Measuring the impact of strategic design learning experience long after the classroom delivery

Abstract

This paper seeks to examine the transformational impact of a final year strategic design module on learners some years after its completion. A subset of learners, who completed the module between two and ten years, were surveyed using a semi-structured questionnaire around Fink’s (2003) taxonomy of learning. We researched how much learners still make the connections between what they have learned in the module and their current circumstances. While potentially humbling to find out how little of the detailed content is retained, particularly five to ten years after the event, we argue that the impact of the module on learners developing their creative skill-set and effectiveness in navigating team dynamics has indeed been transformative. We suggest that educators could do more to embed this longer term transformational focus by explicitly raising the future in the classroom and enabling learners to build linkages to the development of their own future selves.