Dear Esra,

This is always a hot topic for design education. As mentioned by other
colleagues there are a lot of studies on the topic with different
perspectives and I can say, it is difficult to state that one method is
better than the other. It might be important to define what we understand
from quantitative and qualitative assessment. At the end of the day, I am
thinking that the best way will be a balanced mix of both. Even in
research, I strongly believe in the power of mix method (cooperation of
quantitative and qualitative research methods).

In early 2000s I have conducted a research on the differences of assessment
methods in design education. It was a part of a larger research project so
this evaluation was only a case study. I have developed a quantitative
grading instrument and asked a group of instructors with equivalent
teaching experience and similar grading criteria, to assess a set of
projects. The evaluators were divided into two. One group was asked to
evaluate the projects with a traditional assessment method (subjective)
whereas the other group was asked to evaluate the same projects with the
prepared quantitative grading instrument. Each project was assessed twice,
and at the end the these two assessments were compared. According to the
results there was almost no difference between the quantitative and
qualitative way of assessing the projects. Without doubt, this result
cannot be generalized but it gives an idea and some clues for further
research on the topic.

Other than design education; in some developed countries, there is a
different assessment system than traditional scaled grading for K-12.
Rather than the task based numerical and/or letter grading, they are more
interested in the level of the student through out the process by grading
as "expected", "above expected" and "below expected". I really find it
clever especially in design education since there is a high level of
subjectivity in design assessment. Especially with the formal, style and
aesthetic considerations.

Best Regards,
Osman
---
*O. Osman Demirbas, PhD.*
Assoc. Prof. Dr.
Graduate School of Social Sciences, Dean
Dept. Interior Architecture and Environmental Design
Izmir University of Economics
[log in to unmask]
http://people.ieu.edu.tr/en/ozgenosmandemirbas/main




On Wed, Jun 14, 2017 at 8:25 PM, Esra Bici <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> I would like to raise an issue about quantitative grading of  projects of
> design students. I both include the 0-100 system and A-F system by saying
> quantitative. These are supposed to be most conventional methods for design
> evaluation. But I think they often fail to  evaluate the project and define
> the 'value' of the project. Especially in the context of design realm which
> has many dimensions and qualities, dealing with numbers sometimes make
> little sense. So do you think could a qualitative evaluation style be
> developed? For example, the students will have feedbacks like "good
> concept", "inefficient mechanism", or "potential for innovation". (I just
> write what comes to my head for example)
>
> Another disadvantage about quantitative grading, there comes a pedogogical
> aspect. Students often associate themselves with numeric values. They
> perceive they are 'less' or 'more' than someone else in the studio. But
> some project could be 'more' with its e.g. technical details; but another
> one with its 'aesthetic qualities'.  So how should these different
> contexts, values and potentials be quantified and compared?
>
> Maybe there are schools making their evaluation on qualities but I hardly
> remember. Do you know such places? And what do you think about all these?
> Or do you think we have to reduce a 'design' to a quantity in  the end?
>
> Kind Regards,
> Dr. Esra Bici Nasır
> İstanbul.
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> PhD-Design mailing list  <[log in to unmask]>
> Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
> Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>


-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list  <[log in to unmask]>
Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------