Keywords

1 Introduction

The cultural and creative industry provides “design service industry chain” value services, from design needs, creative design, market link-ups to product commercialization. It needs to bring together people from different fields of expertise, which changes the face of design service activities as a whole. In terms of teaching and learning, the Ministry of Education has been encouraging institutions of higher learning to embark on more industry-university cooperation to promote local development, meet real-time industry needs, as well as to nurture students’ practical skills and develop enhanced capacity to act, resulting in a win-win for the educational and the industry sector [1]. Industry-university cooperation is a situation which makes use of the different educational resources and environments of the educational institution and the workplace. The workplace provides the venue for actual job training and mentors on the practical aspects, while the school assists in continued innovation, making the relationship mutually beneficial. By carrying out collaborative teaching, instructors are able to ensure that the learning process of both the faculty and student body is more productive. At the same time, the Ministry of Education also emphasizes that learning in any field be carried out through integrated and collaborative teaching in principle, in hopes that teachers would be able to make full use of their professional expertise. Through this combination of courses, it will resolve the inadequacies brought about by the teaching of distinct separate courses, break the trend of course design and instruction centered on theoretical knowledge, develop abilities which the students can apply in real life, and allow for the integration of both teacher and student learning [2].

The learning process of undergraduates stems from the expectations of individuals of themselves, their peers, the number of courses, their workload, and their academic scores as well as the pressures they feel in the face of social opinion and future career developments [3]. An important strategy of course instruction is how to transform the pressure of the learning process into a happy learning experience. In addition, related literature on collaborative teaching and learning effectiveness largely indicate the necessity of experiments and the importance of knowledge application. At the same time, the actual needs of the industry do affect the learning environment as well as the university’s teaching orientation to allow educational training to meet the needs of the workplace and those of society. There is actually no relevant empirical study on how to build a teaching plan for an integrated creative design curriculum, create value through industry-university cooperation, or on the learning effectiveness of using collaborative teaching in higher education courses for industry-university cooperation. If the students are learning in a program that combines intrinsic motivation and affective learning, then it can be an internal force that helps inspire them to carry on [4]. The idea behind the study originates from a pragmatic philosophy that students need to be able to use what they have learned. Therefore, the motivation of this study is to build an interdisciplinary teaching curriculum integrating industry-university cooperation to help enhance student learning effectiveness, provide successful transition to employment and practical industry aspects, promote learning preparedness, improve instruction, and develop professional talents.

The study explores curriculum design for professional fields in higher education, conducting research on the empirical learning effectiveness of collaborative teaching courses as well as the industry-university cooperation of the cultural creative incubation center. It uses daytime students taking up a cultural creative design course in graduate school; the course integrates design and business management with two instructors who carry out interdisciplinary collaborative teaching. Experiential learning, the case method, and university-industry cooperation are used as instructional strategies. Through the learning process that includes direct and concrete experiences, with the course targeting design topics as well as the needs of the industry-university cooperation, enabling the teaching of professional courses to meet the needs of the design industry, can the study understand interdisciplinary collaborative teaching and its implementation process? How do students react to the practical aspects of collaborative teaching implementation? How has university-industry cooperation affected the learning area of the students? Consequently, the objectives of the study are first, to understand the collaborative teaching plan and implementation process in the field of interdisciplinary learning and instruction. Second, to explore how students respond to collaborative teaching and the learning effectiveness of conducting industry-university cooperation within the curriculum.

2 Review of Related Literature

The implementation of curriculum teaching and learning is an important way to reach the goal of education. It is necessary for teachers to convey professional knowledge and skills, and for students to participate in a serious and active manner. It is also the process of a two-way interaction between teachers and students [5]; Collaborative teaching focuses on teamwork, consisting of two or more teachers or professionals forming an instructional team. It emphasizes cooperation and participation of teachers, using their individual expertise to jointly plan the curriculum as well as to implement and evaluate its instructional effectiveness [6]. During the process of carrying out coherent teaching activities, the priorities are team cooperation and sharing of responsibilities [7]. All collaborative teaching participants in the team are able to learn by observing others. They all work together, making greater contributions than if they were working separately [8]. The effectiveness of collaborative teaching is significantly better than that of individual instruction. It is believed that teachers can have more opportunities for participation, enhancing the acquisition of new knowledge and improvement of skills, which enables both teachers and students to experience and recognize the importance of cooperation and the division of powers and responsibilities [9, 10].

Diverse instruction provides students with different learning experiences; professional teachers each have their individual strengths. While students absorb the best of those strengths, integrating knowledge into a systematic and complete concept allows for adaptation to the students’ individual differences. Collaborative teaching engenders cooperation to complete the teaching activity, ensuring optimum performance of the teaching team [11]. Pan et al. pointed out that collaborative learning is a kind of mutual learning relationship between partners. There are no leaders and consensus is not required; each person is allowed to participate equally in the learning process [12]. It can help with the learning effectiveness of the students regarding professional theories in design theory courses, enabling them to take more initiative in asking questions, which improves learning outcomes [13]. The traditional instructional mode of teaching single courses has been unable to meet the training needs for developing multi-faceted individuals. Interdisciplinary collaborative teaching helps in the promotion of the new instructional mode and aids in developing these multi-faceted individuals in the new era [14].

The Ministry of Education promotes the principle of industry-university cooperation jointly creating value in working together. It endeavors to enable the implementation of the academia’s cutting edge and practical research as well as to encourage active participation by the corporate world in nurturing research talents, creating a win-win situation. This is the symbiotic relationship behind industry-university cooperation. Both industry and higher education contribute to the output of new knowledge and technologies through consensus-based systems of operation. Moreover, the value created is in the combination of theory and practice, which can accelerate and improve the learning process and enhance the effectiveness of industrial education [15]. Apart from the educational goal of cultivating talents, higher education can be combined with the needs of industries to enhance the interaction between industries and universities as well as to take advantage of high value added cooperation benefits [16]. Industry-university cooperation from an educational standpoint suggests that the school focuses on specific research issues, establishing working relationships with targeted industries. Through this interaction, faculty members are able to enhance the breadth and depth of their research, while the students are able to acquire solid pre-employment practical experience and applicable technologies. In the principles of interaction and mutual trust, instructors look to practical aspects to modify teaching content and direction, boosting the possibility of increasing the school’s resources, exchanging information, or creating a new knowledge economy [17]. As far as the industry sector is concerned, it hopes to use the R&D resource pool and knowledge resources of the academia through the industry-university cooperation to have better business philosophies and help it to upgrade and gain more profits [18]. In the course of the industry-university cooperation, respect and good use of each other’s strengths, and through discussion and sharing, enable both parties to strongly benefit from and complement each other’s professional capabilities. Through new cooperative experiences which are honest and direct, both parties can reach their goal of creating optimum results [19].

3 Research Methodology

3.1 Cultural Innovation Design Course Overview and Course Design

The study selected a university with a “cultural innovation design course” in its combined master’s and PhD program as its case and field. The course runs for 18 weeks, combining theories and practice, integrating instruction in design and business management. The study uses participant observation, data analysis, and in-depth interviews as its methodology. The primary student background is that of being design students, a total of 15, with 5 PhD students and 10 master’s degree students from the Graduate School of Creative Industrial Design. Based on the curriculum design of the case university department, these students are professional graduate school students who have taken foundational design courses before signing up for this course. At the same time, the PhD students are on their second year and have already taken relevant professional cultural creative courses. This means that they have the requisite skills, learning, and actual practice necessary to carry out practical design in the course curriculum. Hence, the study has chosen them to be survey subjects. In accordance with their professional learning backgrounds and interests, students chose five companies involved in industry-university cooperation to carry out curriculum experimentation. Each group is led by a PhD student with practical design experience who serves as the learning group leader, leading four master’s degree students in learning together and applying the knowledge gained.

3.2 The Use of Cooperative Teaching in Program Planning Design and Service Design Applications

Program planning and design is an important service concept in the field of social services in recent years. The planning process includes situation analysis, project concept creation, target and program objective setting, understanding of needs, learning activities design, program marketing, evaluation, budget control, and process management [20]. The formation of the program, its development and the presentation of the results emphasize the completion of the work from the definition of the scenario and the analysis of the problem, the estimation of the demand, the assumption of the plan, the formulation of the plan’s objective, the design of the service, the evaluation of the plan, and the creation of the budget. Based on the cumulative results of empirical research and substantive work experience, measures to implement “program objectives” can then be designed and implemented [21]. The study uses project planning design as contemplation of the system, from integrating interdisciplinary teaching design, teaching implementation, teaching effectiveness evaluation, and the level overall teaching goals are achieved. At the same time, it is anticipated that the learning process of this course would be able to nurture students’ ability to learn the planning, design, and execute skills needed for actual industry design projects. The study refers to the essential connotation and process of service design by Song which includes four stages: exploration, design, execution, and evaluation [22]. It focuses on integrating course goals systematically, positioning participants within the interactive process of the teaching service experience, allowing for course transformation from the original lecture learning to industry-university cooperation service design.

4 Case Analysis

The study is different from other literature on service design relating to the design process of cultural creative products in that it explores and categorizes the implementation of appropriate instructional service design processes under the concept of service. This is to truly understand the needs of the design course as well as those of industry-university cooperation, solving the problems and issues of company owners, and achieving the teaching goals of the course. The study also hopes to interpret integrated cultural-creative design courses in the service design context, incorporating empirical information on participants cooperating and jointly creating value during the service design process.

4.1 Building a Service Design Model for Course Instruction and Industry-University Cooperation

Using service design planning absolutely meets the expectations of learning from student-driven teaching activities as well as cultural company innovations developed from industry-university cooperation. Program planning design based on result-based logic as well as the service design of Goldstein et al. gradually transforms the design concept into actual systematic design [23]. Furthermore, the service design model for course instruction and industry-university cooperation is built and presented based on the predicted changes achieved by the students while learning in the course (Fig. 1). With design students as subjects, the study conducts analysis and needs assessment on the issues and difficulties facing commercialization and industrial development. Then, based on the teaching objective’s specific timeframe within the semester when tangible results are expected, interdisciplinary teaching courses integrating diverse resources and cooperation are incorporated and core insights are used to help company owners and students in industry-university cooperation ventures to have a common understanding of course design and conduct collaborative teaching for practical research and hands-on output. Finally, the study creates a collaborative teaching assessment measuring the effectiveness of the combination of actual scenarios and hands-on work during the course process to completely reflect the learning results of the students.

Fig. 1.
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Case study of university curriculum and cooperative service design and planning model.

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4.2 Implementation Results of Collaborative Teaching and Students’ Learning Results

Theme-Based Curriculum Design – Inter-disciplinary Collaborative Teaching Plan Page Numbering and Running Heads.

The instruction of this study establishes its course orientation, content, and the need to bring in resources through the diagnostic process of discovering the problems and assessing the needs. The two professional teachers of the course conducted interdisciplinary collaborative teaching. To meet the teaching objectives and requirements, the course is divided into two major themes: innovative design and creative business, where interdisciplinary collaborative teaching is planned. Teachers help guide the teaching and discussion process in the classroom, encouraging free questioning, taking control of discussions, helping to integrate students’ opinions, and guiding students to ask questions and try to solve problems, as well as giving them timely guidance in major learning points or hidden issues.

Carrying Out the Teaching Plan – Insights into Service Experience.

The hands-on case of the course first conducted analysis of group theme and initial insight exploration of the experience. Before each group conducted observation and interviews, students gathered information on the companies involved in the incubation center, which forms the basis for the observation and interview content. Students then go to the second phase which uses the service experience core insight method, to carry out exploration, drafting of the group interview plan and observation analysis after communicating with the companies. Before the formal company visit, which is part of the teaching activity design of the course, the students sought prior consent from the business owner, who also agreed to having the students and the researchers to conduct observation and interviews on the sideline. The researcher continues to visit the company work area, and through individual interaction with the company, observes its cultural innovation concept and product planning. During the interview, an understanding of the work that is being done, as well as company objectives, are obtained. Then, the materials obtained from the observation and interview will be analyzed to record details regarding the projects developed by companies involved in industry-university cooperation. Cultural innovation design courses are introduced into the service design planning model for industry-university cooperation. Both the research student participants divided into groups and manufacturers continuously explore, create and reflect, implementing gradual improvement, to conceptualize cultural design ideas, as well as to revise and plan original plans for new businesses.

Curriculum Transformation and Learning Production.

The third phase of the implementation involves service actualization, with the teaching activities and student learning of the course gradually making the transition to a tangible, feasible industry-university cooperation company proposal plan. This includes drafting the cultural creative proposal concept and proposal structure. Building a prototype of an actual project design plan is the students’ most difficult learning task. The integration of a proposal plan is centered on the students and industry-university cooperation companies, exploring and focusing on the company providing experience and the students interacting, tracking problems and solutions, and integrating the process. The service design orientation of the entire content of the course is geared towards helping out with the drafting of the cultural creative industry subsidy plan and, using value creation as a starting point, participate in the service design that is company-centered, to actually understand design, motivation, style, culture, product, and marketing promotion status, which can provide insight into the needs of the company and solve problems in the process.

Curriculum Instruction Results and Feedback.

The fourth stage is service and business verification, i.e. project planning (revisions, recommendations) testing, (logical deduction) project validation, and (actual results and feedback) project demonstrations and deliverables. In publishing and practicing the teaching results of the course, the inter-disciplinary teachers were able to reinforce the creativity and innovation or uniqueness, core competencies and business management methods (What kind of companies? What size? Etc.), understanding of marketing and distribution, as well as financial and cost planning of cultural creative products and services. The feedback and recommendations the teachers gave each group, which made up for the inadequacies of feasibility of the vendor project planning framework and the lack of student implementation, have enhanced the practical capabilities of design project. The course learning group conducted interaction, communication, and discussion as modes of learning. Through the teachers’ lectures and focused themes, the groups are able to achieve awareness and practice of action experience through “learning by doing and doing by learning.” The teachers’ feedback and recommendations for each group are as follows (Table 1):

Table 1. Teacher feedback and recommendations.
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4.3 Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Teaching Courses and Service Design

Thoughts and Feelings About Collaborative Teaching.

Collaborative teaching of interdisciplinary fields expands and mixes knowledge of cultural creative design and business operations. It emphasizes guidance and inspiration, rather than pure instruction and answering questions. This gives the students the opportunity to be responsible for their own research and study (i.e. self-directed learning) by completing case proposals to achieve in-depth instruction and build effective systems of interaction in industry-university cooperation as well as students’ hands-on learning, maximizing the service value of teaching and learning.

It’s been a great help, learning about professional theories and knowledge on cultural creative and innovation industries, about how to transform them into feasible plans and proposals, as well as receiving training on how to combine cultural creativity and business marketing to commercialize creative works and bring them to the market (Student C7).

Cultural creative products that are marketable should be things that the consumers would want to own. They should not only emphasize creative design, but should also have value and unique features to be able to attract attention. These features may not necessarily be functional or physically attractive. What is more important is that there is a market for these products, that they are marketable, and who will be buying them. Design and creation are definitely not enough; experience in creativity and actual market aspects should be gained. A professional teacher who works in a single field of design may be unable to satisfy the real learning needs of students who are entering the industry (Student E13).

The key to interdisciplinary teaching is professional cooperation, with the content enabling students to learn the essence of culture in innovative commercial products through hands-on work (Student D10).

Inadequate insight of design theories and business practices often lead to a gap between creative design and market needs, thus making it necessary to have competency in diverse professional fields (Student B4).

Creative designs that do not consider the consumer market are nothing more than self-appreciation and conceit. The learning done in an integrated design course should combine elements that would satisfy the market. Usually, design students lack ideas about marketing and distribution; they’re not very clear about finances and costs. Through the teachers’ instruction as well as discussions between peers from different professional fields, everyone goes away learning something different and valuable (Student C7).

Interdisciplinary teachers can use integrated comprehensive viewpoints to help students understand more clearly how design as well as tools and methodology can effectively be employed within the context of cooperation (Student A1).

Experience and Thoughts Regarding Industry-University Cooperation.

Although there are both positive and negative reactions to the course design as well as the industry-university cooperation experience, students who have undergone the process achieved the learning outcomes of solving problems and hands-on learning within the semester.

The class incorporating industry-university cooperation is very interesting and beneficial. It’s very different from the usual design course, and is a new experience and a new form of learning. However, there was a lot of pressure because students have different areas of expertise, working directly with cultural creative companies (wood, visual art, accessories, metalcraft, pottery), each has different needs and demands. Furthermore, each company has its own issues, needs, and limitations. When students were divided into groups, various activities, discussions, and worksheets were used to arrive at appropriate and effective solutions (Student C7).

The level of willingness for cooperation of the matching companies in the incubation center was not consistent. There were those which were not able to coordinate with the pace of the course in terms of producing output and plans, which made the group lag behind significantly; group members were nervous about this (Student D10).

Companies which have strong design skills and numerous awards, are very hard to talk to. They are usually unable to work with us during the discussion stage of the course; there were many times when meetings would be canceled at short notice and they were not very active during the cooperation process. It was difficult to reach an agreement on the balance between products and cost. Problems were unable to be solved despite numerous discussions, which created a lot of pressure and challenge (Student A1).

We worked very closely with the company we were matched with, which means, we had to do extra work in looking for themes, reference materials, and case plans. Although it was exhausting, we gained so much from the process, there was a strong sense of achievement and everyone was happy (Student C7, E13).

The company has a lot of partner resources and experience in commercializing products, which are a great help in my own career or entrepreneurial goals (Student B4, E13).

The students’ professional background is closely matched to that of the cooperating company, which helps in the interaction and discussion. For example, students with a background in industrial design had a higher level of participation in product development. Those with backgrounds in media or graphic design would have unique perspectives on marketing and promotion. Team discussions brought forth the different ideas of many people, leading to exchange of opinions, and brainstorming a lot of interesting new ideas. The recognition and approval gained during the cooperation process inspired a sense of self-achievement (Student A1, B4, C7, E13).

The syllabus calls for completing a cooperative proposal plan within the cooperation period. There was a lot of back and forth discussion going on between the students and the company; coupled with the pressure of final exams, it was inevitable that learning would be accompanied by irritation and helplessness (Student A1, B4, D10).

Feelings and Thoughts Regarding Self-expectations and Learning Outcomes.

Discussion of actual cases in class as well as group work not only increased class participation, but also resulted in deeper interaction between teachers and students. This allowed interdisciplinary learning to attain its optimum level.

Thanks to the teachers who patiently guided the discussion and hands-on work and to the companies which were willing to open their doors and work with the students. They have made it possible for us to complete this joint proposal and gain experience in putting together a comprehensive plan; I have also learned how to work within a team (Student C7).

If matching can be done earlier in the course, then the students and companies can set the themes sooner, establishing stronger sense of rapport, and shorten the adjustment period; then the time would be more than enough to help smoothen the cooperation process (Student B4).

The companies expect teachers and industry experts to work together to produce a feasible business proposal plan that would combine design innovation and business model as the actual result of the industry-university cooperation. Joint student discussions and business owners sharing professional and future development plans, identifying needs, forming the plan, and the companies participating in discussions with the students as well as interdisciplinary learning, these are all parts and parcel of the whole new cultural creative design learning experience. Not only is it academically effective, it also achieves the goal of reinforcing professional competencies (Student A1).

We were not very familiar with the actual application of the company for marketing distribution channels as well as the financial plan and we lacked workplace experience. Initially, we felt frustrated, not knowing how to talk to the company. There were a lot of discussions with our teachers and students; many of the problems were solved through the use of the suggestions shared by more experienced classmates. The pace of the course significantly improved, and learning became more effective, so there was more interest on my part (Student D10).

5 Conclusion and Recommendation

The study uses “Cheerful” and “Depressive” as the introduction to its conclusion. The teaching and learning model of the learning and interaction process can be the experiential process of service exchange, which leads to the learning experience of the student curriculum from the teaching service process. In the end, is the service process emotionally positive and pleasant or negative and unpleasant? When the learning experience is positive, the learning process can be joyful, happy, satisfactory, proud, exciting, and hopeful. On the other hand, when the learning process is negative, it results in feeling annoyed, disquieted, anxious, insecure, frustrated, disappointed, fearful, nervous, and tense with the learning. This case study examines the effectiveness of teaching and learning. The learning effectiveness of “Cheerful” experience comes from students participating in course learning responding positively to the collaborative teaching, as well as the learning effectiveness of industry-university cooperation being implemented within the course. On the other hand, the learning effectiveness of “Depressive” experience comes from the negative responses of students towards collaborative teaching as well as the learning effectiveness of industry-university cooperation being implemented within the course. The conclusions of the study are as follows:

  1. 1.

    Building a “Service Design Plan Model for Course Teaching and Industry-University Cooperation,” can help in further understanding of the planning and implementation process of interdisciplinary teaching and learning as well as collaborative teaching. This model would include teaching design, teaching implementation, teaching effectiveness assessment as well as incorporating interdisciplinary innovations into the course, and evaluating the effectiveness of teaching projects. Furthermore, future course teaching will be designed and revised based on feedback, reflection, introspection, and criticism.

  2. 2.

    Aside from being able to improve the students’ research and practical skills in design and creative work at the same time, interdisciplinary collaborative design courses can reinforce the professional knowledge lacking or neglected in a single course, given that the nurturing of interdisciplinary skills encompasses practical research in industry business development, including managing new businesses as well as market linking and feasibility. Integrated theme-based course design and experiential teaching effectively motivates learning, determines learning objectives, establishes correct directions, and helps to enhance student’s learning effectiveness. By examining and revising the learning actions of the theme, student participation slowly becomes more proactive and positive, enhancing the ability to solve problems, and increasing the motivation to learn.

  3. 3.

    Interaction between teacher and students as well as among peers does improve the learning atmosphere. Student group leaders lead the members to collaborate, divide work, and cooperate, communicating in the spirit of mutual respect. For the teachers, it means mutual growth in teaching; participants in collaborative teaching are able to discover both problem and solution during reflection and criticism. The common goal of all the participants is to clarify and solve the problem. Maybe it is not possible to reach a consensus, but, as long as there is mutual respect in the continuing interaction, making clear thoughts and actions to each other, then the process is of great help in design course teaching and industry-university cooperation jointly creating value.

  4. 4.

    The learning which occurs in the teaching of experiences and practices in industry-university cooperation cases helps students try to solve problems, enabling them to connect to the real-life applications in the workplace. This increases learning motivation, and, since it allows the industry and the academic sectors as well as students to inquire as well as communicate with each other, it enhances the students’ learning effectiveness. It was unavoidable that learning effectiveness was compromised at some stages, given that cooperation required much flexibility in meeting company needs, where the limitation in time adversely affected the proposal, breeding pressure and anxiety as well as negative feelings toward the learning in the process. However, through reflection learning, the students were able to translate these negative feelings into positive learning motivation and action, which means these situations still helped generate positive feedback in maintaining balance in learning, allowing it to be more effective.

Through studying teaching practices and implementation, service design not only effectively promotes the cooperation between industry and design courses, but also provides new values of cooperation between schools and industries. Feedback and reflection enhance practical teaching and research results, and actually carry out practical study of industry-university cooperation. It is hoped that the results of this empirical research as well as the integrated cultural creative design course may benefit students, teachers, and the industry, thus creating a winning situation for all parties.

The study recommends that when future industry-university cooperation uses the conceptual structure presented in this study, given appropriate teaching content and allowable timeframe, it should increase the categories of industry-university cooperation as well as screen partners in terms of their level of willingness, which will be beneficial to the implementation of the course. Moreover, the needs of the company have to drive the interdisciplinary action research of the empirical study; teaching design and flexible revisions need to be made on time, place, objectives, or needs. Adjustments in the mode of interaction should be made based on the difference in the participating partners (company, student), which can enhance the student’s learning effectiveness and change learning attitudes. The limitation of the study is that it focused solely on design courses. Future research may use similar design concept and apply to EMBA programs or to learning in different fields. However, further understanding of the students’ prior knowledge and competencies is required, to tailor and adjust course teaching and industry-university cooperation service design.