An Investigation of Design Students’ Remote Online Learning Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Given the abrupt shift to fully online learning environments in our Department during the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, we needed to understand how to support students in their learning in this new normal. This paper is taken from a larger online survey study of 440 design (comprising architecture, landscape architecture, urban design and urban planning) students and focuses on the qualitative aspect to understand the benefits and challenges students faced in transitioning to online design studio learning environments. The main benefits found were time and cost savings, i.e. the convenience of not having to travel to school, and saving on transport and printing costs. The key challenges students faced were difficulty communicating and presenting their ideas during online learning, the loss of peer-to-peer learning that happens in a design studio space, and poor physical environment at home. In particular, it was perceived that online design learning could not emulate, to the same extent, face-to-face studio culture where students would receive spontaneous feedback from instructors, experience a collaborative environment and sharing of peers’ works progressively. The paper concludes with some implications for moving forward, pointing to blended learning in the new normal.