Abstract:

Over the past 20 years, there has been a great debate in the literature on how to teach design knowledge and how to enable learning of the key processes related to this discipline. In this landscape, project-based learning (PBL) has always appeared as one of the most effective ways to enable the transfer of design knowledge and test the benefits of this discipline in practice. Indeed, in PBL, students can focus on a project while understanding the critical concepts of the discipline. The project phases go through four main stages: research, data analysis, synthesis to identify new opportunities and realise new ideas (with the development of a prototype and its testing).
This process is well established in the PBL approach applied to the design discipline. Over the years, various tools have also been developed to help learners learn more quickly at different process stages.
This type of activity, however, is always carried out mainly face-to-face, with group activities (typical of the design world) and discussions with lecturers.
Project studios in design schools involve at least one weekly lecture during the semester, where students work vertically on a specific project (and topic/challenge), applying the design process.
However, the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged these teaching methods. Especially in the first lockdown phase, but also in the later blended teaching phases (a mix of face-to-face and remote modes), it was necessary to develop new ways to apply PBL. Digitalisation has changed the way design teaching is approached and how design projects are held.
On the one hand, learners expressed difficulties in performing activities that have been effective in the face-to-face mode, while for other activities, there were improvements (and speed-ups) thanks to the adoption of remote and distance learning.
How does the process of teaching Design in the PBL format change with the speed of digital technology adoption (due to the COVID-19 Pandemic)? Which activities are more effective fully remote and digital, and which are more difficult?
This research is based on an exploratory inquiry on 120 students enrolled in bachelor's and master's courses at the School of Design of the Politecnico di Milano. A Likert scale questionnaire was provided to measure how the different phases and related activities were changed in the shift from face-to-face activities to remote and digital ones.
The results show that the remote teaching paradigms empowered the research and idea development phases. On the contrary, the data analysis and synthesis phases showed to be more problematic and less manageable than in the face-to-face mode.
The study analyses in detail which phases and activities have changed in the new concept of online PBL produced as a result of the pandemic. The study, therefore, gives the possibility to reflect on the main activities that require implementation and how to develop projects in a fully remote mode. The aim is to stimulate reflections to deliver new formats for online PBL in the Design field that overcome the difficulties identified by the students, making remote teaching as effective as possible.

Keywords:

Design teaching, design studio, remote teaching, project based learning, remote environment.