Topic outline

  • Welcome to the Department of Design!

    INTRO is a compulsory course for all first year Master students at the Department of Design. 

    This year the whole course is organised at the Otaniemi campus, and it consists of two parts:

    1. an intensive week during 29.8-1.9.2023  and 
    2. six weekly sessions on Monday afternoons 4.9.- 9.10.


    You are welcome to join the course if you are now starting your Master's studies at Department of Design. Please try to enrol in SISU, but you can join the course even if that has not yet been possible.  If you are an Aalto Bachelor's student, please note that you previous studies should be almost finalised.

    The course clarifies the offering, pedagogies and mindset of the master studies in design and prepares the students for the shift in the study objectives from undergraduate to master studies. Contact teaching and assignments structure students' learning about their own goals and orientations in design, and in relation to future societal needs. Personal study plans will be discussed in majors/programs during the course. As a startup to ongoing studies, the course aims to create peer networks across majors and programs at the Department. The course is one of the four joint courses compulsory for all MA students at the Department of Design.

    The intensive part of the course (Orientation Week) is scheduled so that students are able to participate in the ARTS and Aalto University orientation activities. Note: Creative Sustainability students might have an overlapping course in Monday afternoons. For them, there will be an alternative way of completing the INTRO course.


    Schedule for the intensive week:

    • 29 August 9:15-12:15   Lecture hall: Jeti (in A Grid building), Otakaari 5                   
    • 30 August 9:15 -16:15  Lecture hall: Jeti (in A Grid building), Otakaari 5
    • 1 September 9:15-16:15  Lecture hall: Jeti (in A Grid building), Otakaari 5


    Schedule for Monday afternoons during the Period I:

    • 4 September 13:15-17 No joint class, some programmes organise their own event.
    • 11 September 13:15-17 No joint class. Students work with an independent assignment.
    • 18 September 13:15-17 How to work in groups? Group assignment. Lecture hall: Jeti ( A Grid building), Otakaari 5 
    • 25 September 13:15-17 No joint class, groups work independently. NOTE: FaCT students have their own programme 13:15-15
    • 2 October 13:15-15 Design talks and discussions. Oodi library, Helsinki city center.
    • 9 October 13:15-17 Presentations and wrapping up. Course ends. Väre, 2nd floor.


    Learning outcomes:

    After completing INTRO, students

    • recognize characteristics of master-level education, including pedagogical approaches and study contents at the Department of Design
    • understand the wider and future societal context of design, including contemporary issues and emerging challenges
    • reflect on their own professional interests within collaborative work


    Workload: 3 ECTS is equal to an 81-hour workload
    Evaluation: pass / fail

    The evaluation is based on the participation in contact teaching sessions and the contribution to individual and group tasks.

    Passing the course requires attending the contact teaching sessions and completing all the assignments. (80 % of attendance is minimum to pass the course; max. 20% can be made up by completing an extra assignment agreed-upon with the teaching team.) Students unable to meet the required level of attendance (acceptable reasons are those exceptional circumstances such as health or residence issues) should contact the teacher in charge (pirjo.kaariainen@aalto.fi) as soon as possible in advance to explain the situation and discuss completion.

    For practical questions during the course please contact teaching assistant Pragati Singhal pragati.singhal@aalto.fi


    Teaching team 2023

    • Professor Pirjo Kääriäinen pirjo.kaariainen@aalto.fi
    • Professor Andrea Botero
    • Professor of Practice Marco Steinberg
    • Teaching assistant Pragati Singhal pragati.singhal@aalto.fi


    Tasks

    The course has several individual and group tasks to be completed during the course. Tasks will be described in detail in the Tasks section.