response: Neelkanth Chhaya

	Broad principles underpinning design computing education
	
		The student should become skilful in the use of this tool/medium which will have
		its own impact on the students creativity.
		
		A sufficient scope for fooling around and personally discovering potentials will
		have to go hand-in-hand with definite instructional and exercise-based modules.
	
	How they are reflected in courses/units at undergraduate levels
	
	    * 	At present, we at SA CEPT have two courses at semester 3 and 4 where the
		student learns the basic applications and tries them out in a range of
		experiments.
	    * 	As of next year it is planned to create a new course at a senior level, to
		study more advanced applications.
	    * 	Some electives are offered which take up a specific aspect.
	    * 	A small number of students take up an area of thesis work which depends on
		the use of computing
	
	Postgraduate areas of specialization (now and 5-10 years horizon)
		
		We have specialisations in Urban Design, Landscape Architecture, Planning,
		Construction Management. Proposals for a post graduate course in Architectural
		Design Pedagogy are being discussed.
	
	Place/structure of research degrees (useful, necessary, ...)
	
		At present none, but a specialisation in almost any branch emphasizing computing
		would find applicants.
	
	Teaching/research quality assessment frameworks
	
		Teaching: We have at present two modes : a review of course at the end of the
		semester done by all students, and a peer review of courses done on regular
		basis.
		
		Research: We do not at present have a formal assessment framework.
	
	Infrastructure and staffing (academic/technical) issues
	
		Infrastructure is a great constraint, as not enough can be done to provide
		adequate facilities within the budgets available.
		
		Within our framework, from an academic point of view, a great amount of freedom
		of operation exists, and we would be able to bring in more teaching resources on
		to this area were it not for the inadequacy of infrastructure.
	
	Expenditure / capital issues
	
		This remains the most difficult problem.
	
	Mechanisms for sharing ideas and resources (Internet, Open courseware, Open source)
		
		We have used Archnet in the past. We would be interested in creating open
		courseware. We are discussing material to be disseminated using the Edusat
		programme.
	
	Non-traditional and trans-disciplinary opportunities (multimedia, film and
	animation which is getting big in India)
	
		Students seem to create these opportunities without help from the institutions.
		The advantages of the loosely defined architectural curriculum are obvious—the
		world changes all the time and it is necessary to attempt to bring out
		resourcefulness and alertness rather than too-specific competency.
		
		It seems that we should not consider this as one more subject, the students
		certainly don’t. The new medium will require an open-minded experimental
		attitude, and a somewhat loosely-defined subject description. And experiences
		certainly need to be shared as we go along.
	
	Neelkanth Chhaya
	School of Architecture,CEPT, Ahmedabad, India