Critical perspectives of technology-enhanced learning in relation to specialist Communication Design studio education within the UK and Australia

Abstract

This paper investigates the widespread integration of technology-enhanced learning (TEL) within specialist Communication Design studio education in the UK and Australia. The impetus for this paper has grown from the challenges facing day-to-day design studio education and the recognition that the use of technology in higher education today has increased dramatically. Conventional design studio facilities are being reconfigured into blended studio-based classroom learning spaces (often generically termed as ‘studio’). This study compares the lived experiences of students interacting with technology within two differing international studio settings. The two case studies used a Participatory Action Research approach and employed sensory affect as a lens through which learning within studio education was investigated using Participatory Design practice-led methods. The study finds that the Australian participants working within a TEL classroom-based environment faced significant obstacles to engagement and that their UK counterparts, who were situated within a conventional studio environment, much less so. This paper aims to support Communication Design students as they engage with studio education via the proposed transferable methodological framework – the Methods Process Model.

Supporting students’ self-directed experiences of studio learning in Communication Design: The co-creation of a participatory methods process model

“…Technological advancements and widening participation in higher education are factors directly influencing students' experiences of and orientation to design studio education today (Marshalsey & Sclater, 2018). The gradual evolution of specialist design studio learning spaces from conventional physical studios to a blend of virtual and online educational environments is a development that has led to significant debate about how to design, use as well as evaluate learning spaces -not least for practice-based subjects such as Communication Design.…”

“…This paper investigates the co-creation of a participation framework (referred to as a methods process model (MPM)) with Communication Design students as participants, from an earlier doctoral study (Marshalsey, 2017). The outcomes of the intervention-based research study, discussed in this paper, aim to support students to self-direct, manage and plan their optimal conditions for learning (learning-how-to-learn) within their practice-based education.…”

“…The outcomes of the intervention-based research study, discussed in this paper, aim to support students to self-direct, manage and plan their optimal conditions for learning (learning-how-to-learn) within their practice-based education. The MPM was originally constructed through the identification and development of a set of participatory design (PD) ethnographic tools and techniques used across two case studies in the United Kingdom and Australia (Marshalsey, 2017;Sanders & Stappers, 2008). This framework enabled the participants to qualitatively reflect upon their learning spaces and to explore and work with their experiences of learning spaces more explicitly within their design education.…”

“…This interdisciplinary paper endeavours to discuss what is meant by open, critical, communal, and discursive spaces in higher education. This is achieved by drawing on recent research that illuminates, in particular, the relationship between sensory affect and learning in studio education in which technology enhanced learning is used to augment, extend and develop new learning configurations in the design studio (Marshalsey & Sclater, 2018). Sensory affect is that which we perceive through our senses and is a particular form of feedback that can be used by learners to analyse and interpret the impact of the environment around them.…”

Foreword: Technologies, learning and culture across disciplines: International perspectives

“…The featured MOOC implementation showed mixed learning gains. The results of this empirical research may be useful for heads of educational organizations and teachers in making strategic decisions by increasing the effectiveness of the implementation of new educational technologies Marshalsey and Sclater's (2018) paper focuses on TEL in specialist communication design studios in the UK and Australia. The impetus for their research comes from the challenges facing design studio educators as the use of technology in higher education increases dramatically, and conventional design studio facilities are reconfigured into blended, studio-based classroom learning spaces.…”