An Open Educational Resource (OER) to facilitate transparency, internationalisation and evidence of excellence for the European doctorate in design Erasmus Project

Project Title

An Open Educational Resource (OER) to facilitate transparency, internationalisation and evidence of excellence for the European doctorate in design

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Recognition, transparency, certification; Research and innovation

Project Summary

Europe has historical global leadership in design education at Cycles 1 and 2 and, over the last 25 years, has pioneered doctoral education at Cycle 3. Despite major progress in the delivery of transparency in the learning, teaching and assessment of Cycles 1 and 2 for design education through the European Credit transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS), this has had limited impact on Cycle 3 as identified in 2019 by the European Universities Association who comment that “Eurodoc, the European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers, often receives questions like: What are the main differences in doctoral training in Europe? How is doctoral training organised in different countries in Europe? What are the conditions offered to doctoral candidates?” (https://eua-cde.org/the-doctoral-debate/128:how-doctorates-vary-across-europe,-from-the-perspective-of-doctoral-candidates.html). This lack of transparency may be considered as one of the barriers to limited internationalisation as identified by Hasgall, Saenen, & Borrell-Damian (2019) who state that, “As Eurostat data show, there is significant inequality in Europe when it comes to the number of doctoral candidates from abroad. Given the global character of research, institutions must deal with the question how to make their doctoral candidates population more diverse”. Parkes (2005) sums up the general positon on doctoral education by commenting that: “This area, traditionally viewed as a secret garden or an activity that takes place behind closed doors between consenting adults, is now expected to be more transparent, more consistent and more appropriate….” (p195)

Vast amounts of unordered, unconnected and often inaccessible material relating to the learning, teaching and assessment processes of the Cycle 3 design doctorate plus its tangible outputs/outcomes reside in academic institutions throughout the 33 Erasmus+ member countries. Through leadership and a considered methodology, the potential exists to engage with these institutions to translate the current fragmented landscape into an ordered, accessible and searchable knowledge framework that will provide transparency, recognition of skills/qualifications and promote internationalisation. The aim of this project is to exploit the existing but largely inaccessible breadth and depth of knowledge relating to the design doctorate in Erasmus+ member countries and translate this into an Open Educational Resource (OER).

One company and four higher education (HE) Participating Organisations have devised a methodology to address the aim of the project. The HE Participating Organisations have been recruited on the basis of international reputation in the field of doctoral education in design and geographic location. By being based in northern, southern, eastern and western Europe, the HE Participating Organisations (Aalto University, La Sapienza Universita di Roma, Middle East Technical University, Loughborough University) will use their reputation, proximity and cultural awareness to work with a regionally allocated number of institutions in the identification and collation of key content on the nature of the design doctorate in Erasmus+ member countries for incorporation into an OER. As a leading developer of digital and video resources to support teaching and learning, ATiT BVBA will direct, support and deliver the translation of content into the OER. Quality assurance will be integrated throughout the project through a process of evaluaton by an International Expert Advisory Panel (14 Council Members of the Design Research Society) and International Doctoral Student Stakeholders (4 based at each HE Participating Organisation – total 16).

Supported by social media, conference presentations and contacts in all institutions that offer design doctorates in Erasmus+ member countries that have been identified during the project, the OER will be launched to an anticipated audience of approximately 10000 (and possibly more) via a webinar that will then be edited and made available on the OER/YouTube to support further dissemination/impact.

Access to information embodied in the OER will have a posotove impact on:

• Potential doctoral students
• Existing doctoral students
• Potential doctoral supervisors
• Existing doctoral supervisors
• Academic faculties/schools/departments
• Doctoral colleges
• Research funders/government agencies
• Companies seeking to fund doctoral activity/employ specialist graduates/commission research
• Stakeholders in other disciplinary fields seeking to address similar Horizontal and Additional Priorities

The methodology and outcomes will be captured in an academic journal paper that will support dissemination to stakeholders plus those in other disciplinary fields (e.g. engineering, geography, modern languages) seeking to address similar aims for doctoral study to provide wider dissemination. A second paper will report impact 12 months after completion of the project.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 297624 Eur

Project Coordinator

LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY & Country: UK

Project Partners

• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA LA SAPIENZA
• ATIT BVBA
• MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY
• AALTO KORKEAKOULUSAATIO SR