Summary of the discussion from the Design Society Chatroom: Design Education Transition to Online

Following the Design Society Chatroom: Design Education Transition to Online, the challenges and examples of good practices in online education were shared and captured. 

Watch the full session at: https://www.designsociety.org/1052/Watch%3A+The+Design+Society+Chat+Room%3A+Design+Education+Transition+to+Online

Challenges identified: 

• Group working
• Studio teaching
• Modelling making
• Achieving functioning prototypes using distributed teams
• Students working with users in the design process.
• Remote video-meetings are a poor substitute for the rich interaction that happens naturally in a studio environment.
• Student team bonding (particularly for first year's)
• First years initial experiences of studio work, and impact moving into the second year of studies and beyond.
• Some students are working in difficult circumstances, kitchen table - low-grade laptops etc to ensure a 'fair education for all'
• Spotting the quiet ones that need help
• Work shifts from continuous time to discrete, event-based, assignments - changes the way to engage design assignments 
• How to enable (let students do) design teamwork across the cloud
• Zoom fatigue
• How to develop ways for embodied experiences for students in research through design
• Home internet connections
• Foster inclusion and overcome cultural barriers in distant and blended teamwork? How?

Solutions and examples of practice: 

• Group working using distributed teams who come together and disseminate work
• Studio teaching using a mixture of live lectures and pre-recorded short videos
• Technicians can make model making and prototyping videos to teach students techniques
• Students can use low-cost materials such as cardboard to begin with model making
• Hackathon style modules
• Encouraging progress of tasks by reducing the requirements into smaller segments

We are interested in collating some case studies and examples of design education practice in order to share with the community through more online sessions. If you have an idea for a case study please contact: admin@designsociety.org