THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND....

So, are there any benefits to this online, remote teaching experiment?  Mostly, I miss the face-to-face contact with my students. I miss sketching on trace paper, and having conversations about study models while holding a real object in my hand.

But maybe there are some positives to learn from all of this as well.  So I am starting a simple pro’s and con’s list to remote studio instruction, to try to understand all of this.

PRO’s

No Commute! 

I am not missing my hour and a half of driving each day.   That is certainly one advantage of working from home. (Although I do miss seeing people)  Several of my students have also echoed this same sentiment.  One student mentioned that she could take more classes this summer because online course are more convenient for her and she doesn’t need to spend so much time diving to and from campus.

Accountability (Digital Desk Crits)

I have been doing a lot of one on one desk critique meetings remotely.  These individual student appointments have been quite productive.  In some ways these individual meetings have been more productive than in the studio.  There seems to be a level of accountability involved in this.  I think it is related to the formality of assigning meeting times.  The students have nearly always had work uploaded in their directory to discuss for these meetings. 

I assign a meeting time and students show up, prepared.  I am still amazed by this!

In a traditional studio desk crit, that doesn’t always happen.  I still have some students avoiding me by not scheduling meetings, but for the most part these have been very effective.  This week, for example, I saw a number of final presentation graphics to critique.  I rarely have students ready to do that in the face-to-face studio until the final deadline.  I may try to incorporate some of this process into the FTF studios in small ways in the future.

Digital Desk Crit Markups

Digital Desk Crit Markups

Digital Desk Crit Markups

Digital Desk Crit Markups

One downside, though, is that everything is scheduled.  There are no serendipitous conversations, or quick studio questions.  Everything is a planned discussion with an online meeting time.  This has lead to students being prepared, but I also miss the unplanned design conversations that occur organically in the studio.  There is no way to replicate that.

.pdf assignment collection

The students have been submitting assignments to me as .pdf packets of work.  I like having this digital record of the student work, and it gives me markup options for grading and giving feedback that are kind of nice.  I enjoy having a digital record of the drawing markups that I create with students.  I know exactly what I talked about with each student, each studio day, as a result of this process.  And students get a digital packet back in return with redlines to reference as they develop their work.  This process is slower than in the FTF studio, but there are advantages to it.

.pdf presentations

My remote studio has been forced away from the presentation board, to a curated slideshow for graphic presentations of their work.  I suspect that this presentation format will also help their final review presentations.  I suspect it will force the students to more carefully consider their verbal presentations, as they will need to curate (and really think about) the content and order of their slides.

I will know more about how effective this is been after next week.

Are we missing some graphic composition learning objectives, yes!  But the overall graphic and verbal communication seems to be an improvement in this format.

No more throwing images on a board at the last minute without thinking about the story those images tell.  (At least that is the hope!)

CON’s

I think there are a lot of deficiencies to teaching studio remotely, actually.  I am luck that we were halfway through the term before this experiment began. I do not think remote studios are an adequate substitution for FTF design instruction, especially at the second year level. 

Here are a few of the pedagogical challenges I have seen in the virtual design studio.

Creative Motivation

One of the beautiful aspects of a design studio is the creative energy.  You have a bunch of creative people, working in close proximity to one another, all influencing each other creatively.  A lot of learning happens in the studio when the instructor is not present.  There is a kind of cross pollination of creative thinking and energy that occurs in a good design studio.

This is not always happening for students from home. A number of my current students have talked about how difficult it is to find motivation to produce creative work while in isolation.  This is perhaps a design opportunity for my assignments to address in the future, but it seems nearly impossible to replicate the shared learning of a busy studio online.

Skills Gap

There always is a range of skills in my second year studio.  Some students excel at some things, while other students struggle.  This is expected in any classroom environment. 

But the move to remote learning seems to have amplified this in some cases.  I have noticed that the performance gap between the top students and those who struggle is being amplified.  Some students are really struggling to manage working from home, while others have adjusted fairly seamlessly to all of this.  External factors seem to be playing a large role in all of this.  Perhaps that was always the case, but this era of COVID self-isolation seems to be revealing and exaggerating a number of structural cracks.  I have seen this though the wide range of work in my studio.  The weaker projects are noticeably worse in this format, and I am exhausting a tremendous amount of energy to keep some students moving forward.

3d Visualization + Design Development

Design development is always a challenge to teach in the second year studio.  Students often get stuck at one level of design development, and miss opportunities to really improve their design work.  One major challenge for younger architecture students is learning to develop their work 3-dimensionally.  3D visualization skills are always a major part (and challenge) of studio teaching at the second year level.  Because of this, we usually make a lot of physical study models in my studio classes.  I have come to believe that the making of physical, 3-dimensional, study models is the best way to teach students to “see” and understand their work. 

Form, composition, scale, and spatial qualities of design seem to be best revealed to students through making objects with their hands.

This semester, when we moved to remote instruction, the studio seemed to get stuck in 2d world.  Students keep showing me floor plans, even when I ask them to work in models. They keep drawing plans over and over, without always understanding the 3d implications of their drawings.  Study models (and the 3d design development that goes with it) have been sluggish.  Part of this is loosing access to the studio, with space to work and ample supplies.  Some of the student shave had trouble getting model-making supplies.

Part of the problem may be that I have not transitioned expectations effectively.  I need to learn how to teach in this format as well, and write assignments that give me the results I am looking for.

We have also lost access to our beloved site model.  We spent several weeks of the semester making this tool, only to suddenly be forced to leave it behind.  The study models I am seeing are less effective without context.  It is hard to have conversations about the building’s relationship to its site in this format.

The site model, usually a key tool, sits in an empty studio.

So the “getting stuck in 2d” problem is part workspace, part material availability, part motivation, and part instructional design.

But I think the real issue is 3d visualization skills. Some students really struggle with visualization, and online learning seems to amplify these deficiencies.  Students have reverted back to what they are most comfortable with – drawing in plan.  It is the easiest drawing.  And you don’t have to build that time consuming model.

The problem is - I still don’t know what some of their design projects look like.  One week before final reviews!  I’m a little concerned about this. 

A “first study” in a final review is never a good thing.

NORMALCY (and a bit of fun)

There is nothing really normal about any of this. 

However, I have tried to keep some sense of routine and tradition for my design studio class as we have moved to remote learning.

So for the studio class, that means Dad Jokes!

Ok, here is the story.

(This is kind of the last thing you would expect from an introvert like me)

We started doing Dad jokes at the beginning of each second year studio class some time last year.  This all started after Christmas in 2019, when my children gave me a Dad joke calendar.  I brought the calendar into work (what else would I do with it?) and started telling the Dad joke of the day at the beginning of each studio class.  It was kind of a nice icebreaker, especially for the sleepy morning studio.

Fast forward to remote learning.

One of the first decisions I made when we went remote was to send out video Dad jokes each class.  Some traditions must remain intact in sprite all of this craziness.

I even did a special spring break edition.

And now back to my introverted cave – this is way too much attention for me….  (The things we learn about ourselves in a crisis)

I do hope my students have appreciated this attempt to try to keep some things “normal”.

This tradition will continue until the semester ends.

WORK FROM HOME

For me, the transition to work from home was fairly straightforward and easy.  As it became clear that we would be disrupted in the classroom this semester, I began backing up all of my digital files and gathering essential supplies in a box to take home. 

Working from home has also been fairly easy.  I set up a card table in a room that we already use as an office, and simply plugged in my laptop.

Co-Working from the home office!

We have reliable wifi in the house.  I have multiple devices that I can use to teach, and sketch, and give feedback to my students.  Coffee is made most afternoons.  

Afternoon Coffee is an added bonus to WFH

My children also have multiple devices, and are old enough to be mostly self sufficient in their e-learning.  Aside from the newness of being home all the time – my job continues without major disruptions.

Studio desk critiques from the home office

The same cannot be said for my students.

If there is one aspect of this that I severely underestimated in advance, it was how difficult this would be for some of our students.

I think it has been a much more difficult transition for our students.

Their lives, and social (educational) support systems have been entirely disrupted.

Some students are struggling to work from home.  They might lack motivation.  They are lonely, and miss their classmates. They might have no space to work at home.  Maybe they suddenly have family demands or dynamics that have changed, interrupting their ability to work

Their wifi is spotty.  Their laptop is too old to download the required software.

They miss the architectural design studio, which was their creative space filled with like-minded peers. 

Maybe the students who hung out in studio all of the time did so because they didn’t want to be at home?

Some students are scared.  Scared of becoming sick.

Some students have relatives who have become sick.

One of my students works in a nursing care facility, where patients have died of COVID.  He is required to live there full time to limit the traffic in and out of the facility.

Many students have had their work schedules entirely disrupted.  Some are essential employees, and now are being scheduled for 10 hour shifts, or new shifts, or weird times. 

Some students have lost their jobs.

The stories my students tell are many, and varied.

This has been a major disruption for many of them.

For me, less so.  I need to remember that.

In spite of all of this, my second year design studio continues on.  I have actually been really impressed with the student’s persistence and determination to keep their education moving forward. 

They still find moments of levity, however, in spite of everything.

Arch 2202 student presenting a precedent study.....

This Architectural Record article addresses many of these same issues and discusses how this might impact the future of architectural education moving forward.

The Digital Desk Crit

I have been experimenting with different ways to give my design studio feedback.  Here is what today's effort looked like.



And here is the process I used.



The next step is to figure out a way to do all of this live, with the students virtually present. Because the down side to this process is the delay.  The students send me their work.  I mark it up, save it, and send it back.  And then we need to meet to discuss it.

Pre Covid-19 I just used trace paper in real time.  Where a 10 minute desk crit would take 10 minutes - this process is taking multiple days.

April 13th Update:

Over the past few classes I have tried several different techniques.

First, as described in the video above, I have been using adobe acrobat on the ipad, using the markup tools to give drawing feedback to my students.  This process has been fairly effective, although there are drawbacks mostly related to the time delay, as discussed above.  It has held the students accountable for getting work to me in a timely manner, and then forces them to meet with me to discuss the markup drawings, which has been an interesting positive outcome of this experiment.

Today I began playing with the ipad and MAC app "notability".  I have found the drawing controls to be more responsive in "notability" than with the basic ipad pdf editing tools.  Notability is not a free app, but it has been worth the cost so far.

I also successfully experimented with using notability on my MacBook, and sharing (screen mirroring) the app screen in BlackBoard Collaborate.  This allowed me to draw and critique in real time with the student's work. I could also save a record of the conversation and send it to the students after the "live" critique.  This was quite effective, and has real promise for a more seamless studio critique.  It is still, however, a one way conversation.  I can draw on my students work in real time, but they cannot draw back and have a two way conversation through drawings. (Yet)

Here are a few "live" critique images using Notability from today's studio class.

Model Markup Using "Notability" App

Digital Desk Crits Using "Notability" App

Rendering Markup Using "Notability" App

I have also been exploring screen mirroring.  The hope use this to link my ipad screen to the learning management system and draw in real time.  Tonight I got it to work!

Using this method I can share my ipad screen directly into a BlackBoard collaborate session and draw (using the ipad and pencil) in real time for students in a collaborate session.  The connection "hack" is to mirror the ipad through quicktime (google it).  It's kind of clunky, but it works.  If I had a newer MacBook there might be more efficient ways to bridge these two devices.   

Screen Mirroring Ipad into the Learning Management System

This gives me some fun "live critique" tools to experiment with now. 

A warning though.  As effective as this has been in the short term to triage my studio classes, it does not replace the effectiveness of the face to face studio desk crit.  I am NOT advocating for this as a replacement for FTF studios in the future.  But as a tool, to supplement communication within a traditional face to face environment, these tools offer some real potential.  I am glad to have been forced to learn these techniques.

I do believe that I will be a better teacher in the future because of this experience, and I will have a few new tools and techniques to lean on now.

Trading Projects (virtually): encouraging communication while social distancing

Last week was spring break.  After the previous two weeks of this chaotic transition to remote teaching and learning, it was a welcome break for all of us I suspect.

I did give my studio class one small spring break assignment, however, which was to trade projects for a day with a peer, and work on one of their colleague’s design projects.

I have written about trading projects before on this blog.  Typically I would do this as an in-class activity on the first class day after spring break (which would be today).  The learning objectives usually center on the idea of seeing this studio project through someone else’s eyes.  I want the student to see the challenges of their own creative work through a new lens, or frame of reference, by working on a project that is not their own.  This year, the in-class project is obviously not possible.  So I attempted to simulate this virtually over spring break. 

The students had to communicate their peer critique through a series of drawings or a small model, and then call their peer partner to discuss their design critique.

I still want students to see this project through a different lens.  I also want students to begin to identify in their peers work the following questions:

1)    What is working?

2)    What is not working? (or needs to be reconsidered?)

3)    What still needs to be developed?

These questions are, intentionally, the same questions that each student needs to be asking themselves about their own work, as they develop their projects over the next five weeks of the semester.

This year, however, in the midst of this crazy social isolation experiment, I had a much more basic human centered goal for this exercise.  I wanted my students to reach out and talk to each other.  So part of this assignment was to call each other and talk about the projects they traded.  Simply just talk to each other, about design, or anything else.

I tried to encourage the class to have human conversations, and be less socially isolated, because I am worried about my students. I think this move to studio ‘work from home’ has been difficult for them on multiple levels.  (I will write another post about their challenges in the future.)  So I had students work on someone else’s project, and I wanted them to then call each other and discuss their peer critique, and hopefully encourage some real human interactions with their studio peers.  I mean, just a few weeks ago they were all hanging out in studio with each other all the time, and now this support group has been suddenly been disconnected.  (And it happened so fast)

I hope this helped the class begin to adjust to this new normal of ‘remote’ studio. 

Seeing the students interact with each other at least gives me hope.  (Although not everyone participated, which is a concern)

The peer critiques so far look promising.  I always find that our students are better at critiquing each other’s work than they are their own.  It is hard to learn to be self-critical.

Here are some images from this year’s spring break virtual ‘trading projects’ experiment.

Finding Balance: The New Normal

College of DuPage Second Year Design Studio - Early March 2020

Just one month ago, I never really thought that I would be teaching studio for the remainder of the semester from a card table in my house. 

This has all escalated so quickly.

Over the next few weeks I plan to write a series of posts reflecting on this new (not so) normal of teaching design studio classes remotely.  This sudden and turbulent transition to moving all of my community college architecture courses online, and subsequent home isolation, will undoubtedly have lasting impacts. It will change the way we teach, impact our lives in countless ways, and shape the future of architectural education.  I suspect that we will not actually ever really get “back to normal”.  Yet the exact nature of the changes to our future remains unknown. 

Initially, my goal with these posts is to capture the moment.  These essays are journal entries, rough drafts, and works in progress.  They are not polished scholarly work.  I hope the process of recording observations and reflections in the moment will help me to understand all of this, see through the fog of the present, and provide at least a sense of clarity moving forward.

How will all of this impact they way I teach?  

(I think in the long term I will be a better educator for having lived through this)

What lasting impacts will this have on architectural education? 

Why is teaching through web conferencing so exhausting?

And a more pressing question;

How do I really teach a studio course (the ultimate hands-on experiential learning activity) remotely?

College of DuPage Second Year Design Studio - Late March 2020