Assignment 2 of Semester 2 (2012/2013): Competition Design

I participated the Malaysia Technology Expo 2013 in Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), Kuala Lumpur between 21 and 23 Feb 2013. One thing I learned from this event is that judging from the financial perspective, the REAL winner of the expo is the organizer, rather than those who won the best awards. For instance, UPSI spent over RM100,000 to participate in this expo, and the cost includes the rental of exhibition space and the construction, decoration and maintenance of the university booth. The printing of A1 size posters, the transportation and the accommodation of exhibits, participants, demonstrators, etc, really cost a lot of money. What's more, UPSI's booth was one of the smallest as compared to other public universities in the expo.

This experience prompted me to make "competition design" as the second assignment of this course. This group assignment requires students to design a competition where they can prove their acquisition of knowledge and skills in Design Aesthetics.

To begin with, I guided the students to form a group that consists of 12 to 13 people in which each of the members choose one role listed in the Belbin’s team role theory (see Fig 1). I randomly chose team members for all the team, despite receiving fierce resistance from the students. Among the 123 students I have in this course, there were repeated students, students in their 5th, 4th, 3rd and 2nd semesters. They preferred to work with those they like or used to work with. I justified that in real life, we don't normally work with people we like or prefer; worse, we constantly have to work with people we dislike. 

Fig 1: Belbin's team role

After accepting the fact that they have to work with whoever I assigned to the group, the students began to form Facebook discussion groups to discuss and negotiate individual workload. They have to answer the following questions collectively: 

a.       What is the competition?

b.      Who are the targeted participants?

c.       When would the competition be held?

d.      Where would be the competition be held in UPSI?

e.      Why would UPSI organize the competition?

f.        How to evaluate the entries of the competition?

I observed what they had done via Facebook group and arranged for the assessment of their proposal presentation. To make sure every student contributes to the group work, I insist to have each student presents for 2 minutes, explaining how they play their role in the group. Other students who play the same role as the presenter were guided to assess the performance of the presenter. This forced all the students to become attentive to every presentation. 

They had to present:   

a.       The competition proposal

b.      The list of potential judges in UPSI (with justification of qualification and experience)

c.       The evaluation forms:

                                                               i.      Aesthetic evaluation form

                                                             ii.      Creativity evaluation form

                                                            iii.      Other appropriate forms