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. ![]() 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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#CreativeHECovidIn this blog, we capture, with some short intervention, interviews and opinion pieces the perspective of Creative HE staff and students on the current Covid-19 crisis. If you want to keep update about new content, join our JISCMAIL mailing list! Archives
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*We define Creative HE (short version for creative subjects taught at HE level) all teaching connected with the following disciplinary fields: ARCHITECTURE (incl. landscape design); ADVERTISING (incl. public relations and publicity studies); CRAFTS (incl. ceramics, glass, metal, wood and fibre crafts); DESIGN (incl. graphic and multimedia design; visual communication; illustration; clothing/textile/fashion design; industrial/product design) ; FILM & TV (incl. film and media studies; television and radio studies; media/tv/radio and film production); CINEMATICS AND PHOTOGRAPHY (incl. directing, producing motion pictures; film & sound recording; visual and audio effects; cinematography; photography); FINE ARTS (incl. curatorial studies; museum studies; drawing; painting; sculpture; printmaking; fine art conservation); MUSIC (incl. musicianship/performance studies; history of music; musicology); TECHNOLOGY (incl. interactive and multi-media publishing; interactive and electronic design; animation techniques; software engineering; music recording); DRAMA (incl. acting; directing and producing for theatre; theatre studies; stage management; theatrical design and make-up; stage design); DANCE (incl. choreography; history of dance; types of dance) ; JOURNALISM (incl. factual reporting; mass communications and documentation); WRITING (incl. script writing; poetry and prose writing; imaginative writing) AND PUBLISHING (incl. electronic publishing and paper-based media studies). We also include courses in ARTS & CULTURAL MANAGEMENT and CREATIVE & CULTURAL INDUSTRIES.
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Comunian Roberta, Dent Tamsyn and England Lauren (2020) Creative Higher Education and Covid-19. Available at: www.creativeHEcovid.org
If you would like to reference this website and its content please use the following academic citation format
Comunian Roberta, Dent Tamsyn and England Lauren (2020) Creative Higher Education and Covid-19. Available at: www.creativeHEcovid.org