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  2. Design Leadership [DES6620]

School: Arts and Humanities

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

  • Unit Title

    Design Leadership

  • Unit Code

    DES6620

  • Year

    2027

  • Enrolment Period

    1

  • Version

    1

  • Credit Points

    20

  • Full Year Unit

     N

  • Mode of Delivery

    On Campus

  • Unit Coordinator

    Dr Eko PAM

Description

This unit explores design as a change agent in large organisations and communities and the complexities and challenges of multidisciplinary teams. Students will learn to expand and manage the value and function of design in a complex environment. Through critical examination of philosophical perspectives, case studies, and interactive projects, students will develop a nuanced understanding of managing design as the means to lead an organisation or community to strive through people-centred innovation.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Analyse scholarly and practice-based perspectives on design leadership and their relevance to service design practice.
  2. Apply advanced design leadership skills in multidisciplinary professional contexts to support effective Service Design solutions.
  3. Effectively collaborate within multidisciplinary contexts to identify aspects of organisational culture and processes that impact the design of services.
  4. Create a personal leadership philosophy informed by design inquiry and reflective practice.

Unit Content

  1. Design leadership skills for Service Design: strategic design, design decision-making, effective communication in multidisciplinary professional contexts, problem-solving and innovation.
  2. Cultural and process of organisational structure that impact the design of services.
  3. Innovative culture and multidisciplinary teams.
  4. Evaluate methods for managing service conception, design, development and communication.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
Case StudyDesign-led community / organisation case study and presentation30%
JournalLeadership philosophy and reflective practice30%
ProjectCollaborative organisation case analysis and individual redesign proposal 40%

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Assessment

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. Informal vivas may be conducted as part of an assessment task, where staff require further information to confirm the learning outcomes have been met. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

Academic Integrity

Integrity is a core value at Edith Cowan University, and it is expected that ECU students complete their assessment tasks honestly and with acknowledgement of other people's work as well as any generative artificial intelligence tools that may have been used. This means that assessment tasks must be completed individually (unless it is an authorised group assessment task) and any sources used must be referenced.

Breaches of academic integrity can include:

  • Plagiarism: Copying the words, ideas or creative works of other people or generative artificial intelligence tools, without referencing in accordance with stated University requirements. Students need to seek approval from the Unit Coordinator within the first week of study if they intend to use some of their previous work in an assessment task (self-plagiarism).
  • Unauthorised collaboration (collusion): Working with other students and submitting the same or substantially similar work or portions of work when an individual submission was required. This includes students knowingly providing others with copies of their own work to use in the same or similar assessment task(s).
  • Contract cheating: Organising a friend, a family member, another student or an external person or organisation (e.g. through an online website) to complete or substantially edit or refine part or all of an assessment task(s) on their behalf.
  • Cheating in an exam: Using or having access to unauthorised materials in an exam or test.

Serious outcomes may be imposed if a student is found to have committed one of these breaches, up to and including expulsion from the University for repeated or serious acts.

ECU's policies and more information about academic integrity can be found on the student academic integrity website.

All commencing ECU students are required to complete the Academic Integrity Module.

Assessment Extension

In some circumstances, Students may apply to their Unit Coordinator to extend the due date of their Assessment Task(s) in accordance with ECU's Assessment Procedure - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000001386.

Special Consideration

Students may apply for Special Consideration in respect of a final unit grade, where their achievement was affected by Exceptional Circumstances as set out in the Assessment Procedure - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000003318.

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