Outcome-Based Education (OBE) is increasingly pivotal in shaping ASEAN higher education, particularly within design-related programs. This article critically examines the extent of OBE implementation across ASEAN institutions, highlighting notable practices, significant challenges, and innovative strategies. The study identifies diverse approaches utilized across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, emphasizing how national policies and frameworks such as the ASEAN University Network Quality Assurance (AUN-QA) guide the integration of clearly defined learning outcomes. A case study of the Design Innovation Program - School of Architecture and Design, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) provides deeper insights, specifically exploring the collaborative development of program learning outcomes, teaching and learning strategies, and assessment methods in partnership with industry leaders like Jacob Jensen Design and 4digit Thailand. This industry-academic collaboration showcases both the complexity and potential of co-created educational frameworks in enhancing practical skills, professional readiness, and outcome alignment. Despite notable logistical, pedagogical, and communication challenges, the structured approach significantly contributes to improved student competencies and satisfaction. Continuous improvement efforts underscore the importance of sustained collaboration and structured feedback mechanisms in refining OBE implementation. This analysis contributes valuable perspectives to ongoing discussions on effective educational strategies, offering practical recommendations for optimizing outcome-based frameworks within ASEAN’s diverse educational contexts.

This study investigates how learning environments can be developed in Satun, Thailand—recognized both as a UNESCO Global Geopark and an emerging Learning City—through the implementation of the Geo Camp Project. Drawing on an action research framework, the study examines two years of field interaction with local communities, aiming to classify critical factors that drive learning and uncover new educational opportunities. The conceptual model is built around the intersection of three domains: learner profiles, learning content, and learning experiences. This classification reveals that people-to-people interaction and context-based content—particularly in geoscience and geo-culture—are essential to Satun’s educational character. Through qualitative observation and analysis, the research highlights how Satun’s untapped local knowledge, especially narratives rooted in “Geo Culture,” fosters both community awareness and engagement. Geo Camp emerged as a co-created program designed and implemented by local stakeholders. It supports experiential, place-based learning while stimulating civic participation and local pride. Moreover, it acts as a strategic catalyst, influencing local government to adopt policies that align with lifelong learning principles and quality tourism development. This paper argues that such community-centered initiatives can serve as scalable models for other rural learning cities in Asia. Geo Camp’s classification model—integrating learner diversity, local content, and immersive experience—offers a practical framework to empower underserved communities through inclusive and sustainable learning ecosystems.

This research explores the mechanisms driving hands-on learning in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) by examining the long-term development of "Klongsan MAKE", a co-created initiative in the Klongsan district of Bangkok. Over the past decade, observations of university design students revealed a critical gap in making skills, which limited their conceptual grasp of STEAM. A follow-up investigation involving 12 schools in Klongsan highlighted that formal education often lacks tangible, hands-on components essential to reinforcing STEAM concepts. Klongsan MAKE bridges this gap through a collaborative model linking schools, maker spaces, and communities. It acts as both a learning framework and an evaluative tool to analyze the formation of making habits in young learners. Key components include shared tools, volunteer makers, accessible materials, and a localized support network. The study identifies the conditions for successful implementation and sustainability, emphasizing the interdependence between schools, community shops, and external partners such as FabLab Bangkok and KX. The project’s impact is twofold: it not only enables students to physically test and deepen their understanding of STEAM theories, but it also inspires educators and local stakeholders to embrace hands-on learning as a core pedagogical strategy. By merging informal and formal educational pathways, Klongsan MAKE cultivates a visible "Maker Society", shifting mindsets from passive knowledge reception to active exploration and co-creation. This model offers a replicable blueprint for embedding STEAM learning in local educational ecosystems.

In Thailand, it is widely accepted that development in education is lagging behind the progress of the economy and industries. During the 2018 Transition Discussion in KMUTT, Industrial Design (ID) education received a call to reconsider reforming the traditional teaching style. Discussion among international scholars from the field formed the direction of ID curriculum development study. Interviews of design experts from Japan, Singapore, and Thailand, including parents, and students revealed that the present traditional teaching style, where students only complete the tasks assigned by lecturers, is no longer effective and that a holistic view of practice should be implemented. Therefore, the focus of education should not be to produce graduates who serve a single job but to prepare universal persons who can learn new things. It is very challenging for educators in the design field to pioneer a novel course for design education. This study presents three challenging issues. First, Content-Based Learning: integrated content-based learning would replace subject-based learning. Next, Competency Development Visualization: taking on different roles would help students to visually realize the competency development of their peers. Then they can reflect on their development. Finally, Opportunity Provider: the perception of instructors is paramount. Moreover, their role would not be exclusive to teaching and facilitating, but they would systematically study the students’ development then classify and provide opportunities to improve their competency. In this scenario, the knowledge ceiling of courses must be varied and dynamic.

https://papers.iafor.org/submission61673/ 

Exercise is good and strongly recommended for elders. However, it is widely recognized that continuous exercise is the most difficult issue for their exercise. An interdisciplinary team, consisting of physiologists, sport scientists, engineers, and product designers, has addressed the issue of how to keep elders exercising. Six subjects were selected for observation and in-depth interview. All physical activities that occurred before, during, and after exercise were observed and analyzed. More than two hours of in-depth interviews helped the team to understand the cause of each subject’s unsuccessful exercise while processes of ideation and prototype were daily developed to get needed data. Collected information showed that the exercise equipment functionality was not the only consideration when designing exercise equipment, but also the enjoyment and the exercise benefits they must get.. Through many cycles of “data collection – prototype test”, the study presented four significant points for good exercise equipment design: 1) The right purpose: The performance of exercise using an equipment should strengthen lower body parts of elders to prevent falling and promote physical abilities. 2) Continuous exercise: The design should keep elders doing exercise with less conscious correct movement with the “non-perfect smooth movement”. 3) Enjoyment: While exercising with less conscious movement, elders can do sub-activities e.g. watching television or talking with others with their upper body parts. 4) Right control: The “non-perfect smooth movement” allows elders to use exercise equipment with very less consciousness for controlling the quality and continuity of movement. When the exercise quality is decreasing, a sense in non-perfect smooth movement will give a small reflection directly to the working body parts to bring the exercise movement back to the earlier point,  less consciously. By noting these points as well as the basic requirements of friendly design e.g. simple instruction, simple movement, and friendly usage, elders could enjoy their exercise and gain its right benefits. 

Many women in smaller living space area (20-40 square meters room) have found their ‘Storage space’, especially wardrobe space too small for keeping and organizing their clothes. In particular, those enjoying dressing needs bigger wardrobes e.g. walk-in closet (WIC), but they cannot have it due to space limit. Therefore, this study aimed to find a design solution for these women to fulfill their needs in managing and organizing their clothes effectively. Twelve subjects were interviewed and observed at their residences on the type of general storage system they had and clothes organizing system and related activities and space e.g. temporary hanging, drying place, washing and ironing area. Four patterns of clothes organization were categorized, due to space size (big and small) and organizing behaviors (just do it and enjoy): 1) just do it in big space, 2) just do it in small space, 3) enjoy in big space, and 4) enjoy in small space. Focusing on small space, observations led to create an opportunity classification for clothes organization system, with cooperation from a keen wardrobe design company which thus resulted in identifying a potential opportunity, the ‘Semi-closed system’ for clothes organizing. This system can help generate connectivity and continuity, using the idea of “inside and outside” wardrobe to increase the capacity of storing and organizing clothes. This solution also shows the significant ideas of eliminating ‘the negative space’ in front of a typical wardrobe, creating smooth inter-playing of storing clothes inside and outside the wardrobe and adjusting the proportion of wardrobe use, both inside and outside, to meet different requirements of different users efficiently. 

Working culture is normally very unique in each organization. It depends on many factors such as organization principles, management policies, nature of business and also working environment. This should be taken into account when the designers design a workplace in order to meet the ultimate goal of a workplace itself as well as to enhance the character and image of each organization. Environmental design, especially interior design, basically plays a major role to support or encourage certain behavior and also working culture by unconsciously influencing the ‘user-user’ and ‘user-environment’ interactions. The research aims to investigate the behavior of users, which is greatly influenced by workplace. Interview and observation show that traditional office environment can create and encourage users to work creatively. Many users realize that many creative ideas and good conversations have occurred when they accidentally meet, for example, in the elevators, pantry, and walkway. The issues based on ‘accidental meeting’ are kept in their mind, digested and later become critically considered in the official meeting. Pattern analysis was used to understand the users in order to create design identity and provide more opportunities in their environment. User unmet-needs were systematically classified. Cultural-based design plays an important role in providing more chances of creating conversation naturally. The design elements make users stop and then have a small conversation that is strongly recommended. ‘Just-in-time’ small comfortable set of furniture should be provided along the walkway in case the users need to continue or finish their valuable conversation. The workstation is comfortable enough for people to stop by and have some short conversation while standing. The key elements are not necessary to be so comfortable but they need to have sense of welcoming and inviting the users who stop by.  

Nowadays, local wisdom plays an important role in community development. One month of participant observation in Na-Ngoi –Phonplaloh, a rural community which is 650 kilometers from Bangkok, Thailand, shows that elders are full of passion in contributing craft wisdom to teenagers; however, teenagers have no willingness to learn. Making everyday products at semi-outdoor space around the house is in contrast with chilling out with friends and using smart phone at the town’s café. The mapping of the elders’ and teenagers’ daily lives reveals that the teenagers are inclined in virtual activities. The teenagers are full of passion to connect to the world and extremely different from elders who prefer being in their comfort zone. Also, the mapping shows evidence of probable cross-generational cooperation. Craft is necessary although we are surrounded by technologies, and online activities cause addiction among teenagers. These reasons underscore the idea of startup project to value craft for tomorrow. Hence, the environment encouraging teenager-elder cooperation must be carefully identified. The study suggests four keys to develop the environment successfully: 1) flexible space, 2) visible craft, 3) leisure activities, and 4) connection. With emphasis on personal context, the space should not be limited by location. Elders could stay in their place for crafting while teenagers could travel around and connect to elders, craft products and world. Crafts would be visible in some places where everyone could explore them easily, and daily leisure could be flexible according to lifestyles. These make the space more dynamic and highly adaptable for changes. 

The youth are always important for the future. With their limited experience and maturity, they occasionally make a mistake. In developing countries such as Thailand, the number of teenagers in juvenile correctional facilities is a serious problem. This qualitative case study was conducted to understand the life in Juvenile Vocational Training Centers (JVTC) in Thailand and important factors of environmental design of JVTC. Participatory observation was conducted in 15 JVTCs for 12 days considering personal context and circumstance. Typically, the activities in JVTC focus on rehabilitation programs which are boring for juveniles. Most of them ignore the program for various reasons. The result showed that juveniles cannot be rehabilitated efficiently if they feel depressed and they cannot feel lively if they are not secure. Clear environment is proposed to ensure that all juveniles can be always noticed by others for safety. Being lively, juveniles need to have “Something to do”. The study has strongly recommended that 1) natural environment (such as pond, soil, and big tree) and 2) everyday environment (such as garage, street vender, and local meeting point) are key elements for them to start creating activities in JVTC. The environment with a good combination of these two elements is significant for juveniles to mean their future living in centers. “Something to do” in this case could be considered as driving force for them to be away from worry and be lively to benefit from future opportunities particularly from rehabilitation programs. 

This paper presents about the indoor air quality (IAQ) and how’s to design interior and renovation, In this case study there are two main objective: to identify source problems and effects towards employee’s health; to solve solution by design ventilations. IAQ issue is most commonly in office or working place, there are prove by measurement and data record in paper and a few to renovation and finite with final space.  In this case study was separate into 3 sections: First section: From interviews and information about SBS. From case study found that 8 in 10 person was indication and sick from irritating, nauseous, sore throat, sneeze, runny nose and etc. without cause. Similarly found Co2: 214 ppm, Carbon dioxide, Acetic acid, Formaldehyde, Acetaldehyde, Methyl ethyl ketone, Methanol, Ethanol, Isopropanol, Butanol, MIBK, Chloroform, and Trichloroethylene was over than 0.05 ppm. Second section design and manage functions from simulation ventilation including materials selections by user analysis match with simulation data.   Final section: 1 month after renovation finite, found Co2: 132 ppm, Carbon dioxide, Acetic acid, Formaldehyde, Acetaldehyde, Methyl ethyl ketone, Methanol, Ethanol, Isopropanol, Butanol, MIBK, Chloroform, and Trichloroethylene was lower or equate 0.05 ppm. There are in generally accepted indoor air standards. 

It is now widely accepted that theoretical knowledge is not sufficient to develop the full potential of students. At SoA+D, academics address this issue using “WorkIntegrated Learning” (WIL). WIL is a pre-training professional course for students. WIL encourages students to practice soft and hard skills in real work situations, while the teacher’s role is to provide support, advice and receive feedback from company’s supervisor. WIL evaluation reports showed that student’s soft skills are a major problem. This research therefore aims to seek a methodology for improving the design student’s soft skills appropriately. From this objective, one of university project-based learning projects was selected to be a real work situation case study. The researchers developed an experiment called “work together learning” (WTL). Researchers gave different assignments to two student groups. Each group worked together with teachers, who played the role of colleagues. In this experimental situation, teachers could directly observe and supervise the students during work. Students were assumed to practice their soft skill under the teacher’s advice. Based on observation, the student’s soft skill development was evident because, in the role of colleague, the teacher can directly perceive and address soft skills problems. The result indicated WTL is a useful form of project-based learning for students, especially in soft skills improvement. We propose that it will be more effective to insert WTL before WIL in order to extensively practice advanced soft and hard skills before students undergo the WIL experience. 

KMUTT is involved in many rural community development projects in Thailand. The purpose of these is to convey knowledge directly to local communities through short events such as workshops, conferences and projects. However, research suggests that only little of this overall knowledge has been adopted effectively. We hypothesize that this is due to differences in lifestyle, expectations and motivation between urban researchers and rural communities. Therefore, this study aims to determine an approach to knowledge transfer that is appropriate for rural communities. The study is based on participation observation of a particular community project. In this, a series of short events grounded in local lifestyles was created as a research tool. In these, researchers adopted the position of role-models working to diffuse knowledge rather than directly influence local community life. Using this approach, the reaction and feedback from rural people about knowledge accessibility seems much improved. The result suggested that an appropriate approach to rural knowledge transfer should emphasize local “lifestyles” and researchers adopt a role model based on the diffusion of knowledge rather than direct influence. In this way, people in rural communities might be given the opportunity to sub-consciously adopt knowledge diffuse this effectively for use in rural community development.