Teaching Conceptual Design to a Heterogeneous Group: A Workshop
Method
This paper describes how conceptual design methods have been taught in the ‘Product
Development and Marketing’ course, to a heterogeneous group of students in the Master of
Engineering Management Program at an international university. Engineering managers have
to be involved in the management of product design and development either as a part of a
design team or as a purchaser of a system that is being designed. But engineering managers
come from different backgrounds and fields of specialisation in their undergraduate studies.
The challenge for the curriculum design is to teach the design process and the outputs at various
stages so that an engineering manager can provide effective leadership to a design office or
team. Design process is often described as a stage model or activity model. The stage model is
static with specified number of stages while the activity model can incorporate several design
methods. In this context, design methods are tools and techniques used at different stages of
the design process. The prime objective of this course is to equip students with the knowledge,
skills and competence in design models and methods so that they can handle design process
management in their professional careers. In general students are (a) given lectures and handouts
on the theory and methodology in which they have to pass a written examination and (b)
apply their knowledge and skills in a project where they exhibit their competence gained.
Conceptual Design, being a very important part of the design process, a special workshop
method is adopted. Students at the beginning follow lectures and quizzes in the early stages of
the design process, from design brief to drawing the specifications. They are then taught
conceptual design as the process of establishing a scheme to arrange components in a
harmonious manner to deliver the required functions satisfying the originating need. More than
ten conceptual design methods and approaches are taught during this stage. Groups of four
students are formed and each group is given a specific design problem and asked to produce a
conceptual design using a specified design method. They describe the method and the
conceptual design in a poster and present their work to their class mates for discussion. Students
see their colleagues’ work, discuss and learn from them. The instructor then critiques the
posters, and students make their second poster which is assigned as assignment 2. A cohort of
34 students in 11 groups went through this workshop. After seeing, and before critiquing, they
were asked to answer a questionnaire. After the second poster the students had their written
exam. Eight posters came out more than satisfactory in the first round and ten came out well in
the second round. Sixteen students said that they understood the C sketch method very well
after the first round. The question relating to conceptual design and posters was answered very
well by all in the examination. The paper will discuss the answers to the questions and lessons
learned.
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