Faculty of Design

Graphic Design

Rahul Bagdai

OCAD U Curriculum Transformation: My Take

OCAD University went through a major curriculum transformation, known as FLOW. The FLOW curriculum now allows students to pursue multidisciplinary design courses in their final year, enabling them to pick and choose what they learn. However, the way the program was designed was heavily flawed. OCAD U prides itself with its studio-based learning, however, FLOW introduces more people into a studio, making it difficult to deliver the same kind of education.Therefore, I developed my own take on the OCAD U Curriculum transformation, and with my curriculum guide, and classroom redesign, I revamped the Graphic Design program to produce better designers for the world, ones that are more confident and understand the industry.The curriculum guide restructures the entire course to help students accommodate their needs. However, unlike the FLOW program, which suspends the Graphic Design Workshop, I reintroduce it in a different form. From upper years, my curriculum allows students to explore opportunities to work with real-life clients. Furthermore, the classes and assignments are not defined. They can be open-ended, student-led. Having a single assignment for all students only creates a divide – different students have different skills and needs.The classroom redesign allows classes, meetings, small group discussions and client meetings to happen in the same space that OCAD U classrooms already have. There's a dedicated meeting space where students can work directly with clients, under the supervision of the professor.