When faced with a challenge, designers tend to rise above with creative solutions that suit their needs. Migrating to teaching and learning fully online, due to the pandemic has been a great challenge for everyone. Students and lecturers alike have had to face various trials on the technical learning curve to troubleshooting technical difficulties, dealing with physical discomforts and emotional strains, to say the least.

For those who teach design and other creative modules, it has become clear that engagement and creating a sense of belonging are crucial in keeping online sessions alive, and students motivated. It is the essential ingredient that makes or breaks a students’ learning experience. Giving concise and precise information on tasks to fulfil, helps to reduce confusion and ultimately stress, particularly in an online environment.

Breaking hour-long lectures into bite-size 15-minute sections helps break the monotony. By adding little in-class tasks after each small section works tremendously well - filling these with useful trivia and quick-tip research that relates to the topic they are learning. For instance, if they were learning about colour psychology, a rapid colour and culture or colour and its’ origins research would be an ideal in-class activity. Finding out that some colours were traditionally made from toxic materials, or the same colours can have completely opposing symbolism in different cultures would ignite conversations and a sense of wonder and curiosity. This not only helps with their concentration, participation and motivation, but also flips the learning role in an instant.

Other aspects that seem trivial but makes a huge difference is by turning on the computer and keeping a cheerful disposition while maintaining composure. This certainly helps lost and demotivated students to refocus.

Having the usual lively in-studio critique sessions with humorous banters and having physical contact pulled from under the feet was very distressing. Thankfully, with the emergence of new technology, not only can the critiques to students be typed out in an email, but one could also write, draw, doodle, note, sketch and verbally critique each student’s work in real time.

With artistic courses, feedback and critique are essential in order for students to progress. Helping them understand theories and principles that assist them in their execution process is crucial in order for them to create great designs. Equipping students with the ability to analyse their own work is also necessary for them to grow as creative practitioners.

Switching things up during online critique sessions helps keep things fresh and less monotonous. Some weeks, students can be asked to share their screen to show their progress. Other weeks, they can be asked to upload their progress onto the online learning platform to share. But whichever approach is taken, students should be encouraged to upload all their research and progress onto a collectively accessible cloud folder for the lecturer to evaluate and critique everyone’s progress.

Setting up personal weekly progress and submission folders for each student on the cloud encourages them to take ownership of their weekly learning progress. Knowing that these folders are available and accessible for all in the class to see will spur them to ensure they progress on a weekly basis in order to avoid being left behind in the learning process.

Teaching is no easy feat, either online or offline. Keeping oneself motivated is hard enough, let alone maintaining motivation for young adults. But maintaining contact, having friendly conversations from time to time reminds them that they are not alone in this strange environment. Giving helpful feedback with dashes of positive reinforcement can do wonders in a classroom of little boxes on a big screen in an infinite void.

Maslisa Zainuddin
School of Arts
Email: @email