Summary
- Design educators Kate Geck and Emma Luke explored how tools like Midjourney, ArkoAI and ChatGPT can be critically integrated into design studio teaching.
- The project produced a suite of class activities, tested and evaluated in design studio classes, alongside a report on insights, challenges and ways of working.
- Funded by an Alastair Swayn Foundation Design Thinking Grant and run within RMIT under research ethics procedures; the report and toolkit are open access.
Context
Text-to-image and language tools such as Midjourney and ChatGPT moved quickly into the design studio, producing convincing renders and natural text in seconds. The researchers framed a deliberate pedagogical response as critical to preparing design students for a rapidly changing industry.
What they did
The team explored how generative machine-learning tools can be critically located and contextualised for students, working with them as early adopters across collaboration, ideation and design development.
They developed a toolkit: a report of insights and a suite of design class activities that educators elsewhere can adapt. The work was run within the university so that appropriate research ethics procedures applied.
How it was implemented and tested
The class activities were tested and evaluated in design studio classes with students, rather than proposed in the abstract. Selected activities were also shared publicly.
What they found
The project published an open report covering insights, challenges and potential ways of working with generative tools, plus a downloadable activities toolkit intended as a reusable resource for design educators across Australia.
Materials
Source: Alastair Swayn Foundation ↗ (curated external)