Making, Together, Alone: Experiences from Teaching a Hardware-Oriented Course Remotely

Relate North: Distances

“…Interaction design courses could include electronics and physical design components, especially with tangible user interfaces and internet of things applications. One approach to overcome the difficulties has been to provide students hardware toolkits which they can work with at home (Boll et al, 2020). This year, with our interaction design course, we emphasized graphical UI design, which did not require physical parts or devices, but the design tasks could be handled with conventional software tools in home computers.…”

Making at a Distance: Teaching Hands-on Courses During the Pandemic

“…Educators who taught hands-on courses had to quickly pivot [11]. In courses that had previously relied on on-campus makerspaces, instructors rapidly adopted a range of strategies including relying on simulation, sending students kits of electronics [4], and having each student set up their own home 3D printers and other equipment [14]. Providing access to hands-on production thorough hobbyist equipment, kits, and services enabled educators to preserve some of the learning outcomes of in person workshop based courses [1], while suggesting new learning opportunities in the process.…”

“…In an initial survey of courses centered on digital fabrication, instructors explored a range of diferent strategies, including simulation through CAD and CAM, shipping individual machines to each student, online ordering from online fabrication vendors, and converting the university makerspaces to a service with teaching assistants serving as fabricators [1]. In some physical computing courses, instructors relied on shipping components directly to students, while relying on remote communication technologies to help students debug at a distance [4]. In the process, instructors had to experiment on ways to balance fnancial resources, feasibility constraints, and safety concerns, with their original learning objectives.…”

Peer Mentors Forging a Path in Changing Times

“…Many smaller, student supported makerspaces were forced to close their doors thereby limiting student access to hands-on projects, technological support, and peer interaction. In addition, many instructors shifted to digitally centered methods of making such as CAD simulations and finite element analysis techniques and/or moved to "making at a home" by shipping project boxes directly to students, both of which limit peer to peer interaction and limit ability for students build community [7,8].…”