A mixed methods study of architectural education during the initial COVID-19 lockdown: student experiences in design studio and technology courses

Abstract

PurposeThe paper aims to understand and assess architecture students' experiences of online teaching during the initial lockdown caused by the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic between March–June 2020. The exploratory study was conducted across two architectural engineering departments of two separate campuses of the same not-for-profit, non-governmental higher education institution in Cairo, Egypt, focusing on two course streams within their architectural curriculum; design-studio-based courses (DC) and technology courses (TC).Design/methodology/approachA mixed-methods approach was used, where a questionnaire-based survey was developed to gather qualitative and quantitative data based on perceptions of a sample of 245 students. The survey quantitatively queried five dimensions related to students' learning experiences and qualitatively sought to evaluate both the positive experiences and challenges the students experienced.FindingsFindings outline that students' experiences were neutral but veered toward the positive end of the scale. Three factors appear to have affected students' learning experiences; students' reliance on educational technologies, the stage of architectural education students were enrolled in when they went into lockdown, and finally, quality and timing of feedback received. While challenges were faced during transition to the digital realm, these may have compelled students to take ownership of the students' own knowledge construction.Originality/valueResults provide a nuanced understanding of how students dealt with this critical transformation in architectural pedagogy at a unique moment in history, highlighting merits that could have an everlasting impact on design education during and after times of pandemic.

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on architectural education: bibliometric and content analyses

“…This situation has raised the interest of many researchers around the world, who have investigated it from various perspectives, such as exploring students' perception, satisfaction and evaluation of online learning (Peimani and Kamalipour, 2021b;Koh and Wong, 2021;Ceylan et al, 2021;Asadpour, 2021;Bakir and Alsaadani, 2022;Komarzy nska-Swie sciak et al, 2021;Alkhalil et al, 2021;Alnusairat et al, 2021;Elrawy and Abouelmagd, 2021); solving the challenges due to COVID-19 and proposing guidelines (Leon et al, 2021;G€ uler, 2022;Dennis, 2021); developing virtual reality (VR) approaches for education (Wu et al, 2021;Xi and Cong, 2022) and identifying facilitators and barriers for the adoption of online AE (Tandon et al, 2021). Most previous studies involved individual cases or a single country (e.g.…”

“…4.2.1 Main topic analysis. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected AE (Ceylan et al, 2021;Elrawy and Abouelmagd, 2021;Ibrahim et al, 2021), and the effects of the current pandemic on AE have been examined (Varma and Jafri, 2021;Asadpour, 2021;Bakir and Alsaadani, 2022). The major themes and issues of the research were determined based on an initial review of the sample (Table 6).…”

“…The COVID-19 pandemic has had negative consequences for students on a large scale. The most prominent challenges include technical issues (Megahed and Hassan, 2022;Peimani and Kamalipour, 2021a;Ibrahim et al, 2021); technological complexity (Andiyan et al, 2021); lack of fast and stable Internet connection (Alnusairat et al, 2021;Peimani and Kamalipour, 2021a, b;Ibrahim et al, 2021;Asadpour, 2021;Andiyan et al, 2021;Milovanovi c et al, 2020;Alkhalil et al, 2021;Varma and Jafri, 2021;Elrawy and Abouelmagd, 2021;Gambo and Musonda, 2022;Bakir and Alsaadani, 2022;G€ uler, 2022;Khan and Thilagam, 2022;The Second Studio Podcast, 2020); difficulties in understanding teachers' instructions online (Alnusairat et al, 2021;Asadpour, 2021;Tandon et al, 2021;Elrawy and Abouelmagd, 2021;; increased sense of isolation and disconnection from peers and colleagues (Megahed and Hassan, 2022;Tang et al, 2021;Koh and Wong, 2021;Salama and Crosbie, 2020;Bakir and Alsaadani, 2022;Grover and Wright, 2020); psychological problems/negative feelings that could lead to alienation, uncertainty, confusion and identity loss (Megahed and Hassan, 2022;Ceylan et al, 2021;Alnusairat et al, 2021;Ibrahim et al, 2021;Gambo and Musonda, 2022;Tang et al, 2021;Archinect, 2020c); lack of privacy and proper work environment (home, dormitory etc.) (Cey...…”

“…(Ceylan et al, 2021;Ibrahim et al, 2021;Peimani and Kamalipour, 2021b;Bakir and Alsaadani, 2022); lack of emotional connection (Alnusairat et al, 2021); lack of guidance and support (Alnusairat et al, 2021;Asadpour, 2021); insufficiency of self-discipline and concentration issues (Peimani and Kamalipour, 2021a;Varma and Jafri, 2021;Tandon et al, 2021;Ibrahim et al, 2021;Wu et al, 2021); low interaction and communication issues among students and between and students and instructors (Alnusairat et al, 2021;Tandon et al, 2021;Varma and Jafri, 2021;Elrawy and Abouelmagd, 2021;Tang et al, 2021;Peimani and Kamalipour, 2021b Ibrahim et al, 2021;; time and workload management (i.e. an increase in the number of tasks) (Alnusairat et al, 2021;Tandon et al, 2021;Varma and Jafri, 2021;Ibrahim et al, 2021;Andiyan et al, 2021;Bakir and Alsaadani, 2022;; increased boredom (due to too many tasks) (Andiyan et al, 2021); issues with the availability of up-to-date and appropriate hardware and software platforms (Ibrahim et al, 2021;Asadpour, 2021;Alnusairat et al, 2021;Milovanovi c et al, 2020;Varma and Jafri, 2021;Elrawy and Abouelmagd, 2021;Tang et al, 2021;Peimani and Kamalipour, 2021b;Andiyan et al, 2021;Gambo and Musonda, 2022;Salama and Crosbie, 2020;…”

“…The notable challenges in the transition to online AE include lack of skills to utilize devices or facilities (the need for more time and practice to use new software and applications) (Alnusairat et al, 2021;Varma and Jafri, 2021;Andiyan et al, 2021); dissolved boundaries between work and home environments (i.e. struggle with establishing boundaries between work and family) (Megahed and Hassan, 2022;Ibrahim et al, 2021); challenges to academic integrity management and assessment security (Peimani and Kamalipour, 2021a, b); concerns about cheating (Ibrahim et al, 2021); student assessment issues (Tandon et al, 2021;Megahed and Hassan, 2022;Andiyan et al, 2021;The Second Studio Podcast, 2020;Gloster, 2020;Archinect, 2020c;Bernstein, 2020;Khan and Thilagam, 2022); lack of access to resources (Alnusairat et al, 2021;Bakir and Alsaadani, 2022;Khan and Thilagam, 2022;Archinect, 2020b;Grover and Wright, 2020;Salama and Crosbie, 2020;Gloster, 2020); reluctance to use the camera Kamalipour, 2021b, 2022;Bakir and Alsaadani, 2022) and extended working hours for instructors (Megahed and Hassan, 2022).…”