The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in universities having to close physical classes across Malaysia. Face-to-face (F2F) learning was risky and students had to be out of the campus until the complete vaccination of students and academicians. F2F teaching and learning were replaced remotely and on digital platforms. Education thus changed dramatically with Blackboard becoming the new “classroom”.

Dr Fu teaches Furniture Design and 2D software skills (e.g. AutoCAD). Prior to the pandemic, both were courses that required a step-by-step guide for 3D modelling, rendering and producing high-quality furniture pieces physically. Students learn how to develop models quickly and efficiently with F2F guidance with the hands-on methods helping them to learn by example.

Surprisingly, the emerging transition from F2F to online learning in the context of the Coronavirus pandemic has not hindered the learning goals. Instead, alternatives have been sought to allow students, especially disadvantaged students, to realize e-learning better. With that, the full potential of e-learning can and has now been unlocked.

Conventionally, learning was believed to be more efficient when the lecturer provided a stimulus (teacher-centered activities) where students can respond. The pandemic saw learning to be more independent and socially constructed by students themselves (learner-centered activities) to sustain a diversity of ideas (Mpungose,2020). This suggests that digital learning is possible in learning furniture making, more participatory and effective than traditional learning as it seeks lecturers to engage students in a dialogue for the social construction of knowledge (Downes, 2010).

Students today are digital natives (Bennett et al., 2008; Prensky, 2001), with the common use of modern technologies such as laptops and smartphones, and software resources such as Blackboard and Zoom which has advanced e-learning as compared to the F2F environment. Malaysian students are always shy in asking questions and speaking up but with e-learning, they are more responsive because they can express themselves in the chat room and through WhatsApp of which they are more comfortable with. Thus, e-learning advocates student-centredness versus teacher-centeredness in teaching and learning of furniture design content.

Students have the freedom to access course information and content anytime and anywhere. Lesson recordings are particularly useful for students to learn at their own pace, especially when trying to understand abstract concepts.

Students also develop their practical skills and work on smaller-scale furniture design project through lively discussion in weekly online classes and personal feedback. They can understand materials and techniques, create a technical production drawing, analyse markets and consumers with the same course content and learning outcome pre-pandemic.

Instead of a full-scale furniture prototype, students produce many 1:5 scale furniture models and communicate their designs from 2D (AutoCAD) to 3D (Furniture models). As full-scale prototypes are more time consuming, small-scale models allow students to spend more time experimenting with the furniture joineries and sourcing the materials and finishes. Furthermore, it is more cost-effective too.

All course information and notes are stored electronically and easily accessible. In other words, the accessibility of modern physical recourses has made life easier for students and lecturers. The lecturer can show students their senior’s work as they are archived digitally. Moving away from the traditional paper and pen environment (F2F), teaching and learning university courses are significantly more effective and sustainable now. However, this efficiency can be limited to issues like bandwidth requirements.

In conclusion, a distance learning solution is possible and as efficient as the F2F pedagogy. An online course for professional Furniture Design can be made an alternative so that all students can have the same access to –e-Learning irrespective of their culture, geographical location, socio-economic factors and others.

Dr Fu believes that blended learning will be an effective way for learning as nobody knows what the future holds vis-a-vis the Coronavirus.. The successful transition from F2F to e-learning will surely make online education an integral component of university education.

Dr Nicole Fu Chew Xiang 
School of Arts
Email: @email

This article was first published in Business Today, on 16 April 2022.