In design education, students learn and understand their discipline through lecture courses and within studios. A studio is where the instructor works closely with students to help them understand design by doing design. The final review or jury is the culmination of the studio learning experience, where students present their final work before their peers, instructors, and expert practitioners. The final review’s value and significance are rarely questioned, and students have little to no input into this concluding pedagogical event. To better understand how students understand the purpose of the final review, a pilot test survey was distributed to all graduate and undergraduate students at a multi-disciplinary design school within the United States. Five design disciplines were involved in this case study: architecture, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, and landscape architecture. Respondents (n=73) provided written comments about their perceived understanding of the final studio review.

The average respondent was female (72%) and was an undergraduate architecture major (42%) at the sophomore level (20%). Most respondents (53%) have participated in five or less studio reviews. Students responded to the question, “What do you think is the purpose of the final review?” with open-ended responses. Qualitative analysis with thematic coding revealed several themes. Results show that students view the final jury as important because it provides a variety of opinions and perspectives from unbiased external practitioners. It increases their oral and visual presentation skills and prepares them for similar presentation challenges they will experience in professional practice (i.e., the real world). They also see it as a way to validate assessment and evaluation by faculty by comparing their progress to their peers through constructive criticism. While this study focused on the studio review, the findings are equally applicable to other disciplines. Suggestions will be provided on how to improve students’ understanding of capstone or culminating experiences and how their involvement in preparation can positively influence student engagement.

Keywords: Studio, Review, Jury, Assessment.