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Higher Education is experiencing an increasingly diverse student population. Students bring a range of skills and experiences to their courses; they have different backgrounds and different needs. This fluidity requires an approach to teaching that encompasses the social aspects of learning. It has been suggested that authentic approaches to teaching and learning can assist in offering a perspective on learning which views learning as "enabling participation in knowing". We propose that the authentic learning practices developed in The Gift design project, discussed in this paper, constituted approaches which acknowledged that students' interests and experience are intrinsically bound up with motivation and engagement and, as such, have a major influence on the ways in which learning is constituted and developed. The Gift project has developed a range of innovative formative strategies which have provided both students and tutors with opportunities to become involved in peer assessment and review, peer feedback and reflection on learning outcomes. This re-conceptualisation of the assessment process has provided valuable insights into the development of learning skills such as problem solving, critical analysis, and the development of creativity and learner autonomy.

This article explores project-based cross-cultural and cross-institutional learning. Using Web 2.0 technologies, this project involved more than 240 students and eighteen academic staff from seven international universities. The focus of this article relates to a project-based learning activity named "The Gift". At each institution the students formed small local project teams that were paired with teams of students from one of the other collaborating universities. The findings suggest that the majority of students perceived this activity facilitated their learning, especially in the development of virtual teamwork and communication skills. The article discusses findings related to peer learning in relation to information and communication technologies and cross-cultural communication. It concludes by evaluating the validity of underlying assumptions. (Contains 1 table.)

Design-oriented new product development (NPD) has been recognised as beneficial for company growth; however, there is limited reporting on the understanding of its effectiveness in a real-world context especially in Chinese SMEs. This paper aims to explore issues related to the implementation of designerled NPD in a Chinese SME. An experiment was setup whereby two NPD teams were assigned to conduct NPD concurrently. One of the teams carried out the conventional NPD process model used by the company, and the other adopted the designer-led NPD process model. A metrics tool was built in the form of questionnaires for obtaining the views of the participants. Results indicate that design-led NPD is perceived to be more inclusive of team members' views, even if the effectiveness of designer-led NPD in Chinese SMEs requires further investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]