Partner Details
Awards
Target Award
Programme Offerings
Full-Time
Educational Aims of the Course
Learning in Communication Design develops the ability:
to be creative
to appreciate an aesthetic sensibility
to engage in intellectual enquiry
to apply skills in team working
to appreciate diversity
to appreciate quality and detail
to conduct research in a variety of modes
to critically reflecting on one's own learning and development
to factor ethical considerations into creative practice
to work independently, encouraging resilience and self-determination
to communicate in a range of formats
Students also understand the broad vocational, economic, social and environmental contexts of their study and
the range of professional opportunities available to them.
These may include the ability:
to anticipate and respond to change;
to apply business processes;
to communicate in visual, written, oral, personal and digital formats;
to distribute and disseminate work and skills in entrepreneurship; and
to apply client/audience negotiation skills.
Teaching, Learning and Assessment
ISDC provides a learning environment where students actively participate in the learning process and take responsibility for their work both individually and as members of collaborative group projects. Students are expected to assume a high degree of autonomy in their work and direct their own learning process. This will take the form of leading or making meaningful contributions to design outputs, preceded by independent preparation through coursework and completing class assignments.
All modules will be delivered with application of knowledge built into the learning experience which involves the delivery of lectures, with independent student work both in the form of individual and group- based collaborative projects and assignments. Engagement with real in-house projects are central to developing the students’ analytical skills and problem-solving ability and enhancing employability. Assessment of these skills is through a combination of assignments, presentations, the production of artefacts and the individual portfolio. Intellectual skills are developed through interactive seminars and lectures of the taught modules, and through problem-solving and assignments which are further developed in the dissertation module, supplemented by the teaching of these skills in the Project Development module. The skills are assessed through a combination of practical and reflective assignments, and the dissertation report.
Professional skills are developed throughout through class discussion, interactive seminars, the dissertation, and engagement with the profession. The assessment of these skills is mainly through written and creative assignments and presentations. Transferable skills are taught throughout the programme which are assessed throughout the range of assessment methods.
The assessments consist of either a one or two pieces of assessment. Where two pieces of assessment are used, the principle of broadly equal weighting across all learning outcomes, has been applied. Thus, where two of four learning outcomes is assessed via an assessment mode, the weighting is 50/50. Where a single learning outcome of four is assessed, 30% is allocated.
Assessments have been designed to build students own portfolio, which they can use to showcase their work to potential employers which also serves to effectively design out plagiarism. Also written assessments will be put through plagiarism detection software.
Feedback and feed forward are core to students' learning and is delivered in both written and verbal forms, increasingly using online, audio and video methods. Self and peer-evaluation constitute an important part of formative assessment.
Level 4 to level 6 will be assessed through formative and summative assessments. For each 20 credit module, students will have 1 or 2 formative assessments during which students will be provided with feedback with a scope of improvement in their project brief. Details of assessment requirements will be published to students in the student handbook. The assessment brief will be available to students from the beginning of the teaching phase for the module. By the completion of the module and on a predetermined summative date, students are required to submit their assessed work.
Penalties for late submission and arrangements for Special Consideration and the principle of ‘Fit to Sit’ apply, as per the assessment regulations.
The templates for assessment have been developed and will be the standard template to be used by all students. Every student must submit their Research visual journal, Mind maps, Mood boards, Visual schematic process, their final output and any other materials that they may have used for their project.
The following Assessment Categories are used:
Artefact
Class Test
Dissertation
Essay
Portfolio
Presentation
Reflection
Report