AIGA Standards of Teaching completed and will be released soon

One of the most important distinctions that AIGA offers is as an established institution for standard that distinguish professional design. Thanks to the efforts of Design Educators Community (DEC) steering committee member, Barbara Sudick, we are pleased to offer Standards of Teaching. We invite, and encourage the community of design educators to share their comments

I would like to see something about honesty in grading. Too often I hear of or see students pushed through a program when they really have no business majoring in design.

There should be a noted clear distinction between art and design education and the differences as a profession and career.

Additionally, means and quantity of assessment and portfolio development should be outlined. For example, institutions should have clearly outlined portfolio progress assessments to assess student work. This process obviously prevents institutions from waiting until the student is nearing graduation to review the development of the portfolio, competencies and abilities, but more importantly, the process of assessing student work inherently assesses instruction and provides a holistic view of instruction and programmatic outcomes.

I really found this document to be fascinating. It really drives home the awesome responsibilities we have as educators. I do find it ironic that those who will be most interested in this document will be those least likely to need it. Overall, I found the guidelines to be really comprehensive, and I'm hard pressed to think of anything that has been left out. Several areas I want to hear more about:


2.1 "shared goals" seems very broad/too abstract(?). Can/should this be rephrased?


Is "professional code of conduct" in 1.1 the same as "AIGA Standards of Professional Practices" found in 4.1? If yes, perhaps the language should be consistent.


5.1 This point seems very broad... Everyone (in all walks of life, everywhere) should do this... always. Is there anything in here specific to the context of design education [and maybe that's irrelevant].


Cheers to a fantastic initiative!

Hi Amy: I was curious... what did you mean by "I do find it ironic that those who will be most interested in this document will be those least likely to need it. "

Thanks,
Sean Brennan

Hi Sean.
I'm interjecting some personal bias. I mean that a lot of the folks who will want to follow this document will, assumably, already be following some ethical standards, and that those who think the document isn't helpful/useful/relevant are probably the same people who wouldn't uphold its contents. -Amy

I would like to see the subject matter of having or encouraging students to design professional projects for "free" or for "the experience" addressed. If a student, or students, are encouraged to design professional projects—and not be compensated—it devalues the practice of design and the industry as a whole. What types of compensation should be discussed, from monetary payment to credits awarded and perhaps others in-between. In my 15 years of teaching, I have seen too many students taken advantage of by lots of people, including design professors.

I do look forward to reading it—and by golly, in relation to the inflation of diplomas.