Design Pedagogy

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.