The Design Society Chat Room: Reflections on a Year of Design Education Online

Summary of the workshop

In 2020, educators and students found themself in a new educational situation. Since the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic outbreak, and the “stay at home”, “work from home” lockdowns, we as a collaborative species have been forced to find ways of learning together. We now find ourselves as a human race, not with a desire to collaborate using computers, or with a requirement to collaborate using computers, but it is now a necessity.

In many ways, a paradigm shift has occurred. Pre-pandemic education was focused on technologies to support distributed work as a novel concept, as secondary to in-person education. Now, the community must consider remote learning as the default. 

This workshop brought together experts in online education to reflect on what has been learnt from teaching during the pandemic. The outcome of the workshop was a timeline of Challenges students and educations face throughout the year, and the opportunities to overcome these challenges. The timeline could act as a guide for design educators to prepare for the year ahead. 

Outcomes of the workshop

Along with good discussion, the outcome of the workshop was a timeline of Challenges students and educations face throughout the year, and the opportunities to overcome these challenges. The timeline could act as a guide for design educators to prepare for the year ahead. Note that very few challenges of examinations were discussed and identified, and no solutions were found. This requires further research to determine why. 

The Workshop was part of a series of three in which challenges pre pandemic, post pandemic and a mapping activity was conducted. The workshop facilitators aim to find case studies for each of the opportunities to overcome challenges and to expand on the knowledge generated. A paper is being prepared for E&PDE 2022. 

Summary of discussions

Bullet Point Key:

Level 1 = Time in the academic year

Level 2 = Challenges

Level 3 = Solution

 

• Pre University
  • Content needs rethought for online
    • Plan opportunities for spontaneity
    • Change thinking of model making as a proof of concept and not an end goal
    • Designing different types of activates. Eyes closed learning?
• First Few Days
  • First year students don’t build up a bond with each other and the staff. 
  • Difficult to get a sense of student wellbeing
  • Group think become prevalent
  • Team building is difficult
  • Hard to measure engagement
    • Using Social media to create a sense of community
    • “Fika Room” where students can drop-in
    • Introducing learning on mobile
    • Send students on a “walkabout activity” to observe and learn 
• During the semester
  • Early prototyping was greatly reduced
  • Screen fatigue
  • Lack of spontaneity because of overthinking
  • Sharing design work becomes difficult
  • 1-2-1 discussions with students are heavily time constrained
  • Online behaviour can be less formal and more a kin to social media
  • Introverted students feel alienated
  • Opportunistic interactions happen less
  • Difficult to study at home – shared accommodation
  • Hard to measure engagement
  • Digital Break out rooms are difficult to manage – You don’t get a good sense of student discussions – You might feel you are interrupting
  • The computer screen feels 2D and there is a lack of 3D thinking
  • The “human” element can get lost as part of the design process
  • Hands-on skills much harder to teach/learn
  • Digital Break out rooms are difficult to manage – You don’t get a good sense of student discussions – You might feel you are interrupting
    • Adapt public places to support teaching – Physical spaces for online learning.
    • Using alternative materials to encourage early prototypes e.g. Play-Doh
    • Using novel technology such as Gathertown / slack / discord for a virtual university
    • Dedicating time to activates that students skip in a virtual environment Using AR/VR (still very expensive)
    • More time at home = Productivity and more screen time. Designing value adding activates away from the screen.
    • Using meditation to alleviate stress
    • Quick Hackathon type activates using £1 store materials
• Exam Period
  • Students asking for extensions due to personal circumstances
    • **No Solutions identified

Comments:

• Similar issues across the global
• 'Group think' because students are unfamiliar with each other
• (Extensions are) A problem because there is a deadline for marking and returning grades
• Supports students bonding
• Focus their time and attention. But we can’t force then to attend the class