Online Studio Education
The rise of Web 2.0 Technologies paves the way to a collaborative and interactive learning environment making the exchange of content and collaboration over the web (Loannao, 2018). The internet, since then, started becoming the reservoir of knowledge, giving free access to information and educational resources (Loannao, 2018). Because of these developments, online courses and online education began and were incorporated in different educational fields as the means of expanding knowledge and enhancing the learning procedure (Loannao, 2018). Studio-based learning is the practical education where the learning is done through doing, relying on the jury system for evaluating and assessing the student’s projects (Siddiqi, 2002). The entire course is designed in the traditional pedagogy.
Online Studio Education is more than just a different teacher and student interaction format as it involves consistency within the educational resources as all the students receive the consistent course material and access to the professor, unlike the first-row advantage in the traditional classroom setting (Bender, 2006). Not only this, online studio education provides students with the flexibility of assessing the educational resource at their own time and convenience (Bender, 2006), increasing their capabilities for learning and making them more focused as they can absorb more when their minds are fresh. Also, they can access and view the materials repeatedly to understand the key concepts (Bender, 2006), making them more explicit in their approach. This also removes one of the disadvantages of the traditional studio education, where both the teachers and the students need to be physically present at the same time and at the same place for fulfilling curriculum goals (Bender, 2006).
Education has incorporated technological innovation for its success, making the online education the solution for today’s modern era, eradicating the issue of distance in pursuing education (Bender, 2006). Higher education systems, especially the architectural and design courses, are moving towards integrating technology, transforming the traditional format of studying, but the studio courses have remained constant with the traditional style of education (Bender, 2006). Since distance has been one of the impeding factors towards education (Bender, 2006). This pedagogical and traditional structure of the studio should be changed in order to incorporate the new social, economic, and technological changes (Pasin, 2017). Educational practices have changed due to the integration with technology, proving successful and efficient with the learning procedure and teaching style.
Traditional Design Studio is the kind of teaching environment that has a studio space that caters 10-12 students under one professor/instructor in which they design and do their work, bringing together all aspects of architectural education by using design studio (Kurt, 2009). In traditional studio learning, it is not possible...
The studio schools keep expanding and catering to more and more students, making the communication and feedback a problem. However, in online studio education, there are teaching assistants with lesser credit hours, also dealing with one-on-one emails and conference calls (Bender, 2006). In Online Studio, a higher number of students can also be handled as the education is online-based, reduces the hassle of handling the classrooms and feedbacks (Bender, 2006). This makes the educational process easy and convenient for instructors as well and helps them deal with each student to work more effectively.
Traditional design studio involves different activities, starting from goal and expectation setting before the start of a project also termed as ‘the design of the project assignment’ since it involves the planning of the goals and assessment criteria of the project, giving a sense of direction to the students (Kurt, 2009). Then the...…understand how each of them can come up with unique and different ideas, making them understand the uniqueness and diversity of human nature (Loannao, 2018).
Online studio education is a little misunderstood in its approach as it is thought to be blocking the main components of studio education, which is based on pedagogy (Nottingham, 2014). Its influence on the pedagogy is neglected as it encourages open spaces for learning and communication, which therefore enhances the entire educational process (Nottingham, 2014). A research conducted on the graphic design studio shows that there is a massive difference between how education is perceived in traditional studio education and online design studio (Nottingham, 2014). It showed that online education not only influences the pedagogy but also makes it more organized and contemplative (Nottingham, 2014).
Conclusively, as the world is moving towards technological advancement and digital innovation, the educational fields have also realized the importance of technology in making the entire learning procedure more effective. Online studio education has immense benefits for the entire curriculum, learning objectives, course outline, and the educational environment of the students, imparting within them the new technological changes that will enhance their overall learning procedure. Even the pedagogy is influenced by the use of online studio education, developing a different kind of teacher-student relationship, making the environment more interactive and engaging (Nottingham, 2014). The assignments are introduced via the internet and submitted online, while the audio feedback is like the benchmark for future references of the same semester (Bender, 2006). Online Studio Education transforms the entire learning process, making it more useful for the modern era as it incorporates the current social, economic, and other changes. So, the learning procedure is enhanced, the curriculum is updated, and methodologies are made more effective in the online design studio, revolutionizing the Studio education.…
