Study of Interior Design Continuing Education: Attitudes of the Profession

Abstract

Attitudes about different aspects of continuing education in interior design were explored in a survey of 10% of the professional and associate members of the American Society of Interior Designers and the Institute of Business Designers. Over 50% of those receiving questionnaires returned them. The profile of the most frequent respondent was a designer who had been practicing for over 10 years (41%), was self–employed (43%), was classified as a senior designer/project designer (26%), worked in firms with less than 5 persons (51%) and with less than 5 designers (77%), and did mainly contract projects (47%). Furthermore, this profile indicates a designer with a Bachelor's degree in design (69%) who has not taken/passed the NCIDQ examination (66%), is 30–40 years old (35%), and is female (76%). Almost 65% of the respondents work in metropolitan areas of 250,000 or larger population. The majority indicated that they had not taken a continuing education course in the past 2 years–because of time and money restraints. Only 20% indicated that they were unlikely to earn CEU credit in the next year. The subject matter would be the single most important factor influencing a decision to take a course, but the presenter and the requirement to maintain licensing or certification were other important decision factors. A full–day or 4–hour evening time periods were the preferred course durations. Design practitioners, followed in order by technical trade personnel and design educators, were the preferred instructors. There was a strong preference for courses to be offered in the designer's community, at a classroom or conference facility, in conjunction with a chapter program, and preferably in March/April. A list of 49 course topics, divided into business, design, and technology categories were rated for interest: Seven of the top 12 topics were in the technology area, with lighting and color psychology at the top of the list. The results indicate that, in most cases, the professionals are interested in courses beyond the basic or core level.

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