Preliminary Study on Students’ Experiences in Design-Based Interdisciplinary Learning

Abstract

Design is a crucial component of enterprise innovation. Due to rapid changes in society, the economy, and science and technology, design problems are becoming increasingly complex, making it necessary to integrate professional knowledge and technology of different domains into design education. Hence, the primary purpose of this study was to investigate learning problems in design-based interdisciplinary education, examine the learning resources used by students to overcome learning problems, and identify the causes of those problems. In this study, 24 students participating in design-based interdisciplinary courses/activities engaged in focus group discussions. The data were transcribed, and we used Atlas.ti qualitative analysis software to conduct open coding and clustering according to grounded theory and to construct a model of interdisciplinary learning problems. This paper provides new insights into the learning process for multidisciplinary design. Moreover, it offers a reference to enable design teachers to plan interdisciplinary design courses and students to participate in interdisciplinary learning, thus improving teaching effectiveness in interdisciplinary design education and establishing a foundation for future related research.