IDS 420 Practicum for Interior Designers

The following is Course Syllabus and Journal Assignment:

Syllabus

Catalog Description
Supervised experience in a professional design firm; business practices, project management, and design philosophy. Prerequisite: ID 360, ID 372, and consent of instructor.

Course Objectives
This course seeks to enhance student awareness of interior design professional practice. Students integrate formal training with professional practice.

Course Content
This course introduces the following topics:

  • Professional practices as experienced in a professional setting
  • Organizational structure of a firm
  • Project organization in design phases
  • Professional interaction
  • Marketing
  • Procurement and related business practices
  • Furnishings, fixtures and equipment resources
  • Client/staff interactions
  • Presentation techniques
  • Design philosophy

Course Format

The summer practicum experience is intended to provide the student an opportunity to work professionally as an intern within a professional design office. The course begins on Thursday, May 31, 2012 and concludes on Tuesday, August 7, 2012. Although this is about 10 weeks, you are required to work a minimum of 9 weeks, which equates to 352 hours of studio time with a business/firm – and additional hours for course work as required. The internship can be completed in any location in the world, but the requirements for choosing a business/firm as stated below must be followed:

  • It is required that you be paid for any and all work that you do during your internship. For extenuating circumstance, exceptions can be made.
  • It is required that you work full time.
  • A student may begin an internship early, and finish early as long as 9 weeks/ 352 hours have been completed.
  • A student may not begin an internship later than May 31, 2012, and can start earlier than this date.
  • It is required that the firm you select be able and willing to provide significant professional interior design experience during your internship. Ideally, someone in the business be licensed or certified via NCARB or NCIDQ.

Summer School Time Table
All students will need to register for Summer School.  The class is listed in the 2012 Summer School Time Table under Interior Design noted as the following: IDS 420 Practicum for Interior Designers; Full Term Session; Section 001; (3) credit hours.

Course Organization
This course is conducted through a supervised experience in a professional interior design or architectural firm. Other business entities can include distributorships that represent products for the building profession can also be considered. The majority of the course will be acquired through actual time spent in a professional setting. Regular attendance and satisfactory work performance is required. Once you have established your work schedule with the business, you are expected to keep it. Changes and alterations need to be discussed with a supervisor prior to start date.

Evaluation
The final course grade will be determined by the following:

  • Supervisor’s evaluation (Mid-term and final): 250 points (125 points each) 25%
  • Securing an internship and completing 9 weeks:500 points 50%
  • Practicum Semester Assignment/copy of thank you letter:250 points 25%

Total Points: 1,000 points

Grading Scale

A   (4.0)  Superior / 95 & above
A-  (3.7)  Intermediate Grade / 90 – 94
B+ (3.3)  Very good / 87 - 89
B   (3.0)  Good / 84 – 86
B-  (2.7)  Intermediate Grade / 80 – 83
C+ (2.3)  Fair / 77 - 79
C   (2.0)  Satisfactory / 74 – 76
C-  (1.7)  Unsatisfactory / 70 – 73
D+ (1.3)  Unsatisfactory / 67 – 69
D   (1.0)  Unsatisfactory / 64 – 66
D-  (0.7)  Unsatisfactory / 60 – 63
F    (0.0)  Failure / 59 & below

Internship Timeframe (dates will change depending on start date):

May 31: Begin Internship

June 29: Complete mid-semester review with supervisor

July 6: Deadline for instructor to be in receipt of mid-semester review (via email or mail)

July 31: Complete final review with supervisor

August 3: Deadline for instructor to be in receipt of final review and copy of thank you letter to supervisor (via email or mail)

August 7: End Internship (last day of summer term)

Supervisor Evaluations
Students are to schedule a mid-semester Internship evaluation conference with your supervisor to discuss your progress and activity and be completed by June 29.  The mid-semester evaluation must be received by July 6 via email or mail.  Also, schedule an end-of-the-semester Internship evaluation with your supervisor as a follow-up and final review of your internship activities with supervisor by the end of August.  The end-of-the-semester evaluation must be received by  August 3, 2012, via email or mail.  Your supervisor should mail or email his/her evaluation to Mary Beth Robinson at the following address:

E-mail: mrobin15@utk.edu
Mailing Address: Interior Design Program, College of Architecture + Design, 1715 Volunteer Blvd, Knoxville, TN 37996
Phone: 865.974.3257, or 865.974.5253 (ID Administrative Assistant)

Required Paperwork
In addition to the evaluation forms completed by your supervisor, the following forms are required prior to beginning the internship:

Course Requirements Form: due April 27, 2012
Practicum Release Form: due April 27, 2012
Student Information Form: due April 27, 2012

Practicum Journal Assignment

As part of the requirements necessary to complete the summer practicum experience, a practicum journal/blog is to be completed and submitted on a weekly basis. The journal is a summary of each student’s experiences and documents understanding of professional practices as experienced in a professional setting.

Posting Journal Entries

Website and Login information will be sent individually via email giving instructions on where and how to post journal entries. Entries are to be posted weekly by midnight Sunday after the actual week worked.  Depending on when you begin work, after working one week, the journal entry needs to be posted by the Sunday after five days have been worked.

For example, if you start on a Monday, the end of the work week is Friday, and the journal entry will need to be posted on the Sunday following the Friday. If you begin work on Thursday, the journal entry would be posted the following Sunday after the next Thursday. Please let instructor know if you have a question about when to post journal entries.

Journal entries posted later than the due date will not receive full credit. The length of the entry will depend on the individual collecting the information.  Each journal needs to contain the following information:

  1. Week’s summary of activities:  In a short paragraph give an overview of the week’s events and your personal activities on the job.
  2. Week’s focus:  Listed below are weekly focus areas to be investigated during the week.  Depending on your involvement with projects and different staff members, you may need to interview someone in the company that can give you an overview of the focus subject.
  3. Getting to know someone new: Introduce yourself to someone in the company, or someone you’ve met through the internship (client, allied professional, representative, etc.); take their picture (get permission) and post the picture with a few sentences about the relationship of the person to the company and an interesting fact about this person (whatever the person will allow you to post about them). If the person is a fellow employee, along with their name, list their title, and a summary of their position responsibilities.

Important: In addition to the written documentation, send to instructor via email a copy of your time sheet as logged by the company.  Do not include the timesheet as part of journal entry. If you do not need to keep a time sheet, you will need to create a time sheet and log the time for various activities.

At the end of the internship, a thank you letter  is to be written to your supervisor, and a copy of the letter will be sent to instructor via email.

Weekly Focus Content

Below are the weekly focus areas for elaboration in each journal entry. In italics are suggestions for what might be covered. Do not be limited to these suggestions/questions for consideration.

Week 1:  Organizational structure of company

Give a brief description of how the company is organized. In the description, indicate what type of business entity the company is – corporation, sole proprietorship, partnership, etc. Draw a graphic representation of the organizational structure. Names of people in the company are not necessary. Position titles are fine. Larger companies have organizational charts that can be scanned and submitted. Smaller companies may or may not have a prepared chart. If not, draw a chart and have your supervisor review for accuracy.

Week 2: Project organization in design phases (pre-design, schematic design, design development, contract documents, construction administration; installation); information management (managing information from various project team members); coordination (time management, scheduling, contract administration)

  • Come to an understanding about how projects are organized in relationship to the design phases.  What types of activities occur during the different design phases?
  • How is information managed and communicated to team members?
  • How is a project coordinated in terms of time management, scheduling?
  • Is the company involved in contract administration on projects, and what are the activities that occur in this phase of a project?    

Week 3: Legal recognition for the profession; professional interaction; professional design organizations; certification, licensing, registration; life-long learning; public and community service; project conflict resolution; professional ethics

  • What role and value does the company have in regards to the legal recognition for the interior design profession?
  • What are the various allied professions that the company coordinates with on any given project?  
  • What professional organizations do the professionals within the company belong and are they actively involved in these organizations?
  • Are the professionals in the company involved in life-long learning?  If so, describe what is involved in their life-long learning activities.
  • What types of registration/certification do the staff members have?
  • Is the company involved in public and community service?  If so, please describe the involvement and service.
  • Can you give any examples of conflicts that have occurred on a project, and how have they been resolved?  Conflict resolution can be issues that arise between the designer and client, between designer and designer, etc.
  • Describe what professional ethics involves and give specific ways in which the company complies with professional ethic standards.

Week 4: Marketing; strategic planning; accounting procedures

  • How does the company market their services?
  • Is there a particular market, or several markets that the company targets?
  • Include a link to the company’s website home page (if applicable) and link or pictures showing completed projects that are shown to prospective clients.
  • What type of strategic planning does the company engage in?
  • Who handles the accounting – is this accomplished in-house or out-sourced?  Talk with someone about how typical accounting procedures are handled.

Week 5: Procurement and related business practices; estimating; project costs and fees; budget management

  • Does the company have an in-house purchasing department to purchase project goods?  Or, does the company specify only and send the specifications out for bidding and purchasing by an outside firm?
  • How are project fees determined?
  • How is project estimating and costs handled?
  • How is a project budget managed?
  • Find out all the different ways budgets, fees and cost – related to project development – are managed.

Week 6: Furnishings, fixtures and equipment resources

  • How do the designers keep up-to-date on all the FF&E resources?
  • How does the company organize these resources and disseminate the information?
  • Describe how the company organizes their resources and keeps resources current.

Week 7:  Client/staff interactions; assessment processes (post occupancy evaluations, productivity, square footage ratios); client types

  • Describe how the staff and client interact.  What types of relationships are produced through this interaction and why are they important?
  • What types of assessment processes does the company have in place to monitor projects that have already been completed?
  • How do the designers learn from their projects – what to do better in the future?
  • How does the company assist the client in making future updates when change is needed?
  • Is there any form of post occupancy evaluations?
  • If the company is involved in workplace design, do they offer any type of productivity assessment for their clients?
  • Is any type of square footage ratio evaluation for space utilization analysis offered as a service?
  • Describe the client type for which the company is involved; outline the client types/organization structures and the facility type associated with each.

Week 8: Presentation techniques; computer applications

  • What presentation techniques does the company use to communicate design ideas to the client?
  • Do the formats/content of presentations change depending on the phase in which the presentation is occurring?
  • What graphic, computer aided design and/or word processing program(s) does the company utilize?

Week 9: Design philosophy

  • What is the company’s design philosophy and/or the design philosophy of the designers that work there, or both?