A USER STUDY FOR FACILITATING EFFECTIVE REMOTE EDUCATION IN DESIGN STUDIOS: TOWARDS INTEGRATION OF CYBER-PHYSICAL TECHNOLOGIES INTO DESIGN EDUCATION

Abstract

As remote learning in design studios becomes ubiquitous, it is important to reflect on this shift and structure our path towards effective online learning. Taking an architectural studio as a case study, we held several interviews with students and instructors, and extracted essential user needs which we would do well to address in an online setting. Existing learning environments were then compared in their abilities to fulfil such needs, and thus facilitate effective teaching and learning. The contribution of this study is a new perspective on studio-education which exposes gaps between user-needs and the current online setting, which may be bridged by emerging cyber-physical technologies (CPTs), such as augmented reality (AR) etc. Our findings can inform the future development of CPTs for studio education, and thus aid to maintain the positive aspects of traditional practices, when shifting to a remote setting.