Creating an authentic learning environment: is multidisciplinary design education successful in facilitating real-world learning?

The education of digital media designers is largely structured around design students working individually on projects or in teams of designers. This is despite the fact that the intersection of several disciplines is a workplace reality. As a result, design students are being poorly prepared for working as part of multidisciplinary teams. In recognition of these shortcomings, a learning and teaching approach – the POOL Model framework – was developed to create a learning environment that is reflective of industry practice. The framework structures learning around multidisciplinary collaborative teamwork, engaging design students in project work with students from other disciplines such as information technology or multimedia journalism. The effectiveness of this approach in supporting real-world learning was first investigated in an undergraduate digital media design degree program over a period of three years. The relevance of this experience in the workplace was later explored once students had graduated and were working in the industry