Interior design education nurtures imagination and critical thinking skills among students. Learning interior design would enable design students to translate their creative expressions into practical real-world scenarios through informed material selection. A conventional classroom pedagogy is usually confined to a lecture format with theoretical…

This paper defines the value and best practices of immersive learning and how a Midwest University initiative implements immersive learning practices to enhance students' educational experience. Literature reveals that immersive, or experiential, learning experiences are critical because "experiential learning provides the necessary link…

Background: Biophilia is becoming an important theme in contemporary design practice. Research in this area has demonstrated measurable improvements in human health and wellbeing when built environments are able to connect people to nature. However, there is much debate about how design students can best learn to fluidly implement biophilic…

Purpose: Professional program assessment is necessary in an accreditation process, in order to ensure educational quality and public accountability. One avenue of assessment is through an internship. The challenge is to determine how evidence from this indirect learning experience can aid in accreditation. The purpose of this paper is to describe…

Student internships are valued as solid indicators of future employability, which often result in the acquisition of additional education and career skills. This study describes the perceptions of interior design students after completing a summer internship with a design firm. Utilizing a case study approach, the study data were collected through…

How can we utilize the campus as an active and engaging laboratory for design students? How can we create an inclusive design research model in higher education? By utilizing a post-occupancy evaluation process, students completed a nine-month study to investigate and assess the investment in student living and learning spaces. The process…

The purpose of this paper is to understand perceptions of interior design students after using game-based learning (GBL) as an approach to address workload distribution, lack of clear assessment criteria, and deficiencies of the master-apprentice model during the process of solving several small-scale design problems along the course of a…

The profit-driven tendency of interior design trends and styles today has developed in line with the decrease of social awareness in design. The majority of interior design students also decide to pursue interior design education for its marketable and profitable purposes rather than seeing interior design as a field of opportunity to contribute…

This mixed research methods study explores whether project-based service-learning projects promote greater learning than standard project-based projects and whether introduced earlier into the curriculum promotes a greater student understanding of the world issues affecting their community. The present study focused on comparing sophomore and…

Experiential education programs, such as international and domestic study tours, bridge the limitations of formal learning classroom by allowing students to experience reality in a new learning dimension. This mixed-methods study explores experiential learning during a domestic interior design study tour to New York City and an international…

This case study describes the use of an emergency department as a learning space for interior design students. Kolb's (1984; 2005) framework identifies the characteristics of experiential learning and learning spaces, serving as the bridge to unify learning styles and the learning environment. A post-occupancy evaluation was conducted with…

The article discusses the internationalising of informal experiential learning as a pedagogical intervention for sustainable development education in the curriculum of built environment disciplines in the United States (US). A group of American students in the School of Planning, Design and Construction at Michigan State University participated in…

This experiential teaching method demonstrates students' enhanced understanding of the influences that cross-cultural perspectives have on the interior design of the home and is achieved through research and application of elements of assimilation and acculturation in the United States. Knowledge of human factors, family dynamics, geographic…

Des Moines is an urban community located in the heart of Iowa. Des Moines Public Schools serves 32,000 students in a system with 62 buildings, including Central Campus--a Regional Academy. Central Campus is housed in four buildings, including the main campus at 1800 Grand located on the western edge of downtown Des Moines. As a regional academy,…

The case study approach was used to analyze experiential learning through its three components: knowledge, action, and reflection. Two interior design courses were integrated through a university service-learning project. The restoration/adaptive reuse of a 95-year-old library building was to serve as a prototype for future off-campus…