Costs Comparison of Teaching and Learning Strategies in a South African University Fashion Design Programme

Abstract

The use of manual teaching and learning (T&L) strategies for creative design, as well as technical drawing modules, continues in South African university fashion design programmes with few computer-aided design (CAD) T&L strategies being employed. Given the global developments in technological T&L strategies using CAD approach, this comparative study assessed the cost-effectiveness of manual T&L strategies against CAD T&L strategies for Creative Design and Technical drawing modules in a South African fashion design programme. A case study design was used to collect data (documents) on manual and CAD T&L strategies from procurement, budget documents and the in-house university printing department. The results showed that manual T&L strategies expenditure was over 70% to 318% compared to the budget, while CAD T&L strategies were below 60% compared to the budget for creative design ii, creative design iii, technical drawing ii, and technical drawing iii. The findings indicated that CAD T&L strategies are sustainable for the implicated university and the South African government as they fund free higher education with decreasing budgets. The paper concluded that technologically driven T&L strategies like CAD can reduce tuition fees for the programme, improve the sustainability of the university, widen access to government funding for free higher education, as well as improve the contribution of fashion design education programmes towards Sustainable Development Goals 8, 9, and 12. This paper contributes to the ongoing research on developing and implementing sustainable strategies to support the constitutional mandate and the #FeesMustFall campaign and the funding sustainability of South African higher education. This paper’s contribution is a comparison of the cost-effectiveness of manual and CAD T&L strategies. Keywords: Computer-aided Design, clothing industry, fashion design education programme, technology in universities.