Study of Design needs practical lab sessions – Times of India
Making the shift
Praveen Nahar, director, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, says, “Over the course of the pandemic, the institute adopted a hybrid mode with remote facilitation leveraging learner’s own context, remote access to institutional resources and more. Whenever the situation was better, we also provided optional access to workshops/studios/labs.”
Aditi Srivastava, president, Pearl Academy, New Delhi, explains, “With a shift to the hybrid concept, the aim was to ensure that students do not miss out on experiential learning. Many practical concepts, such as drafting a pattern, were taught through online classes. If students did not understand anything, they were supported with recordings of live lectures as well.”
The last eighteen months have reshaped the way various Design modules were taught, says Manisha Mohan, dean, School of Design, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES), Dehradun. “The initial time went in guiding students and teachers to get comfortable with online classes. We also used Coursera to help students with additional material,” she adds.
Dealing with challenges
Nahar says that the shift has been a challenge for both teachers and learners. “The hybrid concept pushed us to re-exam our pedagogy and develop new assignments/teaching methodologies within the constraints. Innovative use of technology led to increased levels of re-skilling for all,” he says.
A big issue was to provide students with adequate practice material at home, says Srivastava. “During the lockdowns, even online delivery of relevant raw material had not been possible. Thus, we sent tool kits to each of our student’s homes to enable them to continue practical learning,” she says.
Mohan asked students to learn based on material that was easily available at home. “While holding our colour session, we asked students to collect items that were in various shades of red from around their house. These items became the basis of that lecture,” she says.
More industry insights
Srivastava says that due to the shift to a hybrid model, there has been an increase in the number of national and international interactions between students and industry experts.
Mohan explains, “Generally, logistics and cost involved limits industry/expert interactions to just a few annually. Thanks to the hybrid mode, international masterclasses went up by almost three times, while national sessional increased to double the number we used to hold pre-pandemic.”
Need for peer interaction
Since there was limited opportunity for students to interact with each other, face-to-face participatory group explorations and learning while doing were scattered processes during the hybrid mode of education, says Nahar.
Peer learning has no replacement, especially in a subject like Design. “We gave group assignments that required students to stay in constant touch. We believe this took away the edge of not being able to meet friends regularly,” says Srivastava.
Mohan feels that lack of peer interactions affected the mental health of many students. “With no peer interaction, students were not able to learn to read body language or facial expressions, which affected their learning. Thus, we got counselling requests from many students,” she says.
Practical sessions needed
Nahar says, “The institute plans to continue the new sessions in a hybrid mode through remote facilitation and online interaction. Simultaneous, access to the campus as per needs of various batches and disciplines to use workshops/studios/labs will be allowed.”
Make-up, styling, looms, and printing are a few of the courses that need practical sessions, says Srivastava. “A recent innovation from the academy is PearlXStudio, which aims to provide training to students across age groups in the form of interactive sessions including industry projects,” she adds.
Mohan says that sketching and drawing as well as clay modelling are the worst sufferers due to lack of lab sessions. “We have shifted few modules to the later part of the year, hoping that things get back to normal and students’ training does not suffer. We will also ask students to visit labs of our alumni to get hands-on training at their workshops,” she says.
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