Playing with the elasticity of hybrid design education

Abstract

This article explores the shift in design education from traditional, hands-on practices to digitally-based approaches, particularly accelerated by the sudden and temporary remote teaching mandates that affected design schools during the global pandemic restrictions of the early 2020’s. It uses a case involving an interaction design class during such restrictions, where students engaged in, designed, and facilitated 15-minute remote collaborative activities called “Fire-up” sessions, to demonstrate how a short design doing task can provide surface what is at stake in the design of hybrid learning activities. Reflections of the students and teachers are used to take the pulse of remote and hybrid teaching arrangements that are physicality and materiality inherent in design education, emphasizing the perceived elasticity of physical and digital arrangements in these contexts. The paper offers three main sensitizing instruments to consider when arranging and engaging in hybrid design work.