DEEPENING STUDENT ENGAGEMENT IN A WEB-BASED COLLABORATIVE GROUP TRANSPORT DESIGN PROJECT

The formation of design pedagogy in a truly global context was one strand of research originally outlined in Coventry School of Art and Design's CETL (Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning) funding proposal of 2004. In 2008 a pilot study collaborative design project involving a volunteer group of students at EAFIT University in Colombia and a student team at Coventry University in the UK (Atkinson, 2009) explored some aspects of a web-facilitated collaborative design process. CEPAD (Coventry's Centre for Excellence in Product and Automotive Design) supported the establishment of a second project during 2009, which placed particular emphasis on facilitating stronger interpersonal links between the respective groups of students. This project also sought to better identify students with a particular interest in the global practice of design. This paper considers the collaborative learning problems which surfaced in the project, unearthed through short focus groups with each participating team and a questionnaire completed near the end of the project. Here the students' responses are used to confirm and contextualise learning outcomes related to the cultural and linguistic challenges faced by the students participating on both sides of the project. Significant among the findings were that the self-selecting teams demonstrated a high level of commitment to teamwork and were generally positive about the experience. All the participants surveyed felt that they had benefited from the experience and would be happy to participate in any future collaboration.