Abstract
This study examined pedagogical aspects of virtual designing. It focused on how an industrial design teacher organized a plastic product design course and how the teacher guided student teamsâ design processes in a virtual design studio. The model of Learning by Collaborative Design was used as a pedagogical and analytical framework. The study employed qualitative content analysis of the teacherâs notes posted to the Moodle database. The results indicated that teaching exhibited three characteristic emphases: problem driven, solution driven and procedural driven. The main part of the teacherâs notes was solution driven statements, including new information, design ideas and evaluating design. The results of the study demonstrate the link between the model of Learning by Collaborative Design and the three teaching approaches.
Highlights
Students more and more often encounter virtual learning environments (Maher, Simoff, & Cicognani, 2000; Wang, 2009) and their learning to use modern digital design tools has become crucial within design practice (Al-Doy & Evans, 2011; Yang, You, & Chen, 2005)
We investigate an industrial design teacher’s orchestration of participants’ efforts in a virtual design studio (VDS) setting at four Finnish universities, and we explore the nature of teaching by analysing what kind of guidance the teacher provided during the virtual design process
Recent studies (Al-Doy & Evans, 2011; Chen & You, 2010; Rossi et al, 2012) of the design process have shown both the opportunities and the obstacles related to digital tools and virtual collaboration
Summary
Students more and more often encounter virtual learning environments (Maher, Simoff, & Cicognani, 2000; Wang, 2009) and their learning to use modern digital design tools has become crucial within design practice (Al-Doy & Evans, 2011; Yang, You, & Chen, 2005). A virtual learning environment offers opportunities for design students to participate in multidisciplinary collaborative projects and provides them with the experience of global professional practices (Karakaya & Şenyapılı, 2008). The term, virtual learning environment, refers to an asynchronous web-based setting that provides tools for collaborators to share conceptual and visual design ideas as well as a medium for their joint construction of the design object (Karakaya & Şenyapılı, 2008; McCormick, 2004). Many studies of virtual design focus on technological challenges (e.g., Al-Doy & Evans, 2011; Charlesworth, 2007) or on collaborative issues among participants (e.g., Karakaya & Şenyapılı, 2008). We have seen a need for further research focussed on the pedagogical issues related to virtual designing in a higher-education context
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