SBCS E-Learning

The BTEC Higher National Diploma (HND) provides a fresh, alternativepathway to tertiary education. While serving the same interests as a traditional pathway it also differs in significant ways, with a strong focus on students being able to continuously demonstrate competencies, using assessments with a very strong   practical, contemporary and vocational character.

While the shift in emphasis guarantees a graduate that can more effectively enter either industry or further study, it may pose challenges to learners who, up to this point, have internalised traditional teaching and learning and to whom this approach would require some adjustment. We believe that this adjustment, while not onerous, should be explicitly addressed very early. This course serves to re-orient students to a more flexible, immersive and enjoyable approach to learning.

The unit encourages learners to question the roles of form, function, culture, context and concept in relation to materials, techniques and processes and to reflect on their own distinctive approach to design. 

Work produced for this unit should be in the learner’s own design specialism and may take the form of case studies, critical essays and practical projects that demonstrate an understanding of these issues and develop personal interpretations of them. 

Learners will find that in practice, these areas are not always distinct from each other and that one can interweave another eg an investigation of the relationship between form and function might raise issues around truth to materials. 

This is a realistic reflection of the ever-shifting emphasis that design has in a socio-cultural context that is constantly being reinvented by technological advances, globalisation, mass media and the emergence of internet-based communities that straddle the traditional place, language and ethnicity.

This unit focuses on understanding and applying the design development cycle when creating a new product or improving an existing product or service. The design development cycle encompasses the process from initial concept through to design and production, including reviews at various stages. Learners will explore the stages and methodology relating to design methods and apply them to their own work. Learners will be encouraged to develop an analytical and methodical approach and to use evaluation and review to develop work. Design methods used to develop products or services should be innovative and could involve a new product, an improvement to an existing product or the application of new technology or materials.

This unit will give learners experience in applying the fundamental principles of managing text, material, and images; using traditional skills to complement and inform digital editorial design. Learners should understand the conventions of editorial design and creatively explore ideas to structure and present material imaginatively. Learners should be able to produce solutions which communicate effectively in a variety of editorial design contexts. In addition, learners should be able to use appropriate technical language fluently to discuss their work.