A BLENDED APPROACH OF ONLINE TOOLS TO ENHANCE COLLABORATION ABILITY IN DESIGN EDUCATION
Year: 2024
Editor: Grierson, Hilary; Bohemia, Erik; Buck, Lyndon
Author: WU, Duan; LIU, Renxuan
Series: E&PDE
Institution: College of Design & Innovation,Tongji University, China, People's Republic of
Page(s): 437 - 442
DOI number: 10.35199/EPDE.2024.74
ISBN: 978-1-912254-200
ISSN: 3005-4753
Abstract
Collaboration is essential to Design and it is a learned skill that needs to be integrated deep into education processes. Therefore, teamwork could enable students to look beyond their own space, time and culture and prepare them for collaborative work in their future design practice. In this study, a blended approach of online tools was tested in design education process has demonstrated improved engagement of students in collaboration. The online tools discussed in this study include Slack, Figma, Miro and a card-based online workshop tool designed by the team. The study followed a course in design college from 2019 to 2022, to discuss how online tools affect the design education process in studio course of graduate students. The main objective is to evaluate how the online tools impacted students’ learning and collaboration performance. Firstly, we focused on the co-creation and the competences developed in the collaboration process. Then, we examine the quality of the design project and correlate it to the effectiveness of the communication in the teams. Finally, data were collected with surveys and self-reflection writings carried out at the end of each semester, and comparative study on the intercultural collaborative project outcomes with the outcomes of a traditional in-house team project. The results revealed that the blended approach has generated promising statistics about the learning and collaborating inclination and teamwork engagement. The advantages and values created are summarized in conclusion.
Keywords: design education, collaboration ability, online education tools