile and summarise the results of course evaluations. The University will also inform participants of the results and any decisions relating to measures taken in response to the course evaluations. The results will be made available to the students (HF 1:14).