Organizational learning through collaborative project-based service design course : The flip side of the coin

Collaborating with public or private sector organizations in project-based courses equips design students with key skills to future-proof their careers, but this gives only one side of the story as the key feature of these partnerships is that they are mutualistic collaborations. However, the benefits to organizations of collaborating are not fully explored. This paper presents a case study of partnerships with four different public organizations in a service design course over a five-year period. It argues that collaborating in project-based courses serves as risk-free experimentation and paves the way for organizational learning. The paper first reviews the existing research on collaboration in design education and organizational learning. Then, three types of learning that emerged from the data are analyzed. Next, the steps to successful collaboration are discussed, noting the ups and downs of managing the project partnerships. Finally, the challenges of teaching a collaborative project-based design course are discussed.