Abstract:

The Covid 19 pandemic has fundamentally shaken up the previously known processes, teaching methods and procedures in higher education. The effects of distance learning has been particularly pronounced in urban and spatial planning courses. These study programmes are mostly based on project-based learning (PBL), which often involves group work, so the physical presence and direct contact of the students with the teacher is very important. This is because the teacher can provide clarification and further instructions immediately, on the spot and during the work. This way of working is particularly useful in subjects where students need to acquire freehand drawing skills and the appropriate graphical (e.g. GIS) software tools. In this paper, we focus in particular on the experiences of teachers who had to start teaching these skills remotely virtually overnight during the Covid-19 pandemic. Of course, it was also a challenge to ensure that all the technical and software equipment was in place and that the internet connection was stable enough to allow distance learning to run smoothly. A special part of the research also dealt with the experiences of the students who expressed their opinions on distance learning.

The aim of this paper is therefore, on the one hand, to shed light on the challenges of teaching urban and spatial planning subjects in the context of the Covid 19 pandemic at the first and second Bologna levels and, on the other hand, to show what we have learned from it and how we can apply the lessons learned from distance learning even in non-crisis times. To this end, we first interviewed professors and their assistants who teach in the spatial planning, urban planning, architecture, landscape architecture and geography programmes at the University of Ljubljana, focusing on subjects where drawing skills and the use of graphic software are taught. In a next step, we also interviewed students from the same study programmes.

In this paper, we focus mainly on three research questions:
(1) Were the experiences of teaching skills the same in all study programmes?
(2) What were the differences between the first and second Bologna degrees? and
(3) What is the experience of returning to the teaching environment in faculties?

We found that the experience of the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in teachers adapted their work to distance learning very quickly, using a variety of innovative approaches and techniques to introduce students to drawing skills and the use of graphics software. We did not find any major differences between the teachers of the different study programmes. They also all stated that they felt a great sense of relief when they were able to return to the faculties and teach live again. However, it turned out that, in addition to the disadvantages identified, distance learning also has its advantages, especially in terms of flexibility and the ability to combine different teaching methods. In the post-pandemic period, hybrid teaching methods (e.g. online guest lecturers) are most commonly used. Students also pointed out that distance learning often strengthens some areas that are less utilised in face-to-face teaching. Thus, they improved their digital skills (e.g. they were forced to create a 3D model instead of a physical model).

Keywords:

Teaching experience, distance learning, expert skills, project based learning, spatial planning, architecture, geography, landscape architecture.