Design Education in India post Covid crisis

written by Dr. Subir Dey, Assistant Professor at Department of Design, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

A nationwide lockdown has been deployed in India across all the states . It’s a historical
event leading to a massive crisis. Design education is one of the victims of this crisis. It is
modelled on hands-on learning largely unlike STEM subjects that follow a lecture based
model. It requires intensive studio discussions and practical sessions that impart specific
skills to the students. The current system of design education in India is unfortunately not
well prepared for the sudden crisis. The ongoing surveys on online teaching, online
challenges , the confusion among students regarding learning and evaluation, the prospect of
learning design in online mode are some of the common worries that are popping currently.
And there is no satisfactory answer to that.

Copyright © Dr. Subir Dey

I teach visual communication in one of the most prestigious ‘Institute of Eminence’  that is
renowned for its scientific, engineering and technological contributions. Through my
continuous conversation with colleagues from sciences and engineering it appears to me that
the adaptability to online mode in Design education has to be far greater compared to courses
that require lecture based teaching mostly. My teaching involves lots of spontaneous drawing
on white board for explaining a concept. This practice includes cartoons, symbols, mind
maps and other forms of signs. Sometimes it makes the students laugh other times it makes
them think and question. This very act of sharing a common space with shared emotions will
be highly challenged for Design education. In this context, these are some of the prominent
themes of my contemplation:
1. Online design teaching Vs. Online tutorials: Youtube is filled with video tutorials
in almost any Design subject. There are online platforms like Domestika, Skillshare
etc that are offering lucrative courses for practitioners. The student has access to all
these vast materials at their taps. Why will the student enroll in a design institute? Is it
for the brand of the institute, a degree, certificate, placements or something more? Is
specialisation a way forward for designers ?
2. Integrating online education with the classroom: No Technology can replace the
effect of physical presence of student-teacher dynamics. Physicality is a quality that is
essential for humans to believe and retain as truth. Without observing the body
behaviours, the intonation, the glances, the hand movements, the laughs, the wonders,
the arguments, the silence, how the learner is going to perceive the teaching to be
true? And similarly, how will the educator be satisfied after delivering a concept?
3. Hands-on to Tap-on: Design education is largely a hands-on based model. Subjects
like graphic design, printmaking, illustration, animation, photography, rapid
prototyping, textile design etc require a huge degree of hands-on teaching-learning.
That is part of the essence of these subjects. How does the essence of such subjects
can be kept alive when the interface becomes tap-on?
The communication is surely going to affect in the post-pandemic times. The students will
have aspirations that are similar to pre-pandemic situations. However, the educator's
aspirations will change surely with the changing methodology. On creativity in higher
education there are good scholarly resources explaining different aspects that need to be
addressed. Those should be looked upon by educators for creating a robust framework of
education. But, for now, all eyes are stuck on the statistics of the affected people by the virus.
Still counting and going up!

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